Narrative Desire and Historical Reparations
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€192.20
A01=Timothy Gauthier
Author_Timothy Gauthier
black
Black Dogs
Byatt's Possession
Byatt’s Possession
Call Attention
Category=DSBH
Category=DSK
contemporary British fiction
Contemporary British Writing
dogs
Elias's Emphasis
Elias’s Emphasis
Ellen Ash
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
ethical literary criticism
gandhi
Graham Swift
Graham Swift's Waterland
Graham Swift’s Waterland
historical memory studies
Historical Sublime
historiographic
Historiographic Metafiction
Historiographic Projects
indira
INDIRA GANDHI
June's Story
June’s Story
McEwan's Text
McEwan’s Text
metafiction
Metahistorical Romance
Midnight's Children
Midnight’s Children
Modern Day Scholars
Narrative Desire
narrative ethics in postwar novels
Nehru's Dream
Nehru’s Dream
Neo Victorian Fiction
neo-Victorian literature
postmodern narrative theory
Rushdie's Midnight's Children
Rushdie's Text
Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children
Rushdie’s Text
saleem
Saleem's Narrative
saleems
Saleem’s Narrative
Salman Rushdie
sinai
trauma and anxiety in literature
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9780415975414
- Weight: 430g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 17 Oct 2005
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book examines and explains the obsession with history in the contemporary British novel. It frames these historical novels as expressions of narrative desire, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between a desire to disclose and to rid ourselves of anxieties elicited by the past. Scrutinizing representative novels from Byatt, McEwan and Rushdie, contemporary fiction is revealed as capable of advocating a viable ethical stance and as a form of authentic commentary. Our anxieties often exist in response to what might be perceived as the oppression or eradication of values, whether this is through the modern repudiation of Victorian principles (Byatt), the Western rethinking of Enlightenment narratives in light of the Holocaust (McEwan), or pluralism threatened by religious fundamentalism (Rushdie). Each of these novelists differentially employs postmodern artifice, sometimes as a way to reject the notion of historical construction, sometimes to advocate for it, but always to bring us closer to what the author believes are significant values and truths, rather than relativism. The representative qualities of these novels serve to highlight themes, concerns, and anxieties present in many of the works of each author and by extension those of their contemporaries.
Timothy S. Guathier is Assistant Professor in Residence in University College, a college offering an interdisciplinary degree, at UNLV. His primary are of interest is contemporary fiction, specializing in English and Irish literature. Presently he is working on a study of closure in the contemporary novel.
