Praise for the Book
“There is a wealth of knowledge in this sensitive reading of John Banville’s work. Hedda Friberg-Harnesk uses the theories of Jean Baudrillard as a springboard into the myriad realms of Banville’s fiction, showing how his characters anxiously move between memory and imagination, between the achingly real and the self-consciously imagined. This reading of John Banville’s oeuvre in the light of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra opens up a fascinating critical engagement with the work, illuminating his literary concerns and adding to our understanding of his art as a whole.”
—Professor Derek Hand, Head of the School of English, Dublin City University
"This perceptive study considers Banville’s major works of the last two decades—that 'shrouded fictional territory'—in the light of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of the inescapability of simulation and simulacra. Pinpointing the compelling sense of radical uncertainty throughout Banville’s supremely stylish and dark novels which increasingly seem to circle round a core of emptiness, Hedda Friberg-Harnesk applies Baudrillard’s arresting ideas to examine Banville’s various and progressive dissolutions of self and world in modernity with both penetration and eloquence. This book throws a fascinating new light on a wide range of Banville’s recurring motifs and preoccupations."
—Patricia Coughlan, Professor Emerita, School of English, University College, Cork
