My first monograph has been published by Routledge / Taylor & Francis in 2019. Preview and order via the publisher’s website.

Abstract

Extreme States: The Evolution of American Transgressive Fiction 1960-2000

Transgressive fiction, a literary genre which explores the crossing of moral and social boundaries, is controversial due to its striking content and style. Novels such as Samuel R. Delany’s Hogg (1969) have been criticized for their explicit depictions of violence and sex, as well as their unusual style. However, transgressive fiction is not new or merely shocking. It is also a continuation of a much older American tradition of creating culture through the crossing of moral, geographical and social boundaries. Extreme States traces the evolution of American transgressive fiction from the 1960s to 2000. Rather than using the word “transgressive” as a synonym for political radicalism or counter-cultural rebelliousness, the book explores how transgressive fiction represents, exaggerates and interrogates how central American ideologies are (re)constructed in its social context. Transgressive fiction, Extreme States demonstrates, is as much about construction and creation as it is about destruction and dissection.