Consumerism and the Crisis of Meaning in Late Twentieth Century American Fiction

Abstract Late twentieth-century American fiction examines the contradictions of prosperity-seeking individuals and existential despair stemming from the post-World War II economic boom and the growth of corporate America and mass media. These narratives capture the erosion of morals and the loss of historical presence in a society of consumers and increased economic anxiety. This paper seeks to understand the ways in which American fiction constructs consumerism through the prism of cultural practice and cultural ideology and the consequences this constructs for memory and social relations. Using integrated Marxist and New Historicist theory, the research examines the cultural production of alienation, commodification, and the loss of history in late capitalist society and the meaning this loss produces. The research employs qualitative methodological frameworks of close reading and historical contextualization to excavate the ideological functions of narrative. This analysis reveals that consumerism is a cultural hegemonic ideology that replaces ethic community rationality with market rationality and consequently produces a meaning crisis in society. American fiction of the late twentieth century is a cultural archive that portrays the effects of cultural capitalism on the economic relations, emotional relations, and historical relations of individuals. Keywords: Consumerism, Marxism, New Historicism, American Fiction, Capitalism, Ideology