Models of Misrepresentation: On the Fiction of E. L. Doctorow by Christopher Morris The work of E. L. Doctorow is most often seen as a political and cultural critique of eras of American history, like the settlement of the West, the Gilded Age, the Depression, or the beginnings of the Cold War. In his fiction critics have found searching and subversive questions concerning received national values. At the same time, they have seen him as a literary experimenter, comparing his with the work of such modernist writers as ...
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Models of Misrepresentation: On the Fiction of E. L. Doctorow by Christopher Morris The work of E. L. Doctorow is most often seen as a political and cultural critique of eras of American history, like the settlement of the West, the Gilded Age, the Depression, or the beginnings of the Cold War. In his fiction critics have found searching and subversive questions concerning received national values. At the same time, they have seen him as a literary experimenter, comparing his with the work of such modernist writers as Faulkner and Hemingway. Models of Misrepresentation, an original and comprehensive reading of Doctorow's work, considers both these views under a broader rubric, the struggle for representation in art. The author of this penetrating and persuasive study considers this theme from a philosophical standpoint: How can the writer depict America, or how can the reader interpret its values, when the very capacity of language to represent is put in doubt, as it is in Doctorow's fiction? From this perspective, Doctorow's works form part of the twentieth century's continuing intellectual crisis over the possibility of meaning in art. The understanding of this crisis in the work of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida shows how the broader issue of representation underpins both Doctorow's political-cultural critiques and his literary experimentalism. This vantage-point sheds new light on some perennial questions that intrigue Doctorow's readers: Who are the narrators of Ragtime and Loon Lake? Why do the novels' left-wing critiques also undermine left-wing solutions? What is the significance of repeated leitmotifs in his work? Why does Doctorow's later fiction seem to return to simpler literary forms? In Models of Misrepresentation the answers to these questions are discovered in the novels' continuing preoccupation with the creative process itself-with their narrators' anxious struggles to make something new in spite of convincing fears of deathly repetition. This preoccupation is also apparent in Doctorow's book reviews, interviews, and essays. It is animated by an intransigent despair. Looking at Doctorow's novels as models of misrepresentation reveals doubts in them more dangerous than those usually associated with social satire or avant-gardism, for they extend to the heart of writing itself. Christopher Morris is a professor of English at Norwich University.
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Add this copy of Models of Misrepresentation: on the Fiction of E. L. to cart. $7.50, good condition, Sold by Bookfeathers LLC rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lewisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by University Press of Mississippi.
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Good. Book Ex-lib (with allowance for lib indications, condition is VG-to VG; please see below). Hardcover in black cloth with bronze titles to spine, no jacket, 8vo. xiii + 260pp. Index, endnotes. Only lib indications are small faded stamp upper copyright page; scraping to front and rear pastedowns; ffep neatly excised (possible pocket removal). ElseNF with touches of rubbing to rear cloth as from former jacket; prev. owner's bookplate mid half title page. Cloth clean and very sharp; binding strong and square; pages clean and unmarked.
Add this copy of Models of Misrepresentation: on the Fiction of E.L. to cart. $8.68, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by University Press of Mississippi.
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Very Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 6x1x9; The binding is tight, corners sharp. Text unmarked. The dust jacket shows some very light handling, in a mylar cover. 8vo. xii, 260pp.
Add this copy of Models of Misrepresentation: on the Fiction of E. L. to cart. $12.00, very good condition, Sold by Looking for Books? rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Corpus Christi, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by Univ Pr of Mississippi.
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Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 087805524X. Book is clean and tight. Sliight bumping on corners and ends of spine with light rubbing. Dust jacket has tiny bit of shelf wear on top edge.
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Fine in Fine jacket. Book First edition, first printing, hardcover. Black cloth with bronze lettering on the spine. 260 pages. Fine with tail of spine lightly pushed, in a fine, mylar-covered dust jacket. NOT price-clipped. NOT ex-library. NOT a remainder. Bubble-wrapped and shipped in a box.
Add this copy of Models of Misrepresentation: on the Fiction of E. L. to cart. $25.00, very good condition, Sold by Ziebarth Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Coal Valley, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by University Press of Mississippi.
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Near Fine in Fine jacket. Book First edition, first printing, hardcover. Black cloth with copper titles on spine. 260 pages. Near fine with spine ends pushed, in a fine, mylar-covered dust jacket.
Add this copy of Models of Misrepresentation: on the Fiction of E. L. to cart. $27.45, new condition, Sold by CJs Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Portland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by Univ Pr of Mississippi.
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