Description
Module description
Can we discern a particular ‘structure of feeling’ to contemporary fiction? Starting from discussions on fiction beyond postmodernism, this module will examine literary developments in 21st century literature from European, Latin- and North American authors, and situate them within a broader context that is characterized by social and ecological precarity and a lack of future. The module will develop an understanding of contemporary fiction as being preoccupied with questions of feeling and bodily experience in order to make sense of the world, and will look within this larger ideological frame at specific preoccupations in contemporary fiction: a desire for the real, feelings of depression and detachment, a disturbed sense of time and historicity, and movements between narcissism and community and between a home (intimacy) and the world (political commitment).Ìý
Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýPrimary reading may include novels by Catherine Lacey, Ben Lerner, Édouard Louis, Ling Ma, Samanta Schweblin, Zadie Smith, Niña Weijers and Alejandro Zambra.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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