UID:
almahu_9949950941602882
Format:
1 online resource (275 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
Edition:
First edition.
ISBN:
9788323374763 (ebook)
Series Statement:
Topographies of (post)modernity. Studies in 20th and 21st century literature in English
Content:
〈i〉Of What Is Passing: Present-Tense Narration in the Contemporary Historical Novel〈/i〉 explores a type of fiction that is illustrative of two current trends: on the one hand, the increasing popularity of the present tense as a narrative tense, and, on the other hand, the evolution of historical fiction at the turn of the twenty-first century.〈br〉〈br〉This book is a pioneering study of contemporary historical novels in which events and the narration of them appear contemporaneous. It is argued that, far from being a mere substitute for the customary past tense, the present tense as a narrative tense entails a range of narrative devices that contribute to the effect of imaginatively reconstructing the past as if it were still the unfolding present.〈br〉〈br〉The theoretical overview of time and tense in narrative is followed by detailed analyses of selected historical novels, illustrative of a variety of strategies consequent upon the choice of the present tense as the tense of narration. An underlying claim made throughout the book is that present-tense historical fiction typifies a new dimension of the genre which has recently attempted to navigate a way between traditional mimeticism and modern self-reflexivity.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 18 Dec 2024).
,
Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part One: Time, (Present) Tense, and Narrative -- Temporality in Narrative: Mimetic and Anti-Mimetic Approaches -- The Distinction of the Present Tense in Narrative -- Present-tense narration: a challenge in narrative theory and narrative practice -- Present-tense narrative: typologies -- Part Two: Present-Tense Narration in Contemporary Historical Fiction -- Of What Is Passing: Present-Tense Narration -- Simultaneous Narration -- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Mirror and the Light -- Simultaneity of experience and narration -- Simultaneity framed by retrospection -- Curiosity, surprise and suspense -- Unmarked clues -- Contingency and control -- The structure -- David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- Simultaneity of experience and narration -- The structure -- Simultaneous actions -- Contingency -- Living in the present, looking forward and back -- Quasi-Simultaneous Narration -- Robert Harris, An Officer and a Spy -- Between simultaneity and retrospection -- The structure - "dates are always significant" -- Chronology and the "master strategies" -- Drama and Simultaneous Narration -- George Garrett, Entered from the Sun: The Murder of Marlowe -- History as an open-ended inquiry -- Simultaneity of action and representation: between narrative and drama -- Between simultaneity, retrospectivity and timelessness: the status of the narrator -- Of What Is Past, or Passing: Past- and Present-Tense Narration -- Simultaneous Present-Tense Narration and Vertical Past-Tense Embedding -- Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace -- Simultaneous narration and alternating perspectives -- Simultaneity versus retrospection: shaping the past in the present -- Simultaneous Present-Tense Narration and Horizontal Past-Tense Embedding.
,
Elizabeth Fremantle, Queen's Gambit, Sisters of Treason, Watch the Lady -- Expressing simultaneity and other functions of the present tense -- The use of the past tense: its functions and structural role -- Some problems and pitfalls of present-tense narration -- (Con)fusion of Times and Tenses -- André Brink, Philida -- Commingling of voices and tenses -- History as the past and/or the present -- Of What Is Past, or Passing, or to Come: Past-, Present- and Future-Tense Narration -- Punctual Narration - The Present as "the sum of all" -- George Garrett, Death of the Fox -- What is passing: the present moment, the present tense -- Simultaneity of the narrated: parallel minds, parallel experiences -- Between life and death: vestigial suspense -- What is past: retrospection in the past tense -- What is to come: prospection in the future tense -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.
Additional Edition:
Print version: ISBN 9788323352716
Language:
English
URL:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9788323374763/type/BOOK
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