Departing, returning and longing for home ‐ narration and the Pathos of Nation
Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: Summary The emergence of the novel as an expression of modern nationalism was possible because it revitalized the themes of departure and return that lay at the heart of older forms of narrative. These revitalized themes were used to define subjectivity in terms of territory. The changing relations of subjectivity, territory and narrative that align nationalism and the novel, also preprogramme the novel with the strategies of narrative that will later be so widely discussed under the heading of postmodernism. This set of narrative strategies thus works to define subjectivity on the boundary between nomadic and sedentary life. The novel as a form of narrating the nation is based on nomadic experience, but erases this experience in a celebration of sedentary life.
Source: Journal of Literary Studies
Author: John Kenneth Noyes
Institution: University of Cape Town
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $388
OpenAlex ID: W1997626868