Description
Explores how American Literature has represented the sound and spirit of popular music
From the birth of rhythm and blues to the rise of hip-hop, American writers have long grappled with how to capture in words the energy, rebellion, and cultural power of popular music. Popular Music and American Literary Culture traces this complex relationship, offering the most comprehensive exploration yet of how novelists, poets, and playwrights have responded to the sounds that have defined the last eight decades of American life.
Kirk Curnutt examines how writers have celebrated, critiqued, and been inspired by the sonic revolutions of their time—from Elvis and Motown to punk and rap—while questioning literature’s ability to match music’s visceral immediacy. Moving from 1950s pulp paperbacks to twenty-first-century drama, Curnutt uncovers how depictions of performers, fans, and media reflect broader debates about art, authenticity, and cultural authority. His wide-ranging readings recover overlooked works and authors who confronted rock and soul with as much seriousness as the revered voices of American fiction, poetry, and theater.
Illuminating how writers have tried, and often struggled, to translate rhythm, emotion, and the pulse of a generation into prose and verse, Popular Music and American Literary Culture:
- Addresses scholarship on rock, soul, funk, and hip-hop within a single, cohesive framework
- Reveals how literary portrayals of music reflect shifting cultural attitudes toward race, class, gender, and generational identity
- Examines canonical authors including Thomas Pynchon and James Baldwin, as well as overlooked writers such as Kristin Hunter and Greg Randolph
- Reclaims forgotten or neglected texts that expand the boundaries of American musical and literary study
- Integrates historical, cultural, and formal perspectives to show the evolution of music in American artistic consciousness
Popular Music and American Literary Culture: Reading the Beat is ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in American literature, popular culture, and music history. It is especially relevant for English, American Studies, and Cultural Studies programs seeking to blend literary analysis with media and performance studies. Written in an engaging and accessible style, it is also well-suited for general readers interested in the interplay between sound and story in American artistic life.
Table of Contents
Preface viii
Introduction: Reading the Beat 1
Literary Capital: The Risks and Rewards of Investing Cultural Authority in Popular Music 4
Calculating Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Market Cap: From Condescension to Envy to Reverence 10
Literary Capital, Popular Music, and African American Cultural Power 24
Literary Capital and Timeliness vs. Timelessness 41
Notes 45
1 Celebrity Skin: Artistry, Authenticity, Audience 57
Pulpabilly vs. Culpability: Sincerity in 1950s Stardom 59
Interlude: The Unfulfilled Pop Possibilities of Fame 66
Owning Soul: The Black Arts Movement and Black Stardom vs. the System 72
Messianic vs. Fascistic Fame: Rock Stars and the Escape from Idolization 80
Remember When Rock Was Young: The Greatest Hits Narrative 90
Among the Absences: Secret Histories and Missing Links 92
Emperors of Soul: R&B and Black Self-Possession 102
Notes 109
2 Fans’ Notes: Everyday Uses of Popular Music and Stars 121
The Sound Without the Fury: Unreflective Consumption 123
Hear and Now: The Radical Power of Feeling Music 131
Subcultural Music and Literature 139
Fandom and Idolizing Rock and Rap Stars 144
Making the Band: Fans as Musical Creatives 152
The Antifan: Kill Rock Stars 157
Notes 159
3 Ramones à Clef: Transposing Pop-Music Appeal into Literary Genres and Modes 169
Genre: The Young-Adult Novel vs. the Adult Bildungsroman 170
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror 178
Poetry and the Problem of the “Hip-Hop Novel” 187
Historical Fiction vs. the Roman à Clef 195
Notes 208
4 Sound Barriers: Translating Pop Forms into Printed Texts 218
Titles 221
Unheard Melodies Are Not Sweeter: Fictional Songs and Their Lyrics 225
Liner Notes, Oral Histories, and Other Discourse Forms 232
Structures and Devices: From Album to iPod to Playlist, Mixtape to Remix 241
Notes 254
Conclusion 263
Works Cited 268
Index 309
-
- 電子書籍
- 氷の姫は小さな陽だまりでとかされたい【…
-
- DVD
- 雪華葬刺し
