Waiting for the End
Subtitle: Gender and Ending in the Contemporary Novel
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Pr
Published: March 30, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 286
ISBN-13: 9780838641538
Subjects: Literary studies: from c 1900 -; British Isles; Europe; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; European - General; Literary Criticism; 20th century; Closure (Rhetoric); English fiction; History and criticism; Sex role in literature
Description: "Waiting for the End examines two dozen contemporary novels within the context of a half century of theorizing about the function of ending in narrative. That theorizing about ending generated a powerful dynamic a quarter-century ago with the advent of feminist criticism of "masculinist" readings of the role played by ending in fiction. Feminists such as Theresa de Lauretis in 1984 and more famously Susan Winnett in her 1991 PMLA essay, "Coming Unstrung," were leading voices in a swelling chorus of theorists pointing out the masculinist bias of ending in narrative. With the entry of feminist readings of ending, it became inevitable that criticism of fiction would become "gendered" through the recognition of "difference" transcending a simple binary of female/male to establish a spectrum of masculine to feminine endings, regardless of the sex of the writer. Accordingly, Waiting for the End examines pairs of novels - one pair by Margaret Atwood and one by Ian McEwan - to demonstrate how a writer can offer endings at either end of the gender spectrum."--Jacket.