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The Postmodern Chronotope
Reading Space and Time in Contemporary Fiction
Series: - Postmodern Studies, Volume: 30
Author:
The Postmodern Chronotope is an innovative interdisciplinary study of the contemporary. It will be of special interest to anyone interested in relations between postmodernism, geography and contemporary fiction. Some claim that postmodernism questions history and historical bases to culture; some say it is about loss of affect, loss of depth models, and superficiality; others claim it follows from the conditions of post-industrial society; and others cite commodification of place, Disneyfication, simulation and post-tourist spectacle as evidence that postmodernism is wedded to late capitalism. Whatever postmodernism is, or turns out to have been, it is bound up in rethinking and reworking space and time, and Paul Smethurstâs intervention here is to introduce the postmodern chronotope as a term through which these spatial and temporal shifts might be apprehended. The postmodern chronotope constitutes a postmodern world-view and postmodern way of seeing. In a sense it is the natural successor to a modernist way of seeing defined through cubism, montage and relativity. The book is arranged as follows: ⢠Part 1 is an interdisciplinary study casting a wide net across a range of cultural, social and scientific activity, from chaos theory to cinema, from architecture to performance art, from IT to tourism. ⢠Part 2 offers original readings of a selection of postmodern novels, including Graham Swiftâs Waterland and Out of this World, Peter Ackroydâs Hawksmoor and First Light, Alasdair Grayâs Lanark, J. M. Coetzeeâs Foe, Marina Warnerâs Indigo, Caryl Phillipsâ Cambridge, and Don DeLilloâs The Names and Ratnerâs Star.
Paul Smethurst is a lecturer at The University of Hong Kong. His teaching and research interests include science fiction, contemporary British fiction, postmodernism and travel literature. He is presently working on a new book on travel writing â The Idea of Travel: Critical Perspectives on Travel Writing and Place
Part I
The Postmodern Chronotope
1 Introduction and Preliminaries on Postmodernism
2 Postmodernismâs Spatial Turn: From Spatialisation to the Production of Space
3 The Chronotope as Idea, Optic and Weltanschauung
Part II
Reading Space and Time in Contemporary Fiction
4 The City in Late Capitalist Fantasy
Alasdair Gray, Lanark
5 Spatial Historiographies
Graham Swift, Waterland
6 Chronotopes of Reversible Time
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor and First Light
Ian McEwan, The Child in Time
7 Post-colonial Island Chronotypes:
Michel Tournier, Friday
J.M. Coetzee, Foe
Caryl Phillips, Cambridge
Marina Warner, Indigo
8 The Trope of Placelessness:
Graham Swift, Out of this World
Don DeLillo, Ratnerâs Star and The Names
Notes
List of Novels
Bibliography
Index
The Postmodern Chronotope
1 Introduction and Preliminaries on Postmodernism
2 Postmodernismâs Spatial Turn: From Spatialisation to the Production of Space
3 The Chronotope as Idea, Optic and Weltanschauung
Part II
Reading Space and Time in Contemporary Fiction
4 The City in Late Capitalist Fantasy
Alasdair Gray, Lanark
5 Spatial Historiographies
Graham Swift, Waterland
6 Chronotopes of Reversible Time
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor and First Light
Ian McEwan, The Child in Time
7 Post-colonial Island Chronotypes:
Michel Tournier, Friday
J.M. Coetzee, Foe
Caryl Phillips, Cambridge
Marina Warner, Indigo
8 The Trope of Placelessness:
Graham Swift, Out of this World
Don DeLillo, Ratnerâs Star and The Names
Notes
List of Novels
Bibliography
Index