The Symbolic Past in Graham Swift’S Last Orders

Elisabeta Simona Catană

doi:10.1515/rjes-2018-0006

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The Symbolic Past in Graham Swift’S Last Orders

Romanian Journal of English Studies

Volume 15 (2018): Issue 1 (December 2018)

By: Elisabeta Simona Catană

Open Access

|Jan 2019

Abstract

This essay examines the concept of the past in Graham Swift’s Last Orders, showing that it is illustrated through symbols in a postmodernist manner, being associated with the figure of a dead character perceived as a living presence and with a book whose analysis can offer multiple interpretations. Focusing on the symbols of the past and evincing the metafictional condition of Graham Swift’s novel, this essay remarks that the past is open to the readers’ analysis and different interpretations.

References

Currie, Mark. 1998. Postmodern Narrative Theory. New York: Palgrave.10.1007/978-1-349-26620-3
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Holmes, Frederick M. 1997. The Historical Imagination: Postmodernism and the Treatment of the Past in Contemporary British Fiction. Founding Editor: Samuel L. Macey. General Editor: Robert M. Schuler. English Literary Studies Monograph Series, No. 73. Victoria: University of Victoria.
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Hutcheon, Linda. 1988. A Poetics of Postmodernism. History, Theory, Fiction. New York and London: Routledge.
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Hutcheon, Linda. 2002 (1989). The Politics of Postmodernism. 2nd Edition. London and New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203129876
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McHale, Brian. 1987. Postmodernist Fiction. London and New York: Routledge.
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Swift, Graham. 1996. Last Orders. London: Picador.
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Waugh, Patricia. 1984. Metafiction. The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. London and New York: Routledge.10.2307/1771928
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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/rjes-2018-0006 | Journal eISSN: 2286-0428 | Journal ISSN: 1584-3734

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Language: English

Page range: 37 - 43

Published on: Jan 18, 2019

Published by: West University of Timisoara

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

duty,

the past,

the present,

respect,

unity of vision

Related subjects:

Linguistics and semiotics,

Theoretical frameworks and disciplines,

Linguistics, other,

Germanic languages,

English

© 2019 Elisabeta Simona Catană, published by West University of Timisoara
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 15 (2018): Issue 1 (December 2018)