DOCSLIB.ORG

Sara L. Pfaff English Department, Brown University Box 1852, Providence, RI 02912 Phone: (586) 596-7130 Email: Sara [email protected]

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sara L. Pfaff English Department, Brown University Box 1852, Providence, RI 02912 Phone: (586) 596-7130 Email: Sara Pfaff@Brown.Edu Sara L. Pfaff English Department, Brown University Box 1852, Providence, RI 02912 phone: (586) 596-7130 email: [email protected] Education: Brown University, Providence, RI 2008— Ph.D., English, completion May 2016 M.A., English, May 2010 Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 2003—2008 B.A., English, May 2008 B.A., History, May 2008 Dissertation: “Pluralism and Pathology in Ethnic American Fiction” explores the political implications of alternative configurations of multiethnic communities in American literature since 1965. In particular, my project examines how tropes of pathology and disease reflect—not just bodies that are in transition—but also communities and individuals that are increasingly interconnected, interdependent, and metastable. The pathological and ailing body functions as a literary device that advocates for the centrality of contingency and adaptation within ethnic, political, and social forms of belonging. I argue that this emphasis on contingent identity troubles the reified identity forms disseminated by nationalist ideologies and introduces alternative forms of belonging based in liminality, uncertainty, and debate. Tropes of pathological embodiment in the novels of N. Scott Momaday, John A. Williams, John E. Wideman, Louise Erdrich, Paul Beatty, Sherman Alexie, and Colson Whitehead thus provide a vital critique of (and alternative to) dominant ideologies of multiculturalism, which have recently been shown as reinforcing, rather than rectifying, racial inequality. This project explains how this literary device is congruent with a refashioning of multiculturalism in literary criticism; and analyzes how contingent configurations of identity are compatible with the rise of pluralism in emerging political, scientific, and cultural theory. Chair: Rolland Murray Committee: Professors Daniel Kim and Ralph Rodriguez Publications: “‘The slack string is just a slack string’: Neoformalist Networks in The White Boy Shuffle”. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 26.2 (2015). Pp106-127. Sara L. Pfaff, CV - 2 Papers Presented: “‘That Persistent Mind-Body Problem’: Timeless Bodies of Pluralism in Colson Whitehead’s Novels”. Northeast Modern Language Association Convention. Harrisburg, PA. April 2014. “The ‘blood magic’ of Ralph Ellison’s Three Days Before the Shooting”. Futures of American Studies Institute. Hanover, NH. June 2013. “‘The slack string is just a slack string’: Network and Translation in The White Boy Shuffle”. American Comparative Literature Association Conference. Providence, RI. April 2012. “Queer Phenomenologies: Placelessness and Queertopia in Inherent Vice” (pre-circulated). Cityscapes and Fiction Conference, Providence, RI. April 2010. “Munro, Sideshadowing, and Biopolitical Subjectivity”. Annual Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities Conference, Providence, RI. March 2010. Fellowships and Grants: Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America Graduate Fellowship (2015-16) Brown University Dissertation Fellowship; Brown University (2011-13) Brown University Graduate School Conference Travel Grant (2012) Mellon Graduate Workshop Grant; Brown University (2010-2013) Brown University Teaching Fellowship; Brown University (2009-2011) Brown University Fellowship; Brown University (2008-2009) Joseph and Mary Yelda Scholarship; Wayne State University (2007-2008) Mark and Linee Diem Scholarship; Wayne State University (2007-2008) Abraham Borman Scholarship; Wayne State University (2006-2007) Dustin Rose Memorial Scholarship; Wayne State University (2005-2006) Michigan Merit Award; State of Michigan (2003-2005) Robert C. Byrd Scholarship; State of Michigan (2003-2005) Wayne State University Presidential Scholarship; Wayne State University (2003-2007) Research and Teaching Interests: African American and Native American literature, American literature of the twentieth century, Identity Politics, Science and Literature, Political Theories of Liberalism, Composition and Writing. Teaching Experience: Brown University, Graduate Student Instructor Writing the Expository Essay (2015), Department of Continuing Studies Writing the Analytic Essay (2013-14), Department of Continuing Studies 3 Putting Yourself into Words (2013), Department of Continuing Studies Wolf Like Me: Retroviral Anxiety in American Literature (2011), Department of English The Academic Essay as Ophthalmology (2010), Non-Fiction Writing Program Brown University, Teaching Assistant Love, Horror, Beauties, Monsters: Writing about Literature by Reading Below the Surface (2014-15), Instructor David Babcock, Department of Continuing Studies Writing for College and Beyond (2011), Instructor Khristina Gonzalez, Department of Continuing Studies Online Program Cultures and Countercultures (2010), Professor Deak Nabers, Department of English Literature of the American Renaissance (2009), Professor Deak Nabers, Department of English Brown University, Additional Teaching Experience Writing Center Associate, 2008-13 Sheridan Center Certificate 1 Program, 2010 Wayne State University, Tutor Detroit Fellows Tutoring Project, 2004-05 Academic Service: Mentor, “Excellence at Brown”: Intensive Writing for Incoming Freshmen (2010-13) Co-chair, English Department Graduate Student Forum, (2011-12) Co-chair, Graduate Student Lecture Committee (2010) Professional Affiliations: Modern Language Association The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States American Comparative Literature Association .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Monica Ali Isabel Allende Martin Amis Kurt Andersen K
    Writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Monica Ali Isabel Allende Martin Amis Kurt Andersen K. A. Applegate Jeffrey Archer Diana Athill Paul Auster Wasi Ahmed Victoria Aveyard Kevin Baker Mark Allen Baker Nicholson Baker Iain Banks Russell Banks Julian Barnes Andrea Barrett Max Barry Sebastian Barry Louis Bayard Peter Behrens Elizabeth Berg Wendell Berry Maeve Binchy Dustin Lance Black Holly Black Amy Bloom Chris Bohjalian Roberto Bolano S. J. Bolton William Boyd T. C. Boyle John Boyne Paula Brackston Adam Braver Libba Bray Alan Brennert Andre Brink Max Brooks Dan Brown Don Brown www.downloadexcelfiles.com Christopher Buckley John Burdett James Lee Burke Augusten Burroughs A. S. Byatt Bhalchandra Nemade Peter Cameron W. Bruce Cameron Jacqueline Carey Peter Carey Ron Carlson Stephen L. Carter Eleanor Catton Michael Chabon Diane Chamberlain Jung Chang Kate Christensen Dan Chaon Kelly Cherry Tracy Chevalier Noam Chomsky Tom Clancy Cassandra Clare Susanna Clarke Chris Cleave Ernest Cline Harlan Coben Paulo Coelho J. M. Coetzee Eoin Colfer Suzanne Collins Michael Connelly Pat Conroy Claire Cook Bernard Cornwell Douglas Coupland Michael Cox Jim Crace Michael Crichton Justin Cronin John Crowley Clive Cussler Fred D'Aguiar www.downloadexcelfiles.com Sandra Dallas Edwidge Danticat Kathryn Davis Richard Dawkins Jonathan Dee Frank Delaney Charles de Lint Tatiana de Rosnay Kiran Desai Pete Dexter Anita Diamant Junot Diaz Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni E. L. Doctorow Ivan Doig Stephen R. Donaldson Sara Donati Jennifer Donnelly Emma Donoghue Keith Donohue Roddy Doyle Margaret Drabble Dinesh D'Souza John Dufresne Sarah Dunant Helen Dunmore Mark Dunn James Dashner Elisabetta Dami Jennifer Egan Dave Eggers Tan Twan Eng Louise Erdrich Eugene Dubois Diana Evans Percival Everett J.
    [Show full text]
  • 11 Th Grade American Literature Summer Assignment (2019­2020 School Y Ear)
    6/26/2019 American Lit Summer Reading 2019-20 - Google Docs 11 th Grade American Literature Summer Assignment (2019­2020 School Y ear) Welcome to American Literature! This summer assignment is meant to keep your reading and writing skills fresh. You should choose carefully —select books that will be interesting and enjoyable for you. Any assignments that do not follow directions exactly will not be accepted. This assignment is due Friday, August 16, 2019 to your American Literature Teacher. This will count as your first formative grade and be used as a diagnostic for your writing ability. Directions: For your summer assignment, please choose o ne of the following books to read. You can choose if your book is Fiction or Nonfiction. Fiction Choices Nonfiction Choices Catch 22 by Joseph Heller The satirical story of a WWII soldier who The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs. An account thinks everyone is trying to kill him and hatches plot after plot to keep of a young African‑American man who escaped Newark, NJ, to attend from having to fly planes again. Yale, but still faced the dangers of the streets when he returned is, Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison The story of an abusive “nuanced and shattering” ( People ) and “mesmeric” ( The New York Southern childhood. Times Book Review ) . The Known World by Edward P. Jones The story of a black, slave Outliers / Blink / The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Fascinating owning family. statistical studies of everyday phenomena. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway A young American The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston There is an anti‑fascist guerilla in the Spanish civil war falls in love with a complex outbreak of ebola virus in an American lab, and other stories of germs woman.
    [Show full text]
  • Jesmyn Ward, ​Salvage the Bones Alice Walker, ​The Color Purple Ernest Gaines, A​ Lesson Before Dying Colson Whitehead, ​The Intuitionist Yaa Gyasi, ​Homegoing N
    June 2020 Dear ​11th and 12th​ U.S. Literature Students, The following is your summer reading list. I have provided several fiction and nonfiction books as options. You are required to read ​two (2) books​ this summer, ​three (3) books​ if you plan to take Honors​. You will have individual writing assignments based on your summer reading and follow up discussions in August/September. Honors students will present multimedia reflections on their chosen texts. All of these assignments will be part of your first semester grade for U.S. Literature. You can find these books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, Half Priced Books, Google Play Books, etc. (see used copies), or e-copies at your local libraries (until libraries reopen). They can also be found as audio books (Audible), so you may elect to listen to the story being read aloud as you follow along, if that helps you. Fiction Toni Morrison, ​Beloved Richard Wright, ​Native Son Jesmyn Ward, ​Salvage the Bones Alice Walker, ​The Color Purple Ernest Gaines, ​A Lesson Before Dying Colson Whitehead, ​The Intuitionist Yaa Gyasi, ​Homegoing N. Scott Momaday, ​House Made of Dawn Jhumpa Lahiri, ​Interpreter of Maladies Randy Ribay, ​Patron Saints of Nothing Mario Alberto Zambrano, ​Lotería Erika L. Sánchez, ​I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Elizabeth Acevedo, ​The Poet X Nonfiction Joan Didion, ​Where I Was From Domingo Martinez, ​The Boy Kings of Texas Mohammed Ghassan Farjia, ​The Layman’s Guide to Climate Change Kwame Alexander, ​The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in this Game Called Life Janet Gurtler, ​You Too? Matthew Desmond, ​Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Robert Pirsig, ​Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Best wishes, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • AP Literature and Composition 2017 Summer Reading List and Writing Assignment
    AP Literature and Composition 2017 Summer Reading List and Writing Assignment Mr. Preston [email protected] aplit11.blogspot.com Greetings and salutations! (That’s from Charlotte’s Web, which I encourage everyone to (re)read.) You’ve signed up for AP Literature, a course that aims to provide the experience of—and prepare you for—a college-level English course. To that end, the summer assignment will give you some preparation for the kind of reading you’ll encounter and the type of thinking you’ll need to apply to that reading. This is meant to be a challenging class, but if you throw yourself into it and accept the responsibility for your own learning, you’ll have a great time. AP Literature isn’t just about reading wonderful literature; it’s about encountering writers who are trying to connect with you across time and space, reflecting on how those writers employ language and ideas, and finding ways in discussion and print to both examine and more deeply appreciate the works of those writers. When I took this course in high school nearly 40 years ago ( . oh, man . ), I already enjoyed reading, and I’d been writing short stories for years, but AP Lit provided the texts—and the ways of thinking about those texts—that forever changed reading and writing for me . and forever changed me. I’m enthusiastic about this course because I know what can happen when you open yourself up to an artist’s vision and ideas. Required Reading The Art of Fiction, David Lodge Read this book first.
    [Show full text]
  • Moving Ever Forward: Reading the Significance of Motion and Space
    MOVING EVER FORWARD: READING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MOTION AND SPACE AS A REPRESENTATION OF TRAUMA IN TONI MORRISON’S SONG OF SOLOMON AND COLSON WHITEHEAD’S THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Samantha Richmond A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL May 2017 Copyright by Samantha Richmond 2017 ii i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express deepest gratitude to my thesis chair, Dr. Andrew Furman, for his guidance throughout this process. I would like to thank Dr. Sika Dagbovie-Mullins for insightful suggestions and guidance towards critical texts that really deepened my understanding of these theoretical fields. Thank you to Dr. Adam Spry for advice and helpful suggestions in the editing stage of this manuscript. Thank you to my wonderful and supportive family: Sandra Jae, Donald, and Tony for their constant love and support during the writing of this thesis (and every other part of my life). A huge thank you to my friends in the English department who were my support, my solace, and my guides, especially: Advitiya, Rachel, Jenn, Jess, and Ashely. iv ABSTRACT Author: Samantha Richmond Title: Moving Ever Forward: Reading the Significance of Motion and Space as a Representation of Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Andrew Furman Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2017 This thesis argues that three models of trauma theory, which include traditional trauma theory, postcolonial trauma theory, and cultural trauma theory, must be joined to fully understand the trauma experienced by African Americans within the novels Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
    [Show full text]
  • Addition to Summer Letter
    May 2020 Dear Student, You are enrolled in Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition for the coming school year. Bowling Green High School has offered this course since 1983. I thought that I would tell you a little bit about the course and what will be expected of you. Please share this letter with your parents or guardians. A.P. Literature and Composition is a year-long class that is taught on a college freshman level. This means that we will read college level texts—often from college anthologies—and we will deal with other materials generally taught in college. You should be advised that some of these texts are sophisticated and contain mature themes and/or advanced levels of difficulty. In this class we will concentrate on refining reading, writing, and critical analysis skills, as well as personal reactions to literature. A.P. Literature is not a survey course or a history of literature course so instead of studying English and world literature chronologically, we will be studying a mix of classic and contemporary pieces of fiction from all eras and from diverse cultures. This gives us an opportunity to develop more than a superficial understanding of literary works and their ideas. Writing is at the heart of this A.P. course, so you will write often in journals, in both personal and researched essays, and in creative responses. You will need to revise your writing. I have found that even good students—like you—need to refine, mature, and improve their writing skills. You will have to work diligently at revising major essays.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson Plan for Teaching Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad"
    Swarthmore College Works English Literature Faculty Works English Literature Spring 2019 Lesson Plan For Teaching Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" Amelia Tomei , '19 Peter Schmidt Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-english-lit Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Amelia Tomei , '19 and Peter Schmidt. (2019). "Lesson Plan For Teaching Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad"". English Literature Faculty Works. DOI: 10.24968/2476-2458.engl.357 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-english-lit/357 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Literature Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tomei Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad: Lesson Plan Lesson Plan for Teaching Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad By Amelia Tomei ’19 / Swarthmore College / Spring 2019 A project completed for Professor Schmidt’s English 052C, “Towards a More Perfect Union: Contemporary U.S. Fiction” / Swarthmore College Learning Goals: students will… • Understand how the narrator guides reader’s interpretation of the story • Understand how to read dialogue and how it contributes to characterization • Explore the complexity of the themes present in the story and the characters Whitehead has created • Understand how to annotate key references to things outside of the text and apply these back to the main text Necessary Preparation: The teacher should have familiarized him or herself with Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad before the first lesson.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Honors a Distinguished Work of Fiction by an American Author, Preferably Dealing with American Life
    Pulitzer Prize Winners Named after Hungarian newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction honors a distinguished work of fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. Chosen from a selection of 800 titles by five letter juries since 1918, the award has become one of the most prestigious awards in America for fiction. Holdings found in the library are featured in red. 2017 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016 The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 2013: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 2012: No prize (no majority vote reached) 2011: A visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010:Tinkers by Paul Harding 2009:Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008:The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 2007:The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2006:March by Geraldine Brooks 2005 Gilead: A Novel, by Marilynne Robinson 2004 The Known World by Edward Jones 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo 2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham 1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth 1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Stephan Milhauser 1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford 1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields 1994 The Shipping News by E. Anne Proulx 1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
    [Show full text]
  • Texas Book Festival and Bookpeople to Host “Colson Whitehead Presents the Nickel Boys” on ​ ​ July 23
    TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL AND BOOKPEOPLE TO HOST “COLSON WHITEHEAD PRESENTS THE NICKEL BOYS” ON ​ ​ JULY 23 Book Tickets Available Now WHAT: Texas Book Festival and BookPeople, in partnership with Black Studies at UT, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ are proud to present Colson Whitehead as he presents his new book, The Nickel Boys, on ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Tuesday, July 23 at 7 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Austin. Tickets are now available for ​ and include a pre-signed copy of The Nickel Boys. ​ ​ ​ In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York ​ Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of ​ ​ ​ American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a ​ ​ devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers. Tickets to the event at First Baptist Church of Austin are required and are on sale now through BookPeople. Tickets are $28 and include one seat at the event and one pre-signed copy of The ​ Nickel Boys. Books will be available for pick up at the event and will not be available at ​ BookPeople beforehand. For more information on the Texas Book Festival, please visit www.texasbookfestival.org and ​ ​ follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @texasbookfest. WHEN: Tuesday, July 23, at 7 p.m. | Doors open at 6 p.m.
    [Show full text]
  • Award Winners
    Award Winners Agatha Awards 1992 Boot Legger’s Daughter 2005 Dread in the Beast Best Contemporary Novel by Margaret Maron by Charlee Jacob (Formerly Best Novel) 1991 I.O.U. by Nancy Pickard 2005 Creepers by David Morrell 1990 Bum Steer by Nancy Pickard 2004 In the Night Room by Peter 2019 The Long Call by Ann 1989 Naked Once More Straub Cleeves by Elizabeth Peters 2003 Lost Boy Lost Girl by Peter 2018 Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen 1988 Something Wicked Straub Byron by Carolyn G. Hart 2002 The Night Class by Tom 2017 Glass Houses by Louise Piccirilli Penny Best Historical Mystery 2001 American Gods by Neil 2016 A Great Reckoning by Louise Gaiman Penny 2019 Charity’s Burden by Edith 2000 The Traveling Vampire Show 2015 Long Upon the Land Maxwell by Richard Laymon by Margaret Maron 2018 The Widows of Malabar Hill 1999 Mr. X by Peter Straub 2014 Truth be Told by Hank by Sujata Massey 1998 Bag of Bones by Stephen Philippi Ryan 2017 In Farleigh Field by Rhys King 2013 The Wrong Girl by Hank Bowen 1997 Children of the Dusk Philippi Ryan 2016 The Reek of Red Herrings by Janet Berliner 2012 The Beautiful Mystery by by Catriona McPherson 1996 The Green Mile by Stephen Louise Penny 2015 Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King 2011 Three-Day Town by Margaret King 1995 Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates Maron 2014 Queen of Hearts by Rhys 1994 Dead in the Water by Nancy 2010 Bury Your Dead by Louise Bowen Holder Penny 2013 A Question of Honor 1993 The Throat by Peter Straub 2009 The Brutal Telling by Louise by Charles Todd 1992 Blood of the Lamb by Penny 2012 Dandy Gilver and an Thomas F.
    [Show full text]
  • Afrosurreal and Afrofuturistic Cinematic Storytelling in Junot Díaz's the Brief Wao and Colson Whitehead's Zone
    Pivot is published through Open Journal Systems (OJS) at York University Abstract: The recent explosion of interest in black speculative fiction necessitates study of these new, innovative texts. Afro-Surrealism – a form of black speculative fiction that began in the 1920s, gained popularity in the 1960s, and has now entered a third wave – closely mirrors its aesthetic cousin Afro-Futurism in its incorporation of technology into various texts. Both Afro-Surrealism and Afro-Futurism have sparked an outpouring of visual Afro­Surreal and art, music, books, websites, and films, Afrofuturistic but these movements have more importantly Cinematic reinvigorated the novel by integrating filmic storytelling Storytelling in Junot techniques (e.g. jump cuts, montages). These narrative Díaz’s The Brief changes, coupled with frequent references to film, reveal how Wondrous Life of Oscar some black writers are rethinking technology. For the Wao and Colson Afro-Surrealist, borrowing from film’s Whitehead’s Zone visual technologies allows for a more meaningful retelling One of history, while, for the Afro-Futurist, Rochelle Spencer cinematic writing represents people of colour’s ability to work as technological innovators and creators. This paper positions Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as the representative third-wave Afro-Surrealist text and Colson Whitehead’s Zone One as the representative Afro-Futurist text. Afro-Surreal and Afrofuturistic Cinematic Storytelling Pivot 5.1 [F]ilmmaking walks a line between fiction and nonfiction that I think of as Afrosurrealist. When experimental films are doing their most exciting work they are delving into an interior, they are introspective and they explore the past an as imaginary.
    [Show full text]
  • Pynchon's Bequest
    Pynchon’s Bequest Robert L. McLaughlin Stephen J. Burn and Peter Dempsey, eds. Intersections: Essays on Richard Powers. Champaign: Dalkey Archive P, 2008. Paper, xxxix + 336. $29.95. Although Thomas Pynchon has famously avoided the spotlight, he and his work—especially Gravity’s Rainbow—nevertheless cast a large shadow over contemporary American fiction. In a Bloomian anxiety of influence, a subsequent generation of fiction writers—I’m thinking of writers like the late David Foster Wallace, William T. Vollmann, Rick Moody, Bradford Morrow, Mary Caponegro, Michael Chabon, A. M. Homes, Colson Whitehead, and the subject of the collection of essays under review, Richard Powers—has been inspired to write by Pynchon’s great novels but has also sought to find a way out from under their shadow. This anxiety is made more acute by the concomitant sense that the postmodernism exemplified by Pynchon and his fellow experimental writers of the sixties and seventies (Barth, Coover, Sorrentino, Gaddis, Barthelme, Reed, and so on) has reached something of a dead end. That is, postmodernism’s consciousness of language, its iconoclasm, and its questioning of all master narratives, which in the 1960s played an important role in exposing and debunking many long-held social conceits and hypocrisies, by the late 1980s and 1990s had devolved into an all-purpose irony, the rolling of the eye and the nudging in the ribs that mocks any assertion that eschews irony’s game and aspires to sincerity. As Wallace explained in a 1993 interview with Larry McCaffery, “Irony’s useful for debunking illusions, but most of the illusion-debunking in the U.S.
    [Show full text]