Friday, April 18, 2014

Dissertation Chapter Workshop and Discussion with Alistair Chetwynd

Please join the United States Literatures & Cultures Consortium for our final dissertation chapter workshop and discussion of the year with

Alistair Chetwynd
PhD Candidate, English Language and Literature

Monday, April 21
3241 Angell Hall
4:10-5:30pm


Daniel's Travesty, Doctorow's Satire: A Reconsideration of the Politics of Postmodern Parody

Abstract:
E L Doctorow's The Book of Daniel is one of the foundational texts for our dominant account of the politics of postmodern fiction's form: Linda Hutcheon's claim that postmodern fiction privileges parody as a way of drawing power away from the hegemonic discourses that constitute official history.  In this paper I treat the novel instead as a pre-emptive critique of the idea that mere language-games or mere discursification have any value for the recuperation of historical possibility.  I then examine how this critique yet offers grounds for optimism about non-mimetic fiction's ability to help us do that recuperation.


Snacks provided!

Drafts are available for download at the USists website:
or from Google Drive here:
https://drive.google.com/a/umich.edu/file/d/0B3FAAv0dKLHXU081blFFNWoyWm8/edit?usp=sharing