A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction (Blackwell Concise Companions to Literature and Culture)

A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction offers an authoritative overview of contemporary British fiction in its social, political, and economic contexts. Focuses on the fiction that has emerged since the late 1970s, roughly since the start of the Thatcher era. Comprises original essays from major scholars. Topics range from the rise and fall of the postcolonial novel to controversies over the celebrity author. The emphasis is on the whole fiction scene, from bookstores and prizes to the changing economics of film adaptation. Enables students to read contemporary works of British fiction with a much clearer sense of where they fit within British cultural life. "A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction offers an authoritative overview of contemporary British fiction in its social, political, and economic contexts. The book focuses on the fiction that has emerged since the late 1970s, roughly since the start of the Thatcher era, and the resulting transformation of such key areas of literary practice as publishing, bookselling, book reviewing, and higher education." "Although the volume's original contributions range across a variety of topics-from the rise and fall of the postcolonial novel, and controversies over the celebrity author, to the changing relationship between literature and the cinema - each of the contributors attends carefully to the institutional and economic contexts of literary production, and to the contending forces that have shaped the emergent canon of contemporary British fiction." "A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction will enable students to read any work from the last quarter century of British fiction with a much clearer ense of where it fits within British cultural life. Book jacket."--Jacket "A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction" offers an authoritative overview of contemporary British fiction in its social, political, and economic contexts. The book focuses on the fiction that has emerged since the late 1970s, roughly since the start of the Thatcher era, and the resulting transformation of such key areas of literary practice as publishing, bookselling, book reviewing, and higher education. Although the volume's original contributions range across a variety of topics - from the rise and fall of the postcolonial novel, and controversies over the celebrity author, to the changing relationship between literature and the cinema - each of the contributors attends carefully to the institutional and economic contexts of literary production, and to the contending forces that have shaped the emergent canon of contemporary British fiction. "A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction" will enable students to read any work from the last quarter century of British fiction with a much clearer sense of where it fits within British cultural life A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Notes on Contributors......Page 12 Introduction: British Fiction in a Global Frame......Page 16 Part I Institutions of Commerce......Page 32 1 Literary Fiction and the Book Trade......Page 34 2 Literary Authorship and Celebrity Culture......Page 54 3 Fiction and the Film Industry......Page 73 Part II Elaborations of Empire......Page 96 4 Tropicalizing London: British Fiction and the Discipline of Postcolonialism......Page 98 5 New Ethnicities, the Novel, and the Burdens of Representation......Page 116 6 Devolving the Scottish Novel......Page 136 7 Northern Irish Fiction: Provisionals and Pataphysicians......Page 156 Part III Mutations of Form......Page 180 8 The Historical Turn in British Fiction......Page 182 9 The Woman Writer and the Continuities of Feminism......Page 203 10 Queer Fiction: The Ambiguous Emergence of a Genre......Page 224 11 The Demise of Class Fiction......Page 244 12 What the Porter Saw: On the Academic Novel......Page 263 Index......Page 282 Literary fiction and the book trade / Richard Todd Literary authorship and celebrity culture / James F. English and John Frow Fiction and the film industry / Andrew Higson Tropicalizing london : British fiction and the discipline of postcolonialism / Nico Israel New ethnicities, the novel, and the burdens of representation / James Procter Devolving the Scottish novel / Cairns Craig Northern Irish fiction / John Brannigan The historical turn in British fiction / Suzanne Keene The woman writer and the continuities of feminism / Patricia Waugh Queer fiction / Robert L. Caserio The demise of class fiction / Dominick Head What the porter saw : on the academic novel / Bruce Robbins. A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction offers an authoritative overview of contemporary British fiction in its social, political, and economic contexts. Focuses on the fiction that has emerged since the late 1970s, roughly since the start of the Thatcher era.Comprises original essays from major scholars. Topics range from the rise and fall of the postcolonial novel to controversies over the celebrity author. The emphasis is on the whole fiction scene, from bookstores and prizes to the changing economics of film adaptation