The otherworlds of Liz Jensen : a critical reading / Helen E. Mundler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mundler, Helen E. (Helen Esther), author.

Series:

Studies in English and American literature, linguistics, and culture (Unnumbered)

Studies in English and American literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jensen, Liz, 1959---Criticism and interpretation.

Jensen, Liz.

Jensen, Liz, 1959-.

Reality in literature.

Fantastic, The, in literature.

Society in literature.

Surprise in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

232 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Other worlds of Liz Jensen

Place of Publication:

Rochester, N.Y. : Camden House, 2016.

Summary:

"Liz Jensen, a British author of eight novels, is among today's most innovative writers. Her literary thrillers occupy the terrain between realism and science fiction. This first study of Jensen centers on the very diverse "otherworlds" she creates in each of her novels, which can consist of an indeterminate space of ontological instability, a zone in which real and unreal converge to destabilize the realist text, as in Egg Dancing (1995) and The Ninth Life of Louis Drax (2004). In other novels the otherworld relies on defamiliarization: thus in War Crimes for the Home (2002) the experience of war is transformed by being seen from a woman's perspective. In still other cases, the otherworld spans the novel's entire topos, as in The Paper Eater (2000), the full-blown utopia at the center of Jensen's oeuvre. Jensen's work approaches contemporary social issues such as religious fundamentalism, ecological disaster, and assisted procreation. Simultaneously, it displays a number of characteristics of erudite fiction, including self-reflexivity, inter- and intratextual reference, parody, pastiche, and burlesque. Notwithstanding the "popular" elements of Jensen's work, Helen E. Mundler's study adopts a rigorously academic approach to it, referencing canonical works but also more innovative texts, particularly by contemporary women writers, as points of comparison" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Notes on abbreviations and gender-neutral language

Introduction

Egg dancing: paving the way for otherworlds in time and space

Ark baby and the return to the nineteenth century

Island life: the pure "ustopia" of the paper eater

Liz Jensen's murder mysteries

From family romance to the detective novel

New rules, new otherworlds: Jensen's "third wave"

Ecofiction, rapture fiction

The uninvited: the most radically "other" world to date

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781571139627

1571139621

OCLC:

950003909