Unbuttoning America

Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up i...

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Главный автор: Cameron, Ardis
Формат: Online
Язык:английский
Опубликовано: Cornell University Press 2025
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Online-ссылка:OCN: 908447945
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author Cameron, Ardis
author_browse Cameron, Ardis
author_facet Cameron, Ardis
author_sort Cameron, Ardis
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel’s setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term ""Peyton Place"" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets. In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious’s depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America. ; Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel's setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term "Peyton Place" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets.In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious's depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1503782025-07-21T15:44:07Z Unbuttoning America Cameron, Ardis publishing industry, Grace Metalious, incest novels, sex and gender, 1950s US, women's history, sexuality, abortion thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel’s setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term ""Peyton Place"" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets. In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious’s depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America. ; Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel's setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term "Peyton Place" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets.In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious's depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America. 2025-01-23T23:25:06Z 2025-01-23T23:25:06Z 2024-03-27T10:26:26Z 2015 book OCN: 908447945 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/88748 9780801453649 9780801456091 9781501775970 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/150378 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/88748/1/9780801456107.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/88748/1/9780801456107.pdf Cornell University Press 05937e7b-c222-4680-9580-c09c5ce7a11e 9780801453649 9780801456091 9781501775970 240 open access
spellingShingle publishing industry, Grace Metalious, incest novels, sex and gender, 1950s US, women's history, sexuality, abortion
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers
Cameron, Ardis
Unbuttoning America
title Unbuttoning America
title_full Unbuttoning America
title_fullStr Unbuttoning America
title_full_unstemmed Unbuttoning America
title_short Unbuttoning America
title_sort unbuttoning america
topic publishing industry, Grace Metalious, incest novels, sex and gender, 1950s US, women's history, sexuality, abortion
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers
topic_facet publishing industry, Grace Metalious, incest novels, sex and gender, 1950s US, women's history, sexuality, abortion
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBL Biography: writers
url OCN: 908447945
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