Contemporary Literature and the State : A Special Issue of Contemporary Literature 49:4 (Winter 2008)

Contemporary Literature and the State challenges the critical opposition between the monolithic state and the individual artist. The volume collects essays on writers as different as Samuel Beckett and Ngozi Adichie and covers historical and geographical contexts from Yorkshire to Singapore, San Francisco to Cape Town. Featuring new and established critical voices, Contemporary Literature and the State is an important new contribution to debates about the politics of literature, coming at a time when state power appears both more arbitrary and more necessary than ever. Annotation. Contemporary Literature and the Statechallenges the critical opposition between the monolithic state and the individual artist. The volume collects essays on writers as different as Samuel Beckett and Ngozi Adichie and covers historical and geographical contexts from Yorkshire to Singapore, San Francisco to Cape Town. Featuring new and established critical voices, Contemporary Literature and the Stateis an important new contribution to debates about the politics of literature, coming at a time when state power appears both more arbitrary and more necessary than ever Investigating the connections between the literary artist and the state, this book challenges the opposition between monolithic state and the individual artist. It collects essays on writers as different as Samuel Beckett and Ngozi Adichie and covers historical and geographical contexts from Yorkshire to Singapore and San Francisco to Cape Town.