Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel: A Reader / Edition 1

by Bran Nicol

Overview

Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel: A Reader is the first book to collect together the most important contributions to the theory of the postmodern novel over the last forty years and to guide readers through the complex questions and wide-ranging debates: what are its characteristics? Which novels and authors belong to the category? Does it even deserve to be a category on its own? From which traditions does it emerge? How does it relate to previous forms of the novel and to other aspects of postmodern culture? While discussion of the contemporary novel has been dominated by the question of postmodernism, developments in contemporary fiction are also central to the wider debate about postmodernism. Fiction is referred to frequently in the work of postmodernist thinkers not explicitly concerned with literature, like Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Haraway. The selections in this book will also enable readers to place the theory of postmodern fiction in a broader intellectual and cultural context. * Analyses postmodern fiction from both thematic and formal perspectives, giving in-depth coverage to key features and issues such as metafiction, the relation to modernism, history, and politics* Features work by some of the most important theorists and critics of the last few decades, such as Ihab Hassan, Jean Baudrillard, Linda Hutcheon, and Brian McHale* Provides a sense of historical, social and cultural context to the debate about postmodernism in fiction* Gives ample coverage to some of the most compelling issues raised in relation to postmodern fiction in recent years, such as science and new technologies, the cyborg, 'race' and gender

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748614790
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2002
Series:	Literary Studies (Edinburgh Paperback)
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.77(w) x 9.61(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bran Nicol is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth. His publications include books on Iris Murdoch and D. M. Thomas, and articles on psychoanalytic and cultural theory.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What We Talk About When We Talk About Postmodernism; 1: The Postmodern Condition; MAPPING POSTMODERNISM; 1. Fredric Jameson, 'The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism' (1991); 2. David Harvey, 'Time-space Compression and the Postmodern Condition' (1989); 3. Andreas Huyssen, 'Mapping the Postmodern' (1986); NARRATIVE, KNOWLEDGE, REPRESENTATION; 4. Jean-François Lyotard, from The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979); 5. Jean Baudrillard, 'The Precession of Simulacra' (1981); IRONY AND 'DOUBLE-CODING'; 6. Umberto Eco, 'Postmodernism, Irony, The Enjoyable' (1985); 7. Charles Jencks, Post-Modernism Defined' (1986); DIAGNOSING POSTMODERNISM; 8. Slavoj Žižek 'You May!' (1998); 2: The Postmodern Turn; 9. John Barth, 'The Literature of Exhaustion' (1967); 10. Irving Howe, 'Mass Society and post-modern fiction' (1959); 11. Susan Sontag, 'One Culture and the New Sensibility' (1965); 12. Leslie Fiedler, 'Cross the Border - Close the Gap' (1969); 13. William Spanos, 'The Detective and the Boundary: Some Notes on the Postmodern Literary Imagination' (1972); 14. Ihab Hassan, 'POSTmodernISM: A Paracritical Bibliography' (1971); 15. Gerald Graff, 'The Myth of the Postmodernist Breakthrough' (1973); 3: Postmodern Poetics; THE NOVEL FORM; 16. Roland Barthes, from S/Z (1970); 17. Mikhail Bakhtin, from 'Dialogue and the Novel' (1981); 18. Patricia Waugh, from Metafiction (1984); TOWARDS A POETICS OF POSTMODERN FICTION; 19. David Lodge, 'Postmodernist Fiction' (1977); 20. Brian McHale, 'Change of Dominant' (1986); 21. Linda Hutcheon, from A Poetics of Postmodernism (1988); POSTMODERN GENRE; 22. Stephano Tani, from The Doomed Detective (1984); 4: Postmodern Politics; POLITICS AND FICTIONALITY; 23. Linda Hutcheon, from The Politics of Postmodernism (1989); 24. Thomas Docherty, 'The Ethics of Alterity' (1988); 25. Paul Maltby, from Dissident Postmodernists (1991); FEMINISM AND POSTMODERNISM; 26. Meaghan Morris, 'Feminism, Reading, Postmodernism' (1993); 27. Donna Haraway, 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s' (1985); IS THE 'POST' IN POSTCOLONIAL THE SAME AS THE 'POST' IN POSTMODERN?; 28. bell hooks, 'Postmodern Blackness' (1993); 29. Kwame Anthony Appiah, 'The Postcolonial and the Postmodern' (1992); TECHNOLOGY AND PARANOIA; 30. Veronica Hollinger, 'Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism' (1990); 31. Patrick O'Donnell, 'Engendering Paranoia in Contemporary Narrative', (1992); Works Cited.