Description

What is 'the literary fantastic' and how does it manifest itself in the
texts of French and francophone women writers publishing at the
close of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first century? What do
we mean today when we talk of 'the real' and 'realism'? These are just
some of the questions addressed by the papers in this volume which
derive from a conference entitled 'The Fantastic in Contemporary
Women's Writing in French' held in London in September 2007. This
book sets out to refocus through a non-realist lens on the works of
high-profile authors (Darrieussecq, Nothomb, Germain, Cixous and
Ndiaye) and some of their less highly publicised contemporaries.
It analyses and mobilises a wide range of both gendered and non-gendered
practices and theories of 'the contemporary fantastic'
whilst critically interrogating both of the latter terms and their interrelation.