Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Foreword ix
4. Part I History and narrative
5. 1 Historical narrative and the politics of point of view 1
6. 2 Common sense and historical narrative 36
7. Part II Modernism and orthodoxy
8. 3 Nostromo and the ‘torrent of rubbish’ 57
9. 4 Parade’s End: ‘Has the British this or that come to this!’ 93
10. 5 Absalom, Absalom!: The ‘nigger in the woodpile’ 128
11. Part III Postmodernism and heterodoxy
12. 6 Bearing witness: African-American women’s fiction 163
13. 7 V.: In the rathouse of history with Thomas Pynchon 217
14. Conclusion 246
15. Notes 258
16. References 280
17. Index 297