Narrative Innovation and Cultural Rewriting in the Cold War Era and After

Narrative Innovation and Cultural Rewriting undertakes a systematic study of postmodernism's responses to the polarized ideologies of the postwar period that have held cultures hostage to a confrontation between rival ideologies abroad and a clash between champions of uniformity and disruptive others at home. Considering a broad range of narrative projects and approaches (from polysystemic fiction to surfiction, postmodern feminism, and multicultural/postcolonial fiction), this book highlights their solutions to ontological division (real vs. imaginary, wordly and other-worldly), sociocultural oppositions (of race, class, gender) and narratological dualities (imitation vs. invention, realism vs. formalism). A thorough rereading of the best experimental work published in the US since the mid-1960s reveals the fact that innovative fiction has been from the beginning concerned with redefining the relationship between history and fiction, narrative and cultural articulation. Stepping back from traditional polarizations, innovative novelists have tried to envision an alternative history of irreducible particularities, excluded middles, and creative intercrossings.

"... a unique book...one that will prompt a new direction in American literary studies." - Jerome Klinkowitz, South Atlantic Review

"Cornis-Pope's strengths as a critic are many and formidable...his command of theory wide-ranging and masterful..." - Brian McHale, The Comparatist

"...show[s] that postmodern versatility can be culturally significant in the post-Cold War reconstruction and restructuring." - Maria Ionita, Literary Research

"...he usefully breaks out of some of the dichotomies and reductions that have characterized some criticisms of postmodernity." - Marc Singer, Symploke

"...both extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive, and attentive to the nuances and specificities of the writers he discusses." - Adam Katz, American Book Review

MARCEL CORNIS-POPE is Professor and Chair of the English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of Hermeneutic Desire and Critical Rewriting (Macmillan/SMP 1992).