The Literary Terrorism of Harold Jaffe

About the Book

Harold Jaffe's acts of literary terrorism work to wrestle control of the future of literature away from the dominant culture. This book celebrates that effort.

Jaffe is an acute observer of the painful conditions under which we are forced to live on a daily basis. And like any harbinger of ill, he is sometimes mistaken for its creator. But he is not. He is clearing out space that has been polluted for too long. His acts of literary terrorism are acts that reclaim literature and art fiction from its cooption by fast-food-wielding advocates of disposability: what has been disposed by the dominant political culture has too often been literary artists. Those who have benefited have seldom been literary artists. Jaffe has worked brilliantly to save literature from its unwitting complicity in the elimination of readers who dare question authority.

The writing in this volume, whether by Jaffe, his former students and colleagues, or works inspired by his lead, helps blast us out of our complacency and reclaim space we should never have relinquished. Innovation and renovation are inextricably linked.

About the Author

Eckhard Gerdes is the author of several novels and literary collections. His most recent novel, Cistern Tawdry was nominated for the Georgia Author of the Year Award for Best Fiction. He, his wife Susan, and their five children are surviving ?Southern hospitality? somewhere between Atlanta and Macon.