Outside, America: The Temporal Turn in Contemporary American Fiction

By Hikaru Fujii

Book Overview

The idea of the "outside" as a space of freedom has always been central in the literature of the United States. This concept still remains active in contemporary American fiction; however, its function is being significantly changed. Outside, America argues that, among contemporary American novelists, a shift of focus to the temporal dimension is taking place. No longer a spatial movement, the quest for the outside now seeks to reach the idea of time as a force of difference, a la Deleuze, by which the current subjectivity is transformed. In other words, the concept is taking a "temporal turn."

Discussing eight novelists, including Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Paul Theroux, and Annie Proulx, each of whose works describe forces of given identities--masculine identity, historical temporality, and power, etc.--which block quests for the outside, Fujii shows how the outside in these texts ceases to be a spatial idea. With due attention to critical and social contexts, the book aims to reveal a profound shift in contemporary American fiction.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1441161872
• ISBN13: 9781441161871
• Release Date: April 2013
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"