Unbuttoning America

Ardis Cameron

Description

Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel's setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term "Peyton Place" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets.In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious's depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America.

Sujets

• Idioma inglés
• USA
• History of the Americas
• English
• États-Unis
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 25 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801456107
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Unbuttoning America

Unbuttoning America:

A Biography of “Peyton Place”

Ardis Cameron

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2015 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2015 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cameron, Ardis, author.  Unbuttoning America : a biography of “Peyton Place” / Ardis Cameron.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-8014-5364-9 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Metalious, Grace. Peyton Place. 2. Popular literature—United States—History and criticism. 3. Literature and society—United States—History—20th century. 4. Books and reading—United States— History—20th century. 5. Sex in literature. I. Title.  PS3525.E77P4335 2015  813'.54—dc23 2014044855

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To Nancy, always

A novel is an act of hope. It allows us to imagine that things may be other than they are.

Hilary Mantel

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Small Talk

1. The Novel Truth

2. The Sheep Pen Murder

3. Scenes of Writing

Contents

4. The Other Side of Writing

5. The Gendered Eye

6. Sex Talk

7. The Women ofPeyton Place

8. Excitable Fictions

Epilogue: Memento Mori

Notes Index

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17 38 54 70 93 106 126 146 177

189 211