Postmodern Time and Space in Fiction and Theory seeks to place the contemporary transformation of notions of space and time, often attributed to the technologies we use, in the context of the ongoing transformations of modernity. Bringing together examples of modern and contemporary fiction (from Defoe to DeLillo, Frankenstein to Finnegans Wake) and theoretical discussions of the modern and the post-modern, the author explores the legacy of modern transformations of space and time under five headings: “The Space of Nature”; “The Space of the City”; “Postmodern or Most Modern Time”; “The Time and Space of the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction”; and “Travel: from Modernity to…?”. These five essays re-examine the meanings of modernity and its aftermath in relation to the spaces and times of the natural, the urban and the media environment.
Author(s): Michael Kane
Series: Geocriticism And Spatial Literary Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 173
Tags: Literary Theory
Series Editor’s Preface......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Chapter 1: Introduction......Page 11
Degree Zero......Page 25
A country road. A tree.......Page 27
Frankenstein’s Very Modern Monster......Page 30
Human Nature, or the Evolution of Evolution......Page 35
Nature and the Space of the Nation......Page 38
Digging Deeper......Page 41
Crusoe Sows the Seeds......Page 46
Robinson Lives!......Page 49
IV. Posthuman, Postnaturally and Post-Apocalyptic—The Last Post(s)?......Page 50
Chapter 3: The Space of the City......Page 55
The Flâneur Goes Shopping......Page 56
Mingle, Tingle......Page 58
More Soberly......Page 60
Carceral Uniformity, or the Fugitive in Phantasmagoria......Page 61
Metropolis......Page 63
Troglodytes and Traffic Jams: Dostoevsky and Kafka......Page 64
Paralysis Metropolis and Marketing: Joyce’s “Araby”......Page 67
The End of Geography......Page 69
2000, an Urban Space Odyssey—Into “Thin Air”?......Page 71
Robinson in London......Page 74
Two Tales of the City......Page 76
The Real Tale......Page 77
I. Modernist Times......Page 79
The End of the Line: Buddenbrooks......Page 80
The Secret Agent and Time Machines......Page 82
Going Around and Around......Page 87
Technology, the Simultaneous Poetry of Everyday Life, and Ulysses......Page 89
Postmodern: Most-Modern......Page 96
Pilgrim Time, Capitalist Time and the Time of the Tourist......Page 98
Different Times......Page 104
Finally …......Page 106
Bombshell......Page 108
No Business Like … A Gesamtkunstwerk......Page 113
Destroying the Destroyer......Page 115
Ping......Page 117
Soup of the Day … is One-Dimensional......Page 120
Addiction......Page 123
The Noise......Page 126
Magma......Page 127
Electrickery......Page 130
The Practice of Parataxis......Page 132
Art of the Impossible......Page 133
Time and Space......Page 136
Shared Surfaces......Page 137
An Advertisement for Emancipation?......Page 140
The Pilgrim’s Progress......Page 143
Airport-ness......Page 147
Here or There?......Page 150
I Am a Camera......Page 151
A Novel Idea......Page 154
Pleasure Class......Page 156
Flight......Page 160
Chapter 7: Conclusion......Page 162
Index......Page 169
