Beskrivelse
In my discussion of two books by John Banville, the novel Kepler (1981) and the non-fiction book Prague Pictures (2003), I examine how ‘Prague' is constructed not primarily as a geographic location but as a nexus of discourses and discursive memories. The first part discusses echoes of other literary and artistic representations of the city of Prague and considers the question of genre: The construction of Prague in both books relies on interplay between memories, history and imagination, and I discuss Banville's different roles as a writer of a novel and a non-fiction book respectively. In the second part I look into the different kinds of memories underpinning Banville's Prague in Prague Pictures. To do that I introduce the notions of ‘personal memory', ‘cultural memory' and ‘postmemory', and I examine the manifestations of and relations between these different kinds of memory. Prague Pictures includes Banville's own memories of constructing Prague in Kepler, which, as I argue in the third part, makes Prague a site for recovering self-conscious and self-reflexive memories of writing as well. I consider both Kepler and Prague Pictures, but since my aim is to discuss Banville's construction of Prague as a nexus of different kinds of memories in different genres, and since Kepler has been dealt with extensively by others as historiographic metafiction, Prague Pictures is my primary focus.| Periode | 4 nov. 2006 |
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| Begivenhedstitel | The Construction and Deconstruction of Irish Memory |
| Begivenhedstype | Konference |
| Arrangør | Nordic Irish Studies Network |
| Placering | Aarhus, DanmarkVis på kort |