The Culture of Excess: A Review of George Cotkin's Feast of Excess: A Cultural History of the New Sensibility

George Cotkin's Feast of Excess (2016) argues for the existence of a "New Sensibility" in American culture and arts. Defined by its artistic excess and exaggeration, the New Sensibility, Cotkin argues, is a hybrid of modernism and postmodernism, sharing characteristics of both while also maintaining its own unique style. Feast of Excess traces the evolution of the New Sensibility from its initial emergence in the early 1950s through its becoming a cultural commonplace in the 1970s. In each chapter, Cotkin examines a single artist—ranging from authors and musicians to actors and comedians—and a single year. Ultimately, Feast of Excess argues that the New Sensibility has fundamentally shaped our present-day culture.