Ali Smith: Critical Essays offers a comprehensive critical study of Ali Smith’s literary works. It brings together contributions by international scholars to explore the significance of her innovative writing and its transformative impact in Scottish and British literature.
Ali Smith is renowned as an exciting and inventive writer who addresses current political realities while pushing at the boundaries of experimental writing and literary innovation. This collection addresses the full range of Smith’s writing: from her early plays and fiction in the 1980s and 1990s through to her multi award-winning novels across the twenty-first century, as well as her influential critical writing, her lectures, and her prolific introductions to other writers. Smith’s pluralistic literary style ranges across discussions about literature, visual art, contemporary politics, childhood, gender and sexuality, literary criticism, nationality, borders, and the environment. Interweaving the personal, the political, and the aesthetic, Smith’s writing combines these layers to demonstrate the invigorating possibilities of contemporary literature.
This book offers expert close readings of all of Smith’s major works to date and is aimed at students and scholars of contemporary British fiction, Scottish literature, contemporary women’s writing, queer literature and literary experimentation.