Blinder, Caroline. 2016. American Alphabet: Photo-Textual Politics in Paul Strand and Nancy Newhall's Time in New England (1950). Journal of American Studies, 50(1), pp. 143-165. ISSN 0021-8758 [Article]

	Text StrandJASJuly.14.doc - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (114kB)
Preview	Text StrandJASJuly.14.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (563kB) | Preview

Abstract or Description

The first in a series of regional studies by the photographer Paul Strand, Time in New England pairs the iconographical landscapes and portraits of Strand with a cross-section of historical and fictional accounts of New England life from 1630 to 1950. The texts, chosen and edited by Nancy Newhall, constitute a counterpoint to Strand's images, designed to historicize the ideological parameters, subjects, and faces of a vernacular New England. This essay examines some of the problems inherent in Strand and Newhall's attempts to record an essentially democratic vision of America through a specific cultural landscape both found and constructed. Partly a postwar response to the trauma of fascism in Europe, Time in New England sought to confirm the intrinsic values of America as a safe haven for democratic principles, a project jeopardized by the increasing harassment of leftist artists that drove Strand out of the US in the same year Time in New England was published.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875815001152
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	English and Comparative Literature
Dates:	Date Event 8 July 2015 Published Online 1 February 2016 Published
Item ID:	14828
Date Deposited:	17 Nov 2015 13:01
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2021 15:34
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/14828

View statistics for this item...

Edit Record (login required)