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Systems Novel
Systems novel is a literary genre named by Tom LeClair in his 1987 book ''In the Loop: Don DeLillo and the Systems Novel'', and explored further in LeClair's 1989 book, ''The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction''.LeClair, Tom''The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction''University of Illinois Press, 1989. LeClair used systems theory to critique novels by authors including Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis and Ursula Le Guin. Citing Fritjof Capra's description of systems theory as a "new vision of reality" LeClair invoked ideas from thinkers such as James Lovelock, Gregory Bateson and Douglas Hofstadter to analyse how the novels in question depicted processes and relationships within social, cultural, economic and political systems. LeClair's systems novels were all "long, large and dense" and all in some way striving for "mastery", showing similarity to '' Moby-Dick'' and '' Absalom, Absalom!'' in "range of reference, artistic sophistication, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literary Genre
A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided into more concrete distinctions. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, and even the rules designating genres change over time and are fairly unstable. Genres can all be in the form of prose or poetry. Additionally, a genre such as satire, allegory or pastoral might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre (see below), but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. History of genres Aristotle The concept of genre began in the works of Aristotle, who applied biological concepts to the classification of literary genres, or, as he called them, "species" (eidē). These classifications are mainl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don DeLillo
Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, performance art, the Cold War, mathematics, the advent of the digital age, politics, economics, and global terrorism. DeLillo was already a well-regarded cult writer in 1985, when the publication of ''White Noise'' brought him widespread recognition and won him the National Book Award for fiction. ''White Noise'' was followed in 1988 by ''Libra'', a bestseller. DeLillo has twice been a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist (for ''Mao II'' in 1992 and for ''Underworld'' in 1998), won the PEN/Faulkner Award for ''Mao II'' in 1992 (receiving another PEN/Faulkner Award nomination for ''The Angel Esmeralda'' in 2012), won the 1999 Jerusalem Prize, was granted the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2010, and won the Library ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Vollmann
William Tanner Vollmann (born July 28, 1959) is an American novelist, journalist, war correspondent, short story writer, and essayist. He won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction with the novel ''Europe Central''."National Book Awards – 2005" . Retrieved 2012-03-27. (With acceptance speech by Vollmann, introduction by Andre Dubus III, essay by Tom LeClair from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog, and other material.) Biography William Vollmann was born in Los Angeles and lived there for five years. He attended public high school in |
The Gold Bug Variations
''The Gold Bug Variations'' is a novel by American writer Richard Powers, first released in 1991. Plot introduction The novel intertwines the discovery of the chemical structure of DNA with the musicality of Johann Sebastian Bach's harpsichord composition the Goldberg Variations. A similar theme is explored by Douglas Hofstadter in his 1979 book '' Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. ''The title also alludes to Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 short story "The Gold-Bug", which is also incorporated in the plot of the novel. The plot hinges on two love affairs: the first set in the 1950s, between two scientists intent on discovering the mysteries of DNA; the second in the 1980s, between two lovers who befriend the scientist featured in the novel's flashbacks. Awards ''The Gold Bug Variations'' has received the following awards: * ''Time'' magazine Book of the Year, 1991 * ''Publishers Weekly'' Best Books of 1991 * ''Vrij Nederland'' Best Books of 1991 * ''New York Times'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Powers
Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction."National Book Awards – 2006" . Retrieved 2012-03-27. (With linked information including essay by from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) He has also won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. As of 2021, Powers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Always Coming Home
''Always Coming Home'' is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. It is in parts narrative, pseudo-textbook and pseudo-anthropologist's record. It describes the life and society of the Kesh people, a cultural group who live in the distant future long after modern society has collapsed. It is presented by Pandora, who seems to be an anthropologist or ethnographer from the readers' contemporary culture, or a culture very close to it. Pandora describes the book as a protest against contemporary civilization, which the Kesh call "''the Sickness of Man''". Setting The book's setting is a time so post-apocalyptic that no cultural source can remember the apocalypse, though a few folk tales refer to our time. The only signs of our civilization that have lasted into their time are indestructible artefacts such as styrofoam and a self-manufacturing, self-maintaining, solar-system-wide computer network. There has been a great sea level rise since our time, floo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Barth
John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a satirical retelling of Maryland's colonial history, and ''Lost in the Funhouse'', a self-referential and experimental collection of short stories. Though Barth's work has been controversial among critics and readers, he was co-recipient of the National Book Award in 1973 for his novel ''Chimera'' with John Williams for ''Augustus''. Despite Barth's influence on postmodern literature in America, his influence and publicity have decreased since his novels were published. Life John Barth, called "Jack", was born in Cambridge, Maryland. He has an older brother, Bill, and a twin sister Jill. In 1947 he graduated from Cambridge High School, where he played drums and wrote for the school newspaper. He briefly studied "Elementary Theory and Adv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LETTERS
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabet, either as written or in a particular type font. * Rehearsal letter in an orchestral score Communication * Letter (message), a form of written communication ** Mail * Letters, the collected correspondence of a writer or historically significant person ** Maktubat (other), the Arabic word for collected letters **Pauline epistles, addressed by St. Paul to various communities or congregations, such as "Letters to the Galatians" or "Letters to the Corinthians", and part of the canonical books of the Bible * The letter as a form of second-person literature; see Epistle ** Epistulae (Pliny) ** Epistolary novel, a long-form fiction composed of letters (epistles) * Open letter, a public letter as distinguished from private corresponde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph McElroy
Joseph Prince McElroy (born August 21, 1930) is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is noted for his long postmodern novels such as '' Women and Men''. Personal background McElroy was born on August 21, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Brooklyn Heights. He graduated from Poly Prep Country Day School in 1947 and was given an Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007 from the school's Board of Governors. He graduated from Williams College in 1951. The following year, McElroy earned a master's degree from Columbia University. He served in the Coast Guard from 1952 to 1954, and then returned to Columbia to complete his Ph.D. in 1961.''World Authors 1975–1980 In 1961, McElroy married Joan Leftwich, of London, in London. She is the daughter of Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jews; her father, Joseph Leftwich, was a translator and anthologizer of Yiddish poetry. The McElroys' only child, Hanna, was born in 1967. McElroy assisted with the birth. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Women And Men
''Women and Men'' is Joseph McElroy's sixth novel. Published in 1987 (with a 1986 copyright), it is 1192 pages long. Somewhat notably, because of its size, the uncorrected proof was issued in two volumes.A fact some reviewers thought worth mentioning. The size and complexity of the novel have led it to be compared with ''Ulysses'', '' The Recognitions'', and '' Gravity's Rainbow''. Karl 1990 Editions There were two first editions—neither dates itself before the other. In April 1987,According to the 2nd printing the first trade edition was published by Knopf. Ultramarine Press published a limited, numbered, signed edition, consisting of the Knopf edition (including its copyright and title page) rebound in leather. One month later, Knopf issued a second printing, with an expanded copyright/acknowledgements page. In 1993, a paperback edition was published by Dalkey Archive Press. Contrary to their usual policy, they let this edition go out of print. Dzanc Books publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Coover
Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American novelist, short story writer, and T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction. Background Coover was born in Charles City, Iowa. He attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale, received his B.A. in Slavic Studies from Indiana University Bloomington in 1953, then served in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1957, where he became a lieutenant. He received an M.A. in General Studies in the Humanities from the University of Chicago in 1965. In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. Coover has served as a teacher or writer in residence at many universities. He taught at Brown University from 1981 to 2012. Coover's wife is the noted needlepoint artist Pilar Sans Coover. They have three children, including Sara Caldwell. Literary caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Public Burning
''The Public Burning'', Robert Coover's third novel, was published in 1977. It is an account of the events leading to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. An uncharacteristically human caricature of Richard Nixon serves as protagonist and narrator for the primary continuity. The novel satirizes the Cold War politics of Joseph McCarthy by portraying "The Phantom" as the embodiment of global Communism and everything that threatens the American way of life—a vague, terrifying, and omnipresent enemy. The ugly side of the American psyche this draws out is characterized by an incarnation of Uncle Sam who unleashes a torrent of interminable verbosity in a folksy, foul-mouthed style whenever he appears. The ''New York Times'' and ''Time Magazine'' figure centrally as symbols of institutional failure not only to question whether the truth was a victim in this hyperpoliticized trial but also whether the official narrative was in fact a bunch of political lies. Coover first ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
