Contemporary Literature and the Body

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. Examining 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. This volume understands literature in a broad sense: as fundamentally connected to changes in technology, culture and the environment. Offering a lively and accessible synthesis, chapters explore 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.