William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion

Author:   Daniel Lukes ,  Christopher K. Coffman ,  Georg Bauer ,  Carla Bolte
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN:  

9781611495256


Pages:   378
Publication Date:   11 July 2016
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion


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Full Product Details

Author:   Daniel Lukes ,  Christopher K. Coffman ,  Georg Bauer ,  Carla Bolte
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   University of Delaware Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.10cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.20cm
Weight:   0.567kg
ISBN:  

9781611495256


ISBN 10:   1611495253
Pages:   378
Publication Date:   11 July 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword: The Chrysanthemum and the Flame Thrower Larry McCaffery Acknowledgments Introduction: Lonely Atoms Christopher K. Coffman I. Engaging People, Space and Place Chapter 1: Egalitarian Longings: The Problem with Pity and the Search for Equality in Poor People Aaron D. Chandler Interchapter: The World According to William T. Vollmann Heather Corcoran Chapter 2: The Poetics and Politics of Zoning, Mythography, and Mestizo Space in Imperial Michael K. Walonen Interchapter: Vollmann in Russia: On Poor People Mariya Gusev Chapter 3: William T. Vollmann’s Search for Truth and Community in Participative Research Georg Bauer Intechapter: Palm Trees Michael Glawogger II. Engaging Narratives: History, Historiography, Ethics Chapter 4: Vollmann’s Argall-Text: Neo-Elizabethan Form and the Literalist Past in Seven Dreams Buell Wisner Interchapter: Vollmann between the Covers Carla Bolte Chapter 5: Writing Europe: Death, History, and the Intersecting Intellectual Worlds of William T. Vollmann and Danilo Kiš John K. Cox Chapter 6: Kurt Gerstein and the Tragic Parable of ‘Clean Hands’: The Imaginative Role of Fiction in the Moral Calculus of William T. VollmannBryan M. Santin Interchapter: Reading Rising Up and Rising Down James Franco Chapter 7: The New Universalism and William T. Vollmann’s Rising Up and Rising Down Okla Elliott III. Power, Sex, Politics Chapter 8: Our Oriental Heritage: Seeking the Postcolonial Postmodern in William T. Vollmann’s You Bright and Risen Angels Miles Liebtag Interchapter : Piss Lime Vitriol Jordan A. Rothacker Chapter 9: William T. Vollmann’s Paradigms of Power Joshua C. Jensen Interchapter: The Shattered Object: On Representation versus Self-Representation and Becoming Whole Melissa Petro Chapter 10: ‘Strange Hungers’: William T. Vollmann’s Literary Performances of Abject Masculinity Daniel Lukes Interchapter: A Friendship Jonathan Franzen IV. Methods and Mores: Texts, Paratexts, Aesthetics Interchapter: William T. Vollmann: Artist’s Books Priscilla Juvelis Chapter 11: Imperial Photography Françoise Palleau-Papin Interchapter: Against All Loss: On Kissing the Mask Mary Austin Speaker Chapter 12: The Ethics of the Archive and the William T. Vollmann Collection Geoffrey D. Smith Afterword: Beyond the Book: William T. Vollmann’s End Matter (Appendices, Glossaries and Extra Texts) Michael Hemmingson Bibliography Index About the Contributors

Reviews

Readers need a companion to sift through his [Vollmann's] range of materials and its relationship to style. . . .This critical companion is significant for a number of reasons. First, it makes the world a little less lonesome. Readers of Vollmann now have a book that can be found in the library that will offer them the silent conversation of academic discourse. Too often the academic world is purely professional, but for many it can be a place to connect with other likeminded individuals. This book is the starting point for learning and relationships, to say nothing of careers. Second, this book will help readers form a more nuanced understanding of Vollmann's work, to look beyond superficial understandings of his public persona and to instead gaze deeply into the man and his work. * Hysterical Realism * William T. Vollmann is the elephant in the room of contemporary American letters, and in this imaginatively organized and edited collection over a dozen academic experts and a few fans and collaborators lay hold of various parts of this literary elephant and describe for us what they've found: Vollmann as participant observer, as moral philosopher, as historical novelist, as photographer, as punk; Vollmann and space, and postcolonialism, and sex work, and the archive. Unlike the blind men in the parable, however, they recognize that Vollmann is bigger than the sum of his many parts. A uniquely valuable collection of essays on a writer who deserves and repays all the attention we can give him. -- Brian McHale, Distinguished Arts and Humanities Professor at The Ohio State University, Author of Postmodernist Fiction (1987) and The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodernism (2015) This is a fascinating collection of essays and observations about Vollmann's work and Vollmann the human. It's passionate, wildly eclectic, brilliant and frequently strange -- all the things a book about Vollmann should be. -- Dave Eggers, Publisher, <i>Rising Up and Rising Down</i>


William T. Vollmann is the elephant in the room of contemporary American letters, and in this imaginatively organized and edited collection over a dozen academic experts and a few fans and collaborators lay hold of various parts of this literary elephant and describe for us what they've found: Vollmann as participant observer, as moral philosopher, as historical novelist, as photographer, as punk; Vollmann and space, and postcolonialism, and sex work, and the archive. Unlike the blind men in the parable, however, they recognize that Vollmann is bigger than the sum of his many parts. A uniquely valuable collection of essays on a writer who deserves and repays all the attention we can give him. -- Brian McHale, Author of Postmodernist Fiction (1987) and The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodernism (2015)


Author Information

Christopher K. Coffman is a lecturer in humanities at Boston University. Daniel Lukes has a PhD in comparative literature from New York University.

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