Fiction across borders : imagining the lives of others in late-twentieth-century novels / Shameem Black.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Black, Shameem, 1976-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--Minority authors--History and criticism.

American fiction.

American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Commonwealth fiction (English)--History and criticism.

Commonwealth fiction (English).

Other (Philosophy) in literature.

Difference (Philosophy) in literature.

Ethics in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Theorists of Orientalism and postcolonialism argue that novelists betray political and cultural anxieties when characterizing "the Other." Shameem Black takes a different stance. Turning a fresh eye toward several key contemporary novelists, she reveals how "border-crossing" fiction represents socially diverse groups without resorting to stereotype, idealization, or other forms of imaginative constraint. Focusing on the work of J. M. Coetzee, Amitav Ghosh, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ruth Ozeki, Charles Johnson, Gish Jen, and Rupa Bajwa, Black introduces an interpretative lens that captures the ways in which these authors envision an ethics of representing social difference. They not only offer sympathetic portrayals of the lives of others but also detail the processes of imagining social difference. Whether depicting the multilingual worlds of South and Southeast Asia, the exportation of American culture abroad, or the racial tension of postapartheid South Africa, these transcultural representations explore social and political hierarchies in constructive ways. Boldly confronting the orthodoxies of recent literary criticism, Fiction Across Borders builds upon such seminal works as Edward Said's Orientalism and offers a provocative new study of the late twentieth-century novel.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Toward an Ethics of Border- Crossing Fiction

1 Crowded Self and Crowded Style

2 Everyday Sentiment

3 Ethnic Reversals

4 Middle Grounds

5 Challenging Language

6 Sacrificing the Self

Postscript

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-318) and index.

ISBN:

9786613260994

9781283260992

1283260999

9780231520614

0231520611

OCLC:

763049621