The design of a book: Ethnographic form in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men".
Item
-
Title
-
The design of a book: Ethnographic form in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men".
-
Identifier
-
AAI9605568
-
identifier
-
9605568
-
Creator
-
Alexander, John Murad.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Angus Fletcher
-
Date
-
1995
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Literature, American | Anthropology, Cultural
-
Abstract
-
THE DESIGN OF A BOOK: ETHNOGRAPHIC FORM IN LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN examines Let Us Now Praise Famous Men through the framework of ethnography. James Agee as an amateur ethnographer, at least initially, approached the tenant farmers of Depression Era Alabama as an anthropologist would, with an openness, in an attempt to remain free of prejudices and preunderstandings. What began as a modernist study eventually displayed the components of postmodernism.;Similarly, a docudrama approach to Let Us Now Praise Famous Men helps to differentiate it from standard thirties documentary. The "Mixed Voices, Mixed Effects" chapter of this dissertation focuses upon Agee's early writings as they foreshadowed Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. "'The Human Document': Agee's Docudrama in an Age of Documentary" reveals Agee's genuine humanism at a time when simply playing to the emotions could have secured him a best-selling documentary book. He firmly held his ground and refused to conform. Consequently, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men resembles no other book. Though it suffered commercially, it never suffered a loss of credibility.;The unpublished letters from the Houghton Mifflin archives include valuable handwritten correspondence from Agee, Evans, and others detailing the publishing history of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Upon securing permission to present these letters in their entirety for the first time, I realized that the reader would gain a new awareness of the place of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men in the history of American letters.;Agee feared that he was violating the privacy of the tenant farmers in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. He wrote: "it is not likely for any of you, my beloved, whose poor lives I have already so betrayed, and should you see these things so astounded, so destroyed, I dread to dare that I shall ever look into your dear eyes again" (439). In relation to other acknowledged works of American modernism, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men remains a kind of underground classic and its publishing history enigmatic.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
