Ann Quin's innovative, versatile oeuvre made a vital contribution to 1960s and '70s British experimental writing. While contemporaries praised her vivid and energetic prose, a sustained and in-depth study of Quin has so far been absent from scholarly reassessment of this literary era. As the first comprehensive appraisal of her writing and life, this book redresses that critical neglect, aims to recuperate Quin as a key female experimental writer of the twentieth century, shows how the precarious possibility of her writing is its essential attribute, and demonstrates the lasting importance of her work. Its combination of scholarly analysis and archival expertise investigates her life, writing and forms of experimentation to convey precisely what is striking and significant about Quin.
Acknowledgements
Vignette: Quin’s dark archive
Introduction: Ways in to Quin
Vignette: A bedsit room of her own
1. Berg: Shifting Perspectives, Sticky Details
Vignette: That same sea
2. Three: A Collage of Possibilities
Vignette: ‘Have you tried it with three?’
3. Passages: Unstable Forms of Desire
Vignette: Moving onwards
4. Tripticks: Impoverished Style as Cultural Critique
Vignette: Breakdown, breakthrough
5. The Unmapped Country: Unravelling Stereotypes of Madness
Afterword: Where Next?
Bibliography
Index
Nonia Williams’ compelling argument secures Ann Quin’s place among the pantheon of late 20th century experimental writers, particularly women writers. Lucidly written and organized, impeccably researched, with the advantage of Williams’ access to Quin’s letters, this book will interest scholars and students of modernism, feminism, women writers, and experimental literature.