Postmodern Narrative Techniques in Robert Coover’s Collection; Pricksongs &amp; Descants

Abootalebi, Hassan

doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.52.70

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Postmodern Narrative Techniques in Robert Coover’s Collection; Pricksongs & Descants

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Abstract:

The modes of narration in postmodernist fiction are not identical with those of modernists and realists. They contravene readers’ expectations, making them most often astounded and baffled. This study sets out to discuss some of the techniques used by the American writer Robert Coover in his story collection; Pricksongs & Descants (1969) which are associated with postmodernist fiction. These strategies including metafictional techniques, fragmentation, ontological concern, and temporal distortion, will in the subsequent sections of this paper be explicated and elucidated. In this regard, the term postmodernism will be first defined and elaborated, and then some of the salient features of Coover’s selected work stated above, will be examined in order to demonstrate the title-mentioned claim. Not all the stories of the collection will in this study be provided an analysis of, but those which are of greater significance and are noticeable in incorporating postmodern strategies.

Info:

Periodical:

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 52)

Pages:

70-75

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.52.70

Citation:

H. Abootalebi, "Postmodern Narrative Techniques in Robert Coover’s Collection; Pricksongs & Descants", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 52, pp. 70-75, 2015

Online since:

May 2015

Authors:

Hassan Abootalebi

Keywords:

Coover, Fragmentation, Metafictional Techniques, Ontological Concern, Postmodernism, Temporal Distortion

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Open Access

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

[1] Abrams, M.H. (2005). A Glossary of Literary Terms. 9TH ed. Canada: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

[2] Coover, Robert. (1969). Pricksongs & Descants. New York: n. p.

[3] Evenson, Brian. (2003). Understanding Robert Coover. Us of America: U of south Carolina P.

[4] Galens, David. (2002). Literary Movements for Students. Vol. 3. US: Gale Cengage Learning.

[5] Hutcheon, Linda. (1988). A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge.

[6] Jameson, Fredric. postmodernism and consumer society,. Art. ucsc. edu. web. 15Apr. (2014).

[7] McHale, Brian. (1987). Postmodernist Fiction. London: Routledge.

[8] Nicol, Brian. (2008). The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. New York: Cambridge UP.

[9] Sim, Stuart. (2001) The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. London: Routledge.

[10] Vonnegut, Kurt. (1973). Breakfast of Champions. New York: Random House.

[11] Waugh, Patricia. (1984). Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-conscious Fiction. London: Routledge.

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