Jonathan Lethem [electronic resource] / James Peacock.

Jonathan Lethem [electronic resource] / James Peacock.

9780719082672
0719082676
9781847794659 (electronic book)

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, 2012.

English

ix, 185 p.

PS3562.E8544 A75 2012

813.54

"Examining all of Lethem's novels, as well as a number of his short fictions, essays and critical works, this study shows how the author's prolific output, his restlessness and his desire always to be subverting literary forms and genres, are consistent with his interest in subcultural identities. The human need to break off into small groupings, subcultures or miniature utopias is mirrored in the critical tendency to enforce generic boundaries. To break down the boundaries between genres, then, is partly to make a nonsense of critical distinctions between 'high' and 'low' literature, and partly to reflect the wider need to recognise difference, to appreciate that other people, no matter how outlandish and alien they may appear, share similar desires, experiences and problems. With this in mind, James Peacock argues that Lethem's experiments with genre are not merely games or elaborate literary jokes, but ethical necessities, particularly when viewed in the light of the losses and traumas that shadow all of his writing. Jonathan Lethem, therefore, makes an important contribution not just to Lethem studies, but also to debates about genre and its position in postmodern or 'post-postmodern' literature."--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-181) and index.

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Contemporary American and Canadian writers

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