The Contemporary British Novel Since 1980

Description

Written by some of the world's finest contemporary literature specialists, the specially commissioned essays in this volume examine the work of more than twenty major British novelists, including Peter Ackroyd, Martin Amis, Iain (M.) Banks, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Janice Galloway, Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, Marina Warner, Irvine Welsh and Jeanette Winterson. Focusing mainly on authors whose first novels have appeared since 1980, the essays provide expert and original analysis of the most recent trends in the theory and practice of contemporary British fiction, and are organized by these 4 major approaches: realism, postcolonialism, feminism and postmodernism. Front Matter ....Pages i-v Introduction (James Acheson, Sarah C. E. Ross)....Pages 1-8 Front Matter ....Pages 9-9 Realism, Dreams and the Unconscious in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro (Frederick M. Holmes)....Pages 11-22 Ian McEwan: Contemporary Realism and the Novel of Ideas (Judith Seaboyer)....Pages 23-34 The Unnatural Scene: The Fiction of Irvine Welsh (Alan Riach)....Pages 35-47 Angela Carter’s Magic Realism (David Punter)....Pages 48-58 Facticity, or Something Like That: The Novels of James Kelman (Laurence Nicoll)....Pages 59-69 One Nation, Oneself: Politics, Place and Identity in Martin Amis’ Fiction (Daniel Lea)....Pages 70-81 Front Matter ....Pages 83-83 Abdulrazak Gurnah and Hanif Kureishi: Failed Revolutions (Bruce King)....Pages 85-94 Salman Rushdie’s Fathers (Hermione Lee)....Pages 95-105 Postcolonialism and ‘The Figure of the Jew’: Caryl Phillips and Zadie Smith (Bart Moore-Gilbert)....Pages 106-117 Mingling and Metamorphing: Articulations of Feminism and Postcoloniality in Marina Warner’s Fiction (Chantal Zabus)....Pages 118-128 Front Matter ....Pages 129-129 Regeneration, Redemption, Resurrection: Pat Barker and the Problem of Evil (Sarah C. E. Ross)....Pages 131-141 ‘Partial to Intensity’: The Novels of A. L. Kennedy (Glenda Norquay)....Pages 142-153 Gender and Creativity in the Fictions of Janice Galloway (Dorothy McMillan)....Pages 154-164 Appetite, Desire and Belonging in the Novels of Rose Tremain (Sarah Sceats)....Pages 165-176 Desire for Syzygy in the Novels of A. S. Byatt (Katherine Tarbox)....Pages 177-188 Jeanette Winterson and the Lesbian Postmodern: Story-telling, Performativity and the Gay Aesthetic (Paulina Palmer)....Pages 189-199 Front Matter ....Pages 201-201 (Re) Constituted Pasts: Postmodern Historicism in the Novels of Graham Swift and Julian Barnes (Daniel Bedggood)....Pages 203-216 Colonising the Past: The Novels of Peter Ackroyd (David Leon Higdon)....Pages 217-228 Player of Games: Iain (M.) Banks, Jean-François Lyotard and Sublime Terror (Cairns Craig)....Pages 229-239 Back Matter ....Pages 240-250