Traditionalists insist that literature transcends culture.
Others counter that it is subversive by nature. The authors explore the ways in which literature functions as a cultural practice, the links between death and literature as a field of discourse, and the possibilities of dismantling modes of bodily regulation. Through wide-ranging investigations of writing from England, France, Nigeria, Peru, Japan, and the United States, they reinvigorate the study of literature as a means of understanding the complexities of everyday experience. Lee Quinby is professor of English and American studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.