Generic Instability and Identity in the Contemporary Novel Gonzalez Madelena
Contemporary aesthetics is characterized by generic mixing on the level of both form and content. The barriers between different media and different genres have been broken down in all literary art…
Specifikacia Generic Instability and Identity in the Contemporary Novel Gonzalez Madelena
Contemporary aesthetics is characterized by generic mixing on the level of both form and content. The barriers between different media and different genres have been broken down in all literary art forms, whether it be theatre, poetry, or the novel. While the publishing industry is increasingly keen to label novels according to genre or sub-genre (Chick Lit, Lad Lit, Gay fiction, Scottish fiction, New Historical Fiction, Crime fiction, Post-9/11 Fiction), the novel itself (and novelists) persist in resisting generic categorizations as well as inviting them. Is this a move towards a new artistic liberty or does it simply testify to a confusion of identity? The aesthetic supermarket evoked by Lodge in 1992 does indeed seem to sum up the variety of choices open to writers of fiction today and a literary landscape characterized by crossover and hybridization. The familiar dialectic of