Literature of Reconstruction

"The Literature of Reconstruction argues for the term and concept of 'postmillennial reconstruction' to fill the gap left by the decline of postmodernism and deconstruction as useful cultural and literary categories. Wolfgang Funk shows how this notion emerges from the theoretical and philosophical development that led to the demise of postmodernism by relating it to the idea of 'authenticity': immediate experience that eludes direct representation. In addition, he provides a clear formal framework with which to identify and classify the features of 'reconstructive literature' by updating the narratological category of 'metafiction', originally established in the 1980s. Based on Werner Wolf's observation of a 'metareferential turn' in contemporary arts and media, he illustrates how the specific use of metareference results in a renegotiation of the specific patterns of literary communication and claims that this renegotiation can be profitably described with the concept of 'reconstruction'. To substantiate this claim, in the second half of the book Funk discusses narrative texts that illustrate this transition from postmodern deconstruction to postmillennial reconstruction. The analyses take in distinguished and prize-winning writers such as Dave Eggers, Julian Barnes, Jennifer Egan and Jasper Fforde. The broad scope of authors, featuring writers from the US as well as the UK, underlines the fact that the reconstructive tendencies and strategies Funk diagnoses are of universal significance for the intellectual and cultural self-image of the global North."-- "Shows through an analysis of the form and content of significant contemporary British and American novels that the notion of reconstruction figures as a major aesthetic factor in recent works of narrative fiction"-- "Funk argues for the term and concept of 'reconstruction' to fill the gap left by the decline of postmodernism and deconstruction as useful cultural and literary categories. The first chapter shows how this notion emerges from the theoretical and philosophical development that led to the demise of postmodernism by relating it to the idea of 'authenticity', which is based on an essential and productive paradox of mediated immediacy. The second chapter provides a framework with which to identify and classify the features of 'reconstructive literature'. The aesthetic strategy of metareference, which is formally based on ontological paradox and epistemological ambiguity, is employed in order to renegotiate the specific patterns of traditional literary communication. Funk's central claim is that this renegotiation can be profitably described with the concept of 'reconstruction', which unites the theoretical concept of authenticity with the formal category of metareference. To substantiate this claim, the second part of the book presents a selection of literary case studies by distinguished and prize-winning writers such as Dave Eggers, Julian Barnes, Jennifer Egan and Jasper Fforde. The individual chapters illustrate the transition from postmodern deconstruction to postmillennial reconstruction by highlighting how metareferential strategies like irony, metalepsis, intertextuality and ergodic reading, challenge the reader to reconstruct constituent element of literary communication such as the author figure, the intertextual framework or the narrative perspective"--Bloomsbury Publishing.