Subversive and Disturbing Concepts in What Becomes by A. L. Kennedy
Keywords:
short story, A.L. Kennedy, What Becomes, formal innovations, typographyAbstract
Scottish author A.L. Kennedy is one of the key representatives of the modern short-story in English. Several of her collections – including Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1990), Now That You’re Back (1994), Original Bliss (1997) and Indelible Acts (2002) – have won prestigious British literary prizes. This paper closely examines her fifth collection What Becomes (2009), in which the twelve stories deal with isolation, loneliness, depression, and a complete lack of love. Kennedy’s unique poetics reflects her interest in formal innovations; she shows passion toward and sympathy with the weird, awkward, ugly and shocking. Her short-stories disturb the reader through the particular formal devices (the special use of typography) and thematic concepts (showing the disturbances of everyday life).
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