Overview

In this rich interdisciplinary study, Hildegard Hoeller argues that nineteenth-century American culture was driven by and deeply occupied with the tension between gift and market exchange. Rooting her analysis in the period's fiction, she shows how American novelists from Hannah Foster to Frank Norris grappled with the role of the gift based on trust, social bonds, and faith in an increasingly capitalist culture based on self-interest, market transactions, and economic reason. Placing the notion of sacrifice at the centre of her discussion, Hoeller taps into the poignant discourse of modes of exchange, revealing central tensions of American fiction and culture.

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9781611683073

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Reviews

""Hoeller's treatment of the ways in which the '(ir)responsibility' and '(im)possibility' of gifting permeate 19th-century American fiction affords valuable perspectives. . . . Hoeller effectively considers feminist, new economic, Marxist, and historicist approaches. . . . Her discussion of Howells in the 'overlooked' category of gift theory merits attention, and the argument regarding Norris's McTeague and its depiction of 'the lethal realm of the antigift' is simply splendid. . . . Highly recommended.""--CHOICE

Hoeller's treatment of the ways in which the '(ir)responsibility' and '(im)possibility' of gifting permeate 19th-century American fiction affords valuable perspectives. . . . Hoeller effectively considers feminist, new economic, Marxist, and historicist approaches. . . . Her discussion of Howells in the 'overlooked' category of gift theory merits attention, and the argument regarding Norris's McTeague and its depiction of 'the lethal realm of the antigift' is simply splendid. . . . Highly recommended. --Choice

Hoeller s treatment of the ways in which the (ir)responsibility and (im)possibility of gifting permeate 19th-century American fiction affords valuable perspectives. . . . Hoeller effectively considers feminist, new economic, Marxist, and historicist approaches. . . . Her discussion of Howells in the overlooked category of gift theory merits attention, and the argument regarding Norris s McTeague and its depiction of the lethal realm of the antigift is simply splendid. . . . Highly recommended. <i><b>Choice</b></i>

Author Information

Hildegard Hoeller is professor of English, College of Staten Island, USA and professor of English and women's studies, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. She is author of Edith Wharton's Dialogue with Realism and Sentimental Fiction and editor of the >Norton Critical Edition of Horatio Alger's .

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