Novels of the Contemporary Extreme (Continuum Literary Studies)

192 Pages·2006·0.58 MB·English

by  Alain-Philippe Durand

Novels of the
Contemporary Extreme
ALAIN-PHILIPPE DURAND
NAOMI MANDEL,
Editors
Continuum
Novels of the Contemporary Extreme
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Novels of the
Contemporary Extreme
edited by
ALAIN-PHILIPPE DURAND and NAOMI MANDEL
Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
11 York Road Suite 704
London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
© Alain-Philippe Durand, Naomi Mandel and contributors 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 0–8264–9088–3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in the USA by IBT Global, New York
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Contributors viii
Introduction 1
Alain-Philippe Durand and Naomi Mandel
Part I The Americas
1 “Right Here in Nowheres”: American Psycho and Violence’s
Critique 9
Naomi Mandel
2 Telling Doubles and Literal-Minded Reading in Bret Easton
Ellis’s Glamorama 20
Henrik Skov Nielsen
3 Posthumous Voice and Residual Presence in Don DeLillo’s
The Body Artist 31
Mikko Keskinen
4 A Post-Apocalyptic World: The Excremental, Abject Female
Warriors of Josée Yvon 41
Paula Ruth Gilbert with Colleen Lester
5 On the Impossibility of Being Contemporary in Nelly Arcan’s
Folle 53
Martine Delvaux
6 Media-Portrayed Violence in Alberto Fuguet’s Tinta roja 64
Jason Summers
vi Contents
Part II Europe and the Middle East
7 Sadomasochism, Castration and Rape: Richard Morgiève’s
Nightmare Theater of Primal Scenes 77
Ralph Schoolcraft
8 Dantec’s Inferno 89
Lawrence R. Schehr
9 Michel Houellebecq: A Fin de Siècle for the Twentieth Century 100
Sabine van Wesemael
10 Beyond The Extreme: Frédéric Beigbeder’sWindows on the World 109
Alain-Philippe Durand
11 Amélie Nothomb’s Dialectic of the Sublime and the Grotesque 121
Martine Guyot-Bender
12 Violence Biting its Own Tail: Martin Amis’sYellow Dog 132
Jean-Michel Ganteau
13 Beauty and Death as Simulacra in Ray Loriga’sCaídos del cielo
andEl hombre que inventó Manhattan 143
Kathryn Everly
14 Sex, Drugs and Violence in Lucía Etxebarria’sAmor, curiosidad,
Prozac y dudas 153
Catherine Bourland Ross
15 On Human Parts: Orly Castel-Bloom and the Israeli Extreme 163
Adia Mendelson-Maoz
Index 175
Acknowledgements
We want to thank all the contributors to Novels of the Contemporary Extreme
for their wide-ranging and thoughtful work, and for their patience and effi-
ciency as they helped us bring this volume to publication. Our editor, Anna
Sandeman, and our publisher, Continuum Books, believed in this project
from the beginning. We thank them for their initiative and appreciate their
support. Thanks also to Anya Wilson at Continuum for her expert guidance,
and to Jacqueline Twyman for her eagle-eyed proofreading.
We also want to extend our thanks to the individuals whose skills, advice
and encouragement made this project a reality: James Kinnie and Emily
Greene at the University of Rhode Island’s library; Miriam B. Mandel at Tel
Aviv University, Michael Clark at the University of Rhode Island, Stephen
Barber, Allan H. Pasco, Sherri Durand, and Frédéric Beigbeder. Class discus-
sions certainly had an impact on the shaping of this project, and we are
especially grateful to our students in the following courses at the University of
Rhode Island: “Extreme Literatures Compared” (Spring 2003), “French Oral
Expression 2” (Spring 2004), “Violence and the Novel” (Spring 2004 and
2005), “Non-Places in the Contemporary French Novel” (Spring 2005).
This book would not have existed without the advice and encouragement
of our colleagues. Thank you to Galen Johnson and Robert Manteiga for
inviting us to teach courses on the contemporary extreme in the Honors and
Comparative Literature programs and to Jean Walton and Joseph Morello for
facilitating the paperwork that enabled us to do so. Our favorite restaurant,
Lai-Lai, provided good Chinese food and opportunities for endless
discussion.
Thank you to the following institutions and programs that have financially
supported parts of this work: the University of Rhode Island Center for the
Humanities Richard Beaupre Faculty Sabbatical Fellowship (special thanks to
Winifred Brownell and Marie Schwartz) and the University of Rhode Island
Council for Research Career Enhancement Grant (special thanks to Beverly
Swan and Todd Beran).
Finally, and most importantly, we thank our closest relatives and dearest
friends – Chloé, Eva, Sherri, Alain, Josiane, and Eric Durand; Miriam B.
Mandel, Jerome Mandel, Jessica Mandel, and Erik Sklar – whose love and
support are the source of our inspiration and a blessed reminder that there is
a life outside the library.
List of Contributors
Catherine Bourland Ross is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Southwestern
University in Georgetown, Texas. Her interests include the contemporary
Spanish novel, Spanish film and contemporary Spanish culture. She has
published articles on twentieth-century Spanish playwrights and novelists, in
journals such as Romance Notes and Confluencia.
Martine Delvaux is Associate Professor of Literary studies at the Université
du Québec à Montréal. She works on contemporary women’s literature in
France, self-writing and photo/biography. She has published a number of
articles on these subjects in, among others, The French Review,French Forum,
L’esprit créateur, Sites, Liberté, and is the author of Femmes psychiatrisées,
femmes rebelles. De l’étude de cas à la narration autobiographique (Les Emp-
êcheurs de penser en rond, 1998) and Histoires de fantômes. Spectralité
et témoignage dans les récits de femmes contemporains (Presses de l’Université de
Montréal, 2005). She also writes fiction and has published, in collaboration
with Catherine Mavrikakis, the epistolary work Ventriloquies (Leméac,
2003).
Alain-Philippe Durand is Associate Professor of French, Film Media, and
Comparative Literature at the University of Rhode Island. His interests
include the contemporary novel, French Cinema, Hip-Hop Culture, and
Cultural and Literary Criticism. He is the author of two books: Black, Blanc,
Beur. Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World (Scarecrow
Press, 2002) and Un Monde Techno. Nouveaux espaces électroniques dans
le roman français des années 1980 et 1990 (Weidler, 2004). In addition
to entries in the Dictionary of Literary Biography and the Encyclopedia of
Popular Music of the World, he has published articles on nineteenth- and
twentieth-century French and Luso-Brazilian literatures, in journals such as
The French Review, Contemporary French Civilization, L’Atelier du Roman,
Etudes Francophones,Romance Notes, and Romance Quarterly.
Kathryn Everly is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Syracuse University.
Her research interests include women writers from Spain, Catalan literature,
Spanish Generation X writers and feminist theory. She is the author of
Catalan Women Writers and Artists: Revisionist Views from a Feminist Space
(Bucknell University Press, 2003). Her articles have appeared in various pub-
lications, including Catalan Review,Monographic Review,Letras Peninsulares,