Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- 1) Postmodernism's Wake: From Deconstruction to Reconstruction -- 2) "To thine own self be true": Eight Theses on Authenticity -- Thesis One: It is impossible to clearly define authenticity -- Thesis Two: The History of Authenticity is a History of Loss -- Thesis Three: Authenticity both presupposes and generates a notion of self -- Thesis Four: Authenticity is both the antithesis to postmodern simulation and the ultimate simulacrum itself -- Thesis Five: Recent media transformations necessitate a rethinking of authenticity -- Thesis Six: Authenticity is an emergent phenomenon -- Thesis Seven: Authenticity functions as a black box which sublates discursivedichotomies -- Thesis Eight: Metareference constitutes an appropriate formal approach to authenticity -- 3) Holding the Mirror up to Fiction: Metareference in Art -- The Truth and Nothing But: Does Realism Still Matter? -- A Framework for Reconstruction: The Metareferential Turn -- Essentially Strange Loops: Metareference as Tangled Hierarchy -- 4) From Innocence to Ignorance: Julian Barnes's England, England -- 5) Reconstructing the Author: Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- 6) Reconstructing Literary Influence: Jasper Fforde's Thursday-Next Series -- Revisitations and Revisions: The Eyre Affair -- Inside Literature: Reconstructing Thursday Next -- 7) Reconstructing Narration: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad and Julian Barnes'sThe Sense of an Ending -- Narrative Assemblage: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad -- Implicit Narrative: Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending -- 8) Remainder -- References -- Index.

"The Literature of Reconstruction argues for the term and concept of 'postmillennial reconstruction' to fill the gap left by the decline of postmodernism and deconstruction as useful cultural and literary categories. Wolfgang Funk shows how this notion emerges from the theoretical and philosophical development that led to the demise of postmodernism by relating it to the idea of 'authenticity': immediate experience that eludes direct representation. In addition, he provides a clear formal framework with which to identify and classify the features of 'reconstructive literature' by updating the narratological category of 'metafiction', originally established in the 1980s. Based on Werner Wolf's observation of a 'metareferential turn' in contemporary arts and media, he illustrates how the specific use of metareference results in a renegotiation of the specific patterns of literary communication and claims that this renegotiation can be profitably described with the concept of 'reconstruction'. To substantiate this claim, in the second half of the book Funk discusses narrative texts that illustrate this transition from postmodern deconstruction to postmillennial reconstruction. The analyses take in distinguished and prize-winning writers such as Dave Eggers, Julian Barnes, Jennifer Egan and Jasper Fforde. The broad scope of authors, featuring writers from the US as well as the UK, underlines the fact that the reconstructive tendencies and strategies Funk diagnoses are of universal significance for the intellectual and cultural self-image of the global North"-- Provided by publisher.