Postmodern Time and Space in Fiction and Theory, 1st ed. 2020 Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies Series

Postmodern Time and Space in Fiction and Theory seeks to place the contemporary transformation of notions of space and time, often attributed to the technologies we use, in the context of the ongoing transformations of modernity. Bringing together examples of modern and contemporary fiction (from Defoe to DeLillo, Frankenstein to Finnegans Wake) and theoretical discussions of the modern and the post-modern, the author explores the legacy of modern transformations of space and time under five headings: ?The Space of Nature?; ?The Space of the City?; ?Postmodern or Most Modern Time?; ?The Time and Space of the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction?; and ?Travel: from Modernity to???. These five essays re-examine the meanings of modernity and its aftermath in relation to the spaces and times of the natural, the urban and the media environment.

1. Introduction

1. The Space of Nature

I: Post-Romantic

II: Post-Darwinian

III: Post-Christian … Post-Extractivist?

IV: Posthuman, post-naturally and Post-apocalyptic – The Last Post(s)?

1. The Space of the City

I: The Nineteenth Century City

II: The Modern City

III: The Contemporary City

1. Postmodern or Most Modern Time

I: Modernist Times

II: More Recent Times

1. The Time and Space of the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction

I: The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

II: One-Dimensional and Monosyllabic

III: The Age of “Electrickery”

IV: Art works in shared spaces?

1. Travel: from Modernity to…?

I: From pilgrim to tourist… to the airport… to the ‘selfie’

II: From Faustus to Houellebecq’s Platform

7.      Conclusion

Michael Kane is Lecturer in Literature and Cultural Theory in the School of Arts of the Dublin Business School, in Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of Modern Men: Mapping Masculinity in English and German Literature (1999).

Compiles philosophical and theoretical debates around modernity and contemporary literature

Contributes to our understanding of spatiality in relation to time, nature, and the city

Meditates on relevant themes and trends within the study of modernism placing literary texts within a broader context