Overview

Rachel Cusk is one of the most critically acclaimed and controversial contemporary British authors. Her diverse body of work offers a striking portrait of trends in 21st-century literature, and the history of Cusk’s literary output is one of experimentation and a desire to push against established cultural models. Rachel Cusk: Contemporary Critical Perspectives is the first critical guide to Cusk's work, spanning novels including Saving Agnes, A Country Life, and Second Place, her 'autofictional' Outline trilogy, and her nonfiction A Life's Work, The Last Supper, Aftermath and the Coventry essays. Rigorous and wide-ranging, this book provides an accessible and lucid introduction to Cusk's work, exploring themes of gender relations, class dynamics, maternal identity and creative freedom. The collection concludes with an in-depth interview with Cusk, conducted by Merve Emre, reflecting on her influences, writing and experiences. Mapping the formal and stylistic shift across her career and locating them within their specific contexts, this collection provides a crucial analysis of Cusk's influences, politics, and literary techniques that speak to many of the most pressing issues in contemporary literature.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Roberta Garrett (Senior Lecturer, University of East London, UK) ,  Dr Liam Harrison (Associate Lecturer, University of Birmingham) ,  Associate Lecturer Liam Harrison (University of Birmingham) ,  Peter Childs (Newman University Birmingham UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781350371026

ISBN 10:   1350371025
Pages:   200
Publication Date:   19 February 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  

Table of Contents

FOREWORD Clare Hanson (University of Southampton) INTRODUCTION Roberta Garrett (University of East London) and Liam Harrison (University of the West of England) CHAPTER ONE Life Style: Rachel Cusk and the Critique of Minimalism Pieter Vermeulen (University of Leuven) CHAPTER TWO Mother Courage and Mother-Shaming: Rachel Cusk’s Contribution to Maternal Feminism Roberta Garrett (University of East London) CHAPTER THREE Serial Metaphors: Revising and Rewriting in Rachel Cusk’s Life Narratives Ricarda Menn (KWI Essen) CHAPTER FOUR Perceptions of Failure in Rachel Cusk’s Saving Agnes and Second Place Sonja Pyykkö (Freie Universität Berlin) CHAPTER FIVE ‘Some things are artificial and some are authentic’: Rachel Cusk’s Depth Perception Daniel Lea (Oxford Brookes University) CHAPTER SIX Autofictional Experiments and Serial Aesthetics in Rachel Cusk’s OUTLINE Trilogy Melissa Schuh (CAU Kiel) CHAPTER SEVEN Being Sent to Coventry: Silence, Cruelty and Rachel Cusk’s Discrepant Style Liam Harrison (University of the West of England) AFTERWORD Second Text: Biography, Intertextuality, and Art in Second Place Peter Childs (Newman University) INTERVIEW An Interview with Rachel Cusk Merve Emre (Wesleyan University) REFERENCES INDEX

Reviews

""Rachel Cusk is one of the most experimental, critically acclaimed and controversial contemporary British female authors, and this collection is a lucid, accessible and wide-ranging introduction to her work."" --Jeannette Baxter, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Author Information

Roberta Garrett is Senior lecturer on the Creative Writing programme and the Media Foundation programme in the Department of Arts and Creative Industries at the University of East London, UK. She has published widely on representations of gender, class and race in popular literature and film. She is the author of Postmodern Chick-Flicks (2008) and Writing the Modern Family (2021) and co-editor of We Need to Talk About Family (2016). Liam Harrison is a Lecturer in Creative and Professional Writing at the University of the West of England, UK. He is also a founding editor of the Dublin-based literary journal Tolka. His research spans modernist legacies in contemporary literature, 21st-century Irish literature, publishing culture and autofiction. He is also a co-founder of the Contemporary Irish Literature Research Network.

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