Overview

Contemporary Literature and the Body: a Critical Introduction introduces readers to key theorists and shifting critical trends in the field from 1940 to the present and examines these in relation to close readings of texts from a range of different genres. It argues that scholarship on literature and the body is of fundamental importance to discussions about gender, race, sexuality, class, age, narrative form, and processes of reading and writing. Contemporary Literature and the Body: a Critical Introduction understands ‘literature’ in a broad sense: as fundamentally connected to changes in technology, culture and the environment. Offering a lively and accessible synthesis, it explores how literary writing of present and recent decades is concerned with the challenges of conveying physical experiences, experimenting with sensory perception, and thinking through the relationship between embodiment, identity and knowledge.

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9781350180161

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As with all of Hall's writing, there is a delightful activism running throughout this important book. She raises the bar on critical discussion, bringing a new alertness to the relevance of the body in literature. Tellingly, she does not overlook how literary texts themselves are kinds of bodies not to be left out in the rush to theory and critical debate. * Paul Crawford, Institute of Mental Health, The University of Nottingham, UK * This book provides an expansive overview of the many and complex ways the body has featured in literature from the nineteenth century to the present day. The contributors engage large and important themes: gender, sexuality, disability, race, affect, ageing, the environment, and issues around the 'digital' body. This is important reading for students of literature, cultural history, body studies, and the medical humanities. * Corinna Wagner, University of Exeter, UK * In nine thorough and inspiring chapters, Contemporary Literature and the Body offers a timely introduction to key aspects of how literature deals with bodies. Each chapter is focused and backs its presentation of state-of-the-art theory with readings of literary works. Together they add up to an excellent background for understanding the centrality of the body, whether it is seen through the lens of gender, affect, race, disability, aging, or the posthuman. * Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Aarhus University, Denmark *

Author Information

Alice Hall is a Lecturer in Contemporary and Global Literature at the University of York, UK. She is the author of Disability and Modern Fiction and Literature and Disability, and is the editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Literature and Disability. She co-founded the MA in Medical Humanities at York and convenes 'The Body in Modern American Literature and Culture' module.

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