Real Phonies by Abigail Cheever

Real Phonies by Abigail Cheever

Examines the twinned phenomena of phoniness and authenticity across the second half of the twentieth century - from adolescents like Holly Golightly and Holden Caulfield to sports agents like Jerry Maguire.

Abigail Cheever’s study of authenticity is an original and important contribution to the literary and cultural history of the postwar US. She provides elegant readings of a compelling array of texts and addresses the reader in a lucid and admirably restrained prose style.

-- Catherine Jurca * author of White Diaspora: The Suburb and the Twentieth-Century American Novel *

An innovative examination of the idea of authenticity and its significance to postwar American culture. Cheever reveals that what was cast as a concern with conformity was actually often a fear of uniformity, and her discerning critical eye finds that anxiety expressed in a surprising range of postwar genres—as prevalent in stories of serial killers and teenage loners as it was in tales of passing and corporate ambition. Her study gives us a new grasp on the contours of the postwar self.

-- Sean McCann * author of A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government *

Real Phonies is an important addition to—and revision of—the literature on authenticity that has proliferated in the last thirty years. In a text that is both brilliant and accessible, Cheever changes the way we look at the American self in the second half of the twentieth century. Ranging through a landscape that includes Marjorie Morningstar and Silence of the Lambs, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and Prozac Nation, Cheever maps out a new theory of identity, while challenging us to think in fresh ways about texts and ideas we have long taken for granted.

-- Laura Browder * Laura Browder, author of Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America *

ABIGAIL CHEEVER is an associate professor of English at the University of Richmond.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780820334295
ISBN 10	0820334294
Title	Real Phonies
Author	Abigail Cheever
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University of Georgia Press
Year published	2010-02-01
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.