Written by some of the world's finest contemporary literature specialists, the newly 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 Philips, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, Marina Warner, Irvine Welsh and Jeanette Winterson. The book will be of interest not only to students, teachers and lecturers, but to the general reader seeking help in approaching the often baffling novels of the recent past. Key Features: *Literary critical 'isms' are described in clear, jargon-free language. *Focuses on British fiction since 1980 giving coverage of established authors such as Angela Carter and Ian McEwan as well as little addressed novelists such as James Kelman and Zadie Smith. *Essays are by leading scholars in contemporary fiction.
Introduction: James Acheson and Sarah Ross A. Realism and Other '-isms': Chapter 1: 'Realism, Dreams, and the Unconscious in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro' -- Frederick M. Holmes Chapter 2: 'Ian McEwan: Contemporary Realism and the Novel of Ideas' --Judith Seaboyer Chapter 3: 'The Unnatural Scene: The Fiction of Irvine Welsh' --Alan Riach Chapter 4: 'Angela Carter's Magic Realism' --David Punter Chapter 5: 'Facticity, or Something Like That: The Novels of James Kelman' --Laurence Nicoll Chapter 6: 'One Nation, Oneself: Politics, Place and Identity in Martin Amis' Fiction' --Daniel Lea B. Postcolonialism and Other '-isms': Chapter 7: 'Abdulrazak Gurnah and Hanif Kureishi: Failed Revolutions' --Bruce King Chapter 8: 'Salman Rushdie's Fathers' --Hermione Lee Chapter 9: 'Postcolonialism and 'the Figure of the Jew': Caryl Phillips and Zadie Smith' --Bart Moore-Gilbert Chapter 10: 'Mixing and Metamorphing: Articulations of Feminism and Postcoloniality in Marina Warner's Fiction' --Chantal Zabus C. Feminism and Other '-isms': Chapter 11: 'Regeneration, Redemption, Resurrection: Pat Barker and the Problem of Evil' -- Sarah Ross Chapter 12: 'Partial to Intensity: The Novels of A.L. Kennedy' --Glenda Norquay Chapter 13: 'Gender and Creativity in the Fictions of Janice Galloway' --Dorothy McMillan Chapter 14: 'Appetite, Desire and Belonging in the Novels of Rose Tremain' --Sarah Sceats Chapter 15: 'Desire for Syzygy in the Novels of A.S. Byatt' --Katherine Tarbox Chapter 16: 'Jeanette Winterson and the Lesbian Postmodern: Storytelling, Performativity and the Gay Aesthetic'--Paulina Palmer D. Postmodernism and Other '-isms': Chapter 17: '(Re)constituted Pasts: Postmodern Historicism in the Novels of Graham Swift and Julian Barnes' --Daniel Bedggood Chapter 18: 'Colonising the Past: The Novels of Peter Ackroyd' --David Leon Higdon Chapter 19: 'Player of Games: Iain (M.) Banks, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Sublime Terror' --Cairns Craig
