Fact and Fiction in postmodernist writing

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20156408
AutoresElrud Ibsch (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, autor de correspondencia)
Año1993
Volumen9
Número2
Páginas185-193
Fecha de publicación1993-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387
EditorialUnisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.1080/02564719308530040
OpenAlexW1972127438
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas6

In this article the concept of Postmodernism as “nothing makes a difference” and “anything goes” is rejected in favour of a reader's decision to construct himself a difference in accord with his cultural or historical knowledge and his ethical position. Postmodernist texts are characterized by a plurality of voices which do not constitute a figuration of hierarchical dependencies, but which form, nevertheless, a communicative figuration. Although fact and fiction are no longer clearly distinguishable and although the notion of fact or factual relation is being replaced by the concept of mental or social creation, the communicative figuration of postmodern novels may call our attention to the historical discourse which is part of them. In my reading of The White Hotel (D.M. Thomas) and Die letzte Welt (Christoph Ransmayr), I propose to take into account the historical intertext of the Holocaust. I conceive of it as a strong voice in the signifying interplay of narrative elements which, to a certain point, is capable of undermining the non‐hierarchical relation of fact and fiction

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Nothing · Postmodernism · Reflexive pronoun · Sociology · Computer Science · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · History · Literature and Cultural Memory · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Philosophy