James Ellroy and the Novel of Obsession

Anna Maria Flügge

James Ellroy and the Novel of Obsession

ISBN 978-3-86821-237-2, 156 S., kt., € 19,50 (2010)

(Mosaic - Studien und Texte zur amerikanischen Kultur und Geschichte, Bd. 37)

This book offers a new approach to the fiction of James Ellroy. His novels thematize obsession to the extent that it not only affects the behavior of the protagonist but the very structure of the novel itself. The book claims that Ellroy’s novels establish a new genre, labeled the "novel of obsession." It argues that Ellroy takes the novel to new extremes in the course of his writing career. In doing so, he follows a tradition in American literature that can be traced back to the nineteenth century, especially to Romanticism, and finds frequent expression in the twentieth century, in novels such as West's Miss Lonelyhearts, Nabokov's Lolita, and Don DeLillo's White Noise, all of which are examined in detail in this book. The study also takes a fresh look at the history of genre theory from Aristotle to structuralism and deconstruction.

Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)