Lexington Books
Pages: 156
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-1-7936-2817-6 • Hardback • December 2020 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
978-1-7936-2818-3 • eBook • December 2020 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Heather Levy is professor of English literature at Western Connecticut State University.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Curating Violence and Perpetrator Trauma
Chapter 1 Ameliorative Suicide
Chapter 2 Redemptive Murder
Chapter 3 Inconclusive Mayhem
Conclusion: Implicating Readers
Appendix: Harry Ransom Selections
Bibliography
This fascinating analysis of violence in Elizabeth Bowen’s shorter fiction reveals her focus on the suffering of perpetrators, which implicates readers in suicide, murder and mayhem. With precision, clarity and wit, Levy demonstrates how Bowen’s narrative strategies keep the gore offstage while scrutinizing the motives of those who commit violence. The volume includes a special pleasure for Bowen readers—seven story fragments published for the first time.
— Elizabeth Lambert, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts