Description
Book SynopsisContrary to previous studies of Tillie Olsen's writing, Tillie Olsen and the Dialectical Philosophy of Proletarian Literature analyzes the impact of one of the most important philosophies of the last century, dialectical materialism, on the form and content of Olsen's fiction. By revealing the unconceptualized dialectics of Olsen's work and its appreciation by scholars and casual readers, this study achieves a dialectical synthesis that incorporates and extends the insights of and about Olsen in terms of dialectical materialism. By foregrounding Olsen's dialectical approach, it explains and largely resolves apparent contradictions between her Marxism and feminism; her depictions of class, race, and gender; the literature of her earlier and later periods; and her use of realist and modernist literary forms and techniques. Consequently, this project makes a case for the importance of Olsen's Marxist education during the Red Decade of the 1930s and within the U.S. proletarian literary mov
Trade ReviewAnthony Dawahare brilliantly demonstrates the centrality of dialectical materialism not only to the methodology guiding Tillie Olsen’s writing but also to the proletarian literary movement as a whole. While full of incisive and original readings of Olsen’s oeuvre, this is far more than a single-author study; Dawahare’s firm grasp of fundamental principles of Marxist literary criticism supplies a model for analysis of a wide range of revolutionary texts aiming to portray what Olsen called the ‘not-yet in the now.’ -- Barbara C. Foley, University of Rutgers-Newark
Anthony Dawahare’s book punctures a myth that only real men do Marxism. His subtle and intelligent appreciation of Tillie Olsen’s dialectical materialism is a significant advance in Olsen studies, and provides an exciting new key by which to read her work. The book is especially valuable for scholars assessing Olsen’s relationship to proletarian literature as a whole, and proletarian aesthetics in particular. A stirring, original work of scholarship. -- Bill V. Mullen, Purdue University
Dawahare’s book is guaranteed to make waves in proletarian literary studies not just because it takes a heterodox position on the continuing relevance of dialectical materialism and the wide purchase of Marxist social critique, but also because it manages to make a serious and substantial case for a new, more critical Marxist reading of Tillie Olsen’s fiction. -- Marcial González, University of California, Berkeley
Tillie Olsen’s deep engagement with Marxism on a formal as well as thematic level has often been obscured by Olsen’s much-repeated criticism of the “head boys” of the US literary Left of the 1930s and 1940s. In this study, Anthony Dawahare shows the ways that Olsen was profoundly influenced by dialectical materialism, which is to say Marxist philosophy. He convincingly argues that this influence was not simply on the level of sentiment but was also structural. In this regard, Dawahare shows that Olsen was not isolated or singular, but part of a larger Marxist literary tradition. In short, Tillie Olsen and the Dialectical Philosophy of Proletarian Literature, illuminates both the work of Olsen and the Marxist current of US literature in new ways. -- James Smethurst, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Proletarian Literature & Dialectical Theory Chapter 2: Materialist Dialectics in Tillie Olsen’s Early Work Chapter 3: Tell Me a Riddle & the Dialectics of Everyday Life Chapter 4: “Requa I”: The Power of the Negative Afterword: “The Word Made Flesh”: Dialectical Materialism as a Living Philosophy
