num_pages: 306
description: This first full-length study of leading con­temporary writers Ronald Sukenick and Raymond Federman defines the differ­ence between modern and postmodern writers as the distinction between mime­tic and performance art. Larry McCaffery notes that “Kutnik’s thesis is that performance art engages the artist and the audience in a process whose function is fundamentally differ­ent from the mimetic tradition… that is, rather than aiming at representing some preexisting state of affairs, perfor­mance art seeks to be an experience for its own sake, an experience which is ultimately to be recognized as continu­ous with reality and not merely an occa­sion for interpretation and analysis.” Postmodernists such as Sukenick and Federman spotlight themselves in the act of writing. Thus their creations have a life of their own, and the act of writing is so much a part of that life that the process of creation is as important as the end product. Kutnik’s metaphor for this proc­ess is performance art.
language: English
title: The Novel as Performance: The Fiction of Ronald Sukenick and Raymond Federman
titlecomplete: The Novel as Performance: The Fiction of Ronald Sukenick and Raymond Federman (A Chicago Classic)
ratings_count: 4
publisher: Southern Illinois University Press