The Bloomsbury Introduction to Postmodern Realist Fiction: Resisting Master Narratives

Description

Postmodernist realism is a body of fiction that uses realism-disrupting literary techniques to make interventions into the real social conditions of our time. It seeks to capture the complex, fragmented nature of contemporary experience while addressing crucial issues like income inequality, immigration, the climate crisis, terrorism, ever-changing technologies, shifting racial, sex and gender roles, and the rise of new forms of authoritarianism. A lucid, comprehensive introduction to the genre as well as to a wide variety of voices, this book discusses more than 50 writers from a diverse range of backgrounds and over several decades with special attention to 21st century novels. Writers covered include: Sherman Alexie, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, J.G. Ballard, Octavia Butler, Angela Carter, Don DeLillo, Junot Diaz, Dave Eggers, Bret Easton Ellis, Louise Erdrich, John Fowles, Jonathan Franzen, William Gibson, Alan Hollinghurst, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ursula Le Guin, David Lodge, Ian McEwan, China Mieville, David Mitchell, Alan Moore, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Michael Ondaatje, Richard Powers, Thomas Pynchon, Salman Rushdie, Leslie Marmon Silko, Zadie Smith, Art Spiegelman, Kurt Vonnegut, David Foster Wallace, and Jeannette Winterson. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents Acknowledgments A Note on Usage Chapter 1: Introduction Terminal Confusion Postmodernist Realism Is Postmodernism a Zombie? How to Use This Book Chapter 2: Postmodern Conditions and Postmodernist Styles Postmodern Economic, Political, and Social Conditions Postmodernist Aesthetic Approaches, Styles, and Techniques Chapter 3: Identities: Mysteries of the Self Deconstructing the Self: Kathy Acker’s Don Quixote (1986) Detecting the Self: Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn (1999) Hybrid Selves: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) The Abstract Self: Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (2003) The Terrorized Self: Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) Self as Community: Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters (1980) The Selfless Self: Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being (2013) Chapter 4: Bodies: Reflective Surfaces and Fluid Borders Scripted Sex: Jeannette Winterson’s Writing the Body (1993) Beauty and the Beastly Gaze: Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides (1993) Winged Delights: Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984) Life Is a Freakshow: Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love (1989) The Cyborg Body: Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl (1995) Oedipus Trans*: Daisy Johnson’s Everything Under (2017) Body as Multitude: Akwaeki Emezi’s Freshwater (2018) Chapter 5: Postmodern Families: Reimagining Kinship Consuming Families: Don DeLillo’s White Noise (1985) Family as Talk-Story: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1976) Postmodern Matriarchy: Ana Castillo’s So Far from God (1993) Family Curses and Geek Masculinity: Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008) Kinship and Lost Time: Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad (2010) Indigenous Gothic, Sasquatch, and Community as Family: Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach (2000) Chapter 6: (meta)Histories: The Past as Present Chained to History: Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) Of Butterflies and Dictators: Julia Alverez’s In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) Unstuck in Time: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (1969) Neo-Hoodoo History: Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo (1972) Challenging Dead-eye Dog: Leslie Silko’s Almanac of the Dead (1999) Chapter 7: Novels Rewriting Novels Decolonizing the Literary Past: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) Globalizing the Past: Bharati Mukherjee’s The Holder of the World (1993) Sacred Revisions: Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988) Re-envisioning the Postmodern University: A. S. Byatt’s Possession (1990) Dark Hearts: Jessica Hagedorn’s Dream Jungle (2003) Reds, Whites, and Reservation Blues: Sherman Alexie’s Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993) Chapter 8: True Lies: Nonfiction Novels and Autofictions Empire’s Tracks: Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men (1980) History as a Novel, the Novel as History: Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night (1968) Historical Sideshow: Brian Fawcett’s Cambodia: A Book for People Who Find Television Too Slow (1986) Graphic Trauma: Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986) Crude Awakenings: Olivia Laing’s Crudo (2018) Chapter 9: Displacements: Exiles, Diasporas, and Returns Foreigners in Their Own Land: Tommy Orange’s There There (2018) Migrant Doors of Reception: Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017) An Epidemic of Displacements: Rabih Alamenddine’s Koolaids: The Art of War (1998) Exiled to Home: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) Chapter 10: Futures? Digital Dangers and Climate Crises Multi-mediated Horror: Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000) Decoding Capitalism: Scarlett Thomas’s PopCo (2014) Engendering the Future: Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019) Afrojujuism: Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon (2014) Postcolonial Outer Space: Rosario Sanchez and Beatrice Pita’s Lunar Braceros (2009) Surveillance States, Biotech, and Climate Crises: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy (2003, 2009, 2013) Notes Bibliography Index