Dokument: Brutal Narratives, Savage Figures: On the Matter of Violence in Postmodern American Literature and Literary Criticism

Titel:	Brutal Narratives, Savage Figures: On the Matter of Violence in Postmodern American Literature and Literary Criticism
URL für Lesezeichen:	https://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DocumentServlet?id=12205
URN (NBN):	urn:nbn:de:hbz:061-20090730-105932-8
Kollektion:	Dissertationen
Sprache:	Englisch
Dokumententyp:	Wissenschaftliche Abschlussarbeiten » Dissertation
Medientyp:	Text
Autor:	Dr. phil Martin, J. [Autor]
Dateien:	[Dateien anzeigen] Adobe PDF [Details] 4,97 MB in einer Datei [ZIP-Datei erzeugen] Dateien vom 21.07.2009 / geändert 22.07.2009
Beitragende:	Prof. Dr. Friedl, Herwig [Gutachter] Prof. Dr. Seidel, Therese [Gutachter]
Stichwörter:	violence, american literature, postmodern literature, cyberpunk, literary criticism, critical theory, deconstruction, figurative language, myth, iteration, repetition, loop, frame, fragmentation, tropes, irony, genocide, holocaust, wartime journalism
Dewey Dezimal-Klassifikation:	800 Literatur » 810 Englische Literatur Amerikas
Beschreibung:	This thesis explores “violence,” in the sense of narrative and figurative expressions of inflicting physical harm, in postmodern literary texts by John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, Kathy Acker, and William Gibson, and in postmodern critical texts by Paul de Man, Barbara Johnson, J. Hillis Miller, Jonathan Culler, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. METHOD: The approach combines a thematic reading with a postmodern, or deconstructive, reading. Violence as a theme is investigated in the texts on the narrative level, the figurative level, and on several layers of critical and public discourse. To this end, literary as well as critical postmodern texts were selected, to be examined on an equal footing, and complemented by documents of public reception where narrative and figurative forms of violence are involved that seem to mirror, or reproduce, certain forms of violence encountered in the texts. The investigation of both literary and critical texts has been undertaken under the assumption that there exists a common set of perspectives relating to postmodernism as a period, and that for each of the aforementioned levels, corresponding characteristics can be found in both kinds of texts that would shed light not only on the workings of violence in postmodern literature and literary criticism, but on postmodern thought in general. RESULTS: It has been found that occurrences of violence in both perpetuation of ideology; the reproduction of patterns; the willful disruption of writing literary and critical postmodern texts strongly center around the origin and performative language; and the question of ethics and what counts as human. Along and reading habits; the self-conscious focus on the use of figurative and these lines, it became clear that both “playfulness” and “irresponsibility,” from which postmodern texts allegedly suffer, turn out to be serious practices where ethical frameworks are tested and political and cultural criticism is articulated.
Quelle:	John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, Kathy Acker, William Gibson, Paul de Man, Barbara Johnson, Jonathan Culler, J. Hillis Miller, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Lizenz:	Urheberrechtsschutz
Bezug:	1957-2006
Fachbereich / Einrichtung:	Philosophische Fakultät » Anglistisches Institut » Amerika-Studien (II)
Dokument erstellt am:	30.07.2009
Dateien geändert am:	22.07.2009
Promotionsantrag am:	01.04.2009
Datum der Promotion:	13.07.2009