A Space on the Side of the Road

A Space on the Side of the Road
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 256
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691212883
ISBN-13 : 0691212880
Rating : 4/5 (880 Downloads)

Book Synopsis A Space on the Side of the Road by : Kathleen Stewart

Download or read book A Space on the Side of the Road written by Kathleen Stewart and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Space on the Side of the Road vividly evokes an "other" America that survives precariously among the ruins of the West Virginia coal camps and "hollers." To Kathleen Stewart, this particular "other" exists as an excluded subtext to the American narrative of capitalism, modernization, materialism, and democracy. In towns like Amigo, Red Jacket, Helen, Odd, Viper, Decoy, and Twilight, men and women "just settin'" track a dense social imaginary through stories of traumas, apparitions, encounters, and eccentricities. Stewart explores how this rhythmic, dramatic, and complicated storytelling imbues everyday life in the hills and forms a cultural poetics. Alternating her own ruminations on language, culture, and politics with continuous accounts of "just talk," Stewart propels us into the intensity of this nervous, surreal "space on the side of the road." It is a space that gives us a glimpse into a breach in American society itself, where graveyards of junked cars and piles of other trashed objects endure along with the memories that haunt those who have been left behind by "progress." Like James Agee's portrayal of the poverty-stricken tenant farmers of the Depression South in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, this book uses both language and photographs to help readers encounter a fragmented and betrayed community, one "occupied" by schoolteachers, doctors, social workers, and other professionals representing an "official" America. Holding at bay any attempts at definitive, social scientific analysis, Stewart has concocted a new sort of ethnographic writing that conveys the immediacy, density, texture, and materiality of the coal camps. A Space on the Side of the Road finally bridges the gap between anthropology and cultural studies and provides us with a brilliant and challenging experiment in thinking and writing about "America."


A Space on the Side of the Road Related Books

A Space on the Side of the Road
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Kathleen Stewart
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-05-05 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Space on the Side of the Road vividly evokes an "other" America that survives precariously among the ruins of the West Virginia coal camps and "hollers." To K
The Other Side of the Road
Language: en
Pages: 240
Authors: Alf Taylor
Categories: Sports & Recreation
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-10-06 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Other Side of Beautiful
Language: en
Pages: 267
Authors: Kim Lock
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-07-01 - Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What happens when fate says 'go'? Lost & Found meets The Rosie Project in a stunning break-out novel where a vulnerable misfit is forced to re-engage with the w
By the Side of the Road
Language: en
Pages: 246
Authors: Marla Bernard
Categories: True Crime
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-09-27 - Publisher: WildBlue Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The true crime story of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a Missouri teen and her family’s journey to justice. In the early hours of March 22, 1989, two fri
The Other Side of Ego
Language: en
Pages: 336
Authors: Jonathan Gravenor
Categories: Body, Mind & Spirit
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017 - Publisher: Jonathan Gravenor

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Other Side of Ego explores a mans attempt to confront his mortality and the kind of lies we tell ourselves about what is really precious in life. Jonathan w