The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Fiction

This is one of the first volumes to systematically analyse the key trends, contexts, and developments of 21st century US fiction. 14 leading scholars in contemporary literary studies discuss the most exciting trends in the genres, themes, and concepts of literature published in the past two decades.

Reading lists, course syllabi, and prizes include the phrase ''21st-century American literature,'' but no critical consensus exists regarding when the period began, which works typify it, how to conceptualize its aesthetic priorities, and where its geographical boundaries lie. Considerable criticism has been published on this extraordinary era, but little programmatic analysis has assessed comprehensively the literary and critical/theoretical output to help readers navigate the labyrinth of critical pathways. In addition to ensuring broad coverage of many essential texts, The Cambridge Companion to 21st Century American Fiction offers state-of-the field analyses of contemporary narrative studies that set the terms of current and future research and teaching. Individual chapters illuminate critical engagements with emergent genres and concepts, including flash fiction, speculative fiction, digital fiction, alternative temporalities, Afro-futurism, ecocriticism, transgender/queer studies, anti-carceral fiction, precarity, and post-9/11 fiction.