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This book focuses on representative novels by eleven key English novelists who have broken from the realist novel of the post Second World War period. They have reacted to the Thatcherite revolution that thrust Britain into the modern world of multi-national capitalism by giving unusual fictional shape to the impact of global events and culture.
List of contents
Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: HISTORY, MODERNITY AND METAFICTION Preface Peter Ackroyd: Chatterton (1987) Julian Barnes: A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989) Martin Amis: Time's Arrow (1991) A.S. Byatt: Angels and Insects (1992) Ian McEwan: Atonement (2001) PART II: NATIONAL CULTURES AND HYBRID NARRATIVE MODES Preface Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988) Hanif Kureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) Kazuo Ishiguro: When We Were Orphans (2000) PART III: NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF IDENTITY Preface Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984) Jeanette Winterson: Written on the Body (1992) Graham Swift: Last Orders (1996) Bibliography Index
About the author
BRIAN FINNEY is an Associate Professor in English at California State University, Long Beach, USA. He taught at London University from 1964-1987, and, since emigrating to the USA, at UCR, UCLA, and USC. He has published Since How It Is: A Study of Samuel Beckett's Later Fiction (1972), Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography for which he awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1979, The Inner I: British Literary Autobiography of the Twentieth Century (1985) and D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers: A Critical Study (1990).
Summary
This book focuses on representative novels by eleven key English novelists who have broken from the realist novel of the post Second World War period. They have reacted to the Thatcherite revolution that thrust Britain into the modern world of multi-national capitalism by giving unusual fictional shape to the impact of global events and culture.
