This book explores the complex interrelationship between fact and fiction in narratives of the twenty-first century.
This book explores the complex interrelationship between fact and fiction in narratives of the twenty-first century.
Current cultural theory observes a cultural shift away from postmodernism to new forms of expression. Rather than a radical break from the postmodern, however, postmodernist techniques are repurposed to express a new sincerity, a purposeful self-reflexivity, a contemporary sense of togetherness and an associated commitment to reality. In what the editors consider to be one manifestation of this general tendency, this book explores the ways in which contemporary texts across different media play with the boundary between fact and fiction. This includes the examination of novels, autobiography, autofiction, film, television, mockumentary, digital fiction, advertising campaigns and media hoaxes. The chapters engage with theories of what comes after postmodernism and analyse the narratological, stylistic and/or semiotic devices on which such texts rely.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of English Studies.
Introduction The importance of being earnest again: fact and fiction
in contemporary narratives across media
1. The return of the real in Ali
Smiths Artful (2012) and How to Be Both (2014)
2. Realism for the post-truth
era: politics and storytelling in recent fiction and autobiography by Salman
Rushdie
3. Reality beckons: metamodernist depthiness beyond panfictionality
4. Just because it isnt happening here, doesnt mean it isnt happening:
narrative, fictionality and reflexivity in humanitarian rhetoric
5. Fictional
characters in a real world: unruly fictionalised encounters in Borat, The
Ambassador, and the Yes Mens media hoaxes
6. Changing dominants, changing
features? The fiction/nonfiction distinction in contemporary literary and
Instagram narratives
Jan Alber is Professor of English Literature and Cognition at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
Alice Bell is Professor of English Language and Literature at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
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