Jonathan Franzen's Freedom
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David Foster Wallace on the Good Life
10/31/2014Forthcoming in Freedom & Self: The Philosophy of David Foster Wallace 124 6 David Foster Wallace on the Good Life Nathan Ballantyne and Justin Tosi Dostoevsky wrote fiction about the stuff that’s really important. He wrote fiction about identity, moral value, death, will, sexual vs. spiritual love, greed, freedom, obsession, reason, faith, suicide. And he did it without ever reducing his characters to mouthpieces or his books to tracts. His concern was always what it is to be a human being—that is, how to be an actual person, someone whose life is informed by values and principles, instead of just an especially shrewd kind of self-preserving animal. —David Foster Wallace, “Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky” David Foster Wallace thought that the point of writing fiction was to explore what it is to be a 1 human being. In this essay, we argue that his writings suggest a view about what philosophers would call the good life . Wallace’s perspective is subtle and worthy of attention. We’ll contrast what Wallace says with some popular positions from moral philosophy and contemporary culture. Wallace said much about ethical matters even though he didn’t write on them formally or systematically. How then shall we distill views from his writings? Our strategy is to present Wallace’s reactions, as found in his fiction and some essays, to three positions about the good life. We will ask what Wallace would make of those positions and thus try to triangulate his own view by reference to them. The first position we’ll explore is sometimes called ironism . -
2016 Fiction Longlist Release FINAL
RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 Contact: Sherrie Young 9:30 a.m. EDT National Book Foundation (212) 685-0261 [email protected] 2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS LONGLIST FOR FICTION The ten contenders for the National Book Award for Fiction. New York, NY (September 15, 2016) – The National Book Foundation today announced the Longlist for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. Finalists will be revealed on October 13. (Please note that this date was originally set for October 12, but has been changed to acknowledge Yom Kippur.) The Fiction Longlist includes a former National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature and two titles by former National Book Award Finalists for Fiction. The list also includes three Pulitzer Prize finalists. One title is currently shortlisted for the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and another was recently selected for Oprah’s Book Club. There is one debut novel on the list. The year’s Longlist is told from and about locations all around the world. Authors hail from and titles explore locations that range from Alaska, New Delhi, Bulgaria, and even a reimagined United States. Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad follows Cora, a fugitive slave, as she escapes the south on a literal underground railroad in a speculative historical fiction that reckons with the true legacy of liberation and escape. In a very different journey, former Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s Sweet Lamb of Heaven follows a mother as she traverses the country with her daughter, fleeing her powerful husband. What Belongs to You, a debut novel by Garth Greenwell, finds its American narrator in Sofia, Bulgaria attempting to reconcile the shame and desire bound up in his own sexuality. -
Enthymema XXIII 2019 the Sentence Is Most Important: Styles of Engagement in William T. Vollmann's Fictions
Enthymema XXIII 2019 The Sentence Is Most Important: Styles of Engagement in William T. Vollmann’s Fictions Christopher K. Coffman Boston University Abstract – William T. Vollmann frequently asserts that his ideal reader will appreci- ate the functionality and beauty of his sentences. This article begins by taking such claims seriously, and draws on both literary and rhetorical stylistics to explore some of the many ways that his texts answer to his intention to find “the right sentence for the right job.” In particular, this article argues that Vollmann’s stylistic decisions are most notable when they most directly satisfy his effort to produce texts that fos- ter empathetic knowledge, serve truth, resist abusive power, and encourage charita- ble action. Extended close analyses of passages from an early and from a mid-ca- reer text (The Rainbow Stories and Europe Central) illustrate Vollmann’s con- sistency across two decades of his career regarding choices in the areas of figura- tion (including schemes and tropes of comparison, repetition, balance, naming, and amplification), grammar, deixis, allusion, and other compositional strategies. Partic- ular attention is paid to passages that display the stylistic mechanisms underlying Vollmann’s negotiation of his texts’ moral qualities, including both the moral con- tent of the worlds represented in the texts, and the moral responsibility the texts bear with regard to their audience. The results of my analyses demonstrate that Vollmann typically prioritizes openness, critique, and dialogue not only in terms of incident and character, but also on the scale of the phrase, clause, and sentence. Ultimately, this article shows how Vollmann’s sentences serve his declared inten- tions and allow readers to recognize compatibilities between Vollmann’s works and the characteristic features of post-postmodernist writing in general. -
A NEW DIRECTION for CHICK LIT by Rachel
ABSTRACT CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING: A NEW DIRECTION FOR CHICK LIT by Rachel R. Rode Schaefer Focusing on novels published outside of the popular market, this thesis seeks to draw attention to work being published under the label of chick lit that subverts standard chick lit genre conventions. While much work has been and is being done that concentrates on popular market chick lit, such as Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996) and Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City (1996), only cursory attention is being given to transnational, minority, and religious chick lit. This thesis considers chick lit within the larger history of women’s writing in order to contextualize the genre. Since chick lit has been connected to both feminism and post-feminism in its origins, consideration of this genre as a feminist genre focuses attention on how chick lit functions as a consciousness-raising genre. CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING: A NEW DIRECTION FOR CHICK LIT A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University In partial fulfillment of Master of Arts Department of English by Rachel R. Rode Schaefer Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2015 Advisor_________________________________ Dr. Madelyn Detloff Reader__________________________________ Dr. Mary Jean Corbett Reader__________________________________ Dr. Theresa Kulbaga © Rachel R. Rode Schaefer 2015 Table of Contents Introduction: Reading Chick Lit as Consciousness-Raising Novel ................................................ 1 Project Summary ........................................................................................................................ -
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. -
Degrees of Freedom
February 2015 D of F EXPANDING COLLEGE OPPORTUNITIES for Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Californians Stanford Criminal Justice Center Chief Justice Earl Warren Stanford Law School Institute on Law and Social Policy UC Berkeley School of Law DEGREES OF FREEDOM: Expanding College Opportunities for Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Californians February 2015 A report of the Renewing Communities Initiative Acknowledgements This report was co-written by Debbie Mukamal, Rebecca Silbert, and Rebecca M. Taylor. This report is part of a larger initiative – Renewing Communities – to expand college opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated students in California. Nicole Lindahl was a contributing author; Nicole Lindahl and Laura Van Tassel also provided research assistance for this report. The research and publication of this report has been supported by the Ford Foundation. The authors thank Douglas Wood of the Ford Foundation for his vision and leadership which catapulted this report. The authors are grateful to the many people who provided information, experience, and guidance in the development of this report. These individuals are listed in Appendix A. Any errors or misstatements in this report are the responsibility of the authors; the recommendations made herein may, or may not, be supported by the individuals listed in Appendix A. Founded in 2005, the Stanford Criminal Justice Center serves as a research and policy institute on issues related to the criminal justice system. Its efforts are geared towards both generating policy research for the public sector, as well as providing pedagogical opportunities to Stanford Law School students with academic or career interests in criminal law and crime policy. -
Form and Ideology in Jonathan Franzen's Fiction
Universidad de Córdoba Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana The Romance of Community: Form and Ideology in Jonathan Franzen’s Fiction Tesis doctoral presentada por Jesús Blanco Hidalga Dirigida por Dr. Julián Jiménez Heffernan Dra. Paula Martín Salván VºBº Directores de la Tesis Doctoral Fdo. El Doctorando Dr. Julián Jiménez Heffernan Jesús Blanco Hidalga Dra. Paula Martín Salván Córdoba, 2015 TITULO: The Romance of Community: Form and Ideology in Jonathan Frazen's Fiction AUTOR: Jesús Blanco Hidalga © Edita: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Córdoba. 2015 Campus de Rabanales Ctra. Nacional IV, Km. 396 A 14071 Córdoba www.uco.es/publicaciones [email protected] Index: Description of contents: Aim, scope and structure of this work………………………...5 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….14 1.1. Justification of this work…………………………………………………...14 1.2. The narrative of conversion………………………………………………..15 1.3. Theoretical coordinates and critical procedures…………………………...24 1.3.1. Socially symbolic narratives……………………………….……..26 1.3.2. The question of realism: clarifying terms………………….……..33 1.3.3. Realism, contingency and the weight of inherited forms………...35 1.3.4. Realism, totality and late capitalism……………………….……..39 1.3.5. The problem of perspective………………………………………43 1.4. Community issues………………………………………………………….48 2. The critical reception of Jonathan Franzen’s novels………………………………...53 2.1. Introduction: a controversial novelist.……………………………………..53 2.2. Early fiction: The Twenty-Seventh City and Strong Motion……………….56 2.3. The Corrections and the Oprahgate……………………………………….60 2.4. Hybrid modes and postmodern uncertainties……………………...………66 2.5. The art of engagement…..………………………………………...……….75 2.6. Freedom as the latest Great American Novel?.............................................81 2.7. Latest critical references…………………………………………………...89 2.8. -
Ambivalence in the Fiction of Jonathan Franzen and Amitav Ghosh
Durham E-Theses The View from Somewhere: Ambivalence in The Fiction of Jonathan Franzen and Amitav Ghosh CHOU, MEGUMI,GRACE How to cite: CHOU, MEGUMI,GRACE (2019) The View from Somewhere: Ambivalence in The Fiction of Jonathan Franzen and Amitav Ghosh, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13619/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 The View from Somewhere: Ambivalence in The Fiction of Jonathan Franzen and Amitav Ghosh Megumi Grace Chou Submitted for: M.A. by Research Department of English Studies, University of Durham November 2019 Thesis Abstract This thesis seeks to understand experiential ambivalence in the later works of American novelist Jonathan Franzen (1959-) and Indian writer of English Amitav Ghosh (1956-). Both authors note that there is an uncertainty and resistance inherent to our experience of the world, as rooted in contested notions of the past. -
Civil Rights in Brooklyn Primary Source Packet
CIVIL RIGHTS IN BROOKLYN PRIMARY SOURCE PACKET Student Name Civil Rights in Brooklyn Primary Source Packet INTRODUCTORY READING Murphy, Brendan. “Civil Rights Professional Development Packet for Teachers.” Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library. The Civil Rights Movement in Brooklyn The Civil Rights Movement is typically associated with the Black Freedom Movement from the mid- 1950s through the 1960s. However, the movement started much earlier than that. In the early twentieth century, African Americans organized groups such as the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Though these groups were incredibly important, it was the experiences of African American men and women during World War II that reshaped how they viewed their opportunities and rights. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panthers were among the important civil rights organizations born from that experience. CORE played a major role in transforming what began as a movement for racial equality just in the military into a broader social movement for racial equality. CORE was a national, interracial organization with a commitment to nonviolent direct action, which became a major force in the struggle to end discrimination in the United States from 1942 through the 1960s. While the group raised awareness of civil rights campaigns in the south to end segregation, CORE also made clear that the problem of discrimination was equally a northern problem. Chapters of CORE were established in New York including: Bronx CORE, Harlem CORE, Lower East Side CORE, Queens CORE, and Brooklyn CORE. Ministers from black churches and local Brooklynites also joined the effort. -
Another Franzen Detractor
SEARCH Advertisements for Himself Printer friendly by James Wolcott Post date 11.27.02 | Issue date 12.02.02 E-mail this article How to Be Alone ADVERTISEMENT by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 278 pp., $24) Click here to purchase the book. Noel Coward had a talent to amuse. Jonathan Franzen has the knack to annoy. Is it a conscious gift? Is he aware of how grating his pleaful moans and hopeful sighs have become? (It's like a snore turned inside out.) Or is he intentionally irritating us, passive-aggressively wearing down his readers' resistance until we finally crack and agree with what he thinks and, more importantly, how he feels? How he felt in the 1990s was melancholy. The country was partying, but he was gnawing on a dry bone. He evokes his sunken condition with a litany of "d" Martin Peretz words: darkness, depression, despair ("My despair about the American Franklin Foer novel began in the winter of 1991..."). The good news delivered by How Leon Wieseltier to Be Alone for anyone who cares is that Franzen's downbeat mood has Peter Beinart more... begun to lift. No longer a miserabilist, Franzen has made a separate peace with the anachronistic calling of being a serious writer in America, a lighthouse keeper who refuses to desert his post. In the personal essays that make up his first collection (which includes a couple of straight reporting pieces to give the book some fiber content), Franzen fuses the roles of fiction writer, social commentator, and concerned citizen, qualifying earlier positions and making amends for being an impetuous hothead in his Shelleyan youth. -
Writing the Nation: a Concise Introduction to American Literature
Writing the Nation A CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO AMERIcaN LITERATURE 1 8 6 5 TO P RESENT Amy Berke, PhD Robert R. Bleil, PhD Jordan Cofer, PhD Doug Davis, PhD Writing the Nation A CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO AMERIcaN LITERATURE 1 8 6 5 TO P RESENT Amy Berke, PhD Robert R. Bleil, PhD Jordan Cofer, PhD Doug Davis, PhD Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature—1865 to Present is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This license allows you to remix, tweak, and build upon this work, even commercially, as long as you credit this original source for the creation and license the new creation under identical terms. If you reuse this content elsewhere, in order to comply with the attribution requirements of the license please attribute the original source to the University System of Georgia. NOTE: The above copyright license which University System of Georgia uses for their original content does not extend to or include content which was accessed and incorporated, and which is licensed under various other CC Licenses, such as ND licenses. Nor does it extend to or include any Special Permissions which were granted to us by the rightsholders for our use of their content. Image Disclaimer: All images and figures in this book are believed to be (after a reasonable investigation) either public domain or carry a compatible Creative Commons license. If you are the copyright owner of images in this book and you have not authorized the use of your work under these terms, please contact the University of North Georgia Press at [email protected] to have the content removed. -
The Classical Bildungsroman As an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813–1924)
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2020 The Remnants of Harmonious Bildungs: The Classical Bildungsroman as an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813–1924) Anne E. McFadden The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3579 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE REMNANTS OF HARMONIOUS BILDUNGS: THE CLASSICAL BILDUNSROMAN AS AN ONTOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF THE NOVEL OF COUNTER-DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND FROM JANE AUSTEN TO FORD MADOX FORD (1813-1924) By ANNE E. MCFADDEN A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2020 ©2020 Anne E. McFadden iii The Remnants of Harmonious Bildungs: The Classical Bildungsroman as an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813-1924) By Anne E. McFadden This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirements for the degree in English ____________________ ___________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee ____________________ ____________________________________ Date Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Richard Kaye Alan Vardy Tanya Agathocleous The City University of New York iv ABSTRACT The Remnants of Harmonious Bildungs: The Classical Bildungsroman as an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813-1924) By Anne E.