The Program in Comparative Literature is delighted to share the news that Krzysztof Rowiński (UMass Comp Lit Ph.D. 2021) is publishing a new book. Failure Narratives Beyond Redemption, which will be released in May 2026 from Routledge as part of the series Routledge Studies in Comparative Literature, is based on Dr. Rowiński's dissertation research.
Failure Narratives Beyond Redemption: Twentieth Century Literature and Film focuses on the concept of non-redemptive failure, a type of failure that is not part of a larger narrative of success or narrative redemption, with attention to how the concept functions between literature, performance, politics, and other fields. Examining literature and film from mid- twentieth- century Poland, Italy, and the United States, the book traces productive effects of failure which cannot survive into the future, yet have an important, transformative impact in the moment in which they occur. With its focus on the intersection of literary studies and political thought, Failure Narrative Beyond Redemption engages recent interdisciplinary attempts to rethink the concept of failure and the way we narrate it, organized around the Fail Worse research network, launched at Trinity College Dublin in 2025.