Contemporary Crises in the Anglosphere: Fragmentation and Relationality in 21st Century Narratives

This special issue explores how contemporary Anglophone fiction engages with the multiple and overlapping crises that characterize the twenty-first century, from environmental degradation and technological disruption to social fragmentation, political instability, and pervasive uncertainty. Framed by the notion of permacrisis, the collection examines how literary narratives represent a world marked by interconnected vulnerabilities while simultaneously imagining new forms of relationality, resilience, and collective belonging. Bringing together perspectives from literary and cultural studies, the issue investigates the ways in which contemporary fiction reconfigures individual and communal experiences across different scales, from intimate domestic spaces to global ecological systems. The contributions highlight how narratives of crisis challenge established paradigms of identity, temporality, agency, and human exceptionalism, foregrounding networks of interdependence among people, environments, technologies, and non-human actors