The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few : Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse

The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few : Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse / Sophie Spieler

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How does the US make sense of its elite educational system, given that it seems to be at odds with core American values, such as equality of opportunity or upward mobility? Sophie Spieler explores scholarly and journalistic investigations, self-representational texts, and fictional narratives revolv...

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Freie Universität Berlin
VerfasserIn:
Spieler, Sophie
:
Freie Universität Berlin
Year of Publication:2021
Edition:1st ed.
Language:English
Series:American Culture Studies
Physical Description:1 online resource (276 p.)
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(transcript Verlag)9783839457290
(MiAaPQ)EBC6956328
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spelling 1\u Spieler, Sophie Freie Universität Berlin, Deutschland aut
The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse Sophie Spieler
1st ed.
Bielefeld transcript Verlag 2021
1 online resource (276 p.)
text txt rdacontent
computer c rdamedia
online resource cr rdacarrier
American Culture Studies 33
This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy
In English.
funded by Freie Universität Berlin
Frontmatter 1 Contents 5 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 1. Introductory Remarks 21 2. Starting Points: Eliteness and Education in American Culture 21 3. 'Very Important, Very Powerful, or Very Prominent': Eliteness in America 29 4. 'Excellence and Equity': Merit as the Price of Admission 50 5. 'A Touchy Subject'? Class and Elite Education 58 6. Concluding Remarks 67 1. Introductory Remarks 69 2. Mapping the Critical Landscape 73 3. Progressivist Critiques 83 4. Conservative Critiques 95 5. Concluding Remarks 110 1. Introductory Remarks 113 2. Elite College Admissions: A Discourse of Impossibility and Pathology 118 3. A Meritocracy of Affect 123 4. Epistemological Frames: Diversity, the Good Life, Community 135 5. Concluding Remarks 170 1. Introductory Remarks 175 2. Exposition: Fiction in the Discourse of Elite Education 178 3. Prep in the Discourse: Publicity, 'Preppiness', and the Neoliberal Imagination 186 4. Diversity, Class, Mobility: Prep's Cultural Work 211 5. Concluding Remarks 242 Conclusion 249 Works Cited 257
How does the US make sense of its elite educational system, given that it seems to be at odds with core American values, such as equality of opportunity or upward mobility? Sophie Spieler explores scholarly and journalistic investigations, self-representational texts, and fictional narratives revolving around the Ivy League and its peers in order to understand elite education and its peculiar position in American cultural discourse. Among the book's most surprising and groundbreaking insights is the tenacity and adaptability of meritocratic ideology across all three sub-discourses, despite its fundamental incompatibility with the American educational system.
1\u Sophie Spieler studied American Studies, German, and English at the Universities of Greifswald, Dresden, and, as a Fulbright Scholar, at Fairfield University (CT, USA). She received her PhD from the Graduate School of the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She has published on class, capital, and education as well as masculinity studies, Edith Wharton, and post-feminism.
Doctoral Thesis Freie Universität Berlin 2017
Social Stratification; Distinction; Meritocracy; Campus Novels; Capital; Princeton; Elite Education; Class; Discourse Analysis; Neoliberalism; Ivy League; Curtis Sittenfeld; Literature; Education; America; American Studies; Cultural Studies; Cultural Theory; Literary Studies;
America.
American Studies.
Campus Novels.
Capital.
Class.
Cultural Studies.
Cultural Theory.
Curtis Sittenfeld.
Discourse Analysis.
Distinction.
Education.
Elite Education.
Ivy League.
Literary Studies.
Literature.
Meritocracy.
Neoliberalism.
Princeton.
3-8376-5729-9
Freie Universität Berlin funder. fnd http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/fnd
American Culture Studies
language English
format Thesis
eBook
author Spieler, Sophie
spellingShingle Spieler, Sophie
The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse
American Culture Studies
Frontmatter 1 Contents 5 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 1. Introductory Remarks 21 2. Starting Points: Eliteness and Education in American Culture 21 3. 'Very Important, Very Powerful, or Very Prominent': Eliteness in America 29 4. 'Excellence and Equity': Merit as the Price of Admission 50 5. 'A Touchy Subject'? Class and Elite Education 58 6. Concluding Remarks 67 1. Introductory Remarks 69 2. Mapping the Critical Landscape 73 3. Progressivist Critiques 83 4. Conservative Critiques 95 5. Concluding Remarks 110 1. Introductory Remarks 113 2. Elite College Admissions: A Discourse of Impossibility and Pathology 118 3. A Meritocracy of Affect 123 4. Epistemological Frames: Diversity, the Good Life, Community 135 5. Concluding Remarks 170 1. Introductory Remarks 175 2. Exposition: Fiction in the Discourse of Elite Education 178 3. Prep in the Discourse: Publicity, 'Preppiness', and the Neoliberal Imagination 186 4. Diversity, Class, Mobility: Prep's Cultural Work 211 5. Concluding Remarks 242 Conclusion 249 Works Cited 257
author_facet Spieler, Sophie
Freie Universität Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin
author_variant s s ss
author_role VerfasserIn
author2 Freie Universität Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin
author2_role Funder
author_corporate Freie Universität Berlin
author_corporate_role Funder
author_sort Spieler, Sophie
title The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse
title_sub Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse
title_full The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse Sophie Spieler
title_fullStr The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse Sophie Spieler
title_full_unstemmed The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse Sophie Spieler
title_auth The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few Elite Education in Contemporary American Discourse
title_new The Wealthy, the Brilliant, the Few
title_sort the wealthy, the brilliant, the few elite education in contemporary american discourse
series American Culture Studies
series2 American Culture Studies
publisher transcript Verlag
publishDate 2021
physical 1 online resource (276 p.)
edition 1st ed.
contents Frontmatter 1 Contents 5 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 1. Introductory Remarks 21 2. Starting Points: Eliteness and Education in American Culture 21 3. 'Very Important, Very Powerful, or Very Prominent': Eliteness in America 29 4. 'Excellence and Equity': Merit as the Price of Admission 50 5. 'A Touchy Subject'? Class and Elite Education 58 6. Concluding Remarks 67 1. Introductory Remarks 69 2. Mapping the Critical Landscape 73 3. Progressivist Critiques 83 4. Conservative Critiques 95 5. Concluding Remarks 110 1. Introductory Remarks 113 2. Elite College Admissions: A Discourse of Impossibility and Pathology 118 3. A Meritocracy of Affect 123 4. Epistemological Frames: Diversity, the Good Life, Community 135 5. Concluding Remarks 170 1. Introductory Remarks 175 2. Exposition: Fiction in the Discourse of Elite Education 178 3. Prep in the Discourse: Publicity, 'Preppiness', and the Neoliberal Imagination 186 4. Diversity, Class, Mobility: Prep's Cultural Work 211 5. Concluding Remarks 242 Conclusion 249 Works Cited 257
isbn 3-8394-5729-7
3-8376-5729-9
illustrated Not Illustrated
dewey-hundreds 900 - History & geography
dewey-tens 970 - History of North America
dewey-ones 970 - History of North America
dewey-full 970.980
dewey-sort 3970.980
dewey-raw 970.980
dewey-search 970.980
oclc_num 1262308082
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