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Myth in the Modern Novel: Imagining the Absolute posits a twofold
thesis. First, although Modernity is regarded as an era dominated
by science and rational thought, it has in fact not relinquished
the hold of myth, a more "primitive" form of thought which is
difficult to reconcile with modern rationality. Second, some of the
most important statements as to the reconcilability of myth and
Modernity are found in the work of certain prominent novelists.
This book offers a close examination of the work of eleven writers
from the late eighteenth century to the beginning of the
twenty-first, representing German, French, American, Czech and
Swedish literature. The analyses of individual novels reveal a
variety of intriguing views of myth in Modernity, and offer an
insight into the "modernizing" transformations myth has undergone
when applied in the modern novel. The study shows the presence of
the "subconscious", the mythic layer, in modern western culture and
how this has been dealt with in novelistic literature.
This book looks at literary historiography in Russia, Latvia, the
Czech Republic and Finland, focusing on how seismic shifts in state
politics and ideology after 1990 changed the writing of national
literary histories in these countries. While Russia saw a return to
a more nationalist way of thinking about literature and a new
emphasis on Orthodox religion after the fall of the Soviet Union,
the opposite is true for Latvia, the Czech Republic and Finland. In
these countries, literary historiography fosters connections
between Western scholarship and literatures written in the national
language, and engages with questions such as transnationalism,
minorities, culture and power, and the cultural construction of
identities. This book scrutinizes the different ways in which the
construction of national, cultural and European identities has
occurred in and through the literary historiography of
North-Eastern Europe in the last few decades.
'Bakhtin and his Others' aims to develop an understanding of
Mikhail Bakhtin's ideas through a contextual approach, particularly
with a focus on Bakhtin studies from the 1990s onward. The volume
offers fresh theoretical insights into Bakhtin's ideas on
(inter)subjectivity and temporality - including his concepts of
chronotope and literary polyphony - by reconsidering his ideas in
relation to the sources he employs, and taking into account later
research on similar topics. The case studies referred to within
this text also show how Bakhtin's ideas, when seen in light of this
method, can be constructively employed in contemporary literary
research.
This collection of essays studies the encounter between allegedly
ahistorical concepts of narrative and eighteenth-century literature
from across Europe. At issue is the question of whether the
theoretical concepts underpinning narratology are, despite their
appearance of ahistorical generality, actually derived from the
historical study of a particular period and type of literature. The
essays take on aspects of eighteenth-century texts such as plot,
genre, character, perspective, temporality, and more, coming at
them from both a narratological and a historical perspective.
While a large amount of scholarship about Milan Kundera's work
exists, in Liisa Steinby's opinion, his work has not been studied
within the context of (European) modernity as a sociohistorical and
a cultural concept. Of course, he is considered to be a modernist
writer (some call him even a postmodernist), but what the broader
concept of modernity intellectually, historically, socially, and
culturally means for him and how this is expressed in his texts has
not been thoroughly examined. Steinby's book fills this vacuum by
analysing Kundera's novels from the viewpoint of his understanding
of the existential problems in the culture of modernity. In
addition, his relation to those modernist novelists from the first
half of the twentieth century who are most important for him is
scrutinised in detail. Steinby’s Kundera and Modernity is
intended for students of modernism in literary and (comparative)
cultural studies, as well as those interested in European and
Central European studies. Key Points: Offers new insights into the
work of the popular modern writer Milan Kundera. Expands the
reader’s understanding of the meaning of the concept of
“modernity.” Widens the literature available in English about
Central European culture.
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