Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Part One: Self and World -- 1. Books of Revolution: The Scientific Quest for Truth -- 2. Books of Revelation: Epiphany in the Science Tetralogy -- Part Two: Self and Art -- 3. Better Than Life: Banville's Explicit Poetics -- 4. Struggle and Strife: Banville's Implicit Poetics -- Part Three: Self and Other -- 5. To the Other: Banville's Ethical Turn -- 6. A Portrait of the Other: Ethics in the Art Trilogy -- Part Four: Self and Self -- 7. Self as Other: The Double -- 8. Masks and Mirrors: Autobiography in The Untouchable -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

Visions of Alterity: Representation in the Works of John Banville offers detailed and original readings of the work of the Irish author John Banville, one of the foremost figures in contemporary European literature. It investigates one of the fundamental concerns of Banville's novels: mediating the gap between subject and object or self and world in representation. By drawing on the rich history of the problem of representation in literature, philosophy and literary theory, this study provides a thorough insight into the rich philosophical and intertextual dimension of Banville's fiction. In close textual analyses of Banville's most important novels, it maps out a thematic development that moves from an interest in the epistemological and aesthetic representation of the world in scientific theories, over a concern with the ethical dimension of representations, to an exploration of self-representation and identity. What remains constant throughout these different perspectives is the disruption of representations by brief but haunting glimpses of otherness. In tracing these different visions of alterity in Banville's solipsistic literary world, this study offers a better understanding of his insistent and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human.

Description based on print version record.