Items related to Fiction in the Quantum Universe
In this outstanding book Susan Strehle argues that a new fiction has developed from the influence of modern physics. She calls this new fiction actualism, and within that framework she offers a critical analysis of major novels by Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover, William Gaddis, John Barth, Margaret Atwood, and Donald Barthelme.
According to Strehle, the actualists balance attention to questions of art with an engaged meditation on the external, actual world. While these actualist novels diverge markedly from realistic practice, Strehle claims that they do so in order to reflect more acutely what we now understand as real. Reality is no longer "realistic"; in the new physical or quantum universe, reality is discontinuous, energetic, relative, statistical, subjectively seen, and uncertainly known -- all terms taken from new physics.
Actualist fiction is characterized by incompletions, indeterminacy, and "open" endings unsatisfying to the readerly wish for fulfilled promises and completed patterns. Gravity's Rainbow, for example, ends not with a period but with a dash. Strehle argues that such innovations in narrative reflect on twentieth-century history, politics, science, and discourse.
According to Strehle, the actualists balance attention to questions of art with an engaged meditation on the external, actual world. While these actualist novels diverge markedly from realistic practice, Strehle claims that they do so in order to reflect more acutely what we now understand as real. Reality is no longer "realistic"; in the new physical or quantum universe, reality is discontinuous, energetic, relative, statistical, subjectively seen, and uncertainly known -- all terms taken from new physics.
Actualist fiction is characterized by incompletions, indeterminacy, and "open" endings unsatisfying to the readerly wish for fulfilled promises and completed patterns. Gravity's Rainbow, for example, ends not with a period but with a dash. Strehle argues that such innovations in narrative reflect on twentieth-century history, politics, science, and discourse.
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Book Description:
"A worthy book--one which offers a new means of understanding literature and opens up new questions. . . . A valuable contribution to the study of both literary theory and the novel."-- Synthesis
About the Author:
Susan Strehle is associate vice provost for graduate studies at the State University of New York at Bighamton.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherThe University of North Carolina Press
- Publication date1992
- ISBN 10 0807820245
- ISBN 13 9780807820247
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages296
- Rating
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Fiction in the Quantum Universe
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University of North Carolina Press
(1992)
ISBN 10: 0807820245
ISBN 13: 9780807820247
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Fiction in the Quantum Universe
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ISBN 13: 9780807820247
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Fiction in the Quantum Universe
Published by
University of North Carolina Press
(1992)
ISBN 10: 0807820245
ISBN 13: 9780807820247
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Hardcover
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