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Showing papers by "Linda Hutcheon published in 1980"


Book
01 Jan 1980
TL;DR: The authors analyzes four different modes of "narcissistic" fiction, revealing an extensive awareness of the arts in North America and Europe, quoting intensively from English, French, and Italian sources.
Abstract: "One has to learn what stories are, as a child, in order to enjoy them. Similarly one has to learn to read-actively, imaginatively-in order to enjoy the demanding fiction of today," says the author. Contemporary self-reflexive novels demand that the reader participate in the fictional process as imaginative co-creator. At the same time, they distance the reader by their textual selfconsciousness. Like Narcissus in the Greek myth, the novel of today is intensely aware of its own existence, continuously drawing attention to its own storytelling processes and linguistic structures. The author analyzes four different modes of "narcissistic" fiction, revealing an extensive awareness of the arts in North America and Europe, quoting intensively from English, French, and Italian sources. Her clear, incisive discussion of literary forms and contemporary criticism, and the conclusions she draws about the link between art and life, will interest creators and students of literature and the other arts.

479 citations