New book: Thomas Pynchon in Context

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Thomas Pynchon in Context

Edited by Inger H. Dalsgaard, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark.
Thomas Pynchon in Context guides students, scholars and other readers
through the global scope and prolific imagination of Pynchon’s challenging,
canonical work, providing the most up-to-date and authoritative scholarly
analyses of his writing. This book is divided into three parts. The first,
‘Times and Places’, sets out the history and geographical contexts both for
the setting of Pynchon’s novels and his own life. The second, ‘Culture,
Politics and Society’, examines twenty important and recurring themes which
most clearly define Pynchon’s writing - ranging from ideas in philosophy and
the sciences to humor and pop culture. The final part, ‘Approaches and
Readings’, outlines and assesses ways to read andunderstand Pynchon.
Consisting of Forty-four essays written by some of the world’s leading
scholars, this volume outlines the most important contexts for understanding
Pynchon’s writing and helps readers interpret and reference his literary
work.

Chronology; Introduction;

Part I. Times and Places: 1. Biography; 2. Letters and Juvenilia;; 3.
Nonfiction; 4. East Coast; 5. West Coast; 6. Europe and Asia; 7. Africa and
Latin America; 8. Geographies and Mapping; 9. Eighteenth Century; 10.
Nineteenth Century; 11. Twentieth Century; 12. Twenty-First Century;13.
History and Metahistory

Part II. Culture, Politics and Society: 14. Family; 15. Sex and Gender; 16.
Humor; 17. Popular culture; 18. Music and Sound; 19. Film and TV; 20. Real
Estate and the Internet; 21. Politics and Counterculture; 22. Drugs and
Hippies; 23. Ecology and the Environment; 24. Capitalism and Class; 25.War
and Power; 26. Conspiracy and Paranoia; 27. Terror and Anarchy; 28. Science
and Technology; 29. Mathematics; 30. Time and Relativity; 31. Philosophy;
32. Religion and Spirituality; 33. Death and Afterlife

Part III. Approaches and Readings: 34. Narratology; 35. Genre; 36.
Postmodernism; 37. Ambiguity; 38. Realities; 39. Material Readings; 40.
Digital Readings; 41. Internet Resources; 42. Fandom; 43. Book Reviews and
Reception; 44. Critical Literature Review

Bibliography; Novels, Short Fiction, Nonfiction, Letters; Further Reading

July 2019
228 x 152 mm   c.350pp
Hardback  978-1-108-49702-2
£70.00 / $120.00