Difficult Reputations

图书信息

作者	Fine, Gary Alan
出版社	University of Chicago Press
ISBN	9780226230498
出版时间	2014-10-12
字数	61.6万
分类	University of Chicago Press,进口书,外文原版书,文学,自传,回忆录

读书简介

We take reputations for granted. Believing in the bad and the good natures of our notorious or illustrious forebears is part of our shared national heritage. Yet we are largely ignorant of how such reputations came to be, who was instrumental in creating them, and why. Even less have we considered how villains, just as much as heroes, have helped our society define its values.Presenting essays on America's most reviled traitor, its worst president, and its most controversial literary ingnue (Benedict Arnold, Warren G. Harding, and Lolita), among others, sociologist Gary Alan Fine analyzes negative, contested, and subcultural reputations. Difficult Reputations offers eight compelling historical case studies as well as a theoretical introduction situating the complex roles in culture and history that negative reputations play.Arguing the need for understanding real conditions that lead to proposed interpretations, as well as how reputations are given meaning over time, this book marks an important contribution to the sociologies of culture and knowledge.

目录

Cover

Copyright

Title Page

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Constructing Difficult Reputations

One. Benedict Arnold and the Commemoration of Treason

Two. Warren Harding and the Memory of Incompetence

Three. John Brown and the Legitimation of Political Violence

Four. Fatty Arbuckle and the Creation of Public Attention

Five. Henry Ford and the Multiple-Audience Problem

Six. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, and the Creation of Imaginary Social Relations

Seven. Herman Melville and the Demise of Literary Reputation

Eight. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, and Community Reputation

Conclusion. Difficult Reputations

Notes

Index