Secrecy and Community in 21st-Century Fiction

María J. López is Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Córdoba, Spain.Pilar Villar-Argáiz is Senior Lecturer of British and Irish Literatures at the University of Granada, Spain.

The secret as index of ineradicable opacity rather than hidden knowledge to be disclosed; the forms of community that come from honoring the singularity and inviolability of others; and literature as an especially revelatory location for both of these operations – these are among the insights provided by this well-conceived, eclectic collection. Secrecy and Community highlights the urgency of recasting our sense of the present through the medium of Derrida’s late work. It is an impressive and moving achievement, and a welcome addition to contemporary thought.

• Notes on contributorsForewordJoseph Hillis Miller (University of California, Irvine, USA)AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Secrecy and community in twenty-first-century fictionMaría J. López (University of Córdoba, Spain)Part One. SECRECY, LITERARY FORM AND THE COMMUNITY OF READERS1. Secrecy and community in ergodic texts: Derrida, Ali Smith and the experience of formDerek Attridge (University of York, UK)2. Protective mimicry: Reflections on the novel todayNicholas Royle (University of Sussex, UK)3. ‘Where all is known and nothing understood’: Narrative sequence and textual secrets in Toni Morrison’s LovePaula Martín-Salván (University of Córdoba, Spain)4. Challenging stereotypes of femininity through secrets in Alice Munro’s fictionMercedes Díaz Dueñas (University of Granada, Spain)5. Zoë Wicomb and the secrets of the canonLiani Lochner (Université Laval, Canada)Part Two. COMMUNITIES OF SECRECY6. Cryptaesthetic resistance and community in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The LowlandMaría Luisa Pascual Garrido (University of Córdoba, Spain)7. Queering the Maori crypt: Community and secrecy in Witi Ihimaera’s The Uncle’s StoryGerardo Rodríguez-Salas (University of Granada, Spain)8. Secrecy, invisibility and community in Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight GateJuan L. Pérez-de-Luque (University of Córdoba, Spain)9. Novel mediums: The art of not speaking in (and of) Hilary Mantel’s Beyond BlackHannu Poutiainen (Tampere University, Finland)Part Three. SECRECY, POSTCOLONIALISM AND DEMOCRACY10. Shame and the idea of community in Ian Holding’s Of Beasts and Beings and What Happened to UsMike Marais (Rhodes University, South Africa)11. ‘Whilst our souls negotiate': Secrets and secrecy in Jonathan Franzen’s PurityJesús Blanco Hidalga (University of Córdoba, Spain)12. Conversing with spectres: Secrets and ghosts in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The RefugeesKim L. Worthington (Massey University, New Zealand)Index