American literary modernism inherited an elite tradition insulated from working-class energies

Evidence

What I do mean, however, is that the tradition of letters American modernism inherited from its own elite past had rarely been informed by energies of the working class; was dominated largely by the boundless and somewhat philistine optir:nism of New England’s petty commodity producers; and had made a truce, by and large, with the racism and mercantilism of its own society. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 217

Categorization

• XREF: This is Ahmad’s characteristic materialist redescription of culture — same method he turns on third-worldist literary theory, treating the discourse as conditioned by class structure rather than autonomous. — connects to: The American ruling class historically shared a vocation of work with workers — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1126; Postmodernism represents the plebeianization of modernist culture — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 271

Broader Connections

• The American ruling class historically shared a vocation of work with workers #contradicts (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1126
• Postmodernism represents the plebeianization of modernist culture #qualifies (0.80) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 271