|
Hysterical Realism
Hysterical realism is a term coined in 2000 by English critic James Wood to describe what he sees as a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one hand, and careful, detailed investigations of real, specific social phenomena on the other. It is also known as recherché postmodernism. History Wood introduced the term in an essay on Zadie Smith's ''White Teeth'', which appeared in the July 24, 2000, issue of ''The New Republic''. Wood uses the term pejoratively to denote the contemporary conception of the "big, ambitious novel" that pursues "vitality at all costs" and consequently "knows a thousand things but does not know a single human being." He decried the genre as an attempt to "turn fiction into social theory," and an attempt to tell readers "how the world works rather than how somebody felt about something." Wood points to Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon as the forefathers of the genre, which continu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
James Wood (critic)
James Douglas Graham Wood (born 1 November 1965) is an English literary critic, essayist and novelist. Wood was ''The Guardian''s chief literary critic between 1992 and 1995. He was a senior editor at '' The New Republic'' between 1995 and 2007. , he is Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University and a staff writer at '' The New Yorker''. Early life and education James Wood was born in Durham, England, to Dennis William Wood (born 1928), a Dagenham-born minister and professor of zoology at Durham University, and Sheila Graham Wood, née Lillia, a schoolteacher from Scotland. Wood was raised in Durham in an evangelical wing of the Church of England, an environment he describes as austere and serious. He was educated at Durham Chorister School (on a music scholarship) and at Eton College (with the support of a bursary based on his parents' "demonstrated financial need"; his older brother attended Eton as a King's Scholar). He read English Litera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Gravity's Rainbow
''Gravity's Rainbow'' is a 1973 novel by the American writer Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In particular, it features the quest undertaken by several characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device, the ("black device"), which is slated to be installed in a rocket with the serial number "00000". Traversing a wide range of knowledge, ''Gravity's Rainbow'' crosses boundaries between high and low culture, between literary propriety and profanity, and between science and speculative metaphysics. It shared the 1974 US National Book Award for Fiction with ''A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories'' by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Although selected by the Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction for the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Pulitzer Advisory Board was offended by its content, some of which was described as 'unreadable', 'turgid', 'overwr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Literary Theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, moral philosophy, social philosophy, and interdisciplinary themes relevant to how people interpret meaning. In the humanities in modern academia, the latter style of literary scholarship is an offshoot of post-structuralism. Searle, John. (1990)"The Storm Over the University" ''The New York Review of Books'', December 6, 1990. Consequently, the word ''theory'' became an umbrella term for scholarly approaches to reading texts, some of which are informed by strands of semiotics, cultural studies, philosophy of language, and continental philosophy, often witnessed within Western canon along with some postmodernist theory. History The practice of literary theory became a profession in the 20th century, but it has historical roots that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Literary Realism
Literary realism is a movement and genre of literature that attempts to represent mundane and ordinary subject-matter in a faithful and straightforward way, avoiding grandiose or exotic subject-matter, exaggerated portrayals, and speculative elements such as supernatural events and alternative worlds. It encompasses both fiction (''realistic fiction'') and nonfiction writing. Literary realism is a subset of the broader realist art movement that began with mid- nineteenth-century French literature ( Stendhal) and Russian literature (Alexander Pushkin). It attempts to represent familiar things, including everyday activities and experiences, as they truly are. Background Broadly defined as "the representation of reality", realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, as well as implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Genre Studies
Genre studies is an academic subject which studies genre theory as a branch of general critical theory in several different fields, including art, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition studies. Literary genre studies is a Structuralism#Structuralism in literary theory and literary criticism, structuralist approach to the study of genre and genre theory in literary theory, film theory, and other cultural theory, cultural theories. The study of a genre in this way examines the structural elements that combine in the narratology, telling of a story and finds patterns in collections of stories. When these elements (or Code (semiotics), semiotic codes) begin to carry inherent information, a genre emerges. Linguistic genre studies can be roughly divided into two schools, Systemic Functional Linguistics or "SFL", and English for Specific Purposes or "ESP." Systemic functional linguistics, SFL scholars believe that language structure is an integral part of a text's social con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
American Realism
American realism was a movement in art, music and literature that depicted contemporary social realities and the lives and everyday activities of ordinary people. The movement began in literature in the mid-19th century, and became an important tendency in visual art in the early 20th century. Whether a cultural portrayal or a scenic view of downtown New York City, American realist works attempted to define what was real. In the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century a new generation of painters, writers and journalists were coming of age. Many of the painters felt the influence of older U.S. artists such as Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, J. Alden Weir, Thomas Pollock Anshutz, and William Merritt Chase. However they were interested in creating new and more urbane works that reflected city life and a population that was more urban than rural in the U.S. as it entered the new century. America in the earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine
In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base , from Proto-Indo-European (second-person plural pronoun). Old English had singular, dual, and plural second-person pronouns. The dual form was lost by the twelfth century, and the singular form was lost by the early 1600s. The development is shown in the following table. Early Modern English distinguished between the plural ' and the singular '. As in many other European languages, English at the time had a T–V distinction, which made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors. This distinction ultimately led to familiar ''thou'' becoming obsolete in modern English, although it persists in some English dialects. ''Yourself'' had de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Middlesex (novel)
''Middlesex'' is a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002. The book is a bestseller, with more than four million copies sold since its publication. Its characters and events are loosely based on aspects of Eugenides' life and observations of his Greek heritage. It is not an autobiography; unlike the protagonist, Eugenides is not intersex. The author decided to write ''Middlesex'' after reading the 1980 memoir ''Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-century French Hermaphrodite, Herculine Barbin'' and finding himself dissatisfied with its discussion of intersex anatomy and emotions. Primarily a coming-of-age story (''Bildungsroman'') and family saga, the 21st-century gender novel chronicles the effect of a mutated gene on three generations of a Greek family, causing momentous changes in the protagonist's life. According to scholars, the novel's main themes are nature versus nurture, rebirth, and the differi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Corrections
''The Corrections'' is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to "one last Christmas" together near the turn of the millennium. The novel was awarded the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002. The novel received widespread critical acclaim and was listed as one of the greatest novels of the 21st century by publications such as ''Time'' magazine and ''The New York Times''. Plot summary ''The Corrections'' revolves around the dysfunctional Lambert family and their efforts to reconcile as they face personal crises and deep-rooted emotional struggles. The novel alternates between the perspectives of different family members throughout the late twentieth century, illuminating their individual lives and histories. Alfred Lambert, the patriarch, is a retired railroad engineer who has Parkinsonâ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Las PelÃculas De Mi Vida
''Las pelÃculas de mi vida'' (translated as ''The Movies of My Life: A Novel'') is a 2002 semi-autobiographical novel by Chilean writer Alberto Fuguet. Plot summary The protagonist of the novel recounts his life story, which oscillates between Chile and California. He begins by describing his early years spent in California and uses the movies he watched during that time to paint a picture of his life. However, he is forced to abruptly return to Chile during his early teens, where he must now live under the regime of Augusto Pinochet, which proves to be a major cultural shock Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration ... for him. External linksPop Matters review [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Alberto Fuguet
Alberto Felipe Fuguet de Goyeneche (; born 7 March 1963) is a Chilean author, journalist, film critic and film director who rose to critical prominence in the 1990s as part of the movement known as the New Chilean Narrative. Although he was born in Santiago, he spent his first 13 years of life in Encino, California. He was among the fifty Latin American leaders selected by ''Time'' magazine and CNN in 1999, and he appeared on the front page of ''Newsweek'' magazine in 2002. Biography Fuguet was born in Santiago, Chile, but his family moved to Encino, California, where he lived until age 13. He is a graduate of the University of Chile's School of Journalism. In 1999 ''Time'' called Fuguet one of the 50 most important Latin Americans for the next millennium. In 2003, he was featured on the cover of the international edition of ''Newsweek'' magazine to represent a new generation of writers. Fuguet currently heads the program in contemporary audiovisual culture at the Univer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius
''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'' is a memoir by American author Dave Eggers. Published in 2000, the book chronicles Eggers' experiences following the sudden death of both his parents and his subsequent responsibility for raising his younger brother, Christopher "Toph" Eggers. The memoir, noted for its postmodern style and self-referential prose, was a commercial and critical success, becoming a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and hitting number one on ''The New York Times'' bestseller list. Plot summary The memoir begins with the deaths of Eggers' parents from cancer within five weeks of each other. This traumatic event leaves Eggers, then in his early twenties, as the primary caregiver for his eight-year-old brother, Toph. The two brothers move from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Eggers tries to balance his responsibilities as a young parent with his desire to pursue creative ambitions, including starting the satirical magazine '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
