Power Lines: Electricity in American Life and Letters, 1882–1952

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Jennifer L. Lieberman (Assistant Professor of American Literature, University of North Florida)

Power Lines

Electricity in American Life and Letters, 1882–1952

Jennifer L. Lieberman (Assistant Professor of American Literature, University of North Florida)

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English

MIT Press
14 July 2017

History of the Americas; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Social & cultural history; History of engineering & technology

Series: Inside Technology

How electricity became a metaphor for modernity in the United States, inspiring authors from Mark Twain to Ralph Ellison.

At the turn of the twentieth century, electricity emerged as a metaphor for modernity. Writers from Mark Twain to Ralph Ellison grappled with the idea of electricity as both life force (illumination) and death spark (electrocution). The idea that electrification created exclusively modern experiences took hold of Americans' imaginations, whether they welcomed or feared its adoption. In Power Lines, Jennifer Lieberman examines the apparently incompatible notions of electricity that coexisted in the American imagination, tracing how electricity became a common (though multifarious) symbol for modern life.

Lieberman examines a series of moments of technical change when electricity accrued new social meanings, plotting both power lines and the power of narrative lines in American life and literature. While discussing the social construction of electrical systems, she offers a new interpretation of Twain's use of electricity as an organizing metaphor in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, describes the rhetoric surrounding the invention of electric execution, analyzes Charlotte Perkins Gilman's call for human connection in her utopian writing and in her little-known Human Work, considers the theme of electrical interconnection in Jack London's work, and shows how Ralph Ellison and Louis Mumford continued the literary tradition of electrical metaphor.

Electrical power was a distinctive concept in American literary, cultural, and technological histories. For this reason, narratives about electricity were particularly evocative. Bridging the realistic and the romantic, the historical and the fantastic, these storiesguideus to ask new questions about our enduring fascination with electricity and all it came to represent.

By: Jennifer L. Lieberman (Assistant Professor of American Literature University of North Florida)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 14mm
ISBN: 9780262036375
ISBN 10: 0262036371
Series: Inside Technology
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 14 July 2017
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jennifer L. Lieberman is Assistant Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of North Florida.