The Literature of Labor and the Labors of Literature

Download or read book The Literature of Labor and the Labors of Literature written by Cindy Weinstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-27 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book juxtaposes representations of labor in fictional texts with representations of labor in nonfictional texts in order to trace the intersections between aesthetic and economic discourse in nineteenth-century America. This intersection is particularly evident in the debates about symbol and allegory, and Cindy Weinstein contends that allegory during this period was critiqued on precisely the same grounds as mechanized labor. In the course of completing a historical investigation, Weinstein revolutionizes the notion of allegorical narrative, which is exposed as a literary medium of greater depth and consequence than has previously been implied.