What is ‘the literary fantastic’ and how does it manifest itself in the texts of French and francophone women writers publishing at the close of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first century? What do we mean today when we talk of ‘the real’ and ‘realism’? These are just some of the questions addressed by the papers in this volume which derive from a conference entitled ‘The Fantastic in Contemporary Women’s Writing in French’ held in London in September 2007. This book sets out to refocus through a non-realist lens on the works of high-profile authors (Darrieussecq, Nothomb, Germain, Cixous and NDiaye) and some of their less highly publicised contemporaries. It analyses and mobilises a wide range of both gendered and non-gendered practices and theories of ‘the contemporary fantastic’ whilst critically interrogating both of the latter terms and their inter-relation.