The American Counterfeit

by Balkun, Mary McAleer

• ISBN13: 9780817314972
• ISBN10: 0817314970
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

"Focusing on texts written between 1880 and 1930, Mary McAleer Balkun explores the concept of the "counterfeit," both in terms of material goods and invented identities, and the ways that the acquisition of objects came to define individuals in American culture and literature." "Balkun provides new readings of traditional texts such as The Great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The House of Mirth, as well as readings of less-studied texts, such as Walt Whitman's Specimen Days and Nella Larsen's Passing. In each of these texts, Balkun locates the presence of manufactured identities and counterfeit figures, demonstrating that where authenticity and consumerism intersect, the self becomes but another commodity to be promoted, sold, and eventually consumed."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Mary McAleer Balkun is Associate Professor and Chair of English at Seton Hall University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
The Real, the Self, and Commodity Culture, 1880--1930	1	(17)
Whitman's Natural History: Specimen Days and the Culture of Authenticity	18	(23)
``I couldn't see no profit in it'': Discourses of Commoditization and Authenticity in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	41	(31)
Connoisseurs and Counterfeits: Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth	72	(25)
Dressing to Kill: Desire, Race, and Authenticity in Nella Larsen's Passing	97	(28)
A World of Wonders: Collecting and the Authentic Self in The Great Gatsby	125	(28)
Notes	153	(14)
Works Cited	167	(10)
Index	177