A COMPENDIUM OF CLASSIC AND POSTMODERN NOVEL SUMMARIES

A COMPENDIUM OF CLASSIC AND POSTMODERN NOVEL SUMMARIES
Author: Vivian Siahaan
Publisher: SPARTA PUBLISHING
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2019-08-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

This book is comprised of a compendium of summaries from all novels that I have read for almost twelve years. Obviously, the summaries have been documented on my blog since 2016, and seemingly, in my opinion, it is better bundled in a book form since the statistic views show that the classic fictions are those among most read, so I rose to comply with that demand. The purpose for which I devote myself to compose 85 summaries is to provide quick reading for novel readers and students. Numerous genres are presented because I am quite concious those will bequeath you an imaginative horizon. As a work of art, many of them transcend their expiatory aspects. And still more important to us than scientific significance and literary worth is the inspirational impact those novels have on serious readers. Finally, happy reading and I hope you will find this book useful.

Oreo

Oreo
Author: Fran Ross
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2015-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 081122323X

A pioneering, dazzling satire about a biracial black girl from Philadelphia searching for her Jewish father in New York City Oreo is raised by her maternal grandparents in Philadelphia. Her black mother tours with a theatrical troupe, and her Jewish deadbeat dad disappeared when she was an infant, leaving behind a mysterious note that triggers her quest to find him. What ensues is a playful, modernized parody of the classical odyssey of Theseus with a feminist twist, immersed in seventies pop culture, and mixing standard English, black vernacular, and Yiddish with wisecracking aplomb. Oreo, our young hero, navigates the labyrinth of sound studios and brothels and subway tunnels in Manhattan, seeking to claim her birthright while unwittingly experiencing and triggering a mythic journey of self-discovery like no other.

Prudence

Prudence
Author: Robert Hariman
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780271046662

This volume brings together scholars in classics, political philosophy, and rhetoric to analyze prudence as a distinctive and vital form of political intelligence. Through case studies from each of the major periods in the history of prudence, the authors identify neglected resources for political judgement in today's conditions of pluralism and interdependency. Three assumptions inform these essays: the many dimensions of prudence cannot be adequately represented in the lexicon of any single discipline; the Aristotelian focus on prudence as rational calculation needs to be balanced by the Ciceronian emphasis on prudence as discursive performance embedded in familiar social practices; and understanding prudence requires attention to how it operates thorough the communicative media and public discourses that constitute the political community.

Post-Postmodernism

Post-Postmodernism
Author: Jeffrey Nealon
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0804783217

Post-Postmodernism begins with a simple premise: we no longer live in the world of "postmodernism," famously dubbed "the cultural logic of late capitalism" by Fredric Jameson in 1984. Far from charting any simple move "beyond" postmodernism since the 1980s, though, this book argues that we've experienced an intensification of postmodern capitalism over the past decades, an increasing saturation of the economic sphere into formerly independent segments of everyday cultural life. If "fragmentation" was the preferred watchword of postmodern America, "intensification" is the dominant cultural logic of our contemporary era. Post-Postmodernism surveys a wide variety of cultural texts in pursuing its analyses—everything from the classic rock of Black Sabbath to the post-Marxism of Antonio Negri, from considerations of the corporate university to the fare at the cineplex, from reading experimental literature to gambling in Las Vegas, from Badiou to the undergraduate classroom. Insofar as cultural realms of all kinds have increasingly been overcoded by the languages and practices of economics, Nealon aims to construct a genealogy of the American present, and to build a vocabulary for understanding the relations between economic production and cultural production today—when American-style capitalism, despite its recent battering, seems nowhere near the point of obsolescence. Post-postmodern capitalism is seldom late but always just in time. As such, it requires an updated conceptual vocabulary for diagnosing and responding to our changed situation.

Why Read Moby-Dick?

Why Read Moby-Dick?
Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2013-09-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0143123971

A “brilliant and provocative” (The New Yorker) celebration of Melville’s masterpiece—from the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea, Valiant Ambition, and In the Hurricane's Eye One of the greatest American novels finds its perfect contemporary champion in Why Read Moby-Dick?, Nathaniel Philbrick’s enlightening and entertaining tour through Melville’s classic. As he did in his National Book Award–winning bestseller In the Heart of the Sea, Philbrick brings a sailor’s eye and an adventurer’s passion to unfolding the story behind an epic American journey. He skillfully navigates Melville’s world and illuminates the book’s humor and unforgettable characters—finding the thread that binds Ishmael and Ahab to our own time and, indeed, to all times. An ideal match between author and subject, Why Read Moby-Dick? will start conversations, inspire arguments, and make a powerful case that this classic tale waits to be discovered anew. “Gracefully written [with an] infectious enthusiasm…”—New York Times Book Review

The Bloomsbury Introduction to Postmodern Realist Fiction

The Bloomsbury Introduction to Postmodern Realist Fiction
Author: T.V. Reed
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2021-03-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1350010820

Postmodern realist fiction uses realism-disrupting literary techniques to make interventions into the real social conditions of our time. It seeks to capture the complex, fragmented nature of contemporary experience while addressing crucial issues like income inequality, immigration, the climate crisis, terrorism, ever-changing technologies, shifting racial, sex and gender roles, and the rise of new forms of authoritarianism. A lucid, comprehensive introduction to the genre as well as to a wide variety of voices, this book discusses more than forty writers from a diverse range of backgrounds, and over several decades, with special attention to 21st-century novels. Writers covered include: Kathy Acker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Julia Alvarez, Sherman Alexie, Gloria Anzaldua, Margaret Atwood, Toni Cade Bambara, A.S. Byatt, Octavia Butler, Angela Carter, Ana Castillo, Don DeLillo, Junot Diaz, Jennifer Egan, Awaeki Emezi, Mohsin Hamid, Jessica Hagedorn, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ursula K. Le Guin, Daisy Johnson, Bharati Mukherjee, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Tommy Orange, Ruth Ozeki, Ishmael Reed, Eden Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Jean Rhys, Leslie Marmon Silko, Art Spiegelman, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jeannette Winterson, among others.

The Shakespeare Requirement

The Shakespeare Requirement
Author: Julie Schumacher
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385542356

A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune keep hitting beleaguered English professor Jason Fitger right between the eyes in this hilarious and eagerly awaited sequel to the cult classic of anhedonic academe, the Thurber Prize-winning Dear Committee Members. Once more into the breach... Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes arms against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she's not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English's meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space. And Fitger's attempt to get a mossbacked and antediluvian Shakespeare scholar to retire backfires spectacularly when the press concludes that the Bard is being kicked to the curricular curb. Lord, what fools these mortals be! Julie Schumacher proves the point and makes the most of it in this delicious romp of satire.

White Noise

White Noise
Author: Don DeLillo
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1999-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440674477

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • An “eerie, brilliant, and touching” (The New York Times) modern classic about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology. “Tremendously funny . . . A stunning performance from one of our most intelligent novelists.”—The New Republic The inspiration for the award-winning major motion picture starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig Jack Gladney teaches Hitler Studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in “American magic and dread.” Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an “airborne toxic event” unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the “white noise” engulfing the Gladney family—radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings—pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.

The Book’s Road in the Age of Digitization

The Book’s Road in the Age of Digitization
Author: Janina Krieger
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2023-01-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3662666839

Although every area of life is permeated by digital processes, the majority of Germans seem to resist digital alternatives with regard to the activity of reading. The printed book continues to enjoy much greater popularity than the eBook. This seems surprising, since the entire communication behavior has moved to digital devices. So what lies behind this? Why are there still printed books in digital times? Previous studies of the printed book have focused primarily on its media future, as this seemed threatened by digitization. In this work, Janina Krieger instead examines the past from three perspectives in order to gain insights into the present. While other studies always chose one method and these mostly belonged to the quantitative approach, here three subjects are identified, which are examined with different methods and in their combination can provide an answer to the research question: the consumers of literature (the readers), literature itself (the selected genre is the novel), and the media theories of the 20th century, which have already dealt with media change.

The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 1013
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0765376679

A new epic fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author chosen to complete Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time® Series