Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-233) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: From Manchuria to Manchuria, Inc. -- California dreaming : twentieth-century corporate fictions at the end of the frontier -- "Domo arigato, Mr. Sakamoto, for the new non-union contract!" : (multi)national threats and the decline of the American auto industry in Ron Howard's Gung ho -- Good times, bad times ... you know I had my share(s) : the corporation in five popular films -- A capital death : medicine, technology, and the care of the self in Don Delillo's White noise -- Family incorporated : William Gaddis's J R and the embodiment of capitalism -- Your loss is their gain : the corporate body and the corporeal body in Richard Powers's Gain -- Conclusion: Corporate hegemony, cubed.
Summary:
"Worries over global economics aside, even representations of "American" corporations demonstrate that America's preoccupation with the virtues and vices of capitalism has been ongoing and, moreover, responsive to its particular historical context. For all their power, influence, and pervasiveness, however, corporations also make themselves into visible, material, and substantial targets for an ever-changing system driven by unseen and immaterial capital. And while the corporate imagination is bent upon finding new ways to accumulate capital and convince consumers to purchase more and more, our own imaginations are not so easily bound so long as they remain focused on conceiving of other possible lives and other possible worlds to this one, and, in the end, fostering the common commitment and the willingness to bring them about"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.