Maximalism in Contemporary American Literature - The Uses of Detail

This book studies the maximalist novels of Wallace, Baker, Pynchon, and others, considering how overly-detailed writing serves the institutional, emotional, and intellectual needs of contemporary readers and writers. It argues that maximalist novels not only exceed perceived limits of style, subject matter, and scope, but strive to remake the us

List of contents

Introduction

1. Giants and Junk: Power-Reading Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow

2. On Flunking: Maximalist Description in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest 94

3. Data-Sickle: Maximalism and White-Collar Aesthetics in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King

4. Just Maximalist Things: Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine and Objects of Curiosity

5. Housebound: Domestic Excess in Nicholson Baker’s Room Temperature

6. Mindless Pleasures: Playlists, Unemployment, and Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice

Conclusion: Overflow: The Margins of American Maximalism

About the author

Nick Levey teaches in the English Department at La Trobe University, Australia. He publishes on contemporary fiction and is currently writing about post-press literature and the rise of digital self-publishing.

Summary

This book studies the maximalist novels of Wallace, Baker, Pynchon, and others, considering how overly-detailed writing serves the institutional, emotional, and intellectual needs of contemporary readers and writers. It argues that maximalist novels not only exceed perceived limits of style, subject matter, and scope, but strive to remake the us

Product details

• Authors: Nick Levey, Levey Nick
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.12.2019
• EAN: 9780367878504
• ISBN: 978-0-367-87850-4
• No. of pages: 176
• Series: Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Cultural Studies, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Literature: history and criticism