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 is Associate Professor of French, Film Studies, and Comparative Literature at the University of Rhode Island. Naomi Mandel is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, University of Rhode Island.

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 Josee 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 Morgieve's Nightmare Theater of Primal Scenes; Ralph Schoolcraft; 8. Dantec's Inferno; Lawrence R. Schehr; 9. Apocalypse Now: Fins de siecles in the French Novel; Sabine van Wesemael; 10. Beyond The Extreme: Frederic Beigbeder's Windows on the World; Alain-Philippe Durand. 11. Amelie 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 Caidos del cielo and El hombre que invento Manhattan; Kathryn Everly; 14. Sex, Drugs, and Violence in Lucia 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.