Degenerative Realism

Novel and Nation in Twenty-First-Century France

Christy Wampole

$57.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Columbia University Press
23 June 2020

Literary studies: post-colonial literature

Series: Literature Now

"A new strain of realism has emerged in France. The novels that embody it represent diverse fears-immigration and demographic change, radical Islam, feminism, new technologies, globalization, American capitalism, and the European Union-but these books, often best-sellers, share crucial affinities. In their dystopian visions, the collapse of France, Europe, and Western civilization is portrayed as all but certain and the literary mode of realism begins to break down. Above all, they depict a degenerative force whose effects on the nation and on reality itself can be felt.

Examining key novels by Michel Houellebecq, Frédéric Beigbeder, Aurélien Bellanger, Yann Moix, and other French writers, Christy Wampole identifies and critiques this emergent tendency toward ""degenerative realism."" She considers the ways these writers draw on social science, the New Journalism of the 1960s, political pamphlets, reportage, and social media to construct an atmosphere of disintegration and decline. Wampole maps how degenerative realist novels explore a world contaminated by conspiracy theories, mysticism, and misinformation, responding to the internet age's confusion between fact and fiction with a lament for the loss of the real and an unrelenting emphasis on the role of the media in crafting reality. In a time of widespread populist anxieties over the perceived decline of the French nation, this book diagnoses the literary symptoms of today's reactionary revival."

By: Christy Wampole
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780231185172
ISBN 10: 0231185170
Series: Literature Now
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 23 June 2020
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christy Wampole is associate professor of French at Princeton University. She is the author of Rootedness: The Ramifications of a Metaphor (2016) and The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation (2015).

Reviews for Degenerative Realism: Novel and Nation in Twenty-First-Century France

In the wake of the cultural and economic crises that hit France through the era of post-truth and social media, contemporary French literature invented a new form of realism, which Wampole calls degenerative realism. A challenging, stimulating book on a controversial literary trend. -- Alexandre Gefen, CNRS-Universite Paris Sorbonne One of the smartest books I've had the pleasure to read in recent years. Compelling, stimulating, far-reaching, and indispensable. Degenerative Realism is a rich, illuminating concept, plugged into the French national psyche while capturing the zeitgeist of our globalized economy, and full of potentialities for related fields. A must-read in a world caught between alternative facts and dire predictions. -- Philippe Met, editor of <i>The Cinema of Louis Malle: Transatlantic Auteur</i> This book is timely in its intervention, and it offers a bracing portrait of the new degenerative realists. Wampole makes a persuasive case for the coherence and significance of this reactionary literary tendency. -- Lee Konstantinou, University of Maryland

Winner of Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies, Modern Language Association 2020
Winner of Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies, Modern Language Association 2021