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

Susana Onega is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Zaragoza and a member of the Academia Europaea. She has written extensively on contemporary British literature, narrative poetics, ethics and trauma. She is currently editing with Jean-Michel Ganteau The Brill Handbook on Literary Criticism and Theory.Jean-Michel Ganteau is Professor of Contemporary British Literature at the University Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3. He is the editor of Études britanniques contemporaines and has authored The Ethics and Aesthetics of Vulnerability in Contemporary British Literature (Routledge, 2015) and The Ethics and Aesthetics of Attention in Contemporary British Literature (Routledge, 2023).

• INTRODUCTION: The Poetics and Ethics of (Un-)Grievability in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction PART I The Presence of History 1. Trading Relations, the Evil of Violence and the Ungrievability of the Other in David Mitchell’s The One Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet 2. Undermining the Hierarchy of Grief in Rachel Seiffert’s A Boy in Winter 3. Escaping "Dead Time": The Temporal Ethics of (Un-)Grievability in Ali Smith’s The Accidental, PART II Grieving the Earth "How bold to mix the Dreamings": The Ethics and Poetics of Mourning in Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book 4. From Elegy to Apocalypse: Ecological Grief and Human Grievability in Ben Smith’s Doggerland PART III Outcasts 5. Ungrievable Incest: Ecology and Kinship in Michael Stewart’s Ill Will 6. (Un-)Grieving Celestial in Toni Morrison’s Love PART IV Contamination 7. What Remains of (Un-)Grievability in Hollinghurst’s and Tóibín’s AIDS Fiction 8. Overcoming Grief and Salvaging Memory: Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers PART IV After the Subject 9. Grieving for the Subhuman in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 10. The Grievability of the Non-Human: Ian McEwan’s Machines like Me

“The Poetics and Ethics of (Un-)Grievability in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction offers a strong and complete study of different modalities of (un-)grievability in a variety of settings that stands as both relevant and thought-provoking. The authors fulfil the task of providing a nuanced study of Butler’s critical concepts and the volume proves to be useful for anyone interested in trauma, vulnerability and grievability in a wide array of contexts based on timely issues. It succeeds in its epistemological task, and it constitutes a key contribution to the field.”- PAULA RUSTARAZO GARZÓN, for Nexus 2023