Nick Levey

Maximalism in Contemporary American Literature

The Uses of Detail

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

This book studies the maximalist novels of Wallace, Baker, Pynchon, and others, considering how overly-detailed writing serves the institutional, emotional, and intellectual needs of contemporary readers and writers. It argues that maximalist novels not only exceed perceived limits of style, subject matter, and scope, but strive to remake the usefulness of books in contemporary culture, refreshing the act of reading. Drawing on Thing Theory, Marxism, New Formalism, playlists, blogs, and archival manuscripts, the book proposes a new understanding of maximalist writing and a new way of approaching the usefulness of literary objects in contemporary culture.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales)
• Seitenzahl: 186
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. Dezember 2016
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 231mm x 152mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 399g
• ISBN-13: 9781138672260
• ISBN-10: 1138672262
• Artikelnr.: 49380803

Autorenporträt

Nick Levey teaches in the English Department at La Trobe University, Australia. He publishes on contemporary fiction and is currently writing about post-press literature and the rise of digital self-publishing.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction
1. Giants and Junk: Power-Reading Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow
2. On Flunking: Maximalist Description in David Foster Wallace's Infinite
Jest 94
3. Data-Sickle: Maximalism and White-Collar Aesthetics in David Foster
Wallace's The Pale King
4. Just Maximalist Things: Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine and Objects of
Curiosity
5. Housebound: Domestic Excess in Nicholson Baker's Room Temperature
6. Mindless Pleasures: Playlists, Unemployment, and Thomas Pynchon's
Inherent Vice
Conclusion: Overflow: The Margins of American Maximalism