Brief History of Fables, A: From Aesop to Flash Fiction

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Authors : Lee Rourke Foreword Writer: -- Translator: -- Editor: -- Series: Brief Histories Publication Date: September 2011 ISBN 13: 9781843919711 ISBN 10: 1843919710 Page Extent: 120 Price: £ 8.99 Add To Cart

Overview:

In this groundbreaking work, Lee Rourke traces the long history of a form currently enjoying a resurgence online and in the works of some of the most talented young authors in print. As we begin to emerge from modernism and its aftermath, fables – the briefest of narratives given the most expansive of significations – have gained in popularity.

Author and literary critic Lee Rourke here considers the permutations of the form, from Aesop’s tortoise and hare, via Plato’s socio-political works and the later ribald medieval tales, to Kafka’s anthropomorphism and present-day authors including Blake Butler, Joseph Young, Shane Jones and Jonathan Lethem. A Brief History of Fables offers a bold take on the new face of literature.

Additional information:

This book is in no way an instruction manual. Nor is it a work of critical theory. It is a celebration of a particular history of literary communication in all its glorious phases, a celebration of literature and one of its myriad interpolations. And finally, if that doesn’t grab you, just think of it as a signpost to another world: a wonderful, fabulous, mindbogglingly brilliant world of infinite possibilities.