Maximum Feasible Participation: American Literature and the War on Poverty

257 Pages·2018·1.932 MB·English

by  Stephen Schryer

Maximum Feasible Participation
Loren Glass and Kate Marshall, Editors
Post•45 Group, Editorial Committee
Maximum Feasible Participation
American Literature and the War on Poverty
Stephen Schryer
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2018 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schryer, Stephen, author.
Title: Maximum feasible participation : American literature and the War on Poverty / Stephen
Schryer.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2018. |
Series: Post*45 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017037235 (print) | LCCN 2017041865 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503606081 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781503603677 (cloth: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: American literature—20th century—History and criticism. | American
literature—Minority authors—History and criticism. | Literature and state—United States—
History—20th century. | Literature and society—United States—History—20th century. |
Poverty—Government policy—United States—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC PS225 (ebook) | LCC PS225 .S37 2018 (print) | DDC 810.9/3556—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017037235
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/15 Minion
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Maximum Feasible Participation 1
1 Jack Kerouac’s Delinquent Art 27
2 Black Arts and the Great Society 51
3 Legal Services and the Cockroach Revolution 79
4 Writing Urban Crisis after Moynihan 99
5 Civil Rights and the Southern Folk Aesthetic 125
6 Who Belongs in the University? 151
Conclusion: Working-Class Community Action 175
Notes 187
Bibliography 219
Index 235
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Acknowledgments
Thanks are due, first and foremost, to Emily-Jane Cohen, Loren Glass, Kate
Marshall, and the two readers at Stanford University Press. They believed in
this project, and their critical feedback transformed it into a much better book.
I also owe a massive debt to Mary Esteve. I started this book in 2008 as a
postdoctoral project under her supervision at Concordia University, and she
continued to read drafts after I took up a tenure-track position at the University
of New Brunswick. As always, I’m indebted to Michael Szalay, who did his best
to eradicate my worst critical habits when I was his student at the University of
California, Irvine.
The following scholars read individual chapters and/or provided especially
helpful comments at conferences: Sean McCann, Andrew Hoberek, Jennifer
Andrews, Eric Strand, Marci L. Carrasquillo, Michael Hames-García, Nicola
Nixon, Sarah Wilson, Amy Hungerford, Anthony Reed, Abigail Cheever, Deak
Nabers, J. D. Connor, Annie McClanahan, Lisa Siraganian, and John Alba
Cutler. Excerpts from this project benefited from vigorous discussions at two
Post•45 conferences.
Thanks also to my supportive colleagues at the University of New Bruns-
wick and to the graduate student research assistants who helped with this proj-
ect: Kayla Geitzler, Curran Folkers, Charlie Fiset, and Brittany Lauton. This
project was funded by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humani-
ties Research Council of Canada and by a University Research Fund Grant from
the University of New Brunswick.
Early versions of sections of this book appeared in Arizona Quarterly, Mod-
ern Fiction Studies, and Twentieth-Century Literature. I thank those journals for
permission to include the material here.
This book would not exist without my supportive family: Frans and Cath-
erine Schryer, who introduced me to literature and sociology; Emily Schryer,
vii
viii Acknowledgments
who set off on her own scholarly adventure; Joanne Minor, who does the kind
of social work that I only write about; and Rowan Schryer, who put up with
my distracted moments at the dinner table. This book is dedicated to them
with love. It’s also dedicated to the memory of Scott Eric Kaufman, whose
critical voice is sorely missed.
Maximum Feasible Participation