Bitter Carnival
ISBN: 9781400820634
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Princeton University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Comparative literature; Cynicism in literature.; Heroes in literature.; Abjection in literature.;

The prevailing taste of our epoch, writes Italian semiotics professor Calabrese, is neo-baroque, a style marked by frantic rhythms, organized variations and a fondness for ``instability, polydimensionality, and change.'' Using this broadly inclusive definition, he analyzes patterns of repetition and variation in TV serials like Dallas and Columbo ; explores the constant metamorphosis of characters in Italo Calvino's novels and Woody Allen's Zelig ; and unravels labyrinths and knots in video games and Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose. Calabrese sees neo-baroque as a means of introducing minor variations to already familiar themes in order to pique the interest of a mass audience that thinks everything has already been said or done, whether in films, architecture, music videos or literature. However, his attempt to link current scientific ideas with artistic forms--as in a spurious connection drawn between a science fiction film about mutants and theories of fluctuation--too often makes this academic tome seem superficial and misleading. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved


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