Charting a new course in the criticism of postwar fiction, Cool
Characters examines the changing status of irony in American
cultural and political life from World War II to the present,
showing how irony migrated from the countercultural margins of the
1950s to the cultural mainstream of the 1980s. Along the way, irony
was absorbed into postmodern theory and ultimately became a target
of recent writers who have sought to create a practice of
"postirony" that might move beyond its limitations. As a concept,
irony has been theorized from countless angles, but Cool Characters
argues that it is best understood as an ethos: an attitude or
orientation toward the world, embodied in different character
types, articulated via literary style. Lee Konstantinou traces five
such types-the hipster, the punk, the believer, the coolhunter, and
the occupier-in new interpretations of works by authors including
Ralph Ellison, William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Kathy Acker,
Dave Eggers, William Gibson, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Lethem, and
Rachel Kushner. For earlier generations of writers, irony was
something vital to be embraced, but beginning most dramatically
with David Foster Wallace, dissatisfaction with irony, especially
with its alleged tendency to promote cynicism and political
passivity, gained force. Postirony-the endpoint in an arc that
begins with naive belief, passes through irony, and arrives at a
new form of contingent conviction-illuminates the literary
environment that has flourished in the United States since the
1990s.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
