<div><P>The 19th century witnessed an explosion of writing about  unproductivity, with the exploits of various idlers, loafers, and  &#8220;gentlemen of refinement&#8221; capturing the imagination o fa country that  was deeply ambivalent about its work ethic. Idle Threats  documents this American obsession with unproductivity and its  potentials, while offering an explanation of the profound significance  of idle practices for literary and cultural production.<br><br><br>While this fascination with unproductivity memorably  defined literary characters from Rip Van Winkle to Bartleby to George  Hurstwood, it also reverberated deeply through the entire culture, both  as a seductive ideal and as a potentially corrosive threat to upright,  industrious American men. Drawing on an impressive array of archival  material and multifaceted literary and cultural sources, Idle Threats  connects the question of unproductivity to other discourses concerning  manhood, the value of art, the allure of the frontier, the usefulness of  knowledge,the meaning of individuality, and the experience of time,  space, and history. Andrew Lyndon Knighton offers a new way of thinking  about the largely unacknowledged &#8220;productivity of the unproductive,&#8221;  revealing the incalculable and sometimes surprising ways in which  American modernity transformed the relationship between subjects and  that which is most intimate to them: their own activity.</P></div>

Andrew Lyndon Knighton
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Books By Andrew Lyndon Knighton (1 Book)

Idle Threats

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