The culture of soft work[electronic ...
Hicks, Heather J.

 

  • The culture of soft work[electronic resource] :labor, gender, and race in postmodern American narrative /
  • Record Type: Language materials, printed : Monograph/item
    [NT 15000414]: 810.9/355
    Title/Author: The culture of soft work : labor, gender, and race in postmodern American narrative // Heather J. Hicks.
    Author: Hicks, Heather J.
    Published: New York : : Palgrave Macmillan,, 2009.
    Description: xii, 267 p. : : ill. ;; 22 cm.
    Subject: American fiction - History and criticism. - 20th century
    Subject: Work in literature.
    Subject: Management in literature.
    Subject: Industrial relations in literature.
    Subject: Sex role in the work environment.
    Subject: Management - Philosophy.
    Subject: Corporate culture - United States.
    ISBN: 9780230617919
    ISBN: 0230617913
    [NT 15000227]: Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-250) and index.
    [NT 15000228]: Introduction: "Soft is hard" -- "No good to anybody": Player piano, General Electric, and theconsumption of work -- Soft soap, snow jobs, and apartment keys: human relations management in mid-century literature and film -- Automating feminism: self-actualization versus the post-work society in Joanna Russ's The female man -- A cyborg's work is neverdone: programming cyborgs, workaholics, and feminists in Marge Piercy's He, she, and it -- "Sleeping beauty": corporate culture, race, and reality in Michael Crichton's Rising sun and Tom Clancy's Debt of honor -- Hoodoo economics: on management gurus and magical Black men in postmodern American culture.
    [NT 15000229]: American workers over the past half-century have found themselves steeped in management discourses promoting teamwork, synergy, vision, anda host of other concepts meant to inspire an ever deeper commitment towork. The Culture of Soft Work offers an original examination of American writers' responses to these motivational techniques through readings of postmodern novels and a diverse range of other canonical and popular texts. Building on the work of scholars who have investigated the cultural impact of Frederick W. Taylor's management theory, this study isthe first to examine how post-Taylorist management has shaped Americans; subjectivity and their art. Hicks ably demonstrates that while Taylor hardened work by stamping it with the masculine imprimatur of science, subsequent management theorists reconceived work as soft, emphasizingits emotional, spiritual, and irrational aspects ; a transformation that has redefined work as postmodern and retooled the gendered subjectivity ofAmerican workers.
    Online resource: access to fulltext (Palgrave)
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