British Terrorist Novels of the 1970s

Description

This book discusses British novels published during the 1970s which feature terrorists either as main characters or a major plot points. The focus on terrorism’s literary depiction provides insight into the politics of the decade. The book analyses texts from Gerald Seymour, Anthony Burgess, V.S. Naipaul, Graham Greene, Doris Lessing, B.S. Johnson, Tom Sharpe, and Eric Ambler, among others, in order to engage with the IRA, the end of Empire, counterculture and environmentalism. The book provides a brief history of terrorism as a concept and tactic before discussing British literature’s relationship with terrorism. It presents a “standard terrorist morphology” by which to analyse terrorist narratives along with other insights into the British post-war imagination, writing and extremism. Front Matter ....Pages i-v Introduction (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 1-7 A Short History of Terrorism as Concept and Tactic (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 9-32 The Terrorist Novel, Thrillers and Postcolonial Britain (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 33-58 Writing the IRA from the Mainland: Truth and Fiction (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 59-85 Countercultural Writers and The Angry Brigade (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 87-116 Environmentalists and Conservationists: Terrorising the Countryside (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 117-141 Conclusion (Joseph Darlington)....Pages 143-150 Back Matter ....Pages 151-152