{"product_id":"christos-tsiolkas-jessica-gildersleeve-9781604979787","title":"Christos Tsiolkas: The Utopian Vision","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book is in the Cambria Australian Literature Series, headed by Dr. Susan Lever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore than two decades ago, Christos Tsiolkas's his first novel \u003cem\u003eLoaded\u003c\/em\u003e was published and he had achieved a cult following in the short-lived grunge fiction scene of Australian writing. The novel was quickly adapted as the film \u003cem\u003eHead On\u003c\/em\u003e (1998), directed by Ana Kokkinos, and starring popular young Greek actor, Alex Dimitriades; like the novel, it was well-received by critics, if not by mainstream literary and cinematic culture. For the next few years, Tsiolkas worked on Jump Cuts, an experimental collaborative autobiography, with Sasha Soldatow (1996), as well as a number of theatre productions - \u003cem\u003eWho's Afraid of the Working Class? \u003c\/em\u003e (1999, co-written with Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves and Patricia Cornelius, and adapted to film as \u003cem\u003eBlessed\u003c\/em\u003e, also directed by Kokkinos  2009]), \u003cem\u003eThug\u003c\/em\u003e (1998, written with Spiro Economopolous), and \u003cem\u003eElektra AD\u003c\/em\u003e (1999) - but when \u003cem\u003eThe Jesus Man\u003c\/em\u003e (1999) was published, its violent depiction of depression and suicide received critical attention as offensive and unnecessary. Partly because of the reception of \u003cem\u003eThe Jesus Man\u003c\/em\u003e, and partly because of the density of its subject matter, his next novel, \u003cem\u003eDead Europe\u003c\/em\u003e (2005) took six years to write. In the interim, he published a critical study of the film \u003cem\u003eThe Devil's Playground\u003c\/em\u003e (2002), and several more plays and screenplays: \u003cem\u003eViewing Blue Poles\u003c\/em\u003e (2000), \u003cem\u003eSaturn's Return\u003c\/em\u003e (2000), \u003cem\u003eFever\u003c\/em\u003e (2002, co-written with Bovell, Reeves and Cornelius), \u003cem\u003eDead Caucasians\u003c\/em\u003e (2002), \u003cem\u003eNon Parlo di Salo\u003c\/em\u003e (2005, written with Economopoulous), and \u003cem\u003eThe Hit\u003c\/em\u003e (2006, written with Netta Yashin). \u003cem\u003eDead Europe\u003c\/em\u003e was a triumphant return: it won the \u003cem\u003eAge\u003c\/em\u003e Book of the Year and the Melbourne Best Writing Award in 2006.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut it was the extraordinary critical and commercial success of \u003cem\u003eThe Slap\u003c\/em\u003e (2008) which entirely changed Tsiolkas's personal and professional circumstances. It was the fourth-highest selling book by an Australian author in 2009, won the ALS Gold Medal, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was Book of the Year for both the Australian Booksellers Association and the Australian Book Industry Award. \u003cem\u003eThe Slap\u003c\/em\u003e was also adapted as a popular television series for the ABC in 2011, and for NBC in the United States in 2015. For the first time in his career, Tsiolkas was able to dedicate himself to writing full-time, but the attention paid to the novel also meant that Tsiolkas was now a household name - no longer a cult writer, his opinions are now courted and offered in popular and political publications. \u003cem\u003eBarracuda\u003c\/em\u003e (2013) follows the social realism of \u003cem\u003eThe Slap\u003c\/em\u003e, and sold similarly well, riding on the back of its extraordinary predecessor. \u003cem\u003eMerciless Gods\u003c\/em\u003e (2014), a collection of short stories, some new, some previously published, is only recently being taken up by popular critics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTsiolkas's work has become increasingly popular and appealing to readers outside of the academy. Tsiolkas's works adopt a Modernist attitude to the concept of a utopia - a negative politics which simultaneously draws attention to the insufficiency of the present, a pastoral nostalgia for the past, and a longing for the impossible future to come. This first in-depth study of his entire corpus provides an understanding of Tsiolkas's position in relation to Modernism, thereby drawing out his points about character, setting and politics, thereby helping us to think about what place his ideas about the individual and the community might have in our reading of contemporary Australia and contemporary world literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jessica Gildersleeve\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 160497978X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781604979787\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cambria Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/18\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d","brand":"Jessica Gildersleeve","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43938673164543,"sku":"9781604979787","price":104.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_0c76492a-ca9b-41f6-acb2-9535d973ac76.jpg?v=1681437074","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/christos-tsiolkas-jessica-gildersleeve-9781604979787","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}