The postmodern humanism of Philip K. Dick
By: Jason P. Vest.
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780810862128; 9780810866973
Subjects: Dick, Philip K. -- Criticism and interpretation; Postmodernism (Literature); Humanism in literature
Description: "From the short story "Roog" to novels VALIS and The Divine Invasion, few twentieth-century authors have had a greater impact than Philip K. Dick. Dick might be most famous as a prolific, subversive, and mordantly funny science-fiction writer, but he has also produced visionary fiction in the tradition of Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino. The Postmodern Humanism of Philip K. Dick explores the fiction of this American novelist and examines his work in relation to these other literary fantasists." "In this book, Jason P. Vest argues that Dick adapts the conventions of science fiction and postmodernism to reflect humanist concerns about the difficulties of maintaining identity, agency, and autonomy in the latter half of the twentieth century. By comparing his writing to that of Kafka, Borges, and Calvino, The Postmodern Humanism of Philip K. Dick demonstrates that Dick's fiction is a barometer of postmodern American life, even as it participates in an international tradition of visionary literature."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction-The world Dick made: science fiction, humanism, and postmodern literature; title: The metamorphosis of science fiction: Kafka, Dick, and postmodern humanism; title: Parallel minds, alternate worlds: Borges, Dick, and the politics of oppression; title: Divine textualities: Calvino, Dick, and authoring creation; title: Time, love, and narcosis: the importance of now wait for last year; title: Conclusion-the postmodern humanist: Philip K. Dick in the twenty-first century.