Novels of the Contemporary Extreme

"Durand and Mandel (both, Univ of Rhode Island) collect critical essays that analyze a particular kind of contemporary novel, "novels that do not merely reflect on violence [but] seek it out, engage it, and in a variety of imaginative ways, perform it." These essays provide a better understanding of the literary positioning and psychological framework of the contemporary extreme novel, both inside and outside the US." Summing up: Recommended- CHOICE February 2007 Mention in College Literature, Vol. 36.2, Spring 2009

Alain-Philippe Durand Professor of French and Director of the School of International Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SILLC) at the University of Arizona, USA and Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianpolis, Brazil. Naomi Mandel is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Rhode Island, USA.

Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction; Alian-Philippe Durand and Naomi Mandel Part I: Americas 1. 'Right Here in Nowheres': American Psycho and Violence's Critique; Naomi Mandel 2. Telling doubles and Literal Minded Reading in Bret Easton Ellis' Glamorama; Henrik Skov Nielsen 3. Posthumous Voice and Residual Presence in Don DeLillo's The Body Artist; Mikko Keskinen 4. A Post-Apocalyptic World: The Excremental, Abject Female Warriors of Jose Yvon; Paula Ruth Gilbert with Colleen Lester 5. On the Impossibility of Being Contemporary in Nelly Arcan's Folle; Martine Delvaux 6. Media-Portrayed Violence in Alberto Fuguet's Tinta roja; Jason G. Summers Part II: Europe and the Middle East 7. Sadomasochism, Castration and Rape: Richard Morgive's Nightmare Theater of Primal Scenes; Ralph Schoolcraft 8. Dantec's Inferno; Lawrence R. Schehr 9. Apocalypse Now: Fins de sicles in the French Novel; Sabine van Wesemael 10. Beyond The Extreme: Frdric Beigbeder's Windows on the World; Alain-Philippe Durand 11. Amlie Nothomb's Dialectic of the Sublime and the Grotesque; Martine Guyot-Bender 12. Violence Biting Its Own Tail: Martin Amis's Yellow Dog; Jean-Michel Ganteau 13. Beauty and Death as Simulacra in Ray Loriga's Cados del cielo and El hombre que invent Manhattan; Kathryn Everly 14. Sex, Drugs, and Violence in Luca Etxebarria's Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas; Catherine Bourland Ross 15- On Human Parts: Orly Castel-Bloom and the Israeli Extreme; Adia Mendelson-Maoz Bibliography Index