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La vuelta al mundo en 80 árboles

Autor: Jonathan Drori

Número de Páginas: 244

* Los árboles figuran entre los compañeros más constantes y más variados de la humanidad. * Desde el baniano sagrado de la India hasta el fragante cedro del Líbano, nos ofrecen refugio e inspiración (por no mencionar las materias primas para la fabricación de todo tipo de artículos, desde aspirinas hasta seda, lanzaderas espaciales o líneas telefónicas). * En La vuelta al mundo en 80 árboles, Jonathan Drori viaja a través del tiempo y de las culturas aportando datos científicos actualizados para demostrar que los árboles desempeñan un papel en todos los ámbitos de la vida humana. Las historias abarcan desde lo romántico hasta lo lamentable. Algunas iluminan las sorprendentes relaciones históricas entre las personas y especies aparentemente familiares, como el olmo y el haya. Otras muestran lo exótico y lo extraordinario, como el explosivo jabillo o el curioso árbol de la Polinesia, que acumula una enorme cantidad de metal. Cada una de estas historias, sorprendentes y reales, pobladas de monjes que se automomifican, cabras que trepan a los árboles y frutos radiactivos, está ilustrada por Lucille Clerc. Así, el lector disfrutará de un viaje tan hermoso como...

Understanding Richard Powers

Autor: Joseph Dewey

Número de Páginas: 198

Dewey contends that while Powers's novels investigate the most pressing issues of the new millennium, the novelist is most deeply interested in the same thematic argument that consumed Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson - the problem of the self, the deep and unshakable loneliness that has always been at the heart of the American literary imagination."--BOOK JACKET.

Las leyes de la naturaleza humana

Autor: Robert Greene

Número de Páginas: 766

Del autor de "Las 48 leyes del poder", bestseller número 1 del New York Times, llega la nueva obra de Robert Greene que te ayudará a entender el comportamiento de las personas que te rodean. Como seres sociales, nuestras vidas dependen de nuestras relaciones con los demás. Comprender las motivaciones detrás de las acciones de los demás se convierte en una herramienta invaluable. Greene, apoyándose en figuras como Pericles, la reina Isabel I y Martin Luther King Jr., nos enseña a desprendernos de nuestras emociones y dominar el autocontrol, a desarrollar la empatía que conduce a la perspicacia, a ver más allá de las máscaras de las personas y a resistir la conformidad para forjar nuestro propio propósito. 'Las Leyes de la Naturaleza Humana' ofrece tácticas brillantes para el éxito, la superación personal y la autodefensa, ya sea en el ámbito laboral, en las relaciones o al dar forma al mundo que nos rodea.

Alice B. Sheldon

Autor: Julie Phillips

Número de Páginas: 592

Biografía de Alice Sheldon (1915-1987), una mujer rica, atractiva e inteligente, que encontró reconocimiento en la literatura de cienciaficción con un pseudónimo masculino. A pesar de ello, sufrió la tortura de no reconocer su propia identidad, y el afán imposible de trascender las pautas sociales, culturales y sexuales de su tiempo.

Vastas emociones y pensamientos imperfectos

Autor: Rubem Fonseca

Número de Páginas: 336

Sidérations

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 305

Dans une Amérique au bord du chaos politique et climatique, un père embarque son jeune fils souffrant de troubles du comportement dans une sidérante expérience neuroscientifique. Richard Powers signe un nouveau grand roman questionnant notre place dans le monde et nous amenant à reconsidérer nos liens avec le vivant.

El Eco de la memoria

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 0

L'Arbre-Monde

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 488

Richard Powers embrasse un sujet aussi vaste que l'univers : celui de la nature et de nos liens avec elle. Après des années passées seule dans la forêt à étudier les arbres, la botaniste Pat Westerford en revient avec une découverte sur ce qui est peut-être le premier et le dernier mystère du monde : la communication entre les arbres. Autour de Pat s'entrelacent les destins de neuf personnes qui peu à peu vont converger vers la Californie, où un séquoia est menacé de destruction. Au fil d'un récit aux dimensions symphoniques, Richard Powers explore ici le drame écologique et notre égarement dans le monde virtuel. Son écriture généreuse nous rappelle que, hors la nature, notre culture n'est que " ruine de l'âme ". " Si Powers était un auteur américain du 19e siècle, qui serait-il ? Il serait probablement Herman Melville, et il écrirait Moby Dick. " Margaret Atwood

Le dilemme du prisonnier

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 369

Après Trois Fermiers s'en vont au bal et Le Temps où nous chantions, Richard Powers nous livre ici l'un de ses romans les plus puissants et les plus aboutis. Fin des années 1980, DeKalb, Illinois. Eddie Hobson, Ailene, et leurs quatre enfants, ont toujours formé un clan très soudé. Mais lorsque Eddie est frappé par une étrange maladie, la mécanique familiale se dérègle et les secrets de ce père pas comme les autres font peu à peu surface. Pourquoi ce professeur d'Histoire charismatique a-t-il élevé ses enfants, aujourd'hui adultes, dans l'amour de la culture, du divertissement des énigmes et des jeux d'esprits, en les tenant toujours éloignés des réalités de leur temps ? Et quelle est cette longue histoire qu'il élabore depuis près de trois décennies derrière une porte close ? Alors qu'Eddie s'est enfui de l'hôpital pour une destination inconnue, le plus jeune de ses fils, Eddie Jr, part à sa recherche. Petit à petit, l'histoire du père se dévoile et avec elle, c'est tout le XXe siècle qui défile, de l'exposition universelle de New York en 1939 aux essais nucléaires de Los Alamos, en passant par un projet grandiose de Walt Disney, destiné à...

Las 48 leyes del poder

Autor: Robert Greene

Número de Páginas: 0

The Overstory

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 323

THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 'Radical and exciting' Jessie Burton 'Breathtaking' Barbara Kingsolver 'It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it' Barack Obama 'Really, just one of the best novels, period' Ann Patchett A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe.

Desconcert (AdN)

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 319

La nova i colpidora novel·la del guanyador del Premi Pulitzer per El clamor de los bosques, una imperiosa crida a l'atenció sobre els riscos que amenacen el nostre planeta. Finalista del premi Booker 2021. Finalista del National Book Award 2021. Seleccionada pel club de lectura d'Oprah Winfrey. L'astrobiòleg Theo Byrne busca formes de vida al cosmos mentre educa ell sol el seu peculiar fill de nou anys, en Robin, després de la mort de la seva dona. En Robin és un infant afectuós i dolç, que passa hores fent uns dibuixos molt elaborats d'animals en perill d'extinció, i que ara està a punt que l'expulsin de classe de tercer perquè ha clavat una bufetada a un amic. Malgrat que els problemes del fill s'agreugen, en Theo fa els possibles per no haver de medicar-lo amb fàrmacs psicoactius. Aleshores descobreix un tractament experimental de neurofeedback ideat per millorar el control de les emocions d'en Robin mitjançant unes sessions d'entrenament amb patrons gravats del cervell de la seva mare... Amb unes descripcions del món natural sublims, una visió de la vida prometedora, més enllà dels nostres confins, i el relat d'un amor incondicional entre pare i fill,...

El caso Sparsholt

Autor: Alan Hollinghurst

Número de Páginas: 381

En octubre de 1940, el apuesto David Sparsholt llega como estudiante a la elitista universidad de Oxford. Él no pertenece a la clase alta, pero trabará amistad con un grupo de jóvenes de posición más elevada que han montado un club literario al que pretenden invitar a reputados escritores como Orwell, Stephen Spender, Rebecca West o el padre de uno de ellos, A. V. Dax. Su hijo, Evert Dax, será uno de los amigos que se sentirán atraídos por el magnetismo de Sparsholt, en una época en que la homosexualidad debía vivirse de un modo clandestino. Mientras Londres sufre el infierno del Blitz y el futuro del país resulta incierto, Oxford es una suerte de limbo donde los jóvenes exploran los placeres de la cultura, la amistad y el deseo, sabedores de que en cualquier momento los pueden llamar a filas. Pero este es solo el arranque de esta vasta y ambiciosísima novela, que recorre más de medio siglo de vida británica y llega hasta nuestros días a través de tres generaciones, componiendo un deslumbrante fresco histórico. Porque Sparsholt se casará y tendrá un hijo, Johnny, que se convertirá en un prestigioso pintor especializado en retratos, mantendrá una relación...

The Secret Life of the Modern House

Autor: Dominic Bradbury

Número de Páginas: 418

* * * 'Informative and entertaining, this publication is a feast for the eyes, while also thought provoking, and offers excellent inspiration for daydreaming about what makes the perfect, modern house.' Wallpaper 'A fascinating selection of innovative homes....this is a thoughtful journey through the evolution of domestic architecture.' Sunday Express Over the last century the way that we live at home has changed dramatically. Nothing short of a design revolution has transformed our houses and the spaces within them - moving from traditional patterns of living all the way through to an era of more fluid, open-plan and modern styles. Whether we live in a new home or a period house, our spaces will have been shaped one way or another by the pioneering Modernists and Mid-century architects and designers who argued for a fresh way of life. Architectural and design writer Dominic Bradbury charts the course of this voyage all the way from the late 19th century through to the houses of today in this ground-breaking book. Over nineteen thematic chapters, he explains the way our houses have been reinvented, while taking in - along the way - the giants of Art Deco, influential Modernists...

Diseases and Disorders in Contemporary Fiction

Autor: James Peacock , Tim Lustig

Número de Páginas: 224

The essays in this collection address the current preoccupation with neurological conditions and disorders in contemporary literature by British and American writers. The book places these fictional treatments within a broader cultural and historical context, exploring such topics as the two cultures debate, the neurological turn, postmodernism and the post-postmodern, and responses to September 11th. Considering a variety of materials including mainstream literary fiction, the graphic novel, popular fiction, autobiographical writing, film, and television, contributors consider the contemporary dimensions of the interface between the sciences and humanities, developing the debate about the post-postmodern as a new humanism or a return to realism and investigating questions of form and genre, and of literary continuities and discontinuities. Further, the essays discuss contemporary writers’ attempts to engage the relation between the individual and the social, looking at the relation between the "syndrome syndrome" (referring to the prevalence in contemporary literature of neurological phenomena evident at the biological level) and existing work in the field of trauma studies...

Opération âme errante

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 435

" Comme les histoires que l'on lit aux enfants, ce roman intense et subtil peut nous permettre d'éviter le cauchemar qu'il décrit. " USA Today Richard Kraft est interne en chirurgie pédiatrique au Carver Hospital, à Los Angeles. Au cœur de cette mégalopole, qui a renoncé à l'idée même de service public, la pression est permanente. Maladie du corps social, maladie du corps physique : tout est sur le point de se défaire, de voler en éclats. Dans cette atmosphère explosive, Richard et sa collègue thérapeute Linda essaient de soigner un groupe d'enfants malades, des enfants qui semblent en savoir plus long qu'eux sur l'âme humaine et recèlent tous des secrets étonnants. À leur contact, la thérapie peut basculer dans l'enquête, et l'Amérique révéler ses failles les plus noires. Avec un humour grinçant et une empathie bouleversante, Richard Powers explore dans ce roman sous pression les racines de la survie et la mémoire de l'Amérique, grâce à une tribu d'enfants blessés mais, surtout, providentiels.

La Extraordinaria Vida de Sam

Autor: Robert Dugoni

Número de Páginas: 524

Su vida cambió cuando aprendió a verla con sus propios ojos. Sam posee una mirada distinta a los demás niños: afectado de albinismo ocular, tiene los ojos rojos de nacimiento. Su madre lo atribuye a la voluntad divina, pobre consuelo para alguien que debe soportar con resignación que sus compañeros de clase lo llamen Sam Diablo. A pesar de todo, él quiere creer que es Dios quien le envía a Ernie Cantwell para que se convierta en el amigo que tanto necesita; y a Mickie Kennedy, que aterriza en la escuela como un tornado y arrasa con todas sus concepciones sobre niños y niñas. Con el paso de los años, Sam deja de creer que el mundo sea producto de un destino ineludible, como no pueden serlo las tragedias que lo obligaron a dejar a sus amigos, su ciudad y su vida. Enfrentado a su pasado, emprenderá un largo viaje, pero esta vez lo hará con los ojos bien abiertos para ver aquello que lo hizo cambiar y lo definió como persona.

Prisoner's Dilemma

Autor: Richard Powers

Número de Páginas: 341

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED BEWILDERMENT AND THE OVERSTORY Something is wrong with Eddie Hobson Sr., father of four, sometime history teacher, quiz master, black humourist and virtuoso invalid. His recurring fainting spells have worsened, and with his ingrained aversion to doctors, his worried family tries to discover the nature of his sickness. Meanwhile, in private, Eddie puts the finishing touches on a secret project he calls 'Hobbstown', a place that he promises will save him, the world and everything that's in it. 'Richard Powers is the most intellectually stimulating novelist at work in the English language today... Sentence after sentence has the razor-sharp quality of aphorism about the weird wired world we have made' Daily Telegraph

El hilo perdido

Autor: Jacques Rancière

Número de Páginas: 68

“No hay aquí ningún libro”, decía en 1869 un crítico de La educación sentimental. Las ficciones emblemáticas de la modernidad literaria destruyen lo que constituía desde Aristóteles el principio mismo de la ficción: el encadenamiento de las acciones según la necesidad o verosimilitud. Pero esa misma racionalidad causal que se oponía a la simple sucesión de las cosas era la que expresaba la excelencia de la forma de vida de una categoría privilegiada de humanos. Al recusar esta estructura de racionalidad, la ficción nueva daba testimonio de un cambio radical que echaba por tierra la jerarquía de las formas de vida. Y recusaba asimismo un modelo de la acción y una imagen del pensamiento. A través de Flaubert, Conrad, Virginia Woolf, Keats, Baudelaire y Büchner, este libro estudia las formas y paradojas de esta revolución de la escritura que es también una revolución en el pensamiento y cuestiona ciertas interpretaciones de la modernidad literaria, como la reificación lukacsiana, el efecto de realidad de Barthes o el análisis de Benjamin del “poeta lírico en la era del auge del capitalismo”.

Metamorphoses of (New) Media

Autor: Julia Genz , Ulrike Küchler

Número de Páginas: 246

The current success story of new media and the ongoing digitalisation of our world provide an illuminating starting point for the discussion of the powerful revolutions in our media and media uses initiated by the introduction of a(ny) ‘new’ medium: how do new media evolve and how do they relate to established, ‘old’ media and media uses? What does the rise of new media and media uses imply for other discourses? And not least: which methodological and theoretical approaches help us to understand these developments? Metamorphoses of (New) Media offers an international and interdisciplinary range of studies on these questions. In examining the effects of new media and media uses in fields such as social discourse, transmediality, and aesthetics, the essays in this collection engage with a great variety of examples, from political debate on Twitter to digital storytelling and the game-like experience of DVDs. What these diverse perspectives share, however, is an approach to Metamorphoses of (New) Media as an ongoing, recursive process of change that initiates dialogue and casts light on existing discursive, medial, and aesthetic models.

Representing (Post)Human Enhancement Technologies in Twenty-First Century US Fiction

Autor: Carmen Laguarta-bueno

Número de Páginas: 197

This work studies three twenty-first century novels by Richard Powers, Dave Eggers and Don DeLillo as representative of a new trend of US fiction concerned with the topic of the technological augmentation of the human condition. The different chapters provide, from the double perspective of the optimistic transhumanist philosophy and the more balanced approach of critical posthumanism, an overview of the narrative strategies used by the writers to explore the possibilities that biotechnology, digital technologies and cryonics open up to transcend our human limitations, while also warning their readers of their most nefarious consequences. Ultimately, the book puts forward the claim that even if the writers approach the subject from a variety of perspectives and using different narrative styles and techniques, they all share a critical posthumanist fear that an unrestrained and unquestioned use of technology for enhancement purposes may bring about disembodiment and dehumanization.

The Planetary Clock

Autor: Paul Giles

Número de Páginas: 590

The theme of The Planetary Clock is the representation of time in postmodern culture and the way temporality as a global phenomenon manifests itself differently across an antipodean axis. To trace postmodernism in an expansive spatial and temporal arc, from its formal experimentation in the 1960s to environmental concerns in the twenty-first century, is to describe a richer and more complex version of this cultural phenomenon. Exploring different scales of time from a Southern Hemisphere perspective, with a special emphasis on issues of Indigeneity and the Anthropocene, The Planetary Clock offers a wide-ranging, revisionist account of postmodernism, reinterpreting literature, film, music, and visual art of the post-1960 period within a planetary framework. By bringing the culture of Australia and New Zealand into dialogue with other Western narratives, it suggests how an antipodean impulse, involving the transposition of the world into different spatial and temporal dimensions, has long been an integral (if generally occluded) aspect of postmodernism. Taking its title from a Florentine clock designed in 1510 to measure worldly time alongside the rotation of the planets, The...

Bridges to Science Fiction and Fantasy

Autor: Gregory Benford , Gary Westfahl , Howard V. Hendrix

Número de Páginas: 272

The J. Lloyd Eaton Conferences on Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature--long held at the University of California, Riverside--have been a major influence in the study of science fiction and fantasy for thirty years. The conferences have attracted leading scholars whose papers are published in Eaton volumes found in university libraries throughout the world. This collection brings together 22 of the best papers--most with new afterwords by the authors--presented in chronological order to show how science fiction and fantasy criticism has evolved since 1979.

Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction

Autor: Heather Houser

Número de Páginas: 330

The 1970s brought a new understanding of the biological and intellectual impact of environmental crises on human beings, and as efforts to prevent ecological and human degradation aligned, a new literature of sickness emerged. “Ecosickness fiction” imaginatively rethinks the link between ecological and bodily endangerment and uses affect and the sick body to bring readers to environmental consciousness. Tracing the development of ecosickness through a compelling archive of modern U.S. novels and memoirs, this study demonstrates the mode’s crucial role in shaping thematic content and formal and affective literary strategies. Examining works by David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers, Leslie Marmon Silko, Marge Piercy, Jan Zita Grover, and David Wojnarowicz, Heather Houser shows how these authors unite experiences of environmental and somatic damage through narrative affects that draw attention to ecological phenomena, organize perception, and convert knowledge into ethics. Traversing contemporary cultural studies, ecocriticism, affect studies, and literature and medicine, Houser juxtaposes ecosickness fiction against new forms of environmentalism and technoscientific innovations ...

Trends in Language Teaching, Literature, Cultural Studies, and Linguistic

Autor: Dr. P. Athahar , Dr. S. Mohankumar , Dr. R. Sriganesh , Dr. K. Shaheen , Dr. Saktheeswar V. B

Número de Páginas: 268

This book titled “Trends in Language Teaching, Literature, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics” embarks on a journey that transcends borders, delves into the intricacies of language, and celebrates the rich tapestry of human expression. Language is more than mere communication; it’s a mirror reflecting our collective identity, aspirations, and cultural heritage. As educators, scholars, and language enthusiasts, we recognize that our field is ever-evolving. New methodologies emerge, literary landscapes shift, and cultural contexts shape our understanding of words and their power. In this book, we explore four interconnected domains: Language Teaching: How do we inspire language learners? What innovative pedagogies foster fluency and cultural competence? Our contributors share practical insights and theoretical frameworks. Literature: From timeless classics to contemporary voices, literature invites us to explore the human condition. We discuss trends, genres, and the transformative impact of storytelling. Cultural Studies: Culture is the heartbeat of language. We delve into cultural nuances, intercultural communication, and the ways in which literature reflects societal shifts. ...

Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series

Autor: Library Of Congress. Copyright Office

Número de Páginas: 1620

Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Committee on Internal Security

Autor: United States. Congress. House. Committee On Internal Security

Número de Páginas: 1250

The Novel of Human Rights

Autor: James Dawes

Número de Páginas: 201

James Dawes defines a new, dynamic American literary genre, which takes as its theme a range of atrocities at home and abroad. This vibrant and modern genre incorporates key debates within the human rights movement in the U.S. and in turn influences the ideas and rhetoric of that discourse.

Contemporary Fiction and the Ethics of Modern Culture

Autor: J. Karnicky

Número de Páginas: 194

This book argues for the ethical relevancy of contemporary fiction at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Through reading novels by such writers as David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers, and Irvine Welsh, this book looks at how these works seek to transform the ways that readers live in the world.

Editing the Soul

Autor: Everett Hamner

Número de Páginas: 258

Personal genome testing, gene editing for life-threatening diseases, synthetic life: once the stuff of science fiction, twentieth- and twenty-first-century advancements blur the lines between scientific narrative and scientific fact. This examination of bioengineering in popular and literary culture shows that the influence of science on science fiction is more reciprocal than we might expect. Looking closely at the work of Margaret Atwood, Richard Powers, and other authors, as well as at film, comics, and serial television such as Orphan Black, Everett Hamner shows how the genome age is transforming both the most commercial and the most sophisticated stories we tell about the core of human personhood. As sublime technologies garner public awareness beyond the genre fiction shelves, they inspire new literary categories like “slipstream” and shape new definitions of the human, the animal, the natural, and the artificial. In turn, what we learn of bioengineering via popular and literary culture prepares the way for its official adoption or restriction—and for additional representations. By imagining the connections between emergent gene testing and editing capacities and...

Narrated Communities – Narrated Realities

Número de Páginas: 263

Culture studies try to understand how people assume identities and how they perceive reality. In this perspective narration, as a basic form of cognitive processing, is a fundamental cultural technique. Narrations provide the coherence, temporal organization and semantic integration that are essential for the development and communication of identity, knowledge and orientation in a socio-cultural context. In essence, Anderson’s “Imagined Communities” need to be thought of as “Narrated Communities” from the beginning. Narration is made up by what people think; and vice versa, narration makes up people's thoughts. What is considered "fictitious" or "real" no longer separates narratives from an "outside" they refer to, but rather represents different narratives. Narration not only constructs notions of what was “real” in retrospect, but also prospectively creates possible worlds, even in the (supposedly hard) sciences, as in e.g. the imaginative simulation of physical processes. The book’s unique interdisciplinary approach shows how the implications of this fundamental insight go far beyond the sphere of literature and carry weight for both scholarly and scientific...

El inicio de la primavera

Autor: Penelope Fitzgerald

Número de Páginas: 272

Corre el mes de marzo de 1913 y la convulsa ciudad de Moscú se prepara para la llegada de la primavera. En el ambiente se percibe una transformación dramática, pero en el número 22 de la calle Lipka, hogar del impresor inglés Frank Reid, ese cambio será aún más evidente y decisivo. Una noche, tras regresar a su casa, Frank descubre que su esposa se ha marchado de la ciudad llevándose a sus tres hijos. Pronto aparecerá en la vida del impresor una mujer sencilla, una especie de dríade por la que Frank acabará por sentirse hechizado. Y así, acompañado de su contable, Selwyn Crane, devoto seguidor de Tolstói, y de Volodia, un misterioso estudiante que irrumpe en la imprenta con extrañas intenciones, Frank tendrá que dilucidar qué motivos mueven a los demás a comportarse de forma a veces extraña, a veces irracional. Una nueva obra maestra de Penelope Fitzgerald, autora de la aclamada La librería, y un ejemplo apasionante de sutileza y potencia narrativa.

Contemporary Fiction and Science from Amis to McEwan

Autor: Rachel Holland

Número de Páginas: 213

This book identifies, in contemporary fiction, a new type of novel at the interface of science and the humanities, working from the premise that a shift has taken place in the relations between the two cultures in the last two or three decades. As popular science comes to assume an ever greater cultural significance, contemporary authors are engaging in new ways with ideas that it disseminates. A new literary phenomenon is emerging, in which the focus on language-based theories of the self and the world that has been predominant in the latter half of the previous century is making way for a renewed commitment to the material facts, both of human existence and the universe beyond subjectivity. The book analyses the work of Martin Amis, William Boyd, David Lodge, Richard Powers, Michel Houellebecq, Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood, and Ian McEwan, revealing the ways in which these ‘third culture novels’ negotiate the relationship between literature and science.

Hybrid Fictions

Autor: Daniel Grassian

Número de Páginas: 209

Since the 1960s, academics have theorized that literature is on its way to becoming obsolete or, at the very least, has lost part of its power as an influential medium of social and cultural critique. This work argues against that misconception and maintains that contemporary American literature is not only alive and well but has grown in significant ways that reflect changes in American culture during the last twenty years. In addition, this work argues that beginning in the 1980s, a new, allied generation of American writers, born from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, has emerged, whose hybrid fiction blend distinct elements of previous American literary movements and contain divided social, cultural and ethnic allegiances. The author explores psychological, philosophical, ethnic and technological hybridity. The author also argues for the importance of and need for literature in contemporary America and considers its future possibilities in the realms of the Internet and hypertext. David Foster Wallace, Neal Stephenson, Douglas Coupland, Sherman Alexie, William Vollmann, Michele Serros and Dave Eggers are among the writers whose hybrid fictions are discussed.

Trees in Literatures and the Arts

Autor: Carmen Concilio , Daniela Fargione

Número de Páginas: 313

Embracing the intersectional methodological outlook of the environmental humanities, the contributors to this edited collection explore the entanglements of cultures, ecologies, and socio-ethical issues in the roles of trees and their relationships with humans through narratives in literature and art.

Rewriting the American Soul

Autor: Anna Thiemann

Número de Páginas: 298

Rewriting the American Soul focuses on the political implications of psychoanalytic and neurocognitive approaches to trauma in literature, their impact on cultural representations of collective trauma in the United States, and their subversive appropriation in pre- and post-9/11 fiction. Anna Thiemann connects cutting edge trauma theory with the historical context from which it emerged and shows that contemporary novels encourage us to reflect critically on the cultural meanings and political uses of trauma. In doing so, it contributes to a new generation of trauma scholarship that challenges the dominant paradigm in literary and cultural studies. Moreover, the book intervenes in current debates about the relationship between literature and neuroscience insisting that the so-called neuronovel scrutinizes scientific developments and their political ramifications rather than adopting and translating them into aesthetic practices.

Self-Reference in the Media

Autor: Winfried Nöth , Nina Bishara

Número de Páginas: 353

This book investigates how the media have become self-referential or self-reflexive instead of mediating between the real or fictional worlds about which their messages pretend to be and between the audience that they wish to inform, counsel, or entertain. The concept of self-reference is viewed very broadly. Self-reflexivity, metatexts, metapictures, metamusic, metacommunication, as well as intertextual, and intermedial references are all conceived of as forms of self-reference, although to different degrees and levels. The contributions focus on the semiotic foundations of reference and self-reference, discuss the transdisciplinary context of self-reference in postmodern culture, and examine original studies from the worlds of print advertising, photography, film, television, computer games, media art, web art, and music. A wide range of different media products and topics are discussed including self-promotion on TV, the TV show Big Brother, the TV format "historytainment," media nostalgia, the documentation of documentation in documentary films, Marilyn Monroe in photographs, humor and paradox in animated films, metacommunication in computer games, metapictures, metafiction,...

On Endings

Autor: Daniel Grausam

Número de Páginas: 274

What does narrative look like when the possibility of an expansive future has been called into question? This query is the driving force behind Daniel Grausam’s On Endings, which seeks to show how the core texts of American postmodernism are a response to the geopolitical dynamics of the Cold War and especially to the new potential for total nuclear conflict. Postwar American fiction needs to be rethought, he argues, by highlighting postmodern experimentation as a mode of profound historical consciousness. In Grausam’s view, previous studies of fiction mimetically concerned with nuclear conflict neither engage the problems that total war might pose to narration nor take seriously the paradox of a war that narrative can never actually describe. Those few critical works that do take seriously such problems do not offer a broad account of American postmodernism. And recent work on postmodernism has offered no comprehensive historical account of the part played by nuclear weapons in the emergence of new forms of temporal and historical experience. On Endings significantly extends the project of historicizing postmodernism while returning the nuclear to a central place in the study ...