by Lee Rourke
In this groundbreaking work, Lee Rourke traces the long history of a form currently enjoying a resurgence online and in the works of some of the most talented young authors in print. As we begin to emerge from modernism and its aftermath, fables – the briefest of narratives given the most expansive of significations – have gained in popularity.
Author and literary critic Lee Rourke here considers the permutations of the form, from Aesop’s tortoise and hare, via Plato’s socio-political works and the later ribald medieval tales, to Kafka’s anthropomorphism and present-day authors including Blake Butler, Joseph Young, Shane Jones and Jonathan Lethem. A Brief History of Fables offers a bold take on the new face of literature.
Publication date: 01/09/2011