![]() In this line, the present undertaking targets the factual and fictional dimensions of World's Fair by exploring the ways that the text lends itself to a deconstructive reading. Arguing that it is problematic/ simplistic to recognize any text as either history or fiction, Paul de Man proposes a revolving-door model in which any autobiographical text is shown to feature fictionality while any fictional text might just as well exhibit traces of autobiographicality. The reflection of reality through the fictional medium of the novel, through memory and language, challenges the assumption that autobiography is possible whatsoever. The simultaneous merging of illusion and memoir, however, undermines all attempts at categorizing World's Fair generically insofar as any such categorization fails to capture the essence of the novel in the entirety of its dimensions. Doctorow's early years of adolescence and his novel World's Fair (1985) have given rise to a general reception of the novel as an instance of autobiography. I will attempt to establish how these two traditionally conflicting modes coexist and interact in Ragtime.Ĭertain parallels between E.L. This analysis will lead to an examination of the problematic collusion of the mostly white, male, patriarchal aesthetics of postmodernism and feminist politics in the novel. Thus, on the one hand, I will focus on issues of uncertainty, indeterminacy of meaning, plurality and decentering of subjectivity on the other hand, I will examine the novel’s attitude towards gender oppression, violence and objectification, its denunciation of hegemonic gender configurations and its voicing of certain feminist demands. I will explore Ragtime’s indebtedness to postmodern aesthetics and themes, but also its feminist elements. ![]() The purpose of this paper will be two-fold. This is certainly the case of Doctorow’s fourth and most successful novel, Ragtime. ![]() Yet, these novels have an eminently social and ethical scope that may be best perceived in their intellectual engagement and support of feminist concerns. Many critics of Doctorow have classified him as a postmodernist writer, acknowledging that a wide number of thematic and stylistic features of his early fiction emanate from the postmodern context in which he took his first steps as a writer. ![]()
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