A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literature

by Bill Brown

In May 1906, the Atlantic Monthly commented that Americans live not merely in an age of things, but under the tyranny of them, and that in our relentless effort to sell, purchase, and accumulate things, we do not possess them as much as they possess us. For Bill Brown, the tale of that possession is something stranger than the history of a culture of consumption. It is the story of Americans using things to think about themselves.

Brown's captivating new study explores the roots of modern America's fascination with things and the problem that objects posed for American literature at the turn of the century. This was an era when the invention, production, distribution, and consumption of things suddenly came to define a national culture. Brown shows how crucial novels of the time made things not a solution to problems, but problems in their own right. Writers such as Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Henry James ask why and how we use objects to make meaning, to make or remake ourselves, to organize our anxieties and affections, to sublimate our fears, and to shape our wildest dreams. Offering a remarkably new way to think about materialism, A Sense of Things will be essential reading for anyone interested in American literature and culture.

Genres: Literary Criticism, Theory, Philosophy, Material Culture, Cultural, Criticism

259 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mostly on Storygraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible and a good coverage of theory, literature and the social history of the intersection (and intermingling) of people and things. It includes all the big theorists I would expect in such a discussion - Heidigger, Lacan, Benjamin, Marx, etc. - and very succinctly covers their insights on his subject, so that you don't have to search the recesses of your brain (or Wikipedia) for a review of their contributions to the field.

At the same time he looks at literary examples (both in the main topics of the chapters and other examples within the chapters themselves) I would not expect, much to his credit and to the coverage of his ideas. It's a very original and engagingly written take. For Twain fans, by the way, the first chapter especially should be a delight (and maybe even an eye-opener).

Of the books I've read so far on this topic, this is by far one of the better written and more comprehensive studies.

[Feral Academic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be quite useful, thoughtful, and charming. The ideas he pulls together here and applies provide a very useful blueprint for the literary scholar (or at least a baby literary scholar like myself) interested in applying new materialisms to literary studies. The readings of novels he gives us are positively lovely. Furthermore, (speaking again as a baby literary scholar) I was really struck by the readibility, efficiency, and liveliness of his style. This work will serve me well I think as I work on crafting my own style in the future.

[sezen]

Doktora usulü atlaya atlaya okudum.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill brown has boggled my mind for the last time!!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides more insight into the "thing theory" that Brown is famous for having put forward elsewhere in his scholarship. It offers helpful, synthetic looks at works of other philosophers and theorists (Heidegger, Benjamin, Marx), as well as puts those readings in dialog with Brown's own interpretations of American authors in the 18th century. However, the depth of Brown's close readings -- particularly if you weren't intimately familiar with the literary texts he was interpreting -- often felt plodding, making it hard to generalize or use his ideas outside of the specific readings of the texts he offered.

[Kristin]

faculty at University of Chicago

[Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating study that bears much capable of application to object relations/portrayals in literature outside of the period here engaged.

[Steen Ledet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly demonstrating the uncanny nature of things in their oscillation between animate and inanimate and their role in a material history of literature.