The real, the true, and the told : postmodern historical narrative and the ethics of representation / Eric L. Berlatsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berlatsky, Eric L., 1972-

Series:

Theory and interpretation of narrative series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spiegelman, Art.

Rushdie, Salman.

Swift, Graham, 1949-.

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941.

Historical fiction--History and criticism.

Historical fiction.

Postmodernism (Literature).

History--Philosophy.

History.

Historiography.

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941--Criticism and interpretation.

Woolf, Virginia.

Swift, Graham, 1949---Criticism and interpretation.

Swift, Graham.

Rushdie, Salman--Criticism and interpretation.

Spiegelman, Art--Criticism and interpretation.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xi, 250 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, [2011]

Summary:

Beginning with a scene of alternate possibilities in Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Berlatsky (English, Florida Atlantic U.) proceeds to examine definitions of postmodernism and identify texts like Kundera's as serving an ethical purpose in framing discourses once regarded as referential and objective. Still, the problem remains of the postmodern denial of objective representations of history and therefore, ethical responses to them. From readings of texts spanning Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts (1940) to Yann Martel's The Life of Pi (2001 ), he concludes that postmodern narratives are more dependent on concepts of history, reality and truth than generally acknowledged. Other authors discussed include Graham Swift, Salman Rushdie, and Art Spiegelman. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

"Memory as forgetting": historical reference, ethics, and postmodernist fiction

The pageantry of the past and the reflection of the present: history, reality, and feminism in Virginia Woolf's Between the acts

"A knife blade called now": historiography, narrativity, and the "here and now" in Graham Swift's Waterland

"What's real and what's true": metaphors, errata, and the shadow of the real in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's children

"It's enough stories": truth and experience in Art Spiegelman's Maus

Expanding the field.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780814211533

0814211534

9780814292549

0814292542

OCLC:

656248592