The Bourgeois

The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature 'The bourgeois ...Not so long ago, this notion seemed indispensable to social analysis; these days, one might go years without hearing it mentioned. Capitalism is more powerful than ever, but its human embodiment seems to have vanished. 'I am a member of the bourgeois class, feel myself to be such, and have been brought up on its opinions and ideals, ' wrote Max Weber, in 1895. Who could repeat these words today? Bourgeois 'opinions and ideals'--what are they?' Thus begins Franco Moretti's study of the bourgeois in modern European literature--a major new analysis of the once-dominant culture and its literary decline and fall. Moretti's gallery of individual portraits is entwined with the analysis of specific keywords--'useful' and 'earnest,' 'efficiency,' 'influence,' 'comfort,' 'roba'--and of the formal mutations of the medium of prose. From the 'working master' of the opening chapter, through the seriousness of nineteenth-century novels, the conservative hegemony of Victorian Britain, the 'national malformations' of the Southern and Eastern periphery, and the radical self-critique of Ibsen's twelve-play cycle, the book charts the vicissitudes of bourgeois culture, exploring the causes for its historical weakness, and for its current irrelevance. Autor: Franco Moretti Wydawnictwo: Verso Books Rok wydania: 2015 Okładka: miękka Liczba stron: 224 Wymiary: 20.6 x 13.3 x 1.6 cm Język: angielski ISBN: 9781781683040