Literature of Reconstruction

Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium

Häftad, Engelska, 2017

AvWolfgang Funk

809 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar. Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

Finns i fler format (1)

Inbunden

2 899 kr

Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar

Winner of the 2016 ESSE Junior Scholar Book Award in Literatures in the English LanguageThe Literature of Reconstruction argues for the term and concept of ‘postmillennial reconstruction’ to fill the gap left by the decline of postmodernism and deconstruction as useful cultural and literary categories. Wolfgang Funk shows how this notion emerges from the theoretical and philosophical development that led to the demise of postmodernism by relating it to the idea of ‘authenticity’: immediate experience that eludes direct representation. In addition, he provides a clear formal framework with which to identify and classify the features of ‘reconstructive literature’ by updating the narratological category of ‘metafiction’, originally established in the 1980s. Based on Werner Wolf’s observation of a ‘metareferential turn’ in contemporary arts and media, he illustrates how the specific use of metareference results in a renegotiation of the specific patterns of literary communication and claims that this renegotiation can be profitably described with the concept of ‘reconstruction’.To substantiate this claim, in the second half of the book Funk discusses narrative texts that illustrate this transition from postmodern deconstruction to postmillennial reconstruction. The analyses take in distinguished and prize-winning writers such as Dave Eggers, Julian Barnes, Jennifer Egan and Jasper Fforde. The broad scope of authors, featuring writers from the US as well as the UK, underlines the fact that the reconstructive tendencies and strategies Funk diagnoses are of universal significance for the intellectual and cultural self-image of the global North.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2017-03-23
Mått152 x 229 x 12 mm
Vikt313 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor232
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9781501330728

Tillhör följande kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Litteraturteori inom Skönlitteratur

AcknowledgementsList of Abbreviations1) Postmodernism’s Wake: From Deconstruction to Reconstruction2) “To thine own self be true”: Eight Theses on AuthenticityThesis One: It is impossible to clearly define authenticityThesis Two: The History of Authenticity is a History of LossThesis Three: Authenticity both presupposes and generates a notion of selfThesis Four: Authenticity is both the antithesis to postmodern simulation and the ultimate simulacrum itselfThesis Five: Recent media transformations necessitate a rethinking of authenticityThesis Six: Authenticity is an emergent phenomenonThesis Seven: Authenticity functions as a black box which sublates discursivedichotomiesThesis Eight: Metareference constitutes an appropriate formal approach to authenticity 3) Holding the Mirror up to Fiction: Metareference in ArtThe Truth and Nothing But: Does Realism Still Matter?A Framework for Reconstruction: The Metareferential TurnEssentially Strange Loops: Metareference as Tangled Hierarchy4) From Innocence to Ignorance: Julian Barnes’s England, England5) Reconstructing the Author: Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius6) Reconstructing Literary Influence: Jasper Fforde’s Thursday-Next SeriesRevisitations and Revisions: The Eyre AffairInside Literature: Reconstructing Thursday Next7) Reconstructing Narration: Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad and Julian Barnes’sThe Sense of an EndingNarrative Assemblage: Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon SquadImplicit Narrative: Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending8) RemainderReferencesIndex

The demise of postmodernism might be said to be a long time coming, as scholars in the last few years have begun to characterise a transformation in literary and cultural production since the early 1990s. ... Within this new wave of literary criticism that reflects on a new body of writing, Wolfgang Funk’s The Literature of Reconstruction persuasively argues that recent literary fiction has moved away from the postmodern project through formal innovation.