Author : Michelle M. Tokarczyk
Publisher : Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)
Book Synopsis E.L. Doctorow's Skeptical Commitment by : Michelle M. Tokarczyk
Download or read book E.L. Doctorow's Skeptical Commitment written by Michelle M. Tokarczyk and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives a political reading of E. L. Doctorow's fiction. For Doctorow, there was a tension between the ideals of his socially aware family and those of the new critics under whom he studied as an undergraduate. This tension, making him skeptical about the possibilities of political involvement, has been beneficial because it has enabled Doctorow to avoid the excesses of both polemical writing and formalism. Through a stance Tokarczyk terms «skeptical commitment» he has written political fiction of high literary quality. In part, he has done so by adapting genres such as the western and the romance. Furthermore, Doctorow has used experimental techniques to express political and historical themes, thereby writing a kind of postmodern fiction that still maintains the possibility of establishing some truths, while acknowledging indeterminacy.