Anna Kavan - by Victoria Walker (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first critical study of Anna Kavan's experimental fiction

• Makes extensive use of unpublished archival sources
• Reads Kavan comparatively against other twentieth-century experimental writers including Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Bowen and Muriel Spark
• Suggests new taxonomies for mid-century experimental fiction

This first book-length study of Anna Kavan's writing contradicts earlier critical approaches that have figured her writing as sui generis by reading her comparatively alongside her contemporaries, especially Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Bowen, Muriel Spark and Doris Lessing. Taking Kavan's fiction as pivotal to understanding trends of experimentalism that emerged across the middle of the twentieth century, it offers close readings of her distinctive prose including her early Helen Ferguson texts, her writing of asylum incarceration, her wartime stories, and her postwar novels. Observing how her fiction challenges perceived divisions between experimental and realist writing, literary and popular genre and (late) modernist and postwar literatures, it focuses on the ways that Kavan's writing undermines fixed or knowable identity and explores the relationship between reality and fiction. This study not only brings necessary attention to a neglected writer, but also suggests new taxonomies for reading experimental fiction in the mid-twentieth century.

Book Synopsis

This first book-length study of Anna Kavan's writing contradicts earlier critical approaches that have figured her writing as sui generis by reading her comparatively alongside her contemporaries, especially Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Bowen, Muriel Spark and Doris Lessing. Taking Kavan's fiction as pivotal to understanding trends of experimentalism that emerged across the middle of the twentieth century, it offers close readings of her distinctive prose including her early Helen Ferguson texts, her writing of asylum incarceration, her wartime stories, and her postwar novels. Observing how her fiction challenges perceived divisions between experimental and realist writing, literary and popular genre and (late) modernist and postwar literatures, it focuses on the ways that Kavan's writing undermines fixed or knowable identity and explores the relationship between reality and fiction. This study not only brings necessary attention to a neglected writer, but also suggests new taxonomies for reading experimental fiction in the mid-twentieth century.

From the Back Cover

The first critical study of Anna Kavan's experimental fiction This study contradicts earlier critical approaches that have figured Anna Kavan's writing as sui generis by reading her comparatively alongside her contemporaries, especially Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Bowen, Muriel Spark and Doris Lessing. Taking Kavan's fiction as pivotal to understanding trends of experimentalism that emerged across the middle of the twentieth century, this book offers close readings of her distinctive prose, including her early Helen Ferguson texts, her writing of asylum incarceration, her wartime stories and her postwar novels. Observing how her fiction challenges perceived divisions between experimental and realist writing, literary and popular genre and (late) modernist and postwar literatures, Walker focuses on the ways that Kavan's writing undermines fixed or knowable identity and explores the relationship between reality and fiction. This volume not only brings necessary attention to a neglected writer, but also suggests new taxonomies for reading experimental fiction in the mid-twentieth century. Victoria Walker's research is focused on twentieth-century British women's prose fiction, especially experimental writing.

Review Quotes

It is fantastic to see the first monograph on Anna Kavan, and to see how it so convincingly argues for her significance. Walker's reading of Kavan as part of and alongside more familiar elements of mid-century literary culture has the paradoxical and very welcome effect of allowing us to see more fully the disturbing power of her work.--Leigh Wilson, University of Westminster

About the Author

Victoria researches twentieth-century British women's prose fiction, especially experimental writing. She has published widely on Anna Kavan and edited a special issue of Women: A Cultural Review - 'Anna Kavan: New Readings' (Winter 2017-18) and a collection of Kavan's short writing, Machines in the Head (2019).