Unreadability and Speculative Fiction: Studies in Materialist Poetics

By Luka Bekavac

Unreadability is a crucial but largely overlooked device in literary writing. Its aesthetic potential is particularly prominent in speculative fiction, where the irreducible materiality of print can become a focus of innovation in representing otherness (the unknown, the unthinkable, the monstrous). Unreadability and Speculative Fiction explores the work of four contemporary authors (Mark Z. Danielewski, Thomas Ligotti, Reza Negarestani, and Asja Bakic), bringing together various strands of literary formalisms and new materialisms. Traversing the fields between literary theory and philosophy, this book offers a fresh look at the agency of writing and its specific role in genre fiction.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004773576
• ISBN13: 9789004773578
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Brill