Scorned Literature - (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture) by Lydia Cushman Schurman & Deidre A Johnson (Hardcover)

About the Book

Many works now considered classics were scorned by critics when they were first published. While some of these works received little attention when initially released, others were enormously popular. So too, there is a large body of popular American fiction that is only now beginning to receive critical attention. This book examines the growing respect given to American fiction that was scorned by cultural gatekeepers such as librarians and educators, though these works were widely read by the American public.

The volume looks at such scorned literature as dime novels, comic books, juvenile fiction, romances novels, and pulp magazines. Expert contributors discuss what these works say about the mores and morals of the people who so avidly read them and the values of those who sought to censor them. The book covers the period from the 1830s to the 1950s and shows how popular literature reflected such concerns as feminism and anti-feminism, notions of the heroic and unheroic, and violence and racism. In doing so, the volume helps fill a gap in scholarship about literature that was clearly important to a large number of readers.

Book Synopsis

Many works now considered classics were scorned by critics when they were first published. While some of these works received little attention when initially released, others were enormously popular. So too, there is a large body of popular American fiction that is only now beginning to receive critical attention. This book examines the growing respect given to American fiction that was scorned by cultural gatekeepers such as librarians and educators, though these works were widely read by the American public.

The volume looks at such scorned literature as dime novels, comic books, juvenile fiction, romances novels, and pulp magazines. Expert contributors discuss what these works say about the mores and morals of the people who so avidly read them and the values of those who sought to censor them. The book covers the period from the 1830s to the 1950s and shows how popular literature reflected such concerns as feminism and anti-feminism, notions of the heroic and unheroic, and violence and racism. In doing so, the volume helps fill a gap in scholarship about literature that was clearly important to a large number of readers.

Review Quotes

"By focusing on a wide variety of genres--dime novels, pulps, story papers, romances, detective stories, comics, books for children or adolescents, series books, and cheap reprints--over two centuries, this collection illuminates the common class-based, sexist, and political underpinnings of much of what passes for highminded cultural criticism of mass entertainment."-Kay Mussell Dean, College of Arts and Sciences American University

"Dime novels, romance novels, story papers, pulp magazines, juvenile series, and comics-what do these share in common? They are all forms of popular literature that have been scorned in our culture as inferior. Scorned Literature reveals that such popular literature often reveals as nuanced views of human culture as any other form of literature. This insightful and varied anthology opens up new vistas for exploring such work."-Dr. Sherrie A. Inness Department of English Miami University

"Scorned Literature: Essays on the History and Criticism of Popular Mass-Produced Fiction in America provides fresh and provocative insights into American culture. A worthy and informative compilation of essays on the controversial response to popular fiction in the 19th century and 20th centuries, it is a valuable addition to any library with holdings in mass-produced culture."-Clark Evans Curatorare Books and Special Collections Library of Congress

"The essays in this book illuminate the incredibly rich history of our favorite kinds of fiction. It is a history that is at grave risk of being lost to us forever because of elitist critics do not consider it sufficiently important to be preserved. But the greatest contribution these essays make is to lift the veil that those same critics have tried to throw over scorned lit. The contributors to the volume reveal what so many earnest and serious folks have gone to such great lengths to ignore or deny: The seething, roiling, power and incredible diversity of the creative forces at work in the stories and novels traditionally treated as scorned literature."-Jayne Ann Krentz Author

"This unique collection of critical essays examines several genres with more than a single critical approach. New criticism, feminist criticism, character studies, as well as historical and sociological methods are used to effect."-J. Randolph Cox Editor, Dime Novel Round-up

.,."a valuable addition to the literature on the genres addressed...Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students; general readers."-CHOICE

?...a valuable addition to the literature on the genres addressed...Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students; general readers.?-CHOICE

?This collection turns long-withheld serious attention to several scorned genres, including detective fiction, westerns, romance novels, war adventures, and horror stories.?-American Literature March 2003

..."a valuable addition to the literature on the genres addressed...Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students; general readers."-CHOICE

"This collection turns long-withheld serious attention to several scorned genres, including detective fiction, westerns, romance novels, war adventures, and horror stories."-American Literature March 2003

About the Author

LYDIA CUSHMAN SCHURMAN is Professor Emerita of English at Northern Virginia Community College and has published widely on nineteenth-century popular fiction.

DEIDRE JOHNSON is Associate Professor of English at West Chester University, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in children's literature. She has published extensively on Edward Stratemeyer and the Stratemeyer syndicate and is associate editor of Dime Novel Round-Up.