Reading Capitalist Realism PDF
Preview Reading Capitalist Realism
Reading Capitalist Realism The New American Canon The Iowa Series in Contemporary Literature and Culture samuel cohen , series editor Reading Capitalist Realism Edited by alison shonkwiler & leigh claire la berge University of Iowa Press Iowa City University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2014 by the University of Iowa Press www.uiowapress.org Printed in the United States of America Design by Omega Clay No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The pub- lisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving natural resources. Printed on acid-free paper ISBN: 978-1-60938-234-6, 1-60938-234-X (pbk.) ISBN: 978-1-60938-263-6, 1-60938-263-3 (ebk.) LCCN: 2013952707 CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii alison shonkwiler & leigh claire la berge Introduction: A Theory of Capitalist Realism 1 jodi dean and mark fisher We Can’t Afford to Be Realists: A Conversation 26 Part I Novelistic Realisms andrew hoberek Adultery, Crisis, Contract 41 alissa g. karl Things Break Apart: James Kelman, Ali Smith, and the Neoliberal Novel 64 phillip e. wegner Things As They Were or Are: On Russell Banks’s Global Realisms 89 Part II Genres of Mediation leigh claire la berge Capitalist Realism and Serial Form: The Fifth Season of The Wire 115 j. d. connor Like Some Dummy Corporation You Just Move around the Board: Contemporary Hollywood Production in Virtual Time and Space 140 caren irr Anti-Capitalism and Anti-Realism in William T. Vollmann’s Poor People 177 Part III After and Against Representation michael w. clune Beyond Realism 195 timothy bewes Capitalism and Reification: The Logic of the Instance 213 joshua clover Communist Realism 242 richard dienst Afterword: Unreal Criticism 248 Contributors 255 Index 259 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank A. K. Summers for wit and argument, Franklin Summers for the point of view of Franklin Summers, Elizabeth Free- man for unstinting intellectual generosity, series editor Samuel Cohen for enthusiasm and early support, Andrew Hoberek for timely coun- sel, two manuscript readers for key interventions, and editor Elisabeth Chretien for her patient assistance in guiding this book through publi- cation. —A. S. Like my co-editor, and for identical reasons, I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers from the University of Iowa Press, together with Samuel Cohen and Elisabeth Chretien. I would also like to thank the Affective Publics group at The University of Chicago, my wonderful New Faculty Speaker Series colleagues at Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University, and finally, Dehlia Hannah, for using the phrase “capitalist realism” in jest before I knew it was real. —L. C. L. Reading Capitalist Realism
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