T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

flctlol. Perhaps, the days of Faulkner and Hemlngway are over.Whlle Amerlcan movles and muslc are quite influential, fictionor novels are not able to catch-up wlth them. The Americanequivalents of Garzia Marquez, Mllan Kundera, Salman Rushdie,V.S. Nalpaul, Nadla Gordlmer, Levls and Applefeld areconspicuous by thelr absence. Instead one flnds thenovels ofTon1 Morrlson or a Lore Segal. Amerlcan flctlon about mlnorltyexperlences and lmmlgrant experlences llke The Ruq Merchant byPhlllp Lopate, Continental Drlft by Russel Banks andMeltlnq Pot by Lynne Sharon Schwartz have the deslred range ofvlslon and the energy and urgency of sheer Invention.The crLx of t?e problem 1s thit both lnslde and outsideAmerlca, "Amerlca? flcticn" has become synonymous wlth themainstream, well-promoted novelor story collection -andclever, mannered and brlttle as lt 15, has lost the power totransform the world's ~maglnation. "Mlnlmallsrn", appears to bethe bllnd-spot In current Arnerlcan wrltlng. Mlnimalism alms forrecognltlon, namlng the dread, lnvoklng the villains and thevlctlms, but avoldlng the confrontatlon. Mlnlmallst flctlon 1sdeft, a shorthand of shared, almost coded responsesto collective dread.. Minlmallst techniques seem ahealthy response to too much comrnunlcation, too muchmanipulation.. Minlmalism 1s that search for Eastereggs In a plastic garden In the middle of a suburbanshopping mall. Life, barely I feel that minimalismdrsguises a dangerous soclal agenda. Minimalism isnativist, lt speaks In whlspers to the initiated. Asa new-comer, I can feel lts chlll, as though it were