American Affect in the Postmodern Era: A Primer

How is terrorism transformed into media entertainment? What is the connection between affirmative action and narcissism? Why has pathos become an endangered-perhaps an extinct-species in the contemporary American psyche? In American Affect in the Postmodern Era: A Primer, Steven Carter addresses these and other questions that have helped to define American popular culture since the nineteen-sixties. Cover painting: Kyle Margiotta, Baja, 1999. Oil on canvas.

How is terrorism transformed into media entertainment? What is the connection between affirmative action and narcissism? Why has pathos become an endangered-perhaps an extinct-species in the contemporary American psyche? In American Affect in the Postmodern Era: A Primer, Steven Carter addresses these and other questions that have helped to define American popular culture since the nineteen-sixties.

Steven Carter is the author of six books of literary and cultural criticism, including Devotions to the Text (University Press of America, 2004). In 1989 he was awarded the Schachterle Prize by the National Society for Literature and Science. In 2001 he became the only two-time winner of Italy's coveted Nuove Lettere International Poetry and Literature Prize. He was a nominee for the 2004 Holberg International Memorial Award, commonly known as Norway's Nobel Prize for scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.