Available Formats
Maggie O'Farrell: Contemporary Critical Perspectives
By (Author) Dr Elaine Canning
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
24th July 2025
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Gender studies: women and girls
Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary
Creative writing and creative writing guides
823.914
Paperback
176
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
Bringing together cultural analysis and textual readings on critically-acclaimed bestseller and winner of the prestigious Womens Prize for Fiction, Maggie OFarrell, this collection covers her nine novels, her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am, two childrens books and features an exclusive interview with the author herself. The first full-length study of OFarrells work, this book offers critical explorations from her earliest works to the award-winning Hamnet and most recent best-selling novel, The Marriage Portrait. With a timeline of her life and works, as well as suggested further reading, the themes explored include grief and sacrifice, longing and belonging, trauma, translation, palimpsestic texts and the relation of her work to history and the female domestic gothic.
Maggie OFarrells Hamnet brought her the critical acclaim she has long deserved, and now this excellent collection of essays brings her the scholarly attention she merits. These essays are theoretically savvy and offer smart but accessible readings that will return readers and scholars to the delights of OFarrells work. * Jo Eldridge Carney, Professor of English, The College of New Jersey, USA *
Elaine Canning is a writer, editor and public engagement specialist living in Swansea, South Wales, UK. Originally from Belfast, she holds an MA and PhD in Hispanic Studies from Queen's University, Belfast, and an MA in Creative Writing from Swansea University. She is currently Head of Special Projects at Swansea University, which include the Rhys Davies National Short Story Competition and the International Dylan Thomas Prize. She has authored a monograph and papers on Spanish Golden-Age drama and her short stories have appeared in Nation.Cymru and The Lonely Crowd. Editor of Take a Bite: The Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology (2021), New World, New Beginnings: Resilience and Connectivity through Poetry (2021), and Cree: The Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology (2022), she is also the author of a debut novel, The Sandstone City (2022) and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.