Austin M. Wright, The Formal Principle, in the Novel (Ithaca and London; Cornell University Press, 1982, $19.95). Pp. 317 ISBN 0 8014 1462 8. - Linda Hutcheon, Narcissistic Narrative. The Metafictional Paradox (New York and London: Methuen, 1984, £4.50). Pp. xix, 168. ISBN 0 416 37140 X. - Maurice Couturier (ed.), Representation and Performance in Post-Modern Fiction (Montpellier: Presses de l'Imprimerie de Récherche — Université Paul Valéry, 1983 FF. 60). Pp. 207. ISS 0 396 7549.

1985 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-155
Author(s):  
David Seed
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Manuel R. Montes ◽  

The Empty Book (1958), by Josefina Vicens (1911-1988), has attributes which define it as a confessional work. This article analyzes the assertions of the protagonist of the novel José García when he experiences a deep guilt and appeals to be ambiguously forgiven for trying to write a perfect book. The guilt and the confession, predominant in the text, are tackled through the following: the rhetorical technique captatio benevolentiae; the narrator’s larval state and stripping (La Confesión. Género literario, by María Zambrano); the silence’s imposition and unfathomable condition (The Writing of the Disaster, by Maurice Blanchot); the summit of being and the incompletion as a goal (Notebooks, by Paul Valéry); the ghost novel (The Preparation of the Novel, by Roland Barthes); and the dependent or conditioned beauty, as well as the free or self-sufficient beauty (Critique of Judgment, by Immanuel Kant).


Author(s):  
Quratulain Shirazi

This article is based on a study of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), a novel by a Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid.  The novel is based on the  story of  transformation of an expat Pakistani living in New York from a true cosmopolitan to a nationalist. The article will explore the crisis of identity suffered by the protagonist in a new land where he reached as an immigrant  student and worker. However, he experienced a resurgence of nationalist and patriotic sentiments within him as 9/ 11 happened in 2001.  The force of American nationalism that was imperial in nature, resulting in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iran, triggered resentment in the protagonist who decided to leave America and went back to the country of his origin, Pakistan. During his stay in America, the protagonist redefined fundamentalism as an imperial tendency in the American system while rejecting the accusations hurled towards him of an Islamic fundamentalist. The article will explain that there is a loss of cosmopolitan virtue  in the post 9/11 era and the dream of universal peace and harmony  is shattered due to unbridled  state ambitions to invade foreign territories.   The article will conclude with the assertion that the loss of cosmopolitanism and reassertion of national identities give way to confrontation and intolerance destroying the prospects of peace and harmony in a globalized world.


1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jabara Carley

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