Research Catalog

Title

Seaing through the past : postmodern histories and the maritime metaphor in contemporary Anglophone fiction / Joanna Rostek.

Author

Rostek, Joanna

Publication

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2011.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

363 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"From Daniel Defoe to Joseph Conrad, from Virginia Woolf to Derek Walcott, the sea has always been an inspiring setting and a powerful symbol for generations of British and Anglophone writers. Seaing through the Past is the first study to explicitly address the enduring relevance of the maritime metaphor in contemporary Anglophone fiction through in-depth readings of fourteen influential and acclaimed novels published in the course of the last three decades. The book trenchantly argues that in contemporary fiction, maritime imagery gives expression to postmodernism's troubled relationship with historical knowledge, as theorised by Hayden White, Linda Hutcheon, and others. The texts in question are interpreted against the backdrop of four aspects of metahistorical problematisation. Thus, among others, Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea (1978) is read in the context of auto/biographical writing, John Banville's The Sea (2005) as a narrative of personal trauma, Julian Barnes's A History of the World in 10 Chapters (1989) as investigating the connection between discourses of origin and the politics of power, and Fred D'Aguiar's Feeding the Ghosts (1997) as opening up a postcolonial perspective on the sea and history. Persuasive and topical, Seaing through the Past offers a compelling guide to the literary oceans of today"--Back cover.

Series Statement

Postmodern studies, 0923-0483 ; 47

Uniform Title

Postmodern studies ; 47.

Subject

• English fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• English fiction > 21st century > History and criticism
• Ocean travel in literature
• Sea in literature
• Seafaring life in literature

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• Electronic books

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-358) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

New Histories -- Old Metaphor -- Wavering Biographies: Remembering Individual Histories -- Salvaging the Self: Narratives of Personal Trauma -- Influential Sources: Discourses of Origin and the Politics of Power -- Reclaiming the Drowned: Post/Colonial Histories.

ISBN

• 9789042033818 (geb.)
• 9042033819 (geb.)
• 9789401200790 (e-book)
• 9401200793 (e-book)

OCLC

752320526

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library