Unimagined existence and the fiction of the real : postmodernist realism in Let us now praise famous men

Author

Reed, T. V.

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Representations. 1988, Num. 24, p. 156-176, 4 ill.

ISSN

0734-6018

Abstract (en)

Considers this 1941 book of photographs by Walker Evans and prose by James Agee, which deals with the actual lives of three families of tenant farmers in 1930s America, in light of its dual status as an aesthetic and as a political document. Argues that the book is representative of a form which the author calls postmodernist realism--a self-conscious, ironic, politically engaged mode that takes reality more seriously than did the realists and aesthetic form more seriously than did the modernists.

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1800-1945 -- Pictorial arts -- Photography -- United States
• Evans, Walker, 1903-1975
• Photography
• United States
• 1900-2000
• Agee, James, 1909-1955
• Literature
• Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
• Farmers
• Representation
• Politics
• Realism
• Postmodernism
• Irony
• Aesthetics
• Working classes
• Poor
• Society

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1800-1945 -- Peinture et arts graphiques -- Photographie -- États-Unis
• Evans, Walker, 1903-1975
• Photographie
• Etats-Unis
• 1900-2000
• Agee, James, 1909-1955
• Littérature
• Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
• Fermiers
• Représentation
• Politique
• Réalisme
• Post-modernisme
• Ironie
• Esthétique
• Classe ouvrière
• Pauvres
• Société

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier19910101-00448309

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