Overview

Identity, Politics and the Novel is a diverse and wide-ranging book that offers an innovative and unique approach to several works by four critically acclaimed novelists: Milan Kundera, Ian McEwan, Michel Houellebecq, and J. M. Coetzee. Drawing from classical and contemporary political, philosophical, and social theory—including foundational texts by Adorno, Aquinas, Camus, Hegel, and Nietzsche—Ian Fraser tracks these novelists’ use of the aesthetic self and, in turn,  develops the notion of a Marxist aesthetic identity through the medium of contemporary fiction.

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9780708326060

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Reviews

This is a brave and ambitious book that combines theoretical sophistication with a direct, positive engagement with literature. It offers a critical engagement with outstanding examples of contemporary literature, with a view to identifying how works by Kundera, McEwan, Houellebecq, and Coetzee present aspects of an aesthetic self, engendering epiphanic responses that allow for radical and intense changes in political and philosophical awareness. The readings of the novels are direct, plausible, and informed by considerable philosophical acuity. This is a book that is well worth reading. --Gary Browning, Oxford Brookes University This is a brave and ambitious book that combines theoretical sophistication with a direct, positive engagement with literature. It offers a critical engagement with outstanding examples of contemporary literature, with a view to identifying how works by Kundera, McEwan, Houellebecq, and Coetzee present aspects of an aesthetic self, engendering epiphanic responses that allow for radical and intense changes in political and philosophical awareness. The readings of the novels are direct, plausible, and informed by considerable philosophical acuity. This is a book that is well worth reading. --Gary Browning, Oxford Brookes University

This is a brave and ambitious book that combines theoretical sophistication with a direct, positive engagement with literature. It offers a critical engagement with outstanding examples of contemporary literature, with a view to identifying how works by Kundera, McEwan, Houellebecq, and Coetzee present aspects of an aesthetic self, engendering epiphanic responses that allow for radical and intense changes in political and philosophical awareness. The readings of the novels are direct, plausible, and informed by considerable philosophical acuity. This is a book that is well worth reading. --Gary Browning, Oxford Brookes University

"""This is a brave and ambitious book that combines theoretical sophistication with a direct, positive engagement with literature. It offers a critical engagement with outstanding examples of contemporary literature, with a view to identifying how works by Kundera, McEwan, Houellebecq, and Coetzee present aspects of an aesthetic self, engendering epiphanic responses that allow for radical and intense changes in political and philosophical awareness. The readings of the novels are direct, plausible, and informed by considerable philosophical acuity. This is a book that is well worth reading.""--Gary Browning, Oxford Brookes University"

Author Information

Ian Fraser is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University.

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