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Dennis Cooper
Writing at the Edge

Edited by Paul Hegarty and Danny Kennedy
Paul Hegarty is Lecturer in Cultural Studies, Department of French, University College Cork. He is the author of Georges Bataille, Jean Baudrillard and Noise/Music. Danny Kennedy is a research graduate in the Department of English, University College Cork, and teaches modern literature and theory.

“Hegarty and Kennedy present a critical study of the European influence on the work of avant-garde writer, Dennis Cooper. Articles discuss Cooper is Hegelian terms and his connection to French authors such as Rimbaud and Baudelaire. The book begins with previously unpublished short fiction by Cooper. An unusual touch is the poetry by Nick Hudson and Jean-Paul Cauvin framing color plates of artwork that complements the essays and are fitting in a volume dedicated to the work of this iconoclastic writer.” Reference & Research Book News

A full review of the book appears on 3 a.m. Magazine <http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/>

Dennis Cooper’s writing has acquired a ferocious reputation for its bold experimentation, its transgressive content, and its emotional content, which is both Romantic and touching, whilst cold and hard-edged. For over twenty years Cooper has explored the boundaries of human living, and sexuality’s centrality to that living. The extreme situations he develops in his writing bring out parts of gay experience that a consensual ‘community’ often shies away from, likewise the heterosexual mainstream. His most important genre is undoubtedly fiction, but Cooper has also written poetry, large quantities of journalistic works, notably for Artforum and Spin, and, recently has had great success and recognition with theatrical works.
… Writing at the Edge enters deep into the worlds Cooper fabricates – and into the coolness of his expression. This challenging work is addressed by a group of mostly young and new critical writers and academics who provide creative responses to Cooper’s artistry. The contributions, which cover the breadth of Cooper’s work, develop themes and devices that advance his profound and disturbing world view. In addition to the artistic responses, the topics in the critical pieces range from sexuality in the suburbs, to neurological responses to the work, via the limits and possibilities of bodies. Others look at the implications of contemporary electronic communication as outlined in Cooper’s recent work, or the use of space. Cooper’s writing receives a multi-faceted contextualisation, and his literary ideas are made accessible to any reader interested in learning why Cooper is today regarded as one of the foremost writers in expressing the psychological point behind the centrality of sexual expression.

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