1st Edition

Identity, Narrative and Politics

By Maureen Whitebrook Copyright 2001
    192 Pages
    by Routledge

    192 Pages
    by Routledge

    Identity, Narrative and Politics argues that political theory has barely begun to develop a notion of narrative identity; instead the book explores the sophisticated ideas which emerge from novels as alternative expressions of political understanding. This title uses a broad international selection of Twentieth Century English language works, by writers such as Nadine Gordimer and Thomas Pynchon.

    The book considers each novel as a source of political ideas in terms of content, structure, form and technique.

    The book assumes no prior knowledge of the literature discussed, and will be fascinating reading for students of literature, politics and cultural studies.

    Acknowledgments; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The narrative construction of identity; Chapter 3 Uncertain identity; Chapter 4 Gaps and fragments; Chapter 5 Contingency, identity and agency; Chapter 6 Coherent identity; Chapter 7 Narrative, identity and politics; Chapter 8 Postscript;

    Biography

    Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield. Her publications include Reading Political Stories and Real Toads in Imaginary Gardens: Narrative Accounts of Liberalism . She is the Chair/Convenor of the Politics and the Arts Group.

    'This is a theoretically sumptuous work that makes an outstanding and original contribution to contemporary theorizations of self and identity.'

    Mary Walsh, University of Canberra, Contemporary Political Theory