Books in the Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture series

This book shows how interrelated shifts in the global financial system and the global publishing industry have transformed the production of contemporary fiction in Britain and the USA. It will appeal to graduate students and researchers working in twenty-first-century literary studies, especially scholars of contemporary British and American fiction.

Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing is the first volume to identify and analyse the 'new audacity' of recent feminist writings from life. Characterised by boldness in both style and content, willingness to explore difficult and disturbing experiences, the refusal of victimhood, and a lack of respect for traditional genre boundaries, new audacity writing takes risks with its author's and others' reputations, and even, on occasion, with the law. This book offers an examination and critical assessment of new audacity in works by Katherine Angel, Alison Bechdel, Marie Calloway, Virginie Despentes, Tracey Emin, Sheila Heti, Juliet Jacques, Chris Krauss, Jana Leo, Maggie Nelson, Vanessa Place, Paul Preciado, and Kate Zambreno. It analyses how they write about women's self-authorship, trans experiences, struggles with mental illness, sexual violence and rape, and the desire for sexual submission. It engages with recent feminist and gender scholarship, providing discussions of vulnerability, victimhood, authenticity, trauma, and affect.

This book demonstrates how developments in biotechnology such as cloning, synthetic biology, surrogate pregnancies, organ transplants and more have significant implications for personhood, ethics, and governance. Drawing attention to the commodification of life, it shows how the biological functions of life itself are shaped to economic agendas.

This study offers a critical interpretation of literary representations of urban poverty and the sustained trauma associated with exploitation, homelessness, displacement, or racism. It advocates the value of an adapted psychoanalysis for the poor in not only addressing mental health needs but building capacity.