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Forms offers a powerful new answer to one of the most pressing problems facing literary, critical, and cultural studies today - how to connect form to political, social, and historical context. Caroline Levine argues that forms organize not only works of art but also political life - and our attempts to know both art and politics. Inescapable and frequently troubling, forms shape every aspect of our experience. Yet, forms don´t impose their order in any simple way. Multiple shapes, patterns, and arrangements, overlapping and colliding, generate complex and unpredictable social landscapes that challenge and unsettle conventional analytic models in literary and cultural studies.

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"This impressive, innovative book connects art and politics by way of forms."--Andrew Sturgeon, Flavorwire, from "10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015"

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Caroline Levine is professor and chair of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of The Serious Pleasures of Suspense and Provoking Democracy.

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