Description
Book SynopsisThis is a socio-economic study of twentieth-century American literature that reveals why mainstream businessmen must either discipline, suppress, or kill boyish tendencies that collide with do-or-die codes of the American corporate psychostructure. Contents: Competition, Expectation, and the American Corporate Psyche; Life-or-Death Dealing: Dress and Behavior Codes in American Business; Against the Fires of Ilium: Vonnegut''s Restless Engineer in Player Piano; The Catcher in the Rye: Irreconcilable Tension in Salinger''s Peter Pan; The Boy Inside the Salesman: ''Tired to the Death'' in Miller''s Death of A Salesman; Rabbit in the Showroom: Healthy, Wealthy, and No Place Left to Run; The Boy Inside Bob Slocum: The Ambiguity of ''Death'' by ''Asphyxiation'' in Heller''s Something Happened; The Boy Inside the Banker; A Concluding Interview.
Trade ReviewCarl Horner's study contributes significantly to our understanding of the fictional presentation of the American male and to our awareness of the complexity of the male corporate ideal. -- Sarah Gordon, Georgia College
Horner writes with wit, fluent precision, sympathy and an impressive range of reference in this study, and his instances include not only literary works but clinical studies and anecdotal evidence from corporate 'survivors' themselves. -- Douglass Fowler, Florida State University
Horner writes with wit, fluent precision, sympathy and an impressive range of reference in this study, and his instances include not only literary works but clinical studies and anecdotal evidence from corporate 'survivors' themselves. -- Douglass Fowler, Florida State University
Carl Horner's study contributes significantly to our understanding of the fictional presentation of the American male and to our awareness of the complexity of the male corporate ideal. -- Sarah Gordon, Georgia College
Table of ContentsCompetition, expectation, and the American corporate psyche; life-or-death-dealing, dress and behaviour codes in American business; against the fires of Ilium - Vonnegut's restless engineer in player piano; "The Catcher in the Rye" - irreconcilable tension in Salinger's Peter Pan; the boy inside the salesman - "tired to the death", in Miller's "Death of a Salesman"; rabbit in the showroom - healthy, wealthy and no place left to run; the boy inside Bob Slocum - the ambiguity of "death" by "asphyxiation" in Heller's "Something Happened".
