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Showing papers on "Dystopia published in 1989"


Book
27 Mar 1989
TL;DR: A study of international historical fiction since World War II, with reflections on the affinities between historical and fictional narrative, analysis of the basic modes of historical fiction, and readings of a number of historical novels, including John Barth s "The Sot-Weed Factor", "Marguerite Yourcenar s "Memoirs of Hadrian, "Russell Hoban s "Riddley Walker, "Margaret Atwood s " The Handmaid s Tale, "Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa s 'The Leopard, "D. M
Abstract: Cowart presents a study of international historical fiction since World War II, with reflections on the affinities between historical and fictional narrative, analysis of the basic modes of historical fiction, and readings of a number of historical novels, including John Barth s "The Sot-Weed Factor, "Marguerite Yourcenar s "Memoirs of Hadrian, "Russell Hoban s "Riddley Walker, "Margaret Atwood s "The Handmaid s Tale, "Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa s "The Leopard, "D. M. Thomas s "The White Hotel, "William Faulkner s "Go Down, Moses, "and Umberto Eco s "The Name of the Rose."He proposes recognizing four modes of the historical novel: the past as a "distant mirror" of the present, fictions whose authors seek to pinpoint the precise historical moment when the modern age or some prominent feature of it came into existence, fictions whose authors aspire purely or largely to historical verisimilitude, and fictions whose authors reverse history to contemplate utopia and dystopia in the future. Thus, historical fiction can be organized under the rubrics: The Distant Mirror; The Turning Point; The Way It Was; and The Way It Will Be.This fourfold schema and his focus on postwar novels set Cowart s work apart from previous studies, which have not devoted adequate space to the contemporary historical novel. Cowart argues that postwar historical fiction merits more extensive treatment because it is the product of an age unique in the annals of historyan age in which history itself may end."

42 citations



Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The women's view of the world contemporary feminism and sexuality feminism and literature women's changing experience contemporary women's writing as mentioned in this paper is the background to contemporary feminism contemporary feminism is the woman's view view of women's world contemporary feminists and sexuality contemporary women writing.
Abstract: Part 1 Introduction: the background to contemporary feminism contemporary feminism - the woman's view of the world contemporary feminism and sexuality feminism and literature women's changing experience contemporary women's writing. Part 2 Versions of the real: contemporary uses of realism Margaret Drabble - modifications of realism - "The Waterfall" and "The Realms of Gold" Drabble - novelist of women's experience Drabble and feminism - "The Middle Ground" Anita Brookner - "Providence" and "Hotel du Lac" A.S.Byatt - "Still Life". Part 3 Fictions and sexual politics: personal and political Zoe Fairbairns - a feminist dystopia - "Benefits" Pat Barker - modified realism - "Union Street" and "The Century's Daughter" Fay Weldon - feminist satire - "Down among the Women" Weldon - novels of the 1980s - "Puffball" to "Leader of the Band". Part 4 Myths, dreams and nightmares: beyond everyday reality Angela Carter's early work - "The Magic Toyshop" Carter's rewriting of fairy-tales - "The Bloody Chamber" Carter's female comedy - "Nights at the Circus" Emma Tennant - "The Bad Sister" and "Queen of Stones" Sara Maitland - "Virgin Territory" Alice Thomas Ellis - "The Sin Eater" and "The Birds of the Air".

16 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale as mentioned in this paper presents a reader with an exercise in learning how to read for survival, arguing for a reading that combines emotional and intellectual perception and demonstrating that without the combination of feeling and thinking, political meaning is lost.
Abstract: Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale presents its reader with an exercise in learning how to read for survival. The novel argues for a reading that combines emotional and intellectual perception and it demonstrates that without the combination of feeling and thinking, political meaning is lost. Atwood sets her novel in a future America, called Gilead. Pollution and war have resulted in a depletion of the white elite population and after a takeover of the government a stern religious patriarchy institutes a new regime dedicated to increasing the white population. Reproductive control always implies control of women, and Gilead first deprives the female population of all economic power and then divides them into five subjugated classes: "Aunts," who do the dirty work of the revolution; "Wives," who, past childbearing age, are married to the commanding elite; "Econowives," women incapable of producing children, who marry the working classes; "Marthas," servants of the Wives; and "Handmaids," who have previously proven their ability to produce children and now are to do so for the elite Commanders. The futurist setting allows Atwood to invent words, reassign meanings, and explore the implications of a patriarchal language involved in creating an especially misogynist world. The three sections of the novel-the dedication, the tale itself, and the historical epilogue-combine to produce a text which comments on itself, on the act of authorship, and on the act of reading. Within the story itself, three narrative

9 citations