Late Imperial Romance - Couverture souple

McClure, John A

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 086091612X ISBN 13 : 9780860916123

Editeur : Verso Books, 1994

Synopsis

Late Imperial Romance Examining first the works of Joseph Conrad and then the post-war fictions of Joan Didion, Robert Stone, Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon, McClure shows how these writers create a critique of imperialism which is riddled with feelings of contamination and failed romantic heroes. Full description

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Surpassed as the world’s most vigorous capitalist manufacturer by Japan and Germany, the US now seems bound for the same rocky shores as those on which Britannia foundered at the end of the nineteenth century.

John McClure charts the course of decline, first in the works of Joseph Conrad, chronicler of high imperialism’s contradictions, then in the post-war fictions of Joan Didion, Robert Stone and Thomas Pynchon. He maps the complex field of romantic ideology where one can at once excoriate imperialist adventures and yet savor their taste. Late Imperial Romance thus pinpoints the contradictions and aporias of anti-imperial rhetoric among the high intelligentsia of the post-war US. Through close, sensitive, historically informed readings of their work, McClure shows how these writers create an emotive space in which the critique of imperialism is shadowed by a continuing entanglement with its ideology: running through these works is a basic imperialist theme which portrays the non-metropolitan world as enchanted environs where the white hero or heroine is tested—and not infrequently corrupted.

Building on work by Frederic Jameson, McClure presents a highly original and provocative account of the ideological function of romantic fictions in the late capitalist US. A model of intelligent cultural analysis, Late Imperial Romance combines skillful literary interpretation with an acute sense of the socio-historical conditions of literary production.

Biographie de l'auteur

John A. McClure is Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of Kipling and Conrad: The Colonial Fiction and Late Imperial Romance.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Verso Books
• Date d'édition: 1994
• ISBN 10: 086091612X
• ISBN 13: 9780860916123
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 200