
Transformative Fictions
World Literature and Personal Change
Daniel Just(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 29. January 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
228 pages
978-1-032-29015-7 (ISBN)
Description
Transformative Fictions: World Literature and Personal Change engages with current debates in world literature over the past twenty years, addressing the nature of literary influence in centers and peripheries, the formation of transnational literary and pedagogical canons, and the role of translation and regionalism in how we relate to texts from around the globe.
The author, Daniel Just, argues for a supranational but sub-global perspective of regions that emphasizes practical reasons for reading and focuses on the potential of literary texts to stimulate personal transformation in readers. One of the recurring dilemmas in these debates is the issue of delimitation of world literature. The trouble with the world as a frame of reference is that no single researcher is bound to have the in-depth knowledge and linguistic skills to discuss works from all countries. In response, this book revives literary theory and recasts it for the purposes of world literature, by making a case for the continuing relevance of literature in the age of new media. With the examples of fictional and nonfictional writings by Milan Kundera, Witold Gombrowicz and Bohumil Hrabal, Just shows that regional literatures offer differing methods of activating readers and thereby prompting personal change.
This book would be of general interest to anyone who wants to explore personal change through literature but is particularly indispensable for literary professionals, researchers, and postgraduate and graduate students.
The author, Daniel Just, argues for a supranational but sub-global perspective of regions that emphasizes practical reasons for reading and focuses on the potential of literary texts to stimulate personal transformation in readers. One of the recurring dilemmas in these debates is the issue of delimitation of world literature. The trouble with the world as a frame of reference is that no single researcher is bound to have the in-depth knowledge and linguistic skills to discuss works from all countries. In response, this book revives literary theory and recasts it for the purposes of world literature, by making a case for the continuing relevance of literature in the age of new media. With the examples of fictional and nonfictional writings by Milan Kundera, Witold Gombrowicz and Bohumil Hrabal, Just shows that regional literatures offer differing methods of activating readers and thereby prompting personal change.
This book would be of general interest to anyone who wants to explore personal change through literature but is particularly indispensable for literary professionals, researchers, and postgraduate and graduate students.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
351 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-29015-7 (9781032290157)
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Person
Daniel Just is Associate Professor at Bilkent University. He is the author of Literature, Ethics, and Decolonization in Postwar France: The Politics of Disengagement (Cambridge, 2015) and articles in journals including New Literary History, Poetics Today, MLN, Comparative Literature, Modern Language Review, and Philosophy and Literature.
Content
Acknowledgments
Note on Translations
Introduction: The World, the Region, and the Uses of Literature
Milan Kundera and the Transformative Poetics of the Novel
Speculative Explorations: Milan Kundera's Essays
Disruption and Agitation in Novels by Witold Gombrowicz
Witold Gombrowicz's Autobiographical Provocations
Bohumil Hrabal, Literary Narrative, and Adaptive Change
Strategic Self-Stylizations: Bohumil Hrabal's Autofictions and Essays
Conclusion: World Literature, Literacy, and New Geographies
Bibliography
Note on Translations
Introduction: The World, the Region, and the Uses of Literature
Milan Kundera and the Transformative Poetics of the Novel
Speculative Explorations: Milan Kundera's Essays
Disruption and Agitation in Novels by Witold Gombrowicz
Witold Gombrowicz's Autobiographical Provocations
Bohumil Hrabal, Literary Narrative, and Adaptive Change
Strategic Self-Stylizations: Bohumil Hrabal's Autofictions and Essays
Conclusion: World Literature, Literacy, and New Geographies
Bibliography