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9780817357429

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Reviews

A powerful and provocative book that will appeal to a wide readership, from literary critics to historians of American culture, from university professors to high school teachers . . . The American Counterfeit is a happy combination of traditional literary criticism and cutting-edge cultural studies, opening new views on familiar texts as well as on the society that produced them. -- Christoph Irmscher, author of The Poetics of Natural History

"""A powerful and provocative book that will appeal to a wide readership, from literary critics to historians of American culture, from university professors to high school teachers . . . The American Counterfeit is a happy combination of traditional literary criticism and cutting-edge cultural studies, opening new views on familiar texts as well as on the society that produced them."" --Christoph Irmscher, author of The Poetics of Natural History ""This is the theme of this entertainingly original and cogent book: 'Art--the thing itself produced for consumption--is merely an analogue for the authentic self, that elusive figment of the modern imagination.' Balkun reveals this effort to present a counterfeit identity as a collective American affliction: the American seeks to mimic the images created by commercial propaganda, 'demonstrating that where authenticity and consumerism intersect, the self becomes but another commodity to be promoted, sold, and eventually consumed' and discarded. Even the 'authentic' person is a counterfeit, a faux image self-created no differently than an artist creates counterfeits of counterfeits, or as Auden said, 'Private faces in public faces are wiser and nicer than public faces in private places.' Recommended. --CHOICE"

""This is the theme of this entertainingly original and cogent book: 'Art--the thing itself produced for consumption--is merely an analogue for the authentic self, that elusive figment of the modern imagination.' Balkun reveals this effort to present a counterfeit identity as a collective American affliction: the American seeks to mimic the images created by commercial propaganda, 'demonstrating that where authenticity and consumerism intersect, the self becomes but another commodity to be promoted, sold, and eventually consumed' and discarded. Recommended."" --CHOICE ""A powerful and provocative book that will appeal to a wide readership, from literary critics to historians of American culture, from university professors to high school teachers . . . The American Counterfeit is a happy combination of traditional literary criticism and cutting-edge cultural studies, opening new views on familiar texts as well as on the society that produced them."" --Christoph Irmscher, author of The Poetics of Natural History

Author Information

Mary McAleer Balkun is associate professor and Chair of English at Seton Hall University.

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