"This fascinating, massive, wide-ranging collection that editors Christopher K. Coffman and Daniel Lukes have gathered together into William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion will soon be recognized as one of those rare critical books for which that egregiously overused term 'groundbreaking' is fully justified." -Larry McCaffery, from the preface of William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion The essays in this collection make a case for regarding William T. Vollmann as the most ambitious, productive, and important living author in the US. His oeuvre includes not only outstanding work in numerous literary genres, but also global reportage, ethical treatises, paintings, photographs, and many other productions. His reputation as a daring traveler and his fascination with life on the margins have earned him an extra-literary renown unequaled in our time. Perhaps most importantly, his work is exceptional in relation to the literary moment. Vollmann is a member of a group of authors who are responding to the skeptical ironies of postmodernism with a reinvigoration of fiction's affective possibilities and moral sensibilities, but he stands out even among this cohort for his prioritization of moral engagement, historical awareness, and geopolitical scope. Included in this book in addition to twelve scholarly critical essays are reflections on Vollmann by many of his peers, confidantes, and collaborators, including Jonathan Franzen, James Franco, and Michael Glawogger. With a preface by Larry McCaffery and an afterword by Michael Hemmingson, this book offers readings of most of Vollmann's works, includes the first critical engagements with several key titles, and introduces the work of several foreign Vollmann scholars to American audiences.
Contents Foreword: The Chrysanthemum and the Flame Thrower Larry McCaffery Acknowledgments Introduction: Lonely Atoms Christopher K. Coffman I. Engaging People, Space and Place Chapter 1: Egalitarian Longings: The Problem with Pity and the Search for Equality in Poor People Aaron D. Chandler Interchapter: The World According to William T. Vollmann Heather Corcoran Chapter 2: The Poetics and Politics of Zoning, Mythography, and Mestizo Space in Imperial Michael K. Walonen Interchapter: Vollmann in Russia: On Poor People Mariya Gusev Chapter 3: William T. Vollmann's Search for Truth and Community in Participative Research Georg Bauer Intechapter: Palm Trees Michael Glawogger II. Engaging Narratives: History, Historiography, Ethics Chapter 4: Vollmann's Argall-Text: Neo-Elizabethan Form and the Literalist Past in Seven Dreams Buell Wisner Interchapter: Vollmann between the Covers Carla Bolte Chapter 5: Writing Europe: Death, History, and the Intersecting Intellectual Worlds of William T. Vollmann and Danilo Kis John K. Cox Chapter 6: Kurt Gerstein and the Tragic Parable of `Clean Hands': The Imaginative Role of Fiction in the Moral Calculus of William T. VollmannBryan M. Santin Interchapter: Reading Rising Up and Rising Down James Franco Chapter 7: The New Universalism and William T. Vollmann's Rising Up and Rising Down Okla Elliott III. Power, Sex, Politics Chapter 8: Our Oriental Heritage: Seeking the Postcolonial Postmodern in William T. Vollmann's You Bright and Risen Angels Miles Liebtag Interchapter : Piss Lime Vitriol Jordan A. Rothacker Chapter 9: William T. Vollmann's Paradigms of Power Joshua C. Jensen Interchapter: The Shattered Object: On Representation versus Self-Representation and Becoming Whole Melissa Petro Chapter 10: `Strange Hungers': William T. Vollmann's Literary Performances of Abject Masculinity Daniel Lukes Interchapter: A Friendship Jonathan Franzen IV. Methods and Mores: Texts, Paratexts, Aesthetics Interchapter: William T. Vollmann: Artist's Books Priscilla Juvelis Chapter 11: Imperial Photography Francoise Palleau-Papin Interchapter: Against All Loss: On Kissing the Mask Mary Austin Speaker Chapter 12: The Ethics of the Archive and the William T. Vollmann Collection Geoffrey D. Smith Afterword: Beyond the Book: William T. Vollmann's End Matter (Appendices, Glossaries and Extra Texts) Michael Hemmingson Bibliography Index About the Contributors
