Imitating the Siren: West's "The Day of the Locust" and the Subject of Sound

Blyn features Nathaniel West's The Day of the Locust, which foregrounds the dilemma of the artist as he confronts the emergent culture industry of the 1930s, an industry which, in the form of the Hollywood studio system, is characterized by its capacity to absorb all that enters its domain. Mor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Literature film quarterly 2004-01, Vol.32 (1), p.51-59
Main Author: Blyn, Robin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aesthetics
Business
Cultural industries
Greek mythology
Literary criticism
Literary postmodernism
Motion picture industry
Movies
Narratives
Novels
Sensory perception
Spectacle
West, Nathanael (1903-1940)
Writers
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Blyn features Nathaniel West's The Day of the Locust, which foregrounds the dilemma of the artist as he confronts the emergent culture industry of the 1930s, an industry which, in the form of the Hollywood studio system, is characterized by its capacity to absorb all that enters its domain. Moreover, West's novel offers a particularly explicit case in point to which even as Locust enacts a scathing critique of the Hollywood dream factory, much of its aesthetic remains indebted to the techniques of the Hollywood industry it ostensibly attacks.
ISSN:0090-4260
2573-7597