States of Exception in the Contemporary Novel
Regular price
€132.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Arne De Boever
Author_Arne De Boever
Category=DSBJ
Category=DSK
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781441125972
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 08 Mar 2012
- Publisher: Continuum Publishing Corporation
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, the political situation in both the United States and abroad has often been described as a "state of exception": an emergency situation in which the normal rule of law is suspended. In such a situation, the need for good decisions is felt ever more strongly. This book investigates the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of various decisions represented in novels published around 9/11: Martel's Life of Pi, Eugenides' Middlesex, Coetzee's Disgrace, and Sebald's Austerlitz. De Boever's readings of the novels revolve around what he calls the aesthetic decision.' Which aesthetics do the characters and narrators in the novels adopt in a situation of crisis? How do these aesthetic decisions relate to the ethical and political decisions represented in the novels? What can they reveal about real-life ethical and political decisions? This book uncovers the politics of allegory, autobiography, focalization, and montage in today's planetary state of exception.
Arne De Boever (Ph.D. Columbia University) is Assistant Professor of American Studies in the School of Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts, USA. He has published journal articles and book chapters on literature, film, and critical theory and is one of the editors of Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy.
