A01=Maura D'Amore
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
architecture and literature in social reform
Author_Maura D'Amore
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DSBF
commuting and work-life balance
COP=United States
cultural advice literature for men
cultural construction of suburban life
cultural history of commuting
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
domestic and prof
domestic space in literature
Donald Grant Mitchell writings
emerging suburban communities
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
gender roles in domestic sphere
health and moral guidance in literature
Henry David Thoreau analysis
Henry Ward Beecher cultural influence
idealized middle-class homes
industrial-era lifestyle change
intersection of work and domestic space
Language_English
literary influence on residential choices
literary mediation of suburban ideals
literary portrayals of male experience
literary shaping of everyday life
literary strategies in home narratives
male domestic agency
male engagement with domesticity
male subjectivity in midcentury America
masculinity and domestic labor
midcentury American home life
middle-class home aspirations
moral and physical improvement outside cities
narratives of male relocation
Nathaniel Hawthorne suburban themes
Nathaniel Parker Willis studies
nineteenth-century home reform
nineteenth-century print culture
PA=Available
pattern books and novels
perception of urban overcrowding
periodical influence on social norms
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
restorative effects of nature
softlaunch
suburban domestic fantasies
suburban domestic imagery
suburban ideals and health
suburban landscapes in print
suburban lifestyle promotion
suburbanization and literature
technological transformation in cities
urban escape narratives
urban-to-suburban migration
Product details
- ISBN 9781625340955
- Weight: 341g
- Dimensions: 152 x 226mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jun 2014
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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In the middle of the nineteenth century, as Americans contended with rapid industrial and technological change, readers relied on periodicals and books for information about their changing world. Within this print culture, a host of writers, editors, architects, and reformers urged men to commute to and from their jobs in the city, which was commonly associated with overcrowding, disease, and expense. Through a range of materials, from pattern books to novels and a variety of periodicals, men were told of the restorative effects on body and soul of the natural environment, found in the emerging suburbs outside cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. They were assured that the promise of an ideal home, despite its association with women’s work, could help to motivate them to engage in the labour and commute that took them away from it each day.
In Suburban Plots, Maura D’Amore explores how Henry David Thoreau, Henry Ward Beecher, Donald Grant Mitchell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and others utilised the pen to plot opportunities for a new sort of male agency grounded, literarily and spatially, in a suburbanised domestic landscape. D’Amore uncovers surprising narratives that do not fit easily into standard critical accounts of midcentury home life. Taking men out of work spaces and locating them in the domestic sphere, these writers were involved in a complex process of portraying men struggling to fulfill fantasies outside of their professional lives, in newly emerging communities. These representations established the groundwork for popular conceptions of suburban domestic life that remain today.
In Suburban Plots, Maura D’Amore explores how Henry David Thoreau, Henry Ward Beecher, Donald Grant Mitchell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and others utilised the pen to plot opportunities for a new sort of male agency grounded, literarily and spatially, in a suburbanised domestic landscape. D’Amore uncovers surprising narratives that do not fit easily into standard critical accounts of midcentury home life. Taking men out of work spaces and locating them in the domestic sphere, these writers were involved in a complex process of portraying men struggling to fulfill fantasies outside of their professional lives, in newly emerging communities. These representations established the groundwork for popular conceptions of suburban domestic life that remain today.
Maura D’Amore is assistant professor of English at Saint Michael’s College.
