37.2176, Books: Metaperspectives in Contemporary Literary Fiction: Adam (2026)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2176. Wed Jun 24 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2176, Books: Metaperspectives in Contemporary Literary Fiction: Adam (2026)

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Date: 24-Jun-2026
From: Lucy Trotter [lucy.trotter at bloomsbury.com]
Subject: Metaperspectives in Contemporary Literary Fiction: Adam (2026)


Title: Metaperspectives in Contemporary Literary Fiction
Subtitle: A Stylistic Approach
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
           http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/
Book URL:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/metaperspectives-in-contemporary-literary-fiction-9781350465824/

Author(s): Naomi Adam

Hardback, ISBN: 9781350465824, £95.00

Abstract:

Metaperspectives in Contemporary Literary Fiction offers a
literary-linguistic investigation of hypothesis and the
metaperspective within contemporary Booker Prize-winning novels.
This highly innovative book introduces a new concept in the field of
stylistics , but it also explores it through analyses of highly
relevant concepts and areas of stylistic study.
Adam applies the concept of the metaperspective, centring on the
thoughts of characters about other characters' views of them, to
contemporary works of literary fiction and aligns it with existing
stylistic and narratological approaches to narrative point of view.
Four recent winners of the Booker Prize – The Testaments (Margaret
Atwood, 2019); Milkman (Anna Burns, 2018); A Brief History of Seven
Killings (Marlon James, 2014); Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders,
2017) – figure as case-study novels. Each novel is tied to a specific
iteration of the metaperspective, labelled respectively as the
discourse-architectural metaperspective, the communal metaperspective,
the racialised metaperspective, and the literalised metaperspective.
These varieties of the metaperspective are linked to typical
linguistic indices and thematic preoccupations within each of the
novels under analysis. Discussions are further supported by
consideration of other contemporary, Booker Prize-winning works.
This original study of an entirely new concept within the disciplines
of stylistics and narratology has enormous potential and value for the
understanding of literary texts. The practical stylistic analyses are
well grounded in existing scholarship, making use of concepts like
empathy, point of view and reader positioning, all of which are
current and important approaches to narrative texts.

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Ling & Literature




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