Edinburgh University Press Figures of Complexity in Contemporary Fiction

Explores the manifold ways that complexity is framed, understood and negotiated in contemporary Anglophone fiction Deepens our understanding of how literature can stage the complexity of present-day challenges Builds on a large and diverse corpus of contemporary Anglophone fiction Combines formal analysis with extensive discussion of how literature negotiates social and ecological crises, from migration to climate change Puts contemporary fiction on a continuum with digital storytelling in video games How does fiction—including both print books and digital literature in the video game medium—imagine the complexity of issues such as migration or climate change? How does it envisage our societies’ dependence on technological networks and supply chains that most of us don’t understand? Figures of Complexity shows how fiction pushes complexity beyond its associations with desirable nuance and instead links it to material, psychological and ethical pitfalls that are distinctive of the present moment—a sense of reality getting out of hand, being difficult or overpowering, or facing us with unsolvable moral dilemmas. Through its engagement with works by authors such as Omar El Akkad, Lauren Groff, Yaa Gyasi and Hanya Yanagihara, the book examines a wide range of imaginative responses to these challenges.