Title
The Cambridge introduction to postmodern fiction / Bran Nicol.
ISBN
9780521679572 (pbk.)
0521679575 (pbk.)
9780521861571
0521861578
Publication Details
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Language
English
Description
xvii, 220 p. ; 23 cm.
Call Number
PN3503 .N48 2009
Dewey Decimal Classification
809.3/9113
Summary
"Postmodern fiction presents a challenge to the reader: instead of enjoying it passively, the reader has to work to understand its meanings, to think about what fiction is, and to question their own responses. Yet this very challenge makes postmodern writing so much fun to read and rewarding to study. Unlike most introductions to postmodernism and fiction, this book places the emphasis on literature rather than theory. It introduces the most prominent British and American novelists associated with postmodernism, from the 'pioneers', Beckett, Borges and Burroughs, to important post-war writers such as Pynchon, Carter, Atwood, Morrison, Gibson, Auster, DeLillo, and Ellis. Designed for students and clearly written, this Introduction explains the preoccupations, styles and techniques that unite postmodern authors. Their work is characterized by a self-reflexive acknowledgement of its status as fiction, and by the various ways in which it challenges readers to question common-sense and commonplace assumptions about literature"--Provided by publisher.
"Designed for students and clearly written, this Introduction explains the preoccupations, styles and techniques that unite postmodern authors. Their work is characterized by a self-reflexive acknowledgement of its status as fiction, and by the various ways in which it challenges readers to question commonsense and commonplace assumptions about literature"--Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Series
Cambridge introductions to literature.
Preface: reading postmodern fiction
Introduction: postmodernism and postmodernity
Postmodern fiction: theory and practice
Early postmodern fiction: Beckett, Borges, and Burroughs
US metafiction: Coover, Barth, Nabokov, Vonnegut, Pynchon
The postmodern historical novel: Fowles, Barnes, Swift
Postmodern-postcolonial fiction
Postmodern fiction by women: Carter, Atwood, Acker
Two postmodern genres: cyberpunk and 'metaphysical' detective fiction
Fiction of the 'postmodern condition': Ballard, DeLillo, Ellis.
