Aleksandra Zuzanna Leniarska | Nostalgia, Domesticity, and the Private Self: Neorealism in 21st-Century American Fiction

Scholars and critics alike have observed a return to realism in award-winning 21st-century American fiction, particularly in works by authors such as Jonathan Franzen, Jonathan Safran Foer, Eric Puchner, and Zadie Smith. This return is reflected both in formal features, including third-person heterodiegetic narration and mimetic representation, and in recurring thematic concerns such as the family saga, the middle class, and domestic life.

In this talk, Leniarska will discuss some of the results of computational literary research which investigates the neorealist characteristics she identified through close reading: the prevalence of nostalgia and retrospective narration, the focus on domesticity and private family life, and the high degree of literary prestige enjoyed by neorealist novels, which are frequently praised for their ability to “portray the way we live now.”

About the Speaker

Aleksandra Zuzanna Leniarska is a PhD researcher at the Doctoral School of Humanities at the University of Warsaw, specializing in literary studies and affiliated with the University’s American Studies Center. She is a recipient of the Fulbright Junior Research Award and conducted research at the Stanford Literary Lab and CESTA in 2021–22. Her work focuses on U.S. literature and culture, with research interests including literary realism, contemporary fiction, the theory of the novel, the sociology of literature, and computational literary studies.

Lunch at 11:45 a.m. for in-person attendees

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