Overview

What is the significance of writing in the wake of postmodernism? The previous decade has seen a growing interest in criticism of postmodern ethics and aesthetics from theorists and writers. This book begins to examine what art form or critical methodology might take its place. Exploring the work of six contemporary novelists - Bret Easton Ellis, J.G. Ballard, Will Self, Michel Houellebecq, Tama Janowitz and Chuck Palahniuk - Ethics and Desire in the Wake of Postmodernism delivers a series of interventions into six key areas of contemporary debate: fear, nihilism, revolution, ethics, enjoyment and feminism. The book goes on to develop an innovative critical methodology which reinvigorates the ability of art and literature to engage in ideological critique. Rather than valorising separatism, plurality or indeterminacy, this approach delivers a critical framework which enacts a radical de-centering of the fundamental coordinates of contemporary society.

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9781472526373

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Reviews

'Ethics and Desire in the Wake of Postmodernism offers a rare combination of theoretical agility, and concentrated close reading of literary fiction. It is at once a fresh and exciting reading of six major contemporary novelists, and a reappraisal of the critical contexts within which they have been understood. In reading contemporary literature and theory together, this is an important intervention into ongoing debates about postmodernism and its afterlives.'  -- Professor Peter Boxall, University of Sussex, UK 'Graham Matthew's terrific book analyses some of the most provocative and influential works of satirical fiction from the nineties and the noughties alongside recent developments in theory. With considerable skill and élan, Matthews brings together, for example, J. G. Ballard with Hardt and Negri on middle class revolution and the multitude, Will Self and Alain Badiou on the ethics of the event, Michel Houellebecq and Slavoj Žižek on the global politics of enjoyment in order to develop a new literary critical practice for the twenty-first century. It is essential reading for followers of contemporary theory and fiction.' -- Profesor Scott Wilson, Kingston University, UK

'Ethics and Desire in the Wake of Postmodernism offers a rare combination of theoretical agility, and concentrated close reading of literary fiction. It is at once a fresh and exciting reading of six major contemporary novelists, and a reappraisal of the critical contexts within which they have been understood. In reading contemporary literature and theory together, this is an important intervention into ongoing debates about postmodernism and its afterlives.' -- Professor Peter Boxall, University of Sussex, UK 'Graham Matthew's terrific book analyses some of the most provocative and influential works of satirical fiction from the nineties and the noughties alongside recent developments in theory. With considerable skill and elan, Matthews brings together, for example, J. G. Ballard with Hardt and Negri on middle class revolution and the multitude, Will Self and Alain Badiou on the ethics of the event, Michel Houellebecq and Slavoj eiuek on the global politics of enjoyment in order to develop a new literary critical practice for the twenty-first century. It is essential reading for followers of contemporary theory and fiction.' -- Profesor Scott Wilson, Kingston University, UK

'Ethics and Desire in the Wake of Postmodernism offers a rare combination of theoretical agility, and concentrated close reading of literary fiction. It is at once a fresh and exciting reading of six major contemporary novelists, and a reappraisal of the critical contexts within which they have been understood. In reading contemporary literature and theory together, this is an important intervention into ongoing debates about postmodernism and its afterlives.' -- Professor Peter Boxall, University of Sussex, UK 'Graham Matthew's terrific book analyses some of the most provocative and influential works of satirical fiction from the nineties and the noughties alongside recent developments in theory. With considerable skill and lan, Matthews brings together, for example, J. G. Ballard with Hardt and Negri on middle class revolution and the multitude, Will Self and Alain Badiou on the ethics of the event, Michel Houellebecq and Slavoj Zizek on the global politics of enjoyment in order to develop a new literary critical practice for the twenty-first century. It is essential reading for followers of contemporary theory and fiction.' -- Profesor Scott Wilson, Kingston University, UK

Author Information

Graham Matthews is Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature at NewcastleUniversity,UK.

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