Synopses & Reviews
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: Peter Ackroyd, Martin Amis, Iain (M.) Banks, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, A. S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Janice Galloway, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Kazuo Ishiguro, James Kelman, A. L. Kennedy, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Caryl Phillips, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, Marina Warner, Irvine Welsh and Jeanette Winterson. Focusing largely 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. The volume is organised into four parts, relating to four major theoretical approaches to the contemporary British novel: realism, postcolonialism, feminism and postmodernism.
Review
"I applaud the content and organization of this ambitious collection. The editors have solicited essays from a wide range of world-class scholars, all of whom are committed to providing original critiques of a wide variety of contemporary novels." Professor Henke, University of Louisville
Synopsis
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: Peter Ackroyd, Martin Amis, Iain (M.) Banks, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, A. S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Janice Galloway, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Kazuo Ishiguro, James Kelman, A. L. Kennedy, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Caryl Phillips, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, Marina Warner, Irvine Welsh and Jeanette Winterson.
About the Author
James Acheson is former Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is author of
Samuel Beckett's Artistic Theory and Practice: Criticism, Drama, Early Fiction and
John Fowles.
Sarah C. E. Ross is a Lecturer in English at Massey University, New Zealand, where she teaches Medieval and Renaissance literature and contemporary fiction.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements*Introduction--James Acheson and Sarah C. E. Ross*
Part I: Realism and other -isms*Realism, Dreams and the Unconscious in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro--Frederick M. Holmes*Ian McEwan: Contemporary Realism and the Novel of Ideas--Judith Seaboyer*The Unnatural Scene: the Fiction of Irvine Welsh--Alan Riach*Angela Carter's Magic Realism--David Punter*Facticity, or Something Like That: the Novels of James Kelman--Laurence Nicoll*One Nation, Oneself: Politics, Place and Identity in Martin Amis' Fiction--Daniel Lea*
Part II: Postcolonialism and other -isms*Abdulrazak Gurnah and Hanif Kureishi: Failed Revolutions--Bruce King*Salman Rushdie's Fathers--Hermione Lee*Postcolonialism and 'The Figure of the Jew': Caryl Phillips and Zadie Smith--Bart Moore-Gilbert* Mingling and Metamorphing: Articulations of Feminism and Postcoloniality in Marina Warner's Fiction--Chantal Zabus*
Part III: Feminism and other -isms*Regeneration, Redemption, Resurrection: Pat Barker and the Problem of Evil--Sarah C. E. Ross*'Partial to Intensity': the Novels of A. L. Kennedy--Glenda Norquay*Gender and Creativity in the Fictions of Janice Galloway--Dorothy McMillan*Appetite, Desire and Belonging in the Novels of Rose Tremain--
Sarah Sceats*Desire for Syzygy in the Novels of A. S. Byatt--Katherine Tarbox*Jeanette Winterson and the Lesbian Postmodern: Story-telling, Performativity and the Gay Aesthetic--Paulina Palmer*Part IV: Postmodernism and other -isms* (Re)Constituted Pasts: Postmodern Historicism in the Novels of Graham Swift and Julian Barnes--Daniel Bedggood*Colonising the Past: the Novels of Peter Ackroyd--David Leon Higdon* Player of Games: Iain (M.) Banks, Jean François Lyotard and Sublime Terror--Cairns Craig*Notes on Contributors