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Gold Lyta

Gold Lyta - Dangerous Fictions The Fear Of Fantasy And The Invention Of Reality - Hardcover

Gold Lyta - Dangerous Fictions The Fear Of Fantasy And The Invention Of Reality - Hardcover

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Binding: Hardcover
Description: Fictional stories have long been imagined to hold an uncanny power over hearts and minds especially those of young people. These days everybody frets about fiction: according to the National Coalition Against Censorship the current wave of book bans is the worst since the 1980s and our cultural debates are consumed by questions about the politics and moral responsibility of storytelling. Can readers and viewers at any age be harmed by what they read and see? In Dangerous Fictions Lyta Gold traces arguments both historical and contemporary that have labeled fiction as dark immoral frightening or poisonous; within each she asks how 'dangerous is fiction really? And what about it provokes waves of moral panic and even censorship? Fiction is the story of other people: that more than anything else is what makes it dangerous. From Y a readers condemning faults in representation to debates over the moral worth of controversial works like Lolita to conservative calls to ban literature that might make white readers feel guilty about American history people of all political stripes clearly believe stories hold considerable political power. Dangerous Fictions incisively posits that a panic about art is largely a panic about power in disguise. Gold argues that we've been having versions of these same fights over fiction for centuries and that by exposing fiction as a site of social danger a battleground of immediate public concern we can see what each side really wants: the right to shape the future of a world deeply in flux along with an entertaining sideshow to distract from more pressing material concerns about money access and the hard work of politics. From novels about people driven insane by reading novels to 'copaganda TV shows that impact how viewers regard the police Gold uses her signature wit research and fearless commentary to point readers towards a more substantial question: fiction may be dangerous to us but aren't we also dangerous to it?
Title: Dangerous Fictions The Fear Of Fantasy And The Invention Of Reality
Author(s): Gold Lyta
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
Barcode: 9781593767709
Pages: 256 Pages
Publication Date: 10/29/2024
Category: Literary Studies: Poetry & Poets
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