"The Contemporary British Novel" is a lively, wide-ranging guide to the key issues in writing in Britain since the mid-1970s, including social change, gender, sexuality, class, history and ethnicity. Designed to address problems faced by students in the exciting but challenging field of contemporary fiction, the text is organised to focus on major topics including: the changing nature of British identity; the representation of urban identity and urban spaces; class issues including the rise and fall of the middle class; and multiracial identity and hybridity. The second edition includes a new introduction and a new chapter on fiction since the millennium. Every chapter has been revised and now includes an initial overview and recommended reading to offer guidance on further study. It includes readings of novels by: Martin Amis, Pat Barker, A. S. Byatt, Jonathan Coe, Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie, Will Self, Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson among others.
Preface; Critical Introduction; 1. Contemporary Britishness: Who, What, Why and When?; 1. The Fall and Rise of the Middle Classes; 1. Urban Spaces and Identities; 4. The Past and the Present; 5. Multiplicities and Hybridity; 6. The Post-millenial, 9/11 and the Traumatological; 7. Epilogue: The Teaching and Study of the Contemporary British Novel; Appendix: Granta Best of Young British Novelists 1983, 1993, 2003; Bibliography; Index.
