William T. Vollmann

Christopher K. Coffman is a lecturer in humanities at Boston University.Daniel Lukes earned a PhD in comparative literature from New York University.

"This fascinating, massive, wide-ranging collection that editors Christopher K. Coffman and Daniel Lukes have gathered together into William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion will soon be recognized as one of those rare critical books for which that egregiously overused term 'groundbreaking' is fully justified." -Larry McCaffery, from the preface of William T. Vollmann: A Critical CompanionThe essays in this collection make a case for regarding William T. Vollmann as the most ambitious, productive, and important living author in the US. His oeuvre includes not only outstanding work in numerous literary genres, but also global reportage, ethical treatises, paintings, photographs, and many other productions. His reputation as a daring traveler and his fascination with life on the margins have earned him an extra-literary renown unequaled in our time. Perhaps most importantly, his work is exceptional in relation to the literary moment. Vollmann is a member of a group of authors who are responding to the skeptical ironies of postmodernism with a reinvigoration of fiction's affective possibilities and moral sensibilities, but he stands out even among this cohort for his prioritization of moral engagement, historical awareness, and geopolitical scope. Included in this book in addition to twelve scholarly critical essays are reflections on Vollmann by many of his peers, confidantes, and collaborators, including Jonathan Franzen, James Franco, and Michael Glawogger. With a preface by Larry McCaffery and an afterword by Michael Hemmingson, this book offers readings of most of Vollmann's works, includes the first critical engagements with several key titles, and introduces a range of voices from international Vollmann scholarship.

ContentsForeword: The Chrysanthemum and the Flame ThrowerLarry McCafferyAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Lonely AtomsChristopher K. CoffmanI. Engaging People, Space and PlaceChapter 1: Egalitarian Longings: The Problem with Pity and the Search for Equality in Poor PeopleAaron D. ChandlerInterchapter: The World According to William T. VollmannHeather CorcoranChapter 2: The Poetics and Politics of Zoning, Mythography, and Mestizo Space in Imperial Michael K. WalonenInterchapter: Vollmann in Russia: On Poor PeopleMariya GusevChapter 3: William T. Vollmann's Search for Truth and Community in Participative ResearchGeorg BauerIntechapter: Palm TreesMichael GlawoggerII. Engaging Narratives: History, Historiography, EthicsChapter 4: Vollmann's Argall-Text: Neo-Elizabethan Form and the Literalist Past in Seven DreamsBuell WisnerInterchapter: Vollmann between the CoversCarla BolteChapter 5: Writing Europe: Death, History, and the Intersecting Intellectual Worlds of William T. Vollmann and Danilo KišJohn K. CoxChapter 6: Kurt Gerstein and the Tragic Parable of 'Clean Hands': The Imaginative Role of Fiction in the Moral Calculus of William T. VollmannBryan M. SantinInterchapter: Reading Rising Up and Rising DownJames FrancoChapter 7: The New Universalism and William T. Vollmann's Rising Up and Rising DownOkla ElliottIII. Power, Sex, PoliticsChapter 8: Our Oriental Heritage: Seeking the Postcolonial Postmodern in William T. Vollmann's You Bright and Risen AngelsMiles LiebtagInterchapter : Piss Lime VitriolJordan A. RothackerChapter 9: William T. Vollmann's Paradigms of PowerJoshua C. JensenInterchapter: The Shattered Object: On Representation versus Self-Representation and Becoming WholeMelissa PetroChapter 10: 'Strange Hungers': William T. Vollmann's Literary Performances of Abject MasculinityDaniel LukesInterchapter: A FriendshipJonathan FranzenIV. Methods and Mores: Texts, Paratexts, AestheticsInterchapter: William T. Vollmann: Artist's BooksPriscilla JuvelisChapter 11: Imperial PhotographyFrançoise Palleau-PapinInterchapter: Against All Loss: On Kissing the MaskMary Austin SpeakerChapter 12: The Ethics of the Archive and the William T. Vollmann CollectionGeoffrey D. SmithAfterword: Beyond the Book: William T. Vollmann's End Matter (Appendices, Glossaries and Extra Texts)Michael HemmingsonBibliographyIndexAbout the Contributors