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Our contemporary society is obsessed with the idea of self-optimization, a concept that implies the need to constantly work on improving oneself and one’s appearance. The roots of postmodern self-optimization, however, lie in the cultural industries that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With its equally profound and transient interest in new forms of expression, new ways of life, and new technologies, modernism thoroughly and critically embraced the idea of the self as something that can be created and recreated, either in accordance with or in contradiction to social norms. This book explores strategies of self-optimization developed in modernist literature and culture. In doing so, it offers a panoramic view of an often-overlooked aspect of European and North American modernity that anticipates our current postmodern crisis of the self.
Series:
Literary Modernism, Volume: 9
Our contemporary society is obsessed with the idea of self-optimization, a concept that implies the need to constantly work on improving oneself and one’s appearance. The roots of postmodern self-optimization, however, lie in the cultural industries that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With its equally profound and transient interest in new forms of expression, new ways of life, and new technologies, modernism thoroughly and critically embraced the idea of the self as something that can be created and recreated, either in accordance with or in contradiction to social norms. This book explores strategies of self-optimization developed in modernist literature and culture. In doing so, it offers a panoramic view of an often-overlooked aspect of European and North American modernity that anticipates our current postmodern crisis of the self.
The African American Novel in the Early Twenty-First Century comprises fourteen essays, each focussing on recent, widely known fiction by acclaimed African American authors. This volume showcases the originality, diversity, and vitality of contemporary African American literature, which has reached a bewildering yet exhilarating stage of disruption and continuity between today and yesterday, homegrown and diasporic identities, and local and global interrelatedness. Additionally, it delves into the complexity of the Black literary imagination and its interaction with broader cultural contexts. Lastly, it reflects on the evolution of the African American community, its tribulations, triumphs, challenges, and prospects.
The African American Novel in the Early Twenty-First Century comprises fourteen essays, each focussing on recent, widely known fiction by acclaimed African American authors. This volume showcases the originality, diversity, and vitality of contemporary African American literature, which has reached a bewildering yet exhilarating stage of disruption and continuity between today and yesterday, homegrown and diasporic identities, and local and global interrelatedness. Additionally, it delves into the complexity of the Black literary imagination and its interaction with broader cultural contexts. Lastly, it reflects on the evolution of the African American community, its tribulations, triumphs, challenges, and prospects.
Author:
The book offers an in-depth narratological analysis of the 'Book of Orpheus' (10.1-11.84) of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Starting from fundamental aspects of narrative like time, space, and focalisation, the commentary highlights the polyphony of the various narrative levels. The complex and challenging design results from a constant oscillation between the narrator-persona of Ovid and the programmatic Orpheus-figure which has found a wealth of interpretations. In addition, the study places the 10th book in the overall narrative framework of Ovid's Metamorphoses with its density of intertextuality and metanarrativity.
Author:
The book offers an in-depth narratological analysis of the 'Book of Orpheus' (10.1-11.84) of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Starting from fundamental aspects of narrative like time, space, and focalisation, the commentary highlights the polyphony of the various narrative levels. The complex and challenging design results from a constant oscillation between the narrator-persona of Ovid and the programmatic Orpheus-figure which has found a wealth of interpretations. In addition, the study places the 10th book in the overall narrative framework of Ovid's Metamorphoses with its density of intertextuality and metanarrativity.