The Poetics and Ethics of (Un-)Grievability in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

This book is the first to examine a series of contemporary English novels through the lens of grievability and ungrievability, addressing how fiction since the 1990s has explored the socio-cultural construction of these categories. It also considers the relationship between visibility and invisibility, providing a prism through which to consider secular forms such as obituaries and elegies. The volume aims to analyze how Butlers categories can be of specific use to literary scholars, particularly in the post-trauma age, and explores the ethics and politics of literature, taking into account the ethics and politics of form. The essays collected relate the relevance of these categories to various cultural areas of the English-speaking world, charting the singularities and common concerns of contemporary texts and themes relating to various grounds of relegation and invisibilisation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 230 pages
Publication date: 27 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This groundbreaking book is a pioneering exploration of a series of contemporary English novels through the lens of the critical and theoretical categories of grievability and ungrievability. Building upon the groundbreaking work of Judith Butler, it delves into the ways in which fiction in English since the 1990s has uniquely positioned itself to investigate the socio-cultural construction of grievability, refining and challenging the traditional categories of subalternity, inaudibility, and invisibility associated with postmodern poetics.

Furthermore, the book explores these categories in relation to issues of visibility and invisibility, offering a valuable prism through which to contemplate secular forms such as obituaries and elegies. These genres provide means to perform mourning or, conversely, posit an ethics of melancholia through ongoing attachment to the departed.

At the heart of this volume lies the objective of providing an analytical framework for literary scholars to utilize Butler's influential categories, particularly in the context of our post-trauma age. As literature continues to play a crucial role in addressing the impact of violence, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation on the grievability or ungrievability of human beings, this book offers valuable insights into the ethical and political dimensions of literature.

In a concrete sense, this book employs the prism of (un-)grievability to contribute to the study of the ethics and politics of literature, taking into account the ethics and politics of form. It demonstrates how certain fictions delve into the lives of those deemed ungrievable, subjecting them to invisibility and/or illicit dead, while perpetrator trauma fictions focus on the perpetrators themselves.

By examining these genres through the lens of (un-)grievability, this book offers a fresh and insightful perspective on the complexities of human experience, challenging our assumptions about what is and is not worthy of grief and mourning. It is a must-read for scholars and readers alike who are interested in exploring the boundaries of human emotion and the power of literature to shape our understanding of the world.

Weight: 607g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032389752