The emergence of fantasmagoric realism in contemporary Russian, Hebrew, and British literatures: Vasily Aksenov, Amos Oz, and Kingsley Amis

Marina Raskin, Purdue University

Abstract

This is a study of three contemporary novelists from three different national cultures and literary traditions. Vasily Aksenov, formerly from the U.S.S.R., Amos Oz from Israel, and Kingsley Amis from Great Britain have independently converged in an apparently new style of writing, or a mode of fiction, which is tentatively labelled here "fantasmagoric realism." The concept of fantasmagoric realism is first explored against the background of the fantastic in literature, of realism, of the fairy tale, of science fiction, of surrealism, of allegory, and of humor and satire. The novels by the three authors are then studied in detail from the point of view of the dynamics and types of their fantasmagory. Each author is taken up separately int he appropriate social and literary context. After the available criticism on the three authors is scrutinized and their fantasmagoric arsenal is summarized, a number of hypotheses about the reasons for the convergence is discussed and rejected. It is then suggested that fantasmagoric realism is a way of escaping the social and/or literary dogma without challenging it directly. It is argued that such a result is possible only from a comparative analysis of the three authors and that it was the lack of such an approach to the three authors' writings which have led many critics and reviewers to generic fallacies. A brief survey of the most recent developments in the lives and writings of the three authors concludes the text of the thesis.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Field, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Comparative literature

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