The Market Logics of Contemporary Fiction

Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture

by Paul Crosthwaite

In the twenty-first century, leading publishers are under intense pressure from their conglomerate owners and shareholders to generate growth and profits. This book shows how these pressures have transformed the contemporary novel. Paul Crosthwaite argues that recent British and American authors have internalized the market logics of the financial sector and book trade, resulting in the production of works of 'market metafiction' in which authors reflect obsessively on their writing's positioning in the literary marketplace. The Market Logics of Contemporary Fiction reveals the entanglement of fictional narrative and market dynamics to be the central phenomenon of contemporary literary culture. It engages with work by key authors including Iain Sinclair, Don DeLillo, Kathy Acker, Bret Easton Ellis, Chris Kraus, Percival Everett, David Foster Wallace, Colson Whitehead, Anne Billson, Hari Kunzru, Barbara Browning, Teju Cole, Ben Lerner, Tao Lin, Nell Zink, Joshua Cohen, Sheila Heti, and Garth Risk Hallberg.

316 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2019

Reviews

[Brian Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The market logic of contemporary criticism is also evident in this really interesting analysis of the market logics of fiction. The slightly unenabling effect of that flattening of art aside, it sent me to the library to grab all the weird and wonderful novels mentioned. BS Johnson being a new favourite.