Table of Contents

Preface R. M. Berry and Jeffrey R. Di Leo Acknowledgments Introduction: 12 Theses on Fiction's Present R. M. Berry and Jeffrey R. Di Leo 1. Fiction's Present: Brief Notes Samuel R. Delany 2. Innovative Fiction and the Poetics of Power: Gertrude Stein and Christine Brooke-Rose "Do" Language Christina Milletti 3. To Have Done with Postmodernism: A Plea (or Provocation) for Globalization Studies Timothy S. Murphy 4. Fiction's Present without Basis Leslie Scalapino 5. Convinced by Fiction, Convinced by History: Three Novels Joseph McElroy 6. American World-Fiction in the Longue Duree Joseph Tabbi 7. Post-postmodern Discontent: Contemporary Fiction and the Social World Robert L. McLaughlin 8. Toward the Edge of the Hermetic: Notes on Raising Fiction from the Dead Lidia Yuknavitch 9. The Self-Deceiving Muse: Fiction and the Rationalistic Dictates of the Present Alan Singer 10. Notes on Fiction and Philosophy Brian Evenson 11. James, Cather, Vollmann, and the Distinction of Historical Fiction Robert L. Caserio 12. Fourteen Notes toward the Musicality of Creative Disjunction, or Fiction by Collage Lance Olsen 13. Mount Rushmore: Four Brief Essays on Fictions Michael Martone 14. Recognition as a Depleted Source in Lynne Tillman's Motion Sickness Sue-Im Lee 15. A Modality Percival Everett 16. Critifictional Reflections on the Pathetic Condition of the Novel in Our Time Raymond Federman 17. Henry Miller to Henry James Ronald Sukenick 18. In Their Own Words: The Collective Presents Itself Jerome Klinkowitz 19. World Book Carole Maso Afterword: Two Presents Brian McHale About the Contributors Index

About the Author

R. M. Berry is Professor of English at Florida State University and author of the novel Frank. Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Associate Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston at Victoria and editor of the American Book Review and symploke.

Reviews

"This is a lively, provocative, and extremely timely collection that explores the role of serious innovative fiction in our current cultural 'present' in which literature seems increasingly marginalized." - Larry McCaffery, author of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors