Research team
American maximalist fiction between global and local knowledge – Richard Powers, David Foster Wallace, and the novel of information.
Abstract
This project investigates a pivotal response in contemporary American fiction to the representational aporias of canonical postmodernism. In answer to their literary forebears-self-conscious writers such as John Barth or Thomas Pynchon, who turned toward irony, metafiction and fragmentation¿Richard Powers and David Foster Wallace revalorize narrative as the ideal vehicle for the creation of meaning. They envision the "novel of information" (Powers 2008) as a text that combines diverse fields of knowledge so as to enable the reader to develop a personal and yet integrated perspective on the world. The central question that consequently needs to be addressed is: how can their novels create the illusion of totality without being totalitarian? This question will be answered on the levels of form and content. Drawing on recent instances of reader-oriented narratology, the project first intends to show how various formal aspects of The Gold Bug Variations (Powers 1991) and Infinite Jest (Wallace 1996) can entice the reader to continuously reconstruct his or her mental representation of the narrative. This cognitive approach will be further developed in a thematic analysis, which will focus on the novels' many passages about mental mapping as potential beacons in the reader's search for coherence.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Herman Luc
- Fellow: Staes Toon
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Contemporary American fiction between local and global knowledge - Richard Powers, David Foster Wallace, and the novel of information.
Abstract
This project investigates a pivotal response in contemporary American fiction to the representational aporias of canonical postmodernism. In answer to their literary forebears-self-conscious writers such as John Barth or Thomas Pynchon, who turned toward irony, metafiction and fragmentation¿Richard Powers and David Foster Wallace revalorize narrative as the ideal vehicle for the creation of meaning. They envision the "novel of information" (Powers 2008) as a text that combines diverse fields of knowledge so as to enable the reader to develop a personal and yet integrated perspective on the world. The central question that consequently needs to be addressed is: how can their novels create the illusion of totality without being totalitarian? This question will be answered on the levels of form and content. Drawing on recent instances of reader-oriented narratology, the project first intends to show how various formal aspects of The Gold Bug Variations (Powers 1991) and Infinite Jest (Wallace 1996) can entice the reader to continuously reconstruct his or her mental representation of the narrative. This cognitive approach will be further developed in a thematic analysis, which will focus on the novels' many passages about mental mapping as potential beacons in the reader's search for coherence.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Herman Luc
- Fellow: Staes Toon
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
American maximalist fiction between global and local knowledge ¿ Richard Powers, David Foster Wallace, and the novel of information.
Abstract
In an effort to analyze the "post-postmodern" tendency in contemporary American fiction, this research project focuses on the writings of Richard Powers and David Foster Wallace. Convinced that irony is not the only adequate response to the loss of all Grand Narratives (Lyotard), both authors posit the novel form as a way to confront the postmodern solipsism of their literary predecessors. Contrary to the fragmentary and overly self-referential texts of such canonical authors as Donald Barthelme or John Barth, Powers and Wallace want to narrativize information in such a way that local knowledge can still be represented in a tentative global model. A theoretical and (post-classical) narratological approach to their work is required to investigate how such a model can find its origin.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Herman Luc
- Fellow: Staes Toon
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project