{"product_id":"the-grounds-of-the-novel-hardback-9781503636835","title":"The Grounds of the Novel (Hardback) 9781503636835","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Grounds of the Novel\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eDaniel Wright (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781503636835\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 16 January 2024\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e246 pages, 1 halftone\u003cbr\u003e21.6 x 14 x 1.7 cm, 0.377 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Grounds of the Novel\u003c\/i\u003e is an exceptionally bold and brave work that pushes our understanding of the essence of fiction in new directions. This utterly original book will interest all scholars of the novel, particularly students of radical ontology.\"\u003cbr\u003e  —Adela Pinch, University of Michigan \"In this lyrical and intimate book, Wright invites us to look again at what metaphors of fictional being might do. Reconfiguring the metaphysics of the novel across time, he lays new groundwork for the intersection of personal and philosophical criticism.\"\u003cbr\u003e  —David James, University of Birmingham \"This is a bold ontological reframing of the novel—not a problem to be solved, but a world to be explored. Highly recommended.\"\u003cbr\u003e  —S. J. Shaw, \u003ci\u003eCHOICE\u003c\/i\u003e \"Daniel Wright's fascinating new study \u003ci\u003eThe Grounds of the Novel\u003c\/i\u003e argues that novel worlds have even stranger ontological foundations than ours.... This book examines what lies 'all the way down' beneath novels, bearing up the soil on which characters walk. For Wright, the strange ontological foundations of novelistic worlds become a 'resource' for thinking through our own ambiguities and ethics of being.\"\u003cbr\u003e  —Timothy Gao, \u003ci\u003eReview 19\u003c\/i\u003e \"When I say that Daniel Wright's \u003ci\u003eThe Grounds of the Novel\u003c\/i\u003e is a foundational, field-(re)defining study, I mean to do more than applaud Wright for intervening so effectively into novel studies and studies of literature and philosophy—though this book does provide tools we might use to rebuild both those enterprises from the ground up. I am also referencing the ambitious redescription of the novel genre this book offers as it highlights the ontological preoccupations of realist writing.\"—Diedre Lynch, \u003ci\u003eCritical Inquiry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat grounds the fictional world of a novel? Or is such a world peculiarly groundless? In a powerful engagement with the latest debates in novel theory, Daniel Wright investigates how novelists reckon with the ontological status of their works. Philosophers who debate whether fictional worlds exist take the novel as an ontological problem to be solved; instead, Wright reveals the novel as a genre of immanent ontological critique. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWright argues that the novel imagines its own metaphysical \"grounds\" through figuration, understanding fictional being as self-sufficient, cohesive, and alive, rather than as beholden to the actual world as an existential anchor. Through philosophically attuned close readings of novels and reflections on writerly craft by Thomas Hardy, Olive Schreiner, Colson Whitehead, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith, Henry James, and Akwaeke Emezi, Wright shares an impassioned vision of reading as stepping into ontologically terraformed worlds, and of literary criticism as treading and re-treading the novel's grounds. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePreface: The Truth of Earth\u003cbr\u003e  Introduction:On What There Is in the Novel\u003cbr\u003e  1. Groundwork\u003cbr\u003e  2. Underground\u003cbr\u003e  3. The Ground Gained\u003cbr\u003e  4. Meeting Grounds \u003cbr\u003e  Afterword: Basement\u003cbr\u003e  Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e  Notes\u003cbr\u003e  Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e  Index\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Stanford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52610698838296,"sku":"9781503636835","price":66.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-grounds-of-the-novel-hardback-9781503636835","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}