Wolfgang Funk, "The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium"

Rachele Dini

Wolfgang Funk, "The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium"

Rachele Dini

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

Abstract

In The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium, Wolfgang Funkreads the literary landscape after postmodernism through the interrelated concepts of authenticity, meta-reference and reconstruction. These terms, he argues, can help make sense of how fiction post-1990 has “renegotiate[d] the relationship between experience and its representation in an attempt to truthfully re-enact experience through representation” (1, emphasis added). Funk is thus concerned to both articulate the difference between past and present modes of representing the authentic, and to shed light, through these readings, on changes in the cultural conceptualization and experience of selfhood, truth, and reality. Moving beyond such terms as “metamodernism,” and “digimodernism,” whose shared semantic root with modernism implies less of a break than an ill-defined continuation, and whose emphasis on specific constitutive elements risks obscuring the complexity of their interdependence, Funk instead argues the fruitfulness of attending to the interrelation in contemporary writing between self-referentiality, a search for the real, and the reconstruction of meaning through these.

Original language	English
Journal	European Journal of American Studies
Volume	11
Issue number	3
Publication status	Published - Oct 2016

Keywords

postmodernism
twenty-first century literature
contemporary fiction
poststructuralism
post-postmodernism

Access to Document

https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11669

Cite this

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title = "Wolfgang Funk, {"}The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium{"}",

abstract = "In The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium, Wolfgang Funkreads the literary landscape after postmodernism through the interrelated concepts of authenticity, meta-reference and reconstruction. These terms, he argues, can help make sense of how fiction post-1990 has “renegotiate[d] the relationship between experience and its representation in an attempt to truthfully re-enact experience through representation” (1, emphasis added). Funk is thus concerned to both articulate the difference between past and present modes of representing the authentic, and to shed light, through these readings, on changes in the cultural conceptualization and experience of selfhood, truth, and reality. Moving beyond such terms as “metamodernism,” and “digimodernism,” whose shared semantic root with modernism implies less of a break than an ill-defined continuation, and whose emphasis on specific constitutive elements risks obscuring the complexity of their interdependence, Funk instead argues the fruitfulness of attending to the interrelation in contemporary writing between self-referentiality, a search for the real, and the reconstruction of meaning through these.",

keywords = "postmodernism, twenty-first century literature, contemporary fiction, poststructuralism, post-postmodernism",

author = "Rachele Dini",

note = "Rachele Dini, « Wolfgang Funk, The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium », European journal of American studies [Online], Reviews 2016-3, document 4, Online since 26 October 2016, connection on 10 July 2018. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11669",

year = "2016",

month = oct,

language = "English",

volume = "11",

journal = "European Journal of American Studies",

issn = "1991-9336",

publisher = "European Association for American Studies",

number = "3",

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T1 - Wolfgang Funk, "The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium"

AU - Dini, Rachele

N1 - Rachele Dini, « Wolfgang Funk, The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium », European journal of American studies [Online], Reviews 2016-3, document 4, Online since 26 October 2016, connection on 10 July 2018. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11669

PY - 2016/10

Y1 - 2016/10

N2 - In The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium, Wolfgang Funkreads the literary landscape after postmodernism through the interrelated concepts of authenticity, meta-reference and reconstruction. These terms, he argues, can help make sense of how fiction post-1990 has “renegotiate[d] the relationship between experience and its representation in an attempt to truthfully re-enact experience through representation” (1, emphasis added). Funk is thus concerned to both articulate the difference between past and present modes of representing the authentic, and to shed light, through these readings, on changes in the cultural conceptualization and experience of selfhood, truth, and reality. Moving beyond such terms as “metamodernism,” and “digimodernism,” whose shared semantic root with modernism implies less of a break than an ill-defined continuation, and whose emphasis on specific constitutive elements risks obscuring the complexity of their interdependence, Funk instead argues the fruitfulness of attending to the interrelation in contemporary writing between self-referentiality, a search for the real, and the reconstruction of meaning through these.

AB - In The Literature of Reconstruction: Authentic Fiction in the New Millennium, Wolfgang Funkreads the literary landscape after postmodernism through the interrelated concepts of authenticity, meta-reference and reconstruction. These terms, he argues, can help make sense of how fiction post-1990 has “renegotiate[d] the relationship between experience and its representation in an attempt to truthfully re-enact experience through representation” (1, emphasis added). Funk is thus concerned to both articulate the difference between past and present modes of representing the authentic, and to shed light, through these readings, on changes in the cultural conceptualization and experience of selfhood, truth, and reality. Moving beyond such terms as “metamodernism,” and “digimodernism,” whose shared semantic root with modernism implies less of a break than an ill-defined continuation, and whose emphasis on specific constitutive elements risks obscuring the complexity of their interdependence, Funk instead argues the fruitfulness of attending to the interrelation in contemporary writing between self-referentiality, a search for the real, and the reconstruction of meaning through these.

KW - postmodernism

KW - twenty-first century literature

KW - contemporary fiction

KW - poststructuralism

KW - post-postmodernism

M3 - Book/Film/Article review

SN - 1991-9336

VL - 11

JO - European Journal of American Studies

JF - European Journal of American Studies

IS - 3

ER -