University of Georgia Press The Prestige of Violence: American Fiction, 1962-2007

Review The Prestige of Violence is poised to become a major study of post-World War II US fiction. This is a remarkable account of how prominent fiction writers' formal engagement with violence provides the terms by which otherwise very disparate works of fiction come in this period to be considered serious literature.--Andrew Hoberek "author of The Twilight of the Middle Class: Post-World War II American Fiction and White-Collar Work "The Prestige of Violence provides an in-depth and compelling examination of a crucial yet under-analyzed trend in American literature from the second half of the twentieth century. Combining meticulous close readings of the literature with shrewd analyses of the historical and theoretical happenings that undergirded its practice, Bachner reveals how the so-called unrepresentability of violence in literary language counter-intuitively only elevated its prestige as a subject for literary representation.--Abigail Cheever "author of Real Phonies: Cultures of Authenticity in Post-World War II America " Product Description This argues that, starting in the 1960s, American fiction laid claim to the status of serious literature by placing violence at the heart of its mission and then insisting that this violence could not be represented. Sally Bachner demonstrates how many of the most influential novels of this period are united by the dramatic opposition they draw between a debased and untrustworthy conventional language, on the one hand, and a violence that appears to be prelinguistic and unquestionable, on the other. About the Author SALLY BACHNER is an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University.