Douglas Coupland’s Literature and Art : The Extreme Present

The first collection of scholarly essays about major works across fiction, non-fiction, and visual art by cult writer and artist Douglas Coupland, this book looks at Coupland''s work and its interest in today''s world, defined by social and technological acceleration, instant communications, and crises of various kinds.

Despite being widely read, Coupland is too often ignored as a subject for academic analysis, an oversight that this collection remedies. While most publications about Coupland have focussed on his fiction, this book notably gives space and attention also to his significant non-fiction and artistic production. It provides students, scholars, and fans of Douglas Coupland alike with rigorous yet accessible analyses of Coupland’s major works. The book is divided into sections which look at: Coupland’s literary production in its broader literary context; the evolution of Coupland’s artistic production; Coupland’s engagement with our extreme present; the spiritual dimension of Coupland’s works; and their temporal and spatial politics. The book closes on an interview with Coupland, as well as an exclusive contribution produced by Coupland himself for the collection.