Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Five Strands of Fictionality: The Institutional Construction of Contemporary American Fiction

by Daniel Punday
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹4,169.00
Original price ₹5,003.00
Original price ₹5,003.00
Original price ₹5,003.00
(-17%)
₹4,169.00
Current price ₹4,169.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9780814256787
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Ohio State University Press
  • Publisher Imprint: Ohio State University Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 250
  • Original Price: GBP 28.95
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 372 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): American / General

Fictions, we are so often told, are everywhere in America today. The extravagant claims of advertising are everywhere, much of the day's news concerns "pseudo-events" like rallies or ceremonies staged so that they can be reported on, and philosophers doubt even the possibility of any knowledge being objective. Thus we seem less and less able to distinguish between the real and the invented. In Five Strands of Fictionality: The Institutional Construction of Contemporary American Fiction, Daniel Punday examines the "postmodern" expansion of fictionality-the feeling today that the line between the real and the invented is harder to draw-and argues that this feeling reflects a struggle by different cultural groups to define how we tell and use "literary" stories. He discusses the literary texts of John Barth, Alice Walker, and Ishmael Reed; paraliterary forms like science fiction and electronic writing; and resolutely nonliterary texts, especially role-playing games, in terms of how each responds to the institution of literature through its definition of fictionality. For too long, postmodernism has been described by easy generalizations-relativist, indeterminate, commercialized-that have rendered the term nearly worthless. Punday applies a more nuanced understanding of fictionality to a variety of contemporary narrative forms that occupy different locations within postmodern literary culture. Approaching postmodernism as a configuration of institutions that legitimize fictionality, he illuminates the nature of creative writing and the conflicts between different literary groups in America today.

Daniel Punday is professor of English, Purdue University Calumet.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us