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Collage in Twenty-First-Century Literature in English: Art of Crisis considers the phenomenon of the continued relevance of collage, a form established over a hundred years ago, to contemporary literature. It argues that collage is a perfect artistic vehicle to represent the crisis-ridden reality of the twenty-first-century. Being a mixture of fragmentary incompatible voices, collage embodies the chaos of the media-dominated world. Examining the artistic, sociopolitical and personal crises addressed in contemporary collage literature, the book argues that the 21st Century has brought a revival of collage-like novels and essays.
List of contents
Introduction: Madly in Love with Crisis: Collage Literature Today
Chapter One: Theory and Practice of Collage
Part I. Art in Crisis
Chapter Two: “Why Is Author So Damnably Tired?”: David Markson’s Reader’s Block Tetralogy
Chapter Three: Manifestos for “Reality-Based” Art: David Shields’s Reality Hunger And How Literature Saved My Life
Part II. Society in Crisis
Chapter Four: It’s the End of the World As We Know It: Lance Olsen’s Sewing Shut My Eyes, Head in Flames and Dreamlives of Debris
Chapter Five: When We Were Human: Steve Tomasula’s VAS: An Opera in Flatland and The Book of Portraiture
Part III. The Self in Crisis
Chapter Six: I’m Every Wo/man, Guaranteed One Hundred Per Cent Genuine!: Graham Rawle’s Woman’s World
Chapter Seven: Diaries of Bad Years: Maggie Nelson’s Bluets and Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation
Conclusion: Collage Is Here to Stay Works Cited
About the author
Wojciech Drag (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Wroclaw in Poland.
Summary
Collage in Twenty-First-Century Literature in English: Art of Crisis considers the phenomenon of the continued relevance of collage, a form established over a hundred years ago, to contemporary literature. It argues that collage is a perfect artistic vehicle to represent the crisis-ridden reality of the twenty-first-century.
