The quiet contemporary American novel / / Rachel Sykes

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910795190603321
• Autore: Sykes Rachel
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Manchester, UK : , : Manchester University Press, , 2017; ©2017
• ISBN: 1-5261-3244-3; 1-5261-0889-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (vii, 226 pages) : digital file(s)
• Collana: Contemporary American and Canadian writers
• Disciplina: 813.609
• Soggetti: American fiction - 21st century - History and criticism; Literature; Literature & Literary Studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General; Biography, Literature & Literary studies; USA
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-221) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction -- 1 The quiet novel -- 2 '9/11' and the aesthetic of noise in contemporary fiction -- 3 Quiet in time and narrative -- 4 The quiet novel of cognition -- 5 The novel of '(dis)quiet' -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This book explores the concept of 'quiet' - an aesthetic of narrative driven by reflective principles - and argues for the term's application to the study of contemporary American fiction. In doing so, it makes two critical interventions. Firstly, it maps the neglected history of quiet fictions, arguing that from Hester Prynne to Clarissa Dalloway, from Bartleby to William Stoner, the Western tradition is filled with quiet characters. Secondly, it asks what it means for a novel to be quiet and how we might read for quiet in an American literary tradition that critics so often describe as noisy. Examining recent works by Marilynne Robinson, Teju Cole and Ben Lerner, among others, the book argues that quiet can be a multi-faceted state of existence, one that is communicative and expressive in as many ways as noise but filled with ; potential for radical discourse by its marginalisation as a mode of expression.; "What does it mean to describe a novel as 'quiet'? The quiet contemporary American novel defines the term as an aesthetic of narrative that is driven by reflective principles. While, at first appearance, 'quiet' seems a contradictory description of any literary form, because it risks suggesting that the novelist has nothing to say, this book argues that the quiet of the novel is better conceived as a mode of conversation that occurs at a reduced volume than as the failure to speak. The quiet contemporary American novel makes two critical interventions. Firstly, it maps the neglected history of quiet fictions and argues that from Hester Prynne to Clarissa Dalloway, from Bartleby to William Stoner, quiet characters fill the novel in the Western tradition. As a phrase, 'the quiet novel' also has a long and untraced history, dating back 150 years. Throughout its long history, many critics have used 'the quiet novel' as a phrase that dismisses and derides the work of writers whose novels seem disengaged from the 'noise' of their wider society. The quiet contemporary American novel finally takes up the long referred to idea of quiet fiction to ask what it means for a novel to be quiet and, through discussion of a diverse selection of contemporary writers including Marilynne Robinson, Teju Cole and Lynne Tillman, asks how we might read for quiet in an American literary tradition that critics so often describe as noisy." --Back cover.

The maiden of Ludmir [[electronic resource] ] : a Jewish holy woman and her world / / Nathaniel Deutsch ; foreword by Janusz Bardach

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910780449803321
• Autore: Deutsch Nathaniel
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, Calif. ; ; London, : University of California Press, 2003
• ISBN: 0-520-92797-4; 1-282-35623-2; 9786612356230; 1-59734-726-4
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (340 p.)
• Collana: The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies
• Classificazione: 11.26
• Disciplina: 296.8332092
• Soggetti: Women rabbis; Zaddikot; Volodymyr-Volynsʹkyĭ (Ukraine) Biography
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Ansky Visits Ludmir -- 1. A Dybbuk Trilogy, or How the Maiden of Ludmir Became a Literary Figure -- 2. Writing the Maiden -- 3. Afterlives: Remembering the Maiden -- 4. The Curse, the Cossacks, and the Messiah: Ludmir Before the Maiden -- 5. Birth and Childhood -- 6. Love and Death -- 7. The Maiden Possessed -- 8. False Male and Woman Rebbe? -- 9. The Witch-hunt in Ludmir -- 10. The Wedding and Its Aftermath -- 11. In the Holy Land -- Conclusion: Tracing the Maiden -- Afterword: Journey to Ludmir -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Hannah Rochel Verbermacher, a Hasidic holy woman known as the Maiden of Ludmir, was born in early-nineteenth-century Russia and became famous as the only woman in the three-hundred-year history of Hasidism to function as a rebbe-or charismatic leader-in her own right. Nathaniel Deutsch follows the traces left by the Maiden in both history and legend to fully explore her fascinating story for the first time. The Maiden of Ludmir offers powerful insights into the Jewish mystical tradition, into the Maiden's place within it, and into the ; remarkable Jewish community of Ludmir. Her biography ultimately becomes a provocative meditation on the complex relationships between history and memory, Judaism and modernity. History first finds the Maiden in the eastern European town of Ludmir, venerated by her followers as a master of the Kabbalah, teacher, and visionary, and accused by her detractors of being possessed by a dybbuk, or evil spirit. Deutsch traces the Maiden's steps from Ludmir to Ottoman Palestine, where she eventually immigrated and re-established herself as a holy woman. While the Maiden's story-including her adamant refusal to marry-recalls the lives of holy women in other traditions, it also brings to light the largely unwritten history of early-modern Jewish women. To this day, her transgressive behavior, a challenge to traditional Jewish views of gender and sexuality, continues to inspire debate and, sometimes, censorship within the Jewish community.