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The South African writer André Brink is no stranger to novels, having written several himself. In The Novel, however, he turns his attention to analyzing fiction, not creating it. Brink's own work might best be described as literary realism; in A Dry White Season, he chronicled the horror of apartheid and its dreadful effect on both whites and blacks. In Imaginings of Sand, he explored South Africa's slow transition to democracy. Yet The Novel is a celebration of postmodernism, in which language becomes both the subject and the medium for literature. Though postmodernist literary theory is relatively young, Brink argues that its practice goes back to the very roots of the novel, starting with 16th-century Miguel De Cervantes's Don Quixote and continuing on up through 20th-century author Italo Calvino. He applies his theories to the classic novels of Flaubert, Austen, and Defoe, among others, then moves to modern writers such as Milan Kundera, Gabriel García Márquez, and A.S. Byatt. Though Brink's analysis of these newer novelists is both acute and interesting, it is the unique reading he brings to the classics of previous centuries that makes The Novel novel.
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Relié
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From Library Journal
The novel, Brink argues, is not about representation but the self-conscious play of language. From its inception, he suggests, the genre has been about the act of writing and self-reflection. This thesis is not new but is part of the currency of postmodern literary theory. Brink, however, himself a noted South African novelist, the author of some 12 books, including A Dry White Season (Viking, 1984), and a university professor, brings the insight of an insider. He surveys 15 celebrated novels, historically arranged from Don Quixote and La Princesse de Cleves to A.S. Byatt's Possession and Italo Calvino's If on a Winter Night a Traveller, examining each in terms of its play with writing and language. If his thesis isn't original, his discussions are nevertheless marked by clarity, insight, and comprehension. A valuable book.?Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
