Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the ReaderThis study of the fiction of Gene Wolfe, one of the most influential contemporary American science fiction writers, offers a major reinterpretation of Gene Wolfe's four-volume The Book of the New Sun and its sequel The Urth of the New Sun. employs evolutionary theory to argue for a controversial secular reception of a narrative in which Wolfe plays an elaborate textual game with his reader. After exposing the concealed story at the heart of Wolfe's magnum opus, Wright adopts a variety of approaches to establish that Wolfe is the designer of an intricate textual labyrinth intended to extend his thematic preoccupations with subjectivity, the unreliability of memory, the manipulation of individuals by social and political systems, and the psychological potency of myth, faith and symbolism into the reading experience. Drawing evidence not only from the first 30 years of Wolfe's career but from sources as diverse as reception theory, palaeontology, the Rennaissance hermetic tradition, mythology and science fiction's sub-genre of dying earth literature, Wright provides an accessible interpretation of Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. |
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Contents
the Psychology of Reader Response | 37 |
Critical Responses to The Urth Cycle | 49 |
The Urth Cycle | 67 |
Metafictional Devices and Textual | 166 |
Conclusions | 183 |
Notes | 207 |
| 221 | |
| 233 | |
Other editions - View all
Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader Peter Wright,Peter Ronald Wright Limited preview - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
accept action alludes allusions apparent association attention Autarch become begins Book Chapter characters Citadel Claw Conciliator conclusion creates critics Death describes effect elements encounters Eschatology example existence experiences explains fact fantasy figure follow Free function further future Gene Wolfe Gene Wolfe's Gordon Guide Head Hierogrammates historical House human important indicate individual interpretation Latro Lictor literary lives London Long Sun manipulation Matachin meaning memory metafictional metaphorical mind Mist myth narrative narrator nature novel obscure observes past pattern Peace perceive play plot present Press provides reader reading reality recall recognises references reflects relationship remains remarks represent result reveals Science Fiction seems sense serve Severian Shadow significant Soldier species story structure subjectivity suggests Sword symbolism text's things thought Torturer understanding universe Urth Cycle Wolfe's writing York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice, and the Reader Liverpool Science Fiction Text Liverpool science fiction texts and studies |
| Author | Peter Wright |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Liverpool University Press, 2003 |
| ISBN | 0853238286, 9780853238287 |
| Length | 237 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / American / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |