Cultural Considerations: Essays on Readers, Writers, and Musicians in Postwar America

212 Pages·2013·11.117 MB·English

by  Joan Shelley Rubin

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Cultural Considerations
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Cultural
Considerations
6
Essays on Readers,
Writers, and Musicians
in Postwar America
Joan Shelley Rubin
University of Massachusetts Press
Amherst and Boston
Copyright © 2013 by Joan Shelley Rubin
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
isbn 978-1-62534-014-6 (paper); 013-9 (hardcover)
Designed by Jack Harrison
Set in Scala
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubin, Joan Shelley, 1947–
Cultural considerations : essays on readers, writers, and musicians in postwar America /
Joan Shelley Rubin.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-62534-014-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-1-62534-013-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. American literature—20th century—History and criticism.
2. Literature and society—United States—History—20th century.
3. Books and reading—United States—History—20th century. I. Title.
ps225.r84 2013
810.9'0054—dc23
2013009436
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Publication of this book was supported by a grant from the Office of the Provost,
University of Rochester.
Again, for Tai, David, and Michael
and for my sisters,
Cynthia Beth Rubin
Linda Gail Rubin
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Contents
Introduction: Cultural History in Practice 1
Part I: Readers & Critics
1. The Genteel Tradition at Large 11
2. The Scholar and the World
Academic Humanists and General Readers in Postwar America 29
3. Repossessing the Cozzens-Macdonald Imbroglio
Middlebrow Authorship, Critical Authority, and Autonomous Readers
in Postwar America 59
Part II: Composers, Conductors & Their Audiences
4. The Composer as a Reader
Poetry, Music, and the Politics of a Neglected Genre 87
5. Ideology and Practice in the Career of Robert Shaw 108
6. Gunther Schuller The Musician as Mediator 142
Conclusion: The Enduring Reader 150
Notes 169
Index 189
vii
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