Spectrality in modernist fiction /
Spectrality in Modernist Fiction argues that key modernist writers, chiefly Conrad, Forster, Butts and Bowen, use spectral rhetoric to tackle problems of sex and sexuality, revolution, imperialism, capitalism and desire all through complicated ethical engagements. These engagements invariably come p...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
[2023].
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Spectrality in Modernist Fiction argues that key modernist writers, chiefly Conrad, Forster, Butts and Bowen, use spectral rhetoric to tackle problems of sex and sexuality, revolution, imperialism, capitalism and desire all through complicated ethical engagements. These engagements invariably come packaged in, and are shaped by, the language of spectrality. In its capacity to articulate a particular sort of relationship between the past, the present and the future, the spectral concerns the basic question of how to proceed, how to live with-maybe even address-ethical indeterminacy. Whether their spectral rhetoric traces the logics of capitalist possession (Conrad), queer "friendship" and paganized Christianity (Forster), regressive politics haunted by historical traumas (Butts) or the devious passages of perverse desire (Bowen), these writers locate something like hope in their ghosts. The ethical and political impasses they chart through their spectral rhetoric are not final, but temporary, and the drive to overcome them constitutes a tensile optimism. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | vi, 197 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [185]-193) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0192888358 9780192888358 |