Anglophone Verse Novels as Gutter Texts

A lucid, conceptually rich and erudite intervention which brings into focus the 'aberrant', 'off-beat' genre of the Anglophone verse novel. Drawing attention to a flourishing bibliodiversity, Anglophone Verse Novels as Gutter Texts acts against the persistent centring of the novel as the pre-eminent form of literary world-making in postcolonial and world literature scholarship, thus offering a significant re-assessment of the field. Through a careful analysis of the social implications of 'gappy' form, Dirk Wieman fashions a compelling and layered argument about the verse novel's propensity to imagine alternative, unfinished social worlds and undecided futures. * Corinne Sandwith, Professor of English, University of Pretoria, South Africa * Wiemann's wonderfully stimulating study ranges across the globe from the Global South to the post-Imperial metropolis, offering scintillating glimpses of little studied but vibrant and timely genre, the contemporary verse novel. Above all, Wiemann gives us new and vital insights into the relationship between literary form and the sociopolitical realities of our violent times. * Russell West-Pavlov, Professor of Anglophone Literatures, University of Tubingen, Germany * Wiemann identifies an important and under-examined segment of the postcolonial canon - the verse-novel - and provides an eloquent defense and analysis of key works in that form, emphasizing the interconnectedness of formal and ideological analysis. A valuable expansion of the discourse of the world novel beyond the usual suspects. * Alexander Beecroft, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina, USA *