Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme | The Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism

Julio Varela

ISBN 10: 3639182863 / ISBN 13: 9783639182866

Published by VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009

About this Item

Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme | The Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism | Julio Varela | Taschenbuch | Englisch | VDM Verlag Dr. Müller | EAN 9783639182866 | Verantwortliche Person für die EU: preigu GmbH & Co. KG, Lengericher Landstr. 19, 49078 Osnabrück, mail[at]preigu[dot]de | Anbieter: preigu.

Seller Inventory # 101517927

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme | The Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism
• Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3639182863
• ISBN 13: 9783639182866
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bücher

About this title

Synopsis

The emergence of nihilism and chaos in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries offers us a case study in how memes work. Memes are bundles of cultural information that display viral properties, sowing the seeds of reality in the individual minds that make up a culture, sub-culture, or counterculture. In the case of nihilism and chaos, the ongoing epistemological and ontological revolution initiated by the likes of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the collapse of myth as a totalizing source of meaning, and the transition from a Newtonian, deterministic worldview to a quantum-relativistic, chaotic worldview transformed the Western cultural landscape, paving the way for the ¿viral¿ spread of nihilism and chaos to different intellectual and cultural strata. This book provides a framework for understanding how memes work in general and then explores the cultural spread of nihilism and chaos in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Joyce¿s Ulysses, Beckett¿s trilogy, and Pynchon¿s Gravity¿s Rainbow serve as focal points in this study because each work represents a critical juncture in the memetic evolution of nihilism and chaos during the modernist and postmodernist periods.

About the Author

Julio Armando Varela was born in Miami, Florida. He received his Master of Arts degree in the Program in the Humanities at Florida State University in 1993 and received his Doctorate of Philosophy from the Program in the Humanities at Florida State University in 2004. He lives and teaches humanities and literature in Miami.