Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction

Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction

Author: Suzanne Keen

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9780802086846

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A detailed examination of the growing genre of British fiction featuring archives and archival research, from A.S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning Possession to the paperback thrillers of popular novelists.


A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction

A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction

Author: James F. English

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 140515215X

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A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction offers an authoritative overview of contemporary British fiction in its social, political, and economic contexts. Focuses on the fiction that has emerged since the late 1970s, roughly since the start of the Thatcher era. Comprises original essays from major scholars. Topics range from the rise and fall of the postcolonial novel to controversies over the celebrity author. The emphasis is on the whole fiction scene, from bookstores and prizes to the changing economics of film adaptation. Enables students to read contemporary works of British fiction with a much clearer sense of where they fit within British cultural life.


Orwell to the Present

Orwell to the Present

Author: John Brannigan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2002-11-25

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1350308854

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This essential introductory guide provides a comprehensive critical survey of the diverse and rich body of literary writing produced in England in the postwar period. John Brannigan explores the relationship between literature and history, and analyses how poets, playwrights and novelists have revisited notions of Englishness, represented Englands of the past, and sought to make new 'maps' of English culture and society. Orwell to the Present: Literature in England, 1945-2000 combines original readings of familiar texts with wide-ranging explorations of the principal themes and historical and cultural contexts of literature since the end of the Second World War. Writers considered in detail include: Martin Amis, Simon Armitage, Pat Barker, John Betjeman, Edward Bond, Angela Carter, Margaret Drabble, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Jean Rhys, Salman Rushdie, Sam Selvon, Graham Swift and Evelyn Waugh.


End of empire and the English novel since 1945

End of empire and the English novel since 1945

Author: Rachael Gilmour

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2015-07-01

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1784991791

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Available in paperback for the first time, this first book-length study explores the history of postwar England during the end of empire through a reading of novels which appeared at the time, moving from George Orwell and William Golding to Penelope Lively, Alan Hollinghurst and Ian McEwan. Particular genres are also discussed, including the family saga, travel writing, detective fiction and popular romances. All included reflect on the predicament of an England which no longer lies at the centre of imperial power, arriving at a fascinating diversity of conclusions about the meaning and consequences of the end of empire and the privileged location of the novel for discussing what decolonization meant for the domestic English population of the metropole. The book is written in an easy style, unburdened by large sections of abstract reflection. It endeavours to bring alive in a new way the traditions of the English novel.


Graham Swift

Graham Swift

Author: Daniel Lea

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9780719068379

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This book offers an accessible critical introduction to the work of Graham Swift, one of Britain's most significant contemporary authors. Through detailed readings of his novels and short stories from The Sweet Shop Owner to The Light of Day, Daniel Lea lucidly addresses the key themes of history, loss, masculinity and ethical redemption, to present a fresh approach to Swift.


Reader's Guide to Literature in English

Reader's Guide to Literature in English

Author: Mark Hawkins-Dady

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 1024

ISBN-13: 1135314179

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Reader's Guide Literature in English provides expert guidance to, and critical analysis of, the vast number of books available within the subject of English literature, from Anglo-Saxon times to the current American, British and Commonwealth scene. It is designed to help students, teachers and librarians choose the most appropriate books for research and study.


Neo-Victorian Cannibalism

Neo-Victorian Cannibalism

Author: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-02-04

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 3030025594

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This Pivot examines a body of contemporary neo-Victorian novels whose uneasy relationship with the past can be theorised in terms of aggressive eating, including cannibalism. Not only is the imagery of eating repeatedly used by critics to comprehend neo-Victorian literature, the theme of cannibalism itself also appears overtly or implicitly in a number of the novels and their Victorian prototypes, thereby mirroring the cannibalistic relationship between the contemporary and the Victorian. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho argues that aggressive eating or cannibalism can be seen as a pathological and defining characteristic of neo-Victorian fiction, demonstrating how cannibalism provides a framework for understanding the genre’s origin, its conflicted, ambivalent and violent relationship with its Victorian predecessors and the grotesque and gothic effects that it generates in its fiction.


Narrative Desire and Historical Reparations

Narrative Desire and Historical Reparations

Author: Timothy Gauthier

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-15

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1135492158

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This book examines and explains the obsession with history in the contemporary British novel. It frames these historical novels as expressions of narrative desire, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between a desire to disclose and to rid ourselves of anxieties elicited by the past. Scrutinizing representative novels from Byatt, McEwan and Rushdie, contemporary fiction is revealed as capable of advocating a viable ethical stance and as a form of authentic commentary. Our anxieties often exist in response to what might be perceived as the oppression or eradication of values, whether this is through the modern repudiation of Victorian principles (Byatt), the Western rethinking of Enlightenment narratives in light of the Holocaust (McEwan), or pluralism threatened by religious fundamentalism (Rushdie). Each of these novelists differentially employs postmodern artifice, sometimes as a way to reject the notion of historical construction, sometimes to advocate for it, but always to bring us closer to what the author believes are significant values and truths, rather than relativism. The representative qualities of these novels serve to highlight themes, concerns, and anxieties present in many of the works of each author and by extension those of their contemporaries.


The Contemporary British Novel

The Contemporary British Novel

Author: Philip Tew

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2007-04-26

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1441114491

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The Contemporary British Novel is a lively, wide-ranging guide to the key issues in writing in Britain since the mid-1970s, including social change, gender, sexuality, class, history and ethnicity. Designed to address problems faced by students in the exciting but challenging field of contemporary fiction, the text is organised to focus on major topics including: - the changing nature of British identity; - the representation of urban identity and urban spaces; - class issues including the rise and fall of the middle class; - multiracial identity and hybridity. The second edition includes a new introduction and a new chapter on fiction since the millennium focusing on a post 9/11 aesthetic. Every chapter has been revised for the new edition and now includes an initial overview and recommended reading to offer guidance on further study. Includes readings of novels by: Martin Amis, Pat Barker, A. S. Byatt, Jonathan Coe, Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie,Will Self, Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson among others.