Search

The relationship between challenging social order and bringing forth sexual secrets has an especially important role in Tahar Ben Jelloun's 1981 work, the book 'La priere de l'absent.' In the novel three marginal characters taking a baby to Smara, a site of Moroccan resistance to French invasion in a return to 'roots.' in the Alex Haley sense. They must give the baby national identity and subjectivity in returning to the origins of Moroccan nationalism and identity. The coming to national identity and 'birth of a nation' is allegorized. A person's nationality is still a place in which identity is rooted, but Maghrebian novels in French tend to challenge the dominant social order. Maghrebian authors commit political treason if they reveal sex secrets and disobey a kind of nationalist discourse rule that outlaws bringing dirty laundry out to world, and doing so in French, for outsiders, is double betrayal. Ben Jelloun brings forth the difference between the ideal of national identity presented by that which is official and what exists in Morocco., 'In the modern world,' wrote Benedict Anderson in 1983, 'everyone can, should, will, `have' a nationality, as he or she `has' a gender ...' (5). In contrast, it has become [...]

The novels of French author Jean Echenoz reflect the diverse, confusing and violent aspects of modern life and postmodern writing. Covering a wide range of genres such as espionage stories and science fiction, Echenoz incorporated the naturalism espoused by novelist Emile Zola in his works and advanced postmodernist style and criticism., L'oeuvre du romancier francais contemporain Jean Echenoz est retorse a l'analyse. Ainsi que Dominique Jullien le souligne: 'Any attempt to summarize the novels would be hopeless: they offer a confusing [...]

Milan Kundera's 1991 novel 'Nesmrtelnost' (Immortality) explores the role of the author and reader in the late 20th century with references to literary polemics. The novel plays with the reader's perceptions by establishing a fictional world containing three plausible worlds. These worlds are the world of the self-disclosing narrator in the person of Kundera, the world of the characters and the amorphous world of the immortals where authors meet to discuss their fates. Kundera's defacilitation of the I-narrative stresses the subjectivity of the reader in interpreting a text, whether this text is one of fiction or of an individual.

The art of narrative has changed dramatically in the French novel, with modern French writers abandoning the previous intellectual experimentation and subverting form to expand the art of storytelling. Narratives from sub-literature and historical forms, such as westerns and the detective novel, are re-emerging among the stories of the new generation of writers. The novelists are seeking to play with reality and are encompassing a narrative freedom.

A growing number of novels seem to be based on historical events and people and the line between fiction and fact is becoming increasingly blurred. At first sight, this trend may be due to a loss of confidence on the part of novelists faced with a rise in status of non-fiction. However, fictional autobiography is no new form of writing, but dates back to the very earliest novelists. The focus on truth and real-life events may be due to a desire for social realism and a reaction against pretension and fabrication. It may also reflect the fast pace of technological change we are seeing today.

Popular fiction is still looked down on by many critics and readers of literary fiction, who despise the idea that novels are written to entertain rather than be works of art. The poor image of popular fiction is also due to the tendency of publishers to market popular fiction not as novels in their own right but as belonging to specific categories, for example the 'Aga saga' and the 'clogs-and-shawls' novels. However, there is much intelligent popular fiction to be found, which not only entertains but which comforts, amuses or reflects the experiences of the reader.

The presentation of the 1995 Booker Prize to Pat Barker for 'The Ghost Road' has been appreciated by literary critics. The BBC televised a panel discussion on the short-listed books, chaired by Sarah Dunant who was notable for her repertoire of histrionic gestures. Bill Buford of the New Yorker praised Salman Rushdie's work, while disparaging the other books on the short list.

Only long novels can portray the vastness, variety and complexity of modern reality, and also include the abundance of human experience. The potential of novels can be fully exploited only when they are long and detailed, and the authors try to comprehend and describe real-life events in proportion to their scale and complexity. The writing of long novels must be encouraged to enable the presentation of an unrestricted view of reality.

The modern genre of fantasy novel excludes all references to God, spirituality and Christianity, and has been fused with the genre of science fiction to form a hybrid of fantasy and science fiction. Elements of both genres have been combined by writers such as Julian May, Gene Wolfe, Tim Powers, John Crowley, Daniel Easterman and others to produce well-written stories. Fantasy novels traditionally featured Christian thought while modern novels focus on heroism and New Age thoughts and symbols.

Randall Jarrell once wrote, in praise of William Carlos Williams, 'When you have read Paterson you know for the rest of your life what it is like to be a [...]