Literary Rooms

The Room in Contemporary US Fiction by Auster, Hustvedt, Powers, and Foer
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-662-63088-4
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 306 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 411 g

Reihe: Research

The four prose texts discussed in Literary Rooms position themselves in a literary tradition which highlights the manifold purposes the private room may serve: it is a mirror of the inhabitant, a context in which to position the self, a place of and motor for identity quests, a rich metaphor, and a second skin around the inhabitant’s physical body. Even in times of increasing globalization and urbanization, the room continues to root the inhabitant; it serves as a retreat from the world and as a place in which to (re)negotiate questions of belonging, gender, class, and ethnicity. At the same time, the room is inevitably porous and constantly oscillates between inclusion and exclusion. The literary texts examined in this book are each highly fragmented and gesture towards a fragmentation of the contemporary world out of which they have grown as well as towards an abundance of fragmented self-images. Linking the approaches of narratology, globalization, and spatial criticism,Literary Rooms argues that in order to account for the spatial properties of the room, discourses developed during the spatial turn need to be extended and reevaluated.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Christ-Pielensticker, Katharina

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.-Paul auster: the invention of solitude.- Siri hustvedt: the blindfold.- Richard powers: plowing the dark.- Jonathan safran foer: “room after room”.- Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Katharina Christ-Pielensticker earned her Magister degree in English and Italian at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, and Università di Pisa. She then joined the American Studies department of Humboldt-Universität as a PhD candidate and adjunct teacher.