The gradual dissolution of early modern trust in vision as a source of knowledge of the natural world reached its climax towards the end of the sixteenth century. 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. What remains constant throughout these different perspectives is the disruption of representations by brief but haunting glimpses of otherness. 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. 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. It investigates one of the fundamental concerns of Banville’s novels: mediating the gap between subject and object or self and world in representation. 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.
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