The Valuation of Literature: Triangulating the Rhetorical with the Economic Metaphor

<p>Several theorists, including the Marxist theorists Trevor Ross, Walter Benjamin, and M.H. Abrams, have proposed theories to explain the eighteenth-century shift from functional to aesthetic conceptions of literature. Their explanations attribute the change to an increasingly consumer-based society (and the resulting commoditization of books), the development of the press, the rise of the middle class, and increased access to books. When we apply the cause-effect relationships which these theorists propose to the contexts of nineteenth-century America, Communist East Germany, WWII America, and 9/11 America, however, the causes don't correlate with the effects they theoretically predict. This disjunction suggests a re-examination of these three theories and possibly the Marxist basis which they share. I suggest that by triangulating rhetorical theory with Marxist theory we will gain a more comprehensive understanding of society's valuation of literature.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Grantor dc:publisher

Brigham Young University - Provo

Author dc:creator

• Gustafson, Melissa Brown

• theory
• theorist
• Marxism
• Marxist
• Trevor Ross
• Walter Benjamin
• M. H. Abrams
• nineteenth-century America
• WWII
• East Germany
• GDR
• war
• communist
• 9/11
• September 11th
• rhetoric
• rhetorical theory
• Kenneth Burke
• literature
• literariness
• valuation
• aesthetic
• eighteenth-century England
• English Language and Literature

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/180

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-1179