Secrecy and Community in 21st-Century Fiction

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Secrecy and Community in 21st-Century Fiction examines the relation between secrecy and community in a diverse and international range of contemporary fictional works in English. In its concern with what is called 'communities of secrecy', it is fundamentally indebted to the thought of Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy and Maurice Blanchot, who have pointed to the fallacies and dangers of identitarian and exclusionary communities, arguing for forms of being-in-common characterized by non-belonging, singularity and otherness. Also drawing on the work of J. Hillis Miller, Derek Attridge, Nicholas Royle, Matei Calinescu, Frank Kermode and George Simmel, among others, this volume analyses the centrality of secrets in the construction of literary form, narrative sequence and meaning, together with their foundational role in our private and interpersonal lives and the public and political realms. In doing so, it engages with the Derridean ethico-political value of secrecy and Derridas conception of literature as the exemplary site for the operation of the unconditional secret.

Reviews

The secret as index of ineradicable opacity rather than hidden knowledge to be disclosed; the forms of community that come from honoring the singularity and inviolability of others; and literature as an especially revelatory location for both of these operations these are among the insights provided by this well-conceived, eclectic collection. Secrecy and Community highlights the urgency of recasting our sense of the present through the medium of Derridas late work. It is an impressive and moving achievement, and a welcome addition to contemporary thought. * Greg Forter, Professor of English, University of South Carolina, USA, and author of Critique and Utopia in Postcolonial Historical Fiction: Atlantic and Other Worlds (2018) *
This much-needed volume of essays extends Derridean theory through close readings of a wide range of 21st-century narrative texts, thus demonstrating the complex interrelationship between secrets and community, identity politics and literature. * Leslie W. Lewis, Susan D. Morgan Distinguished Professor of English, Goucher College, USA, and author of Telling Narratives: Secrets in African American Literature (2017) *
Many anthologies on secrecy exist, but only a few include cutting-edge essays and vivid empirical studies. In this timely book, the studies compiled by Mara J. Lpez and Pilar Villar-Argiz explore the link between secrecy, community, democracy and literature with admirable articulacy and precision. This volume attests to the intersectional articulation of these elements, and will contribute much to research on the different dimensions of literary secrecy. * Eduardo Barros Grela, Professor of English Studies, University of A Corua, Spain, and co-editor of American Secrets: The Politics and Poetics of Secrecy in the Literature and Culture of the United States (2011) *

Author Bio

Mara J. Lpez is Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Crdoba, Spain. Pilar Villar-Argiz is Senior Lecturer of British and Irish Literatures at the University of Granada, Spain.