A collection of literary essays investigating how diverse aspects of metamodernism manifest in 21st century English-language fiction.Magdalena Sawa and Joanna Klara Teske analyze how various theories of metamodernism apply to fiction and how close readings of contemporary fiction encourage readers to critically engage with this cultural phenomena. Beginning with an introduction to the key aspects of metamodernism, this collection examines postmodernism, postcolonialism, and ecology through a metamodernist lens while observing metamodernist attitudes toward human experience, sensibility, and the use of antimimetic narrative strategies. Literary Manifestations of Metamodernism allows for a new appreciation of various aspects of contemporary fiction – such as its thematics (e.g. the real, ecology, ethical concern with social justice and care) and its form (e.g. use of magic realism, complex narrative structure, autofiction)–while reinforcing metamodernism as a promising phenomenon that takes advantage of postmodern heritage while surpassing it to explore the responsibility humans bear for socially-constructed reality.
Magdalena Sawa is Assistant Professor at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.Joanna Klara Teske is Associate Professor at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
Notes on ContributorsPrefaceMetamodernism and Other Construals of Contemporary Fiction: IntroductionMagdalena Sawa and Joanna Klara Teske (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)1. Joseph Knight: Metamodern Historicity and a Grand Narrative of JusticeCatriona Weiser (University of Vienna, Austria)2. Discovering, Recovering and Repairing the Past: Caring as Redemption in Peter Carey’s A Long Way From HomeBarbara Klonowska (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)3. Metamodernist Sensibility Vis-à-Vis the Problem of Evil in Ali Smith’s SpringJoanna Klara Teske (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)4. “How Good It Felt, Doing This Together!”: Metamodern Relationality in George Saunders’s Lincoln in The BardoSara Villamarín-Freire (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain)5. Myth, Ecology and a Metamodern Aesth-Ethical Sensibility in Robbie Arnott’s The Rain HeronSona Šnircová (Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Slovakia)6. Here and Not Now: Ledfeather’s Temporal Virtuality and the Conditions of RealismNathan D. Frank (The Covenant School, USA)7. Sally Rooney’s Heroine: Wavering between Experience and Abstract TheoriesBarbara Puschmann-Nalenz (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany)8. Jasper Fforde’s Metamodernism—Meta-Storying in the Thursday Next SeriesDanica Stojanovic-Schaffrath (University of Graz, Austria)9. (Im)Possible Reparations: Metamodernism, Postcolonialism and Damon Galgut’s The PromiseSofia Kostelac (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)10. Constructing Literary “Metamodernism”: On Telling Silences, Cryptic Periods, and Sock PuppetsMary K. Holland (State University of New York at New Paltz, USA)11. Metamodernism for the MassesSteve Tomasula (University of Notre Dame, USA)Conclusion Magdalena Sawa and Joanna Klara Teske (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)