Henry Miller and narrative form
Subtitle: constructing the self, rejecting modernity
By: James M. Decker.
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 192
Subjects: Miller, Henry, 1891- -- Literary style; Miller, Henry, 1891- -- Technique; Narration (Rhetoric) -- History -- 20th century; Literary form -- History -- 20th century; Fantastic, The, in literature; Realism in literature; Self in literature
Description: "In this study, James M. Decker responds to the common charge that Henry Miller's narratives suffer from "formlessness". He instead positions Miller as a stylistic pioneer whose place must be assured in the American literary canon.".

"From Moloch to Nexus via such widely-read texts as Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Decker examines what Miller calls his "spiral form", a radically digressive style that shifts wildly between realism and the fantastic. Decker draws on a variety of narratological and critical sources, as well as Miller's own aesthetic theories, in order to argue that this fragmented narrative style formed part of a sustained critique of modern spiritual decay. A deliberate move rather than a compositional weakness, then, Miller's style finds a wide variety of antecedents in the work of such figures as Nietzsche, Rabelais, Joyce, Bergson, and Whitman, and is seen by Decker as an attempt to chart the journey of the self through the modern city."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : spiral form; title: Brooklyn dawn : Moloch, or, This gentile world, Crazy cock; title: Parisian tempest : Tropic of Cancer, Black spring, Tropic of Capricorn; title: Californian tranquility : Sexus, Plexus, Nexus; title: Conclusion : reassessing Miller.