Rethinking Postmodernisms: Charles S. Peirce and the Pragmatist Negotiations of Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and Jonathan Safran Foer (Postmodern Studies, 41)

Rethinking Postmodernism(s) Revisits Three Historical Sites Of American Literary Postmodernism: The Early Postmodernism Of Thomas Pynchon's V. (1961), The Emancipatory Postmodernism Of Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), And The Late Or Post-postmodernism Of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated (2002). For The First Time, It Confronts These Texts With The Pragmatist Philosophy Of Charles Sanders Peirce, Staging A Conceptual Dialogue Between Pragmatism And Postmodernism That Historicizes And Recontextualizes Customary Readings Of Postmodern Fiction. The Book Is A Must-read For All Interested In Current Reassessments Of Literary Postmodernism, In New Critical Dialogues Between Seminal Postmodern Texts, And In Recent Attempts To Theorize The Post-postmodern' Moment.--jacket. Introduction -- Toward A New Postmodern Language Game : C.s. Peirce And The Pragmatist Language Of Creativity And Consensus -- Productive In/stabilities : Susanne Rohr's Peircean Theory Of Reality Constitution -- Beyond Rohr's Model : Creativity, Consensus, And The Language Of 'negotiations' -- Creativity And Power : Thomas Pynchon's V. -- Destabilizing Play : V.'s Creative Guesswork -- Stifling Control : V.'s Objects Of Desire -- Play And Control : Re-engaging The 'paradox' Of Postmodern Fiction -- Consensus And Differences : Toni Morrison's Beloved -- (de- )constructing Intersubjectivity : Beloved's Politics Of Reading -- Reworking Consensus : The Women's Gathering And Beloved's 'referential Debt' -- Creativity And Consensus : Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated -- Staging Creativity : Everything's Playful Destabilizations -- Performing (inter)subjectivities : Everything's Epistolary Mediations -- Reworking Consensus : Toward A 'moral' Vision Of 'collective Creation' -- Conclusion. Katrin Amian. Includes Bibliographical References. Annotation "Rethinking Postmodernism(s) " revisits three historical sites of American literary postmodernism: the early postmodernism of Thomas Pynchon's V. (1961), the emancipatory postmodernism of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (1987), and the late or post-postmodernism of Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" (2002). For the first time, it confronts these texts with the pragmatist philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, staging a conceptual dialogue between pragmatism and postmodernism that historicizes and recontextualizes customary readings of postmodern fiction. The book is a must-read for all interested in current reassessments of literary postmodernism, in new critical dialogues between seminal postmodern texts, and in recent attempts to theorize the 'post-postmodern' moment