Lola Boorman in a Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at the University of York

As literary critics, we are in the grip of at-least two major crises: ‘Democracy’ and ‘Close Reading’. But how can supporting one help redeem the other? Bringing them together through a radical reading of the concept of American ‘grammar’, Boorman takes on the imperative task of imagining futures for both.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Make Grammar Do1. Authorised Forms: Gertrude Stein and Harvard Style2. Zora Neale Hurston’s Tone-Deaf Dialects3. A Position at the University: Lydia Davis, Theory and the Everyday4. Politics and the English Language: David Foster Wallace’s StandardsConclusion: Tense PresentNotesBibliographyIndex

Lola Boorman in a Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at the University of York

As literary critics, we are in the grip of at-least two major crises: ‘Democracy’ and ‘Close Reading’. But how can supporting one help redeem the other? Bringing them together through a radical reading of the concept of American ‘grammar’, Boorman takes on the imperative task of imagining futures for both.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Make Grammar Do1. Authorised Forms: Gertrude Stein and Harvard Style2. Zora Neale Hurston’s Tone-Deaf Dialects3. A Position at the University: Lydia Davis, Theory and the Everyday4. Politics and the English Language: David Foster Wallace’s StandardsConclusion: Tense PresentNotesBibliographyIndex