Synopses & Reviews
Thomas Pynchon, perhaps the most important living American author, is famed for his lengthy, complex and erudite fictions. Given these characteristics, an examination of the philosophical dimensions of Pynchon's works is long overdue. In Pynchon and Philosophy, Martin Paul Eve comprehensively and clearly redresses this balance, mapping Pynchon's interactions with the philosophy, ethics and politics of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault and Theodor W. Adorno, resulting in a fresh approach to these seminal novels.
Pynchon and Philosophy is based on the notion that Pynchon's brand of postmodern literature mocks theoretical frameworks. On these grounds, Pynchon has been accused of being an anti-rationalist, a postmodern nihilist figure who revels in the collapse of logic. In this book Eve shows that a fruitful showdown between these philosophical figures and Pynchon is now urgently needed to unearth the latent ethics within Pynchon's novels and to counter these wild claims.
Review
"Martin Paul Eve's Pynchon and Philosophy is a work of consummate scholarship. Breaking new ground in Pynchon studies, Eve offers an immensely erudite, detailed and in-depth account of the ways in which the ideas of Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno help us to think about his texts. A first-rate book." - David Cowart, University of South Carolina, USA
Synopsis
Pynchon and Philosophy radically reworks our readings of Thomas Pynchon alongside the theoretical perspectives of Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno. Rigorous yet readable, Pynchon and Philosophy seeks to recover philosophical readings of Pynchon that work harmoniously, rather than antagonistically, resulting in a wholly fresh approach.
About the Author
Dr. Martin Paul Eve is a lecturer in literature at the University of Lincoln, UK. In addition to editing the open access journal of Pynchon Studies, Orbit, he has work published or forthcoming in Textual Practise, Neo-Victorian Studies, C21, Pynchon Notes and several edited collections.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Notes
1. Theory. Methodology and Pynchon: What Matter Who's Speaking?
PART I: ON LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
2. Logical Ethics: Early Wittgenstein and Pynchon
3. Therapeutics: Late Wittgenstein and Pynchon
PART II: ON MICHEL FOUCAULT
4. Enlightenments: Early Foucault and Pynchon
5. Whose Line is it Anyway?: Late Foucault and Pynchon
PART III: ON THEODOR W. ARDORNO
6. Mass Deception: Adorno's Negative Dialectics and Pynchon
7. Art, Society and Ethics: Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, Aesthetic Theory and Pynchon
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index