POSTMODERN
AMERICAN
FICTION
SUB Gottlngen
208 530 770
A Norton Anthology
98 A15494
PAULA GEYH
SOUTHERN I L L I N O I S U N I V E R S I T Y AT CARBONDALE
FRED G. LEEBRON
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
ANDREW LEVY
BUTLER
W «
UNIVERSITY
W " N O R T O N
&
C O M P A N Y *
N E W YORK • L O N D O N
Contents
Introduction
ix
Acknowledgments
I
xxxi
Breaking the Frame
1
THOMAS PYNCHON (b. 1937)
4
FROM The Crying of Lot 49
4
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS (b. 1914)
Nova Express
15
Crab Nebula
15
15
DONALD BARTHELME (1931-1989)
See the Moon?
26
Sentence
33
25
RICHARD BRAUTIGAN (1935-1984)
Trout Fishing in America
38
The Cover for Trout Fishing in America
Trout Death by Port Wine
40
37
NTOZAKE SHANGE (b. 1948)
Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
Indigo
43
39
42
43
ISHMAEL REED (b. 1938)
Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down
Chapter 1
55
55
55
WILLIAM GASS (b. 1924)
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
65
66
KURT VONNEGUT (b. 1922)
Breakfast of Champions
85
Preface
85
Chapter 1
88
84
GRACE PALEY (b. 1922)
The Pale Pink Roast
94
94
WALTER ABISH (b. 1931)
Ardor/Awe/Atrocity
99
,
99
iv
Contents
CAROLE MASO (b. 1955)
FROM The American Woman in the Chinese Hat
111
111
JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS (b. 1952)
Bluegill
116
115
LYNNE TILLMAN (b. 1947)
120
Living with Contradictions
II
121
Fact Meets Fiction
125
TRUMAN CAPOTE (1924-1984)
FROM In Cold Blood
127
NORMAN MAILER (b. 1923)
The Armies of the Night
141
FROM Part II: Friday Afternoon
127
141
141
AUDRE LORDE (1934-1992)
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Chapter 4
146
WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN (b. 1959)
The Rainbow Stories
153
The Visible Spectrum
153
A Note on the Truth of the Tales
146
146
152
160
THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA (1951-1982)
Dictee
161
Clio
History
161
161
TIM O'BRIEN (b. 1946)
How to Tell a True War Story
174
174
GLORIA ANZALDUA (b. 1942)
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
184
Tlilli, Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink
III
Popular Culture a n d High Culture Collide
JAY CANTOR (b. 1948)
KrazyKat
197
Our Town
197
FROM The Gadget
183
184
193
196
198
LYNDA BARRY (b. 1956)
Come Over Come Over
212
Knowing Things
212
The Surprise
214
211
Contents
LAURIE ANDERSON (b. 1947)
Stories from the Nerve Bible
216'
12. Maps and Places
216
15. Black Fire on White Fire
218
24. Talkshow
222
48. Stories from the Nerve Bible
223
49. This Storm
225
ROBERT COOVER (b. 1932)
A Night at the Movies
226
The Phantom of the Movie Palace
216
J
226
226
MARK LEYNER (b. 1956)
Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog
242
The Making of "Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog"
CURTIS WHITE (b. 1951)
Memories of My Father Watching TV
Combat
256
v
241
242
255
256
RICARDO CORTEZ CRUZ (b. 1964)
Premature Autopsies
264
Welcome to the Ghetto
264
263
BOBBIE ANN MASON (b. 1940)
Shiloh
271
271
BARRY GIFFORD (b. 1946)
Wild at Heart
282
Wild at Heart
282
Hunger in America
284
Locus Ceruleus
286
281
IV
Revisiting History
291
ART SPIEGELMAN (b. 1948)
FROM Maus
295
294
TONI MORRISON (b. 1931)
301
FROM Beloved
301
PHILIP ROTH (b. 1933)
The Ghost Writer
307
Femme Fatale
307
306
LESLIE MARMON SILKO (b. 1948)
321
FROM Ceremony
322
E. L. DOCTOROW (b. 1931)
The Leather Man. 332
331
vi
Contents
SUSAN DAITCH (b. 1954)
X*Y
338
.;
338
SHERMAN ALEXIE (b. 1966)
Captivity
342
341
JOSEPH HELLER (b. 1923)
Catch-22
345
Chapter 9. Major Major Major Major
345
345
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE (b. 1962)
Lyndon
V
362
362
Revising Tradition
393
JOYCE CAROL OATES (b. 1938)
The Turn of the Screw
396
KATHY ACKER (b. 1948)
Great Expectations
409
I Recall My Childhood
409
396
409
JOHN BARTH (b. 1930)
Chimera
416
Dunyazadiad
416
415
PAUL AUSTER (b. 1947)
City of Glass
443
Chapter 1
443
443
PAUL KARASIK (b. 1956) AND
DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI (b. 1960)
FROM Paul Austers CITY OF GLASS
"
449
450
MAXINE HONG KINGSTON (b. 1940)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book
458
FROM Trippers and Askers
458
458
SAMUEL R. DELANY (b. 1942)
Neveryona
470
1. Of Dragons, Mountains, Transhumance, Sequence,
and Sunken Cities, or: The Violence of the Letter
470
470
ROSARIO FERRE (b. 1942)
The Youngest Doll
485
484
MARILYNNE ROBINSON (b. 1944)
Housekeeping
489
488
FROM Chapter 8
489
Contents
HELENA MARIA VIRAMONTES (b. 1954)
The Cariboo Cafe
497
vii
497
VI Technoculture
[Electronic selections for entries marked '•
are available at the Norton Website:
http://www.wwnorton.com]
509
WILLIAM GIBSON (b. 1948)
The Gernsback Continuum
512
512
URSULA K. LE GUIN (b. 1929)
Schrodinger's Cat
520
She Unnames Them
525
519
DON DELILLO
White Noise
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 17
526
(b. 1936)
527
527
529
533
JOANNA RUSS (b. 1937)
The Female Man
537
Part One
537
537
GERALD VIZENOR (b. 1934)
Feral Lasers
548
548
OCTAVIA BUTLER (b. 1947)
Imago
555
Chapter 1
555
554
NEAL STEPHENSON (b. 1959)
Snow Crash
561
Chapter 1
561
561
DOUGLAS COUPLAND (b. 1961)
Generation X
568
Shopping Is Not Creating
568
568
J. YELLOWLEES DOUGLAS (b. 1962)
FROM I Have Said Nothing • 574
573
MICHAEL JOYCE (b. 1945)
576
FROM afternoon, a story
VII
• 577
A Casebook of Postmodern Theory
HELENE CIXOUS (b. 1937)
FROM Sorties: Out and Out: Attacks/ Ways Out/ Forays
581
583
583
viii
Contents
IHAB HASSAN (b. 1925)
Toward a Concept of Postmodernism
585
586
MICHAEL BERUBE (b. 1961) ~
Public Access
595
FROM Just the Fax, Ma'am: Or, Postmodernism's Journey to
Decenter
595
595
DONNA HARAWAY (b. 1944)
FROM A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and
Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century
603
UMBERTO ECO (b. 1932)
Postscript to The Name of the Rose 622
FROM Postmodernism, Irony, the Enjoyable
BELL HOOKS (b. 1955)
Postmodern Blackness
603
622
622
624
624
JEAN BAUDRILLARD (b. 1929)
Simulacra and Simulation
631
FROM The Precession of Simulacra
631
631
TERRY HARPOLD (b. 1959)
Conclusions
63 7
TRINH T. MINH-HA (b. 1952)
FROM Woman, Native, Other
637
649
649
FREDRIC JAMESON (b. 1934)
FROM Postmodernism and Consumer Society
654
654
Permissions Acknowledgments
665
Index
671