Blast, corrupt, dismantle, erase : contemporary North American dystopian literature / Brett Josef Grubisic, Gisèle M. Baxter, and Tara Lee, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Baxter, Gisèle Marie, editor.

Grubisic, Brett Josef, editor.

Lee, Tara, 1977- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dystopias in literature.

Utopias in literature.

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Canadian fiction--History and criticism.

Canadian fiction.

Mexican fiction--History and criticism.

Mexican fiction.

North America--In literature.

North America.

Literature and society.

Physical Description:

vi, 480 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Waterloo, Ontario : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, [2014]

Summary:

What do literary dystopias reflect about the times? In Blast, Corrupt, Dismantle, Erase, contributors address this amorphous but pervasive genre using diverse critical methodologies to examine how North America is conveyed or portrayed in a perceived age of crisis, accelerated uncertainty, and political volatility. Drawing from contemporary novels such as Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and the work of Margaret Atwood and William Gibson (to name a few), this book examines dystopian literature produced by North American authors between the signing of NAFTA (1994) and the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (2011). As the texts illustrate, awareness of and deep concern about perceived vulnerabilities-ends of water, oil, food, capitalism, empires, stable climates, ways of life, non-human species, and entire human civilizations-have become central to public discourse over the same period. By asking questions such as "What are the distinctive qualities of post-NAFTA North American dystopian literature?" and "What does this literature reflect about the tensions and contradictions of the inchoate continental community of North America?" Blast, Corrupt, Dismantle, Erase serves to resituate dystopian writing within a particular geo-social setting and introduce a productive means to understand both North American dystopian writing and its relevant engagements with a restricted, mapped reality. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Altered States

The Man in the Klein Blue Suit: Searching for Agency in William Gibson's Bigend Trilogy / Janine Tobeck Tobeck, Janine 29

The Cultural Logic of Post-Capitalism: Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Popular Dystopia / Cart F. Miller Miller, Cart F. 45

Logical Gaps and Capitalism's Seduction in Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl / Shartee Reimer Reimer, Shartee 61

"The Dystopia of the Obsolete": Lisa Robertson's Vancouver and the Poetics of Nostalgia / Paul Stephens Stephens, Paul 73

Post-Frontier and Re-Definition of Space in Tropic of Orange / Hande Tekdemir Tekdemir, Hande 93

Our Posthuman Adolescence: Dystopia, Information Technologies, and the Construction of Subjectivity in M.T. Anderson's Feed / Richard Gooding Gooding, Richard 111

Part II Plastic Subjectivities

Woman Gave Names to All the Animals: Food, Fauna, and Anorexia in Margaret Atwood's Dystopian Fiction / Annette Lapointe Lapointe, Annette 131

The End of Life as We Knew It: Material Nature and the American Family in Susan Beth Pfeffer's Last Survivors Series / Alexa Weik von Mossner Mossner, Alexa Weik von 149

"The Treatment for Stirrings": Dystopian Literature for Adolescents / Joseph Campbell Campbell, Joseph 165

Imagining Black Bodies in the Future / Gregory Hampton Hampton, Gregory 181

Brown Girt in the Ring as Urban Policy / Sharon DeGraw DeGraw, Sharon 193

Part III Spectral Histories

Archive Failure? Cielos de la tierra's Historical Dystopia / Zac Zimmer Zimmer, Zac 219

Love, War, and Mai de Amores: Utopia and Dystopia in the Mexican Revolution / María Odette Canivell Canivell, María Odette 239

Culture of Control/Control of Culture: Anne Legault's Récitsde Médilhault / Lee Skallerup Bessette Bessette, Lee Skallerup 259

The Sublime Simulacrum: Vancouver in Douglas Coupland's Geography of Apocalypse / Robert McGill McGill, Robert 275

Neoliberalism and Dystopia in U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Fiction / Lysa Rivera Rivera, Lysa 291

America AND Books Are "Never Going to Die": Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story as a New York Jewish "Ustopia" / Marleen S. Barr Barr, Marleen S. 311

In Pursuit of an Outside: Art Spiegelman's in the Shadow of No Towers AND the Crisis of the Unrepresentable / Thomas Stubblefield Stubblefield, Thomas 327

Homero Aridjis and Mexico's Eco-Critical Dystopia / Adam Spires Spires, Adam 339

Part IV Emancipating Genres

Lost in Grand Central: Dystopia and Transgression in Neil Gaiman's American Gods / Robert T. Tally Tally, Robert T. 357

Which Way Is Hope? Dystopia into the (Mexican) Borgian Labyrinth / Luis Gómez Romero Romero, Luis Gómez 373

Dystopia Now: Examining the Rach(a)els in Automaton Biographies and Player One / Kit Dobson Dobson, Kit 393

The Romance of the Blazing World: Looking back from CanLit to SF / Owen Percy Percy, Owen 409

"It's not power, it's sex": Jeanette Winterson's The PawerBdok and Nicole Brossard's Baroque at Dawn / Helene Staveley Staveley, Helene 427

Another Novel Is Possible: Muckraking IN Chris Bachelder's U.S.! and Robert Newman's The Fountain at the Center of the World / Lee Konstantinou Konstantinou, Lee 453.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Blast, corrupt, dismantle, erase.

ISBN:

9781554589890

1554589894

OCLC:

870916745