Thursday, February 9, 2012

Blank

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27742160.pdf

I decided to read an article using the Jstor Libraries that deals with James Annesley's 'Blank Fiction'. The article is written by Maria T Pao and she sees blank fiction (according to Annesley) as having

'a set of dominant characteristics present in certain contem porary American novels. Drawing from narratives by authors
such as Dennis Cooper, Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis and Evelyn Lau, Annesley describes their protagonists' preoccupation with violence, sex, drug use, and popular culture,
mediums, and styles. These novels, set in the urban environments of New York City or Los Angeles, depict characters whose
rejection both of the traditional constraints of job and family
and of political or social ideals dovetails with a sense of living at
a remove from reality, produced in part by the ubiquitous presence of television, film, and video. The characters that emerge from these conditions exude an air of indifference, ennui, indo
lence, and indulgence. They project a splintered, nihilistic view of the world as they increasingly withdraw from society and reality.'


the blank fiction of this era has been questioned for its use of such extreme themes and examples of explicit acts, yet Annesley argues that  


'these novels present violence as "a reflection on the relationships that connect violence, commodification and the body" 


and may be seen as a 


"metaphor for the deadening impact of commercialisation in the late twentieth century"'


the article continues to compare blank fiction with that of world literature that holds in the same characteristics, its claims that the American style of Writing has crossed the atlantic to such shores as Great Britain and Spain in more recent years.

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