Experimental Novel

J.G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition can easily be classified as his most experimental novel, one that, more than any other of his works, succeeds in presenting, or perhaps representing, the fragmented condition of a media-saturated Western culture. On the surface, it does appear to be a postmodern and seemingly chaotic bricolage of pop iconography, landscapes, and medical references arranged non-linearly and without plot, and yet there is a unifying principle at work, anchoring the texts in a specific ideological context of 1960s Western culture. The main argument of this paper expands on Debord’s study of spectacle and regards The Atrocity Exhibition as a work that not only attempts to frustrate reading expectations, but also addresses the cultural shift towards spectacular society.

Review of Doug Dorst's 2013 novel "S" (created by J.J. Abrams), which appears in BSJ: The B.S. Johnson Journal, Issue 2.

Link to the publication here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/ed-darlington-hooper-seddon-tew-zouaoui/bsj-the-bs-johnson-journal-2/paperback/product-22374374.html

In this article, I examine the formal overlap between "camp" as a social and performance repertoire and postmodern metafiction through a reading of the novels of Muriel Spark, primarily Not to Disturb (1971) and The Abbess of Crewe (1974). I suggest that in Spark's novels, two kinds of "inconsequentiality"--the first a tradition of refined triviality inherited from British high camp, and the second a species of narrative and poetic "inconsequence" associated with the metafiction of the sixties and seventies--share a cultural and formal logic. Drawing on Sianne Ngai's revitalization of the problem of "tone," I begin by reassessing Spark's frequently remarked-upon "triviality" in terms of the dynamics of camp, which I read in conjunction with a narratological emphasis on metafictionality. Spark thematizes her abiding concern with the ontology of narrative by foregrounding technologies of medial reproduction and surveillance. Accordingly, I turn to accounts of "techno-modernism" in order to clarify Spark's campy metafiction. Finally, I explore Spark's ambivalent engagement with queer characters as emblems of her camp metafiction. Sparkian metafiction rests, finally, on the commitment to reflexivity shared by camp theatricality and techno-modernist metafiction alike.

“Aberrant experiments”: reading society in the novel experiments of Britain and France 1945-1975 contests the reduced position of the experimental novel in the post-war socio-cultural sphere. My thesis situates the experimental novel of the period in Britain and France in a space of critical connectivity that both challenges a number of prevailing critical orthodoxies, and potentially offers new avenues of critical attention within the subject. I also argue that the blind, or appropriative, eye turned to these texts has acted to disjoint them from their potential social reflections, and here try to reposition them within their native atmosphere; thus refind this ground. To such an end, I, with some exceptions, return the experimental novel to its original tenets as set out in 1880 by Émile Zola in Le Roman expérimental as a ‘white cell’ within the ‘social circulus’ that harbours the potential to ‘cure’ society of its ‘delusions’, and develop this schema further. As such, this thesis mimics the processes of experimental medicine; in which its three partitions deal each with a different stage of the experimental treatment of a social illness. In such, the first partition approaches the perception of sickness; where I observe depictions of social relation and cultural presence in the experimental novel, and the symptoms of illness there-in described as issues of history, dominant culture; and indeed the field of critique itself. Following this, the second partition brings the study into the phase of diagnosis of sickness; where the illness itself is diagnosed through a content study of the experimental novel. This then follows to the third and final partition, which attempts to view the experimental techniques employed in order to ‘break down’ these delusions; in essence attempt to indeed ‘cure society’ of the sickness described in the preceding partitions.

Keywords: post-war experimental literature, Britain, France, reading socii in the experimental novel, reflections of contemporary, re-forming Britain post-war

This paper discusses two contemporary novels from a narratological perspective. The Unfortu- nates by B.S. Johnson and S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst demonstrate inapplicability of narrative most commonly theorised as a representation of events. Instead, due to their unconventional usage of typography, multimodality and/or transmediality, they provoke daring attempts at reconceptu- alisations of this fundamental concept of modern narrative theory and novel studies. In addition, the two novels exemplify an increasingly common trend in contemporary fiction of undermining the traditional understanding of the novel as a monomodal (exclusively verbal) work and self-contained, printed entity.

Although Wolfgang Iser is one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century, there is no authoritative study about his oeuvre. The present work remedies that problem by analysing Iser’s German and English writings in detail. Apart from being the first comprehensive account of his work, this study also modifies the established view of Iser’s theory. In contrast to the idea that his only contribution to literary studies is the reception theory of the 1970s, this account demonstrates the importance of Iser’s work on history and anthropology from the 1950s and 1990s. Instead of exclusively focusing on familiar terms such as ‘indeterminacy’, this analysis also discusses Iser’s view of modernity, fiction and culture. As this discussion shows, his writings develop a consistent theory of the novel and the way in which it allows its readers to articulate new views of reality. To situate this theory, Iser’s institutional and intellectual background is described as well, paying special attention to the Poetik und Hermeneutik-circle and thinkers like Blumenberg and Kermode. The continued relevance of his theory is demonstrated via comparisons with recent research on the novel and memory as well as examples from contemporary novelists like Juli Zeh and Hilary Mantel.

The article starts from ideas of current neoliberal Sweden as a break with the welfare society of the 1960s – a peak of Swedish social development, according to a frequent opinion. This invites scrutinizing how the now mythical welfare state of the 1960s was depicted in the literature of the day. Quite surprisingly many critical accounts then seem to question that version of welfare, thereby also actualizing issues on society and aesthetics in the 1960s. Theoretical reflexions on the relations between literature and society and the possibility of a social critical literature after Adorno present a addressive social rhetorical perspective as a possibility (Lloyd Bitzer, Carolyn Miller). After an outline of the literary situation of the 1960s some examples of the experimental prose of those days is discussed, thereby illuminating the issue of a special aesthetics of the welfare state (Sven Delblanc, P.O. Enquist, Margareta Ekström, Lars Gustafsson, P.C. Jersild, P.-O. Sundman).

In the mid of 19th-century, French Naturalism attempts to transform Literature into Science,
creating “the experimental novel”. This is based upon the idea that our actions are determined
by social laws. The aim of this article is to examine this determinist view and to highlight the
more radical reach of Naturalist fatum, in contrast with the Greek idea of destiny, and the
subsequent belief about responsibility, conscience and the sense of human action.
El Naturalismo del S.XIX aspiraba a convertir la literatura en ciencia, basando su “novela
experimental” en la idea de que las leyes sociales nos determinan. El objetivo de este artículo es
analizar ese determinismo y su semejanza con la idea griega de destino, subrayando el alcance
más radical del fatum naturalista y de la subsiguiente visión de la responsabilidad, de la
conciencia o del sentido de la acción humana.

This paper discusses two contemporary novels from a narratological perspective. The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson and S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst demonstrate inapplicability of narrative most commonly theorised as a representation of events. Instead, due to their unconventional usage of typography, multimodality and/or transmediality, they provoke daring attempts at reconceptualisations of this fundamental concept of modern narrative theory and novel studies. In addition, the two novels exemplify an increasingly common trend in contemporary fiction of undermining the traditional understanding of the novel as a monomodal (exclusively verbal) work and selfcontained, printed entity

Negli ultimi decenni del XX all'inizio del XXI secolo si assiste a un aumento della produzione di opere nell'ambito della letteratura, delle arti visive e neomediali nelle quali la circolazione tra le pratiche creative assume un ruolo importante se non preponderante. Ibridazione, intermedialità, transmedialità, multimedialità, intersemiosi sono termini che ci consentono di designare l'intrecciarsi di queste pratiche dove si moltiplicano i prestiti tra cinema, fotografia, arte digitale, video arte, letteratura, ecc., anche se non è ancora consolidata la distinzione concettuale tra ognuna di queste nozioni. Il Convegno internazionale si propone di apportare un'estensione alla riflessione e un confronto teorico attraverso un approccio interdisciplinare.

In this article I will approach dominant critical avenues surrounding the texts of B. S. Johnson via what appears to be a staging ground of access, that is the “Disintegration” episode of Albert Angelo (1964). As a prominent interaction in this episode is that between “truth” and “lies,” by observing the inconsistencies of dominant critique, I will re-open a view of the textual space, and in doing so perhaps find a subtler approach to “truth” in Johnson’s writing. I will work to uncover function and form interactions with modes of “truth” in the “Disintegration” episode of B. S. Johnson’s Albert Angelo, and perhaps find there a textual, rather than figure, anchoring.

Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood Experimenting with the narrative in finding an expression of emotions by using theatrical elements in Love in Excess Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood is a novel of amatory fiction and is experimental in terms of its' narration. Its' narration is experimental in terms of being a novel establishing a 'new form of expression' for passion and emotions (Anderson 7). However, when Eliza Haywood's background in acting and scriptwriting is taken into account, it also provides a reason why Love in Excess has a new and different form of narration (7). Love in Excess will be analyzed in this paper in terms of its narrative features in searching a new form of expression of 'passion and desire' and in terms of including theatrical elements due to the author's previous experience in drama by references to the novel and previous literary studies. Love in Excess deals with the theme of liberating female sexual desire and its characters are trying to find a way of expressing their passion. The trouble the characters have in the expression of this desire is because it is 'unacceptable' for a woman to show their passion openly to a man in the 18 th century and because they are expected to be 'virtuous' (Saxton 3,4). This trouble leads the characters to find a way of expressing their desire without 'staining' their reputation. For this reason, Alovisa, who is attracted to Count D'elmont and wants him to know that she wants him, starts writing anonymous letters to him when "[…] love (ingenious at invention) inspired her […]" to write letters "[…] which probably let her into the secrets of his [D'elmont's] heart without the shame of revealing her own" (Haywood 39). In this way, Alovisa writes her first letter to D'elmont and letters become a form of expressing 'female desire' and also lead to some 'dramatic' moments in the novel when Amena reads the letter given to her by D'elmont 'at parting' and understands that it is Alovisa's writing learns that Alovisa is her rival in earning the heart of D'elmont (62). Unnamed letters create mystery and suspense in the novel, as they would in the theatre, and also lead to moments of crisis when they are discovered by chance, and in this way add a 'chance' element. These are very similar to the use of letters for dramatic effect in theatre and show that the narrative of the novel is experimenting with several different techniques to find a means of expression the female love and desire in the 18 th century.

Delving into how the traumatic experience of the Second World War formed – or perhaps malformed – the post-war experimental novel, this book explores how the symbolic violence of post-war normalization warped societies' perception of reality. Andrew Hodgson explores how the novel was used by authors to attempt to communicate in such a climate, building a memorial space that has been omitted from literatures and societies of the post-war period. Hodgson investigates this space as it is portrayed in experimental modern British and French fiction, considering themes of amnesia, myopia, delusion and dementia. Such themes are constantly referred back to and posit in narrative a motive for the very broken forms these books often take – books in boxes; of spare pages to be shuffled at the reader's will; with holes in pages; missing whole sections of the alphabet; or books written and then entirely scrubbed out in smudged black ink.

Covering the works of B. S. Johnson, Ann Quin, Georges Perec, Roland Topor, Raymond Queneau and others, Andrew Hodgson shows that there is method to the madness of experimental fiction and legitimizes the form as a prominent presence within a wider literary and historical movement in European and American avant-garde literatures.

João Maria Vilanova alias João de Freitas (1933-2005), was an outstanding author in Twentieth-Century Angola, who choose to live totally incognito. Despite being considered just poet, he wrote several tales and different texts still unpublished. This paper aims to show an experimentalist aspect of his work, as he turned post into art form, by inserting in it an innovative prose.

Donald Breckenridge is a pointillist, constructing scene after scene with precise details of dialogue and gesture, each tiny in itself, possibly mundane, but accumulating astonishing power and bleak complexity. His language is matter of fact, the unsentimental plain style used subtly and flexibly, the only apparent artfulness is in the unconventional punctuation and, sometimes, the way the dialogue breaks up the narrative sentences.

"In this new book Douglas Glover includes essays on Christa Wolf, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, and Hubert Aquin; three interviews and a memoir; and three considerations of the nature of fiction and one on comedy. In them, he establishes paternity, explanations and justification for the non-narrative novel, what Glover refers to in one essay title as the novel as poem. Again and again he cites John Hawkes’s much-quoted remark that the enemies of the novel are “plot, character, setting, and theme.” And he rounds up the usual suspects in marshalling his arguments: Nabokov, Paul Valery, Samuel Beckett, Victor Shklovsky. This kind of writer, Glover argues, chooses less than he is chosen. Writing becomes an act of survival, if it is even, ever, that: “Christa Wolf is hiding in California, living the life of one of her own characters, hounded out of Germany for being politically incorrect. Leonard Cohen stopped writing novels after Beautiful Losers. And Hubert Aquin killed himself. Exile, silence and death, which are optional modes in a piece of fiction, seem, in the lives of certain writers, to take on a kind of necessity–there is only this and writing, or, perhaps, this or writing. For this kind of writer, there are no safe havens, no fire exits, and the patient never recovers.” It is a particular strength of this collection that Glover not only demonstrates how much Canadian fiction is part of the avant-garde non-narrative novel but also that the circumstances of Canada invite just such writing: “These are writers and artists … who see marginality (Canadianness) as a metaphor for the self in the modern age–that self which everywhere feels somehow exterior and irrelevant to its own destiny.” To understand it this way is to see Canadian writing in a new way." (Review of Contemporary Fiction)

Table of Contents

The Novel as a Poem — Her Life Entire (on Margaret Atwood) — The Essential Furniture of the World — Difficulty and Revolution (on Hubert Aquin) — The Net and the Quest for Christa T. (on Christa Wolf and women's writing) — Laughter and Anxiety (on comedy) — Nihilism and Hairspray — Gertrude, or the Postmodern Novel — A Feeling for History — The Masks of I — Beautiful Losers (on Leonard Cohen) — The Sparks that Fly off when Two Skins Touch — The Familiar Dead (memoir).

The Introductory Material and an Extract from this extraordinary, experimental novel by the author of 'Before the Bombardment'; including Editor's Preface, Author's Preface and Select Bibliography. This novel is a fictionalized account of the life and death of an artist, Tristam Orlander. A refreshing and highly unique experience. Horror and Mystery and Great Literature all rolled into one incredible, "one-of-a-kind" novel. A tale of the uncanny deserving of Stephen King, yet written generations ago in a style that is unassuming yet has a cumulative effect. Certianly a literary curiosity worth reading. Edited and Introduced by modern-day author Edouard d'Araille in the 'Great World Books' Series for Living Time Global.