A Celebration of Our Existence: The Reception of Two Novels by Ali Smith as “Modernist”.
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2015-06-15
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Reviews of various contemporary British novels contain distinctive characteristics associated with modernism as well as direct references to the literary movement or the historical period. The reception of Ali Smith’s two latest novels proves that modernism is anything but outmoded. What aspects of Ali Smith’s There but for the (2011) and How to be both (2014) are emphasised when reviews of these novels contain references to modernism? Five reviews published by the established press are analysed per novel to find out why exactly these novels are received as modernist fiction. The results of the analyses reveal how the reviewers shape their definition of modernism in their reception of these novels. The choice for the label “modernism” suggests that it is a generic term for a number of characteristics rather than a movement, and that it adds cultural value to a text. This thesis thus brings together contemporary fiction and modernism.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren