Stories of the middle space reading the ethics of postmodern realisms / Deborah C. Bowen.

Includes bibliographies and index.

"Postmodernism's critics often accuse the movement of being dangerously amoral because of its apparent wariness of concepts such as truth, ethics, and justice. Stories of the Middle Space explores the possibility of "postmodernism-with-a-conscience" and examines a variety of British and Canadian postmodern fiction to show how twentieth-century critical theory can be brought into fruitful dialogue with a faith-based perspective. Highlighting the wide variety of ethical concerns considered by writers such as Timothy Findley, Thomas King, Carol Shields, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, and Salman Rushdie, Deborah Bowen makes the case for a new category of "postmodern realism" and shows how contemporary stories about "the real" and "the good" are constructed. Applying theoretical insights from Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin, Bowen investigates categories of postmodern realism such as magic realism, parody, and metafiction while laying the groundwork for Christian readings of a medium that is often perceived as largely irreligious. An illuminating study of well-known contemporary writers, Stories of the Middle Space is a critically nuanced and methodologically innovative work that reads the postmodern from a faith-based perspectives to create new literary insights."--Dust jacket.

True stories and the oppressions of history -- Magic realism, social protest and the irrepressibility of language -- Parodic myth and sacred story -- Writing with photographs: art , lies, and realist developments -- The genres of the middle space.

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