Swoon: A Poetics of Passing out

Swoon is the first extensive study of literary swooning, exploring its history and potential to provide new insights into the contemporary. It demonstrates that passing-out has had a pivotal place in English literature, connecting to explorations of emotionality, ecstasy, transformation, sickness, dying, and gender and gendering.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2021
Publisher: Manchester University Press

Swoon, an extensive exploration of the literary phenomenon known as swooning, delves into its rich historical significance and explores its potential to provide fresh insights into the contemporary world. This groundbreaking study reveals that swooning has played a pivotal role in English literature throughout its evolution. It begins with an introduction to the swoon as a marker of aesthetic sensitivity, encompassing chapters on swooning and generic transformation in the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Furthermore, it examines the portrayal of morbid, feminized swoons and excessive affect in romantic, gothic, and modernist literature. The book also explores the use of irony, clichés, and bathos in contemporary romance fiction's swoons. By revisiting key texts, Swoon demonstrates that passing-out has been intricately linked to explorations of emotionality, ecstasy, and transformation, as well as depictions of sickness and dying. Moreover, it sheds light on performances of gender and gendering in these literary works.

Swoon offers a novel perspective on the intertwined histories of the body and literary response, providing a fresh and exciting approach to understanding the complexities of human experience.

Weight: 528g
Dimension: 146 x 223 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526101181