Latest book by Judie Newman: Utopia and Terror in Contemporary American Fiction
Choice October 2013 This up-to-the-minute look at some of the most remarkable examples of a classic genre as it keeps pace with developments in the real world is fascinating and enlightening. The introductory chapter by Newman (Univ. of Nottingham, UK) deftly explains why utopias are on the ascendant after losing ground for some decades, and how utopia and terror are actually compatible in a post-9/11 world. Each chapter takes up a significant new work of fiction, placing it within the literary tradition and showing how it builds on that tradition in noteworthy ways. Drawing on biographical, histoncal, and cultural sources, Newman reveals the parallels between the fictional narratives and real life. Students of literature will appreciate the author's many references to earlier, important critical perspectives on utopian forms, in addition to her own insightful evaluations of these very recent works. Like the stories themselves, Newman is exploring fresh territory. Readers will enjoy her engaging style and the self-contained chapters and useful bibliography.
This book examines the quest for/failure of Utopia across a range of contemporary American/transnational fictions in relation to terror and globalization through authors such as Susan Choi, André Dubus, Dalia Sofer, and John Updike. While recent critical thinkers have reengaged with Utopia, the possibility of terror — whether state or non-state, external or homegrown — shadows Utopian imaginings. Terror and Utopia are linked in fiction through the exploration of the commodification of affect, a phenomenon of a globalized world in which feelings are managed, homogenized across cultures, exaggerated, or expunged according to a dominant model. Narrative approaches to the terrorist offer a means to investigate the ways in which fiction can resist commodification of affect, and maintain a reasoned but imaginative vision of possibilities for human community. Newman explores topics such as the first American bestseller with a Muslim protagonist, the links between writer and terrorist, the work of Iranian-Jewish Americans, and the relation of race and religion to Utopian thought.
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/.../utopia-and-terror...judie-newman/2003349.article
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415899123/
Latest essay http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0813141850
Posted on Tuesday 10th December 2013