Chaos and madness [[electronic resource] ] : the politics of fiction in Stephen Marlowe's historical narratives / / Mónica Calvo-Pascual

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910810505003321
• Autore: Calvo-Pascual Mónica
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Amsterdam, : Rodopi, 2011
• ISBN: 1-283-03460-3; 9786613034601; 90-420-3302-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (213 p.)
• Collana: Costerus ; ; new ser., 188
• Disciplina: 616.89/156
• Soggetti: Politics in literature; Historical fiction
• 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: Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION -- HISTORY AND THE NOVEL: AN OVERVIEW -- MASTERING THE ART: THE HISTORICAL NOVEL AND LOCAL COLOR -- BETWEEN MAGIC AND MADNESS: A PORTRAIT OF SPAIN AND ITS NEUROSES -- POSTMODERN CRITIQUE AND THE HAND OF THE HISTORIAN -- CHAOS, COMPLEXITY AND INTERPRETATION -- BEYOND REFERENCE: HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION IMPINGED BY SCIENCE FICTION -- THE NOVEL NEVER ENDS: ON ALTERNATIVE WORLDS, JEWISH CONNECTIONS AND INFINITE REGRESS -- CONCLUDING REMARKS -- NOVELS PUBLISHED BY MILTON LESSER UNDER THE FOLLOWING NAMES OR PSEUDONYMS -- SHORT STORIES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.
• Sommario/riassunto: In the 1950's prolific U.S. fiction writer Stephen Marlowe became a cult author for lovers of noir fiction mainly for his Drumbeat series, which present his best-known character: private eye Chester Drum. Yet, the academia never paid much attention to his multifaceted, extensive oeuvre . Chaos and Madness is the first volume offering a critical approach to Marlowe’s riveting historical novels. Their relevance in the field of literary studies derives from their well-wrought structure and captivating prose as well as from their portrayal of remote European history – a distinctive feature that makes Marlowe a unique figure in the ; North American trend of historiographic metafiction. Chaos and Madness provides a comprehensive narratological and ideological analysis of three novels in which Marlowe deals with Spanish history. Preceded by an in-depth if reader-friendly theoretical chapter that traces the evolution of the historical novel as a genre, Calvo-Pascual’s meticulous investigation into Marlowe’s fiction proves compelling for anyone interested in contemporary American fiction, in Spanish history, or in the interaction of metafiction and the scientific discourse of chaos theory.