Title: This mad "instead" : governing metaphors in contemporary American fiction /
Authors: Saltzman, Arthur M. 1953-
Publisher: University of South Carolina,
Year: 2000
Subjects: American fiction History and criticism; Metaphor.
Abstract: "In This Mad "Instead," Arthur Saltzman investigates the breakthroughs and breakdowns of metaphorical operations in the writings of several contemporary American novelists. Focusing on representative fictions by Kathy Acker, Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, William Gass, Steven Millhauser, Richard Powers, John Updike, and Paul West, Saltzman examines how each author establishes a provisional government over the elusiveness of truth, the ambiguity of experience, and the hardships of language itself. Saltzman reveals figuration to be both inevitable and inevitably unreliable, and he illustrates how these writers treat this condition not as an impasse but as a point of departure - indeed, as an artistic mandate and creative opportunity."--Jacket.
Contents: Introduction : the tongue's ties -- Beholding Paul West and the women of Whitechapel -- The figure in the static : Don Delillo's White noise -- In the Millhauser archives -- Post hoc harmonies : Paul Auster's Leviathan -- The nightmare of relation : William Gass's The tunnel -- The trope in the machine : Richard Powers's Galatea 2.2 -- Kathy Acker's Guerrilla mnemonics -- Down the rabbit whole : John Updike's Rabbit novels -- Conclusion : the ethical behavior of metaphor.