Victoria Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640997
- eISBN:
- 9780748651832
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640997.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Focusing on the upsurge of interest in the Second World War in recent British novels, this book explores the ways in which secrecy and secret work – including code breaking, espionage and special ...
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Focusing on the upsurge of interest in the Second World War in recent British novels, this book explores the ways in which secrecy and secret work – including code breaking, espionage and special operations – have been approached in representations of the war. It considers established writers, including Muriel Spark, Sarah Waters and Kazuo Ishiguro, as well as newer voices, such as Liz Jensen and Peter Ho Davies. The examination of the after-effects of involvement in secret work, inter-generational secrets in a domestic context, political allegiance and sexuality shows how issues of loyalty, deception and betrayal are brought into focus in these novels.Less
Focusing on the upsurge of interest in the Second World War in recent British novels, this book explores the ways in which secrecy and secret work – including code breaking, espionage and special operations – have been approached in representations of the war. It considers established writers, including Muriel Spark, Sarah Waters and Kazuo Ishiguro, as well as newer voices, such as Liz Jensen and Peter Ho Davies. The examination of the after-effects of involvement in secret work, inter-generational secrets in a domestic context, political allegiance and sexuality shows how issues of loyalty, deception and betrayal are brought into focus in these novels.
Christine Cornea
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624652
- eISBN:
- 9780748671106
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624652.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter investigates the science fiction films of the 1950s in America. The 1950s was the decade that marked the beginning of the end for the Hollywood studio system when the oligopoly of the ...
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This chapter investigates the science fiction films of the 1950s in America. The 1950s was the decade that marked the beginning of the end for the Hollywood studio system when the oligopoly of the major studios began to break down. The alien invasion films and the science fiction/horror films of that era exhibited an overwhelming concern with the family. Like so many of the American and Japanese films of the time, the British science fiction/horror films of that time ostensibly dealt with the destructive potential of atomic weaponry and concerns surrounding the development and future use of nuclear power. The British films presented largely substitute the female with the monster in their fight to retain an orderly, masculine realm. Finally, an interview with Billy Gray regarding his role in a science fiction film is provided.Less
This chapter investigates the science fiction films of the 1950s in America. The 1950s was the decade that marked the beginning of the end for the Hollywood studio system when the oligopoly of the major studios began to break down. The alien invasion films and the science fiction/horror films of that era exhibited an overwhelming concern with the family. Like so many of the American and Japanese films of the time, the British science fiction/horror films of that time ostensibly dealt with the destructive potential of atomic weaponry and concerns surrounding the development and future use of nuclear power. The British films presented largely substitute the female with the monster in their fight to retain an orderly, masculine realm. Finally, an interview with Billy Gray regarding his role in a science fiction film is provided.
Derek Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781380383
- eISBN:
- 9781781381557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380383.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the interconnections between British television, radio and film companies in relation to science fiction, particularly with regard to the numerous film adaptations of science ...
More
This chapter examines the interconnections between British television, radio and film companies in relation to science fiction, particularly with regard to the numerous film adaptations of science fiction dramas in the 1950s by companies such as Hammer. This period saw the rise of television as a dominant domestic medium, and a growing backlash against the perceived threat of American soft power, as typified by the alluring shine of science fiction with its promise of a bright technological future. There was therefore a tension within the uses of domestically produced British material in a popular genre that was perceived as American. The interaction between film and broadcast media in relation to science fiction was therefore crucial at this historical juncture, in helping promote the identities of filmmakers like Hammer, but also in supporting the identity of the BBC, and in acting as a nexus for debates on taste and national identity.Less
This chapter examines the interconnections between British television, radio and film companies in relation to science fiction, particularly with regard to the numerous film adaptations of science fiction dramas in the 1950s by companies such as Hammer. This period saw the rise of television as a dominant domestic medium, and a growing backlash against the perceived threat of American soft power, as typified by the alluring shine of science fiction with its promise of a bright technological future. There was therefore a tension within the uses of domestically produced British material in a popular genre that was perceived as American. The interaction between film and broadcast media in relation to science fiction was therefore crucial at this historical juncture, in helping promote the identities of filmmakers like Hammer, but also in supporting the identity of the BBC, and in acting as a nexus for debates on taste and national identity.
Daniel Lea
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719081491
- eISBN:
- 9781526121097
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719081491.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This study explores the landscape of contemporary British fiction through detailed analysis of five authors that have emerged to critical prominence in the 21st century. The authors addressed - Ali ...
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This study explores the landscape of contemporary British fiction through detailed analysis of five authors that have emerged to critical prominence in the 21st century. The authors addressed - Ali Smith, Andrew O’Hagan, Tom McCarthy, Sarah Hall, and Jon McGregor – have all established themselves through popular and critical success, but have received significantly less attention than some of their peers. This book does not seek to thrust these authors into a putative canon of 21st century literary writing, but rather to explore through close attention to the resonances, continuities, elisions, and frictions across their works the temper of the contemporary moment as it is expressed by a group of writers. Each is devoted a chapter that analyses their creative output to-date within the frame of their stylistic and thematic development, as well as drawing comparisons across their writing and that of their peers. The intention is never to provide the kind of synoptical overview that a period-study might suggest, instead Twenty-First Century Fiction: Contemporary British Voices seeks to juxtapose critical readings within a constellation of contemporary literary concerns to examine what cultural energies and flows are emerging in the new century. In doing so, it identifies three recurrent areas of concern that might be said to infiltrate our times; these are Materiality, Connectivity, and Authenticity. In many forms and through many articulations, these issues emerge as insistent – if inchoate – questions about how current literary practice is responding to the challenge of the post-millennial world.Less
This study explores the landscape of contemporary British fiction through detailed analysis of five authors that have emerged to critical prominence in the 21st century. The authors addressed - Ali Smith, Andrew O’Hagan, Tom McCarthy, Sarah Hall, and Jon McGregor – have all established themselves through popular and critical success, but have received significantly less attention than some of their peers. This book does not seek to thrust these authors into a putative canon of 21st century literary writing, but rather to explore through close attention to the resonances, continuities, elisions, and frictions across their works the temper of the contemporary moment as it is expressed by a group of writers. Each is devoted a chapter that analyses their creative output to-date within the frame of their stylistic and thematic development, as well as drawing comparisons across their writing and that of their peers. The intention is never to provide the kind of synoptical overview that a period-study might suggest, instead Twenty-First Century Fiction: Contemporary British Voices seeks to juxtapose critical readings within a constellation of contemporary literary concerns to examine what cultural energies and flows are emerging in the new century. In doing so, it identifies three recurrent areas of concern that might be said to infiltrate our times; these are Materiality, Connectivity, and Authenticity. In many forms and through many articulations, these issues emerge as insistent – if inchoate – questions about how current literary practice is responding to the challenge of the post-millennial world.
Joseph Brooker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633944
- eISBN:
- 9780748651818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633944.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter discusses some representations of nation and ethnicity, beginning with an account of the reactions that surrounded Howard Brenton's play, The Romans in Britain, and then identifies the ...
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This chapter discusses some representations of nation and ethnicity, beginning with an account of the reactions that surrounded Howard Brenton's play, The Romans in Britain, and then identifies the components of the national conjuncture and tries to determine whether a literary work can cover a nation. It also examines other techniques used by writers who wanted to document the condition of England in the 1980s, Black British and Asian fiction and poetry, and writers who self-consciously set themselves outside ethnic groupings.Less
This chapter discusses some representations of nation and ethnicity, beginning with an account of the reactions that surrounded Howard Brenton's play, The Romans in Britain, and then identifies the components of the national conjuncture and tries to determine whether a literary work can cover a nation. It also examines other techniques used by writers who wanted to document the condition of England in the 1980s, Black British and Asian fiction and poetry, and writers who self-consciously set themselves outside ethnic groupings.
Kate Flint
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780691203188
- eISBN:
- 9780691210254
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691203188.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book takes a fascinating look at the iconic figure of the Native American in the British cultural imagination from the Revolutionary War to the early twentieth century, and examining how Native ...
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This book takes a fascinating look at the iconic figure of the Native American in the British cultural imagination from the Revolutionary War to the early twentieth century, and examining how Native Americans regarded the British, as well as how they challenged their own cultural image in Britain during this period. The book shows how the image of the Indian was used in English literature and culture for a host of ideological purposes, and reveals its crucial role as symbol, cultural myth, and stereotype that helped to define British identity and its attitude toward the colonial world. Through close readings of writers such as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and D. H. Lawrence, the book traces how the figure of the Indian was received, represented, and transformed in British fiction and poetry, travelogues, sketches, and journalism, as well as theater, paintings, and cinema. It describes the experiences of the Ojibwa and Ioway who toured Britain with George Catlin in the 1840s; the testimonies of the Indians in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show; and the performances and polemics of the Iroquois poet Pauline Johnson in London. The book explores transatlantic conceptions of race, the role of gender in writings by and about Indians, and the complex political and economic relationships between Britain and America. The book argues that native perspectives are essential to our understanding of transatlantic relations in this period and the development of transnational modernity.Less
This book takes a fascinating look at the iconic figure of the Native American in the British cultural imagination from the Revolutionary War to the early twentieth century, and examining how Native Americans regarded the British, as well as how they challenged their own cultural image in Britain during this period. The book shows how the image of the Indian was used in English literature and culture for a host of ideological purposes, and reveals its crucial role as symbol, cultural myth, and stereotype that helped to define British identity and its attitude toward the colonial world. Through close readings of writers such as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and D. H. Lawrence, the book traces how the figure of the Indian was received, represented, and transformed in British fiction and poetry, travelogues, sketches, and journalism, as well as theater, paintings, and cinema. It describes the experiences of the Ojibwa and Ioway who toured Britain with George Catlin in the 1840s; the testimonies of the Indians in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show; and the performances and polemics of the Iroquois poet Pauline Johnson in London. The book explores transatlantic conceptions of race, the role of gender in writings by and about Indians, and the complex political and economic relationships between Britain and America. The book argues that native perspectives are essential to our understanding of transatlantic relations in this period and the development of transnational modernity.
Michael B. Harris-Peyton
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620580
- eISBN:
- 9781789629590
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620580.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter on the crime fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle, Satyajit Ray and Cheng Xiaoqing examines the central role of adaptation in the international development of the crime fiction genre in order ...
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This chapter on the crime fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle, Satyajit Ray and Cheng Xiaoqing examines the central role of adaptation in the international development of the crime fiction genre in order to present a more complex understanding of the genre’s international connections and mobility. The chapter questions the distinction between original and reproduction that has typically informed critical studies on the genre’s international spread through an analysis of the works of these three writers from Britain, India (Bengal) and China. In demonstrating the ways in which Ray and Cheng adapt what is typically considered an archetypically British genre to their local settings, the chapter deconstructs the preeminent position granted to Holmes as the originator and, instead, draws attention to how Doyle himself adapted the genre in a transnational dialogue with his literary forebears.Less
This chapter on the crime fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle, Satyajit Ray and Cheng Xiaoqing examines the central role of adaptation in the international development of the crime fiction genre in order to present a more complex understanding of the genre’s international connections and mobility. The chapter questions the distinction between original and reproduction that has typically informed critical studies on the genre’s international spread through an analysis of the works of these three writers from Britain, India (Bengal) and China. In demonstrating the ways in which Ray and Cheng adapt what is typically considered an archetypically British genre to their local settings, the chapter deconstructs the preeminent position granted to Holmes as the originator and, instead, draws attention to how Doyle himself adapted the genre in a transnational dialogue with his literary forebears.
Alexis Lothian
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479811748
- eISBN:
- 9781479854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The first chapter of part 1 (A History of No Future: Feminism, Eugenics, and Reproductive Imaginaries), argues that distinctions between queer and straight time are not always uncomplicated or ...
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The first chapter of part 1 (A History of No Future: Feminism, Eugenics, and Reproductive Imaginaries), argues that distinctions between queer and straight time are not always uncomplicated or obvious. The chapter takes up feminist utopian fiction that revolves around the racial and national politics of reproduction, focusing on two little-read British novels—New Amazonia (1889) by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett and Woman Alive (1936) by Susan Ertz—while contextualizing the many utopian fictions published by white US- and UK-based women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Critiquing the tendency to associate reproducing bodies and reproductive labor with maintenance of the status quo, the chapter uncovers ambiguous queer possibilities within the futures imagined by middle-class white women reckoning with what it meant to be charged with the eugenic reproduction of modernity, Englishness, and empire. These speculative narratives highlight breaks and bends in normative time articulated through the intersection of class, colonial, and racial imaginaries with questions of gender and desire. They have much to tell us about how feminist politics of reproduction and gendered embodiment function at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and race with mechanisms of white supremacy and state power.Less
The first chapter of part 1 (A History of No Future: Feminism, Eugenics, and Reproductive Imaginaries), argues that distinctions between queer and straight time are not always uncomplicated or obvious. The chapter takes up feminist utopian fiction that revolves around the racial and national politics of reproduction, focusing on two little-read British novels—New Amazonia (1889) by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett and Woman Alive (1936) by Susan Ertz—while contextualizing the many utopian fictions published by white US- and UK-based women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Critiquing the tendency to associate reproducing bodies and reproductive labor with maintenance of the status quo, the chapter uncovers ambiguous queer possibilities within the futures imagined by middle-class white women reckoning with what it meant to be charged with the eugenic reproduction of modernity, Englishness, and empire. These speculative narratives highlight breaks and bends in normative time articulated through the intersection of class, colonial, and racial imaginaries with questions of gender and desire. They have much to tell us about how feminist politics of reproduction and gendered embodiment function at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and race with mechanisms of white supremacy and state power.
Alexis Lothian
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479811748
- eISBN:
- 9781479854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Building on the insights of the previous chapter, the second chapter of part 1 turns to feminist dystopian fiction written by antifascist British women between the First and Second World Wars. Man’s ...
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Building on the insights of the previous chapter, the second chapter of part 1 turns to feminist dystopian fiction written by antifascist British women between the First and Second World Wars. Man’s World (1926) by Charlotte Haldane and Swastika Night (1937) by Katharine Burdekin use divergent strategies to route modernity’s futures through reproductive bodies, troubling oppositions twenty-first-century critical theory tends to naturalize: between heteronormativity and its others, queer and straight time, futurity and negativity, deviant and normative pleasures. Both novels revolve around the production of futurelessness—not just an undesirable world for some, but the notion that the future could end altogether. This negative speculation resonates with the queer project of articulating a politics that might not rely on reproduction: a futureless politics. At the same time, both Haldane and Burdekin insist that same-sex desire can all too easily appear as one of the various interlocking forces that set in place politically horrifying futures. This convergence of reproductive oppression with homoerotic nationalism calls forth concerns and conflicts in queer studies over the ways in which nonheterosexual bodies, communities, and politics have participated in the perpetuation of racial and colonial violence.Less
Building on the insights of the previous chapter, the second chapter of part 1 turns to feminist dystopian fiction written by antifascist British women between the First and Second World Wars. Man’s World (1926) by Charlotte Haldane and Swastika Night (1937) by Katharine Burdekin use divergent strategies to route modernity’s futures through reproductive bodies, troubling oppositions twenty-first-century critical theory tends to naturalize: between heteronormativity and its others, queer and straight time, futurity and negativity, deviant and normative pleasures. Both novels revolve around the production of futurelessness—not just an undesirable world for some, but the notion that the future could end altogether. This negative speculation resonates with the queer project of articulating a politics that might not rely on reproduction: a futureless politics. At the same time, both Haldane and Burdekin insist that same-sex desire can all too easily appear as one of the various interlocking forces that set in place politically horrifying futures. This convergence of reproductive oppression with homoerotic nationalism calls forth concerns and conflicts in queer studies over the ways in which nonheterosexual bodies, communities, and politics have participated in the perpetuation of racial and colonial violence.
Jad Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037337
- eISBN:
- 9780252094514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037337.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter details the early life of John Brunner. Brunner had first meaningful encounter with science fiction (SF) when grandfather's rare 1898 Heinemann edition of H. G. Wells' The War of the ...
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This chapter details the early life of John Brunner. Brunner had first meaningful encounter with science fiction (SF) when grandfather's rare 1898 Heinemann edition of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898) ended up misshelved in his playroom. At six and a half years old, Brunner read it, adorned its endpapers with Martian fighting-machines, and that was that. By nine, Brunner was a full-fledged SF addict. During his final term at Cheltenham College in the fall of 1951, Brunner's first printed story appeared alongside fiction by A. Bertram Chandler, Kenneth Bulmer, and Manly Banister in Walt Willis' celebrated fanzine Slant. Though only a page long, “The Watchers” (1951) leaves little doubt that the seventeen-year-old Brunner began his career as a devoted idealist. In April 1966, Brunner became the first recipient of the British Science Fiction Association's Fantasy Award.Less
This chapter details the early life of John Brunner. Brunner had first meaningful encounter with science fiction (SF) when grandfather's rare 1898 Heinemann edition of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898) ended up misshelved in his playroom. At six and a half years old, Brunner read it, adorned its endpapers with Martian fighting-machines, and that was that. By nine, Brunner was a full-fledged SF addict. During his final term at Cheltenham College in the fall of 1951, Brunner's first printed story appeared alongside fiction by A. Bertram Chandler, Kenneth Bulmer, and Manly Banister in Walt Willis' celebrated fanzine Slant. Though only a page long, “The Watchers” (1951) leaves little doubt that the seventeen-year-old Brunner began his career as a devoted idealist. In April 1966, Brunner became the first recipient of the British Science Fiction Association's Fantasy Award.
Derek Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781380383
- eISBN:
- 9781781381557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380383.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the interconnections between British television, radio and film companies in relation to science fiction, particularly with regard to the numerous film adaptations of science ...
More
This chapter examines the interconnections between British television, radio and film companies in relation to science fiction, particularly with regard to the numerous film adaptations of science fiction dramas in the 1950s by companies such as Hammer. This period saw the rise of television as a dominant domestic medium, and a growing backlash against the perceived threat of American soft power, as typified by the alluring shine of science fiction with its promise of a bright technological future. There was therefore a tension within the uses of domestically produced British material in a popular genre that was perceived as American. The interaction between film and broadcast media in relation to science fiction was therefore crucial at this historical juncture, in helping promote the identities of filmmakers like Hammer, but also in supporting the identity of the BBC, and in acting as a nexus for debates on taste and national identity.Less
This chapter examines the interconnections between British television, radio and film companies in relation to science fiction, particularly with regard to the numerous film adaptations of science fiction dramas in the 1950s by companies such as Hammer. This period saw the rise of television as a dominant domestic medium, and a growing backlash against the perceived threat of American soft power, as typified by the alluring shine of science fiction with its promise of a bright technological future. There was therefore a tension within the uses of domestically produced British material in a popular genre that was perceived as American. The interaction between film and broadcast media in relation to science fiction was therefore crucial at this historical juncture, in helping promote the identities of filmmakers like Hammer, but also in supporting the identity of the BBC, and in acting as a nexus for debates on taste and national identity.
Maricel Oró Piqueras
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447333029
- eISBN:
- 9781447333043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447333029.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The binary old age and sexuality is still taboo in contemporary society, despite the exponential ageing of the population. Age Critics such as Lynne Segal and Kathleen Woodward have argued that the ...
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The binary old age and sexuality is still taboo in contemporary society, despite the exponential ageing of the population. Age Critics such as Lynne Segal and Kathleen Woodward have argued that the negative cultural conceptions attached to the ageing body are the ones that relate old age to a lack of desire. In this sense, fiction is a powerful media that allows the reader to go into the deeper recesses of protagonists in their old age and witness the culturally-based contradictions which seem to limit desire and sexuality to youth and youthful appearance. By analysing two novels and a short story of well-known contemporary British writers, this chapter aims to discern the vicissitudes of sexuality and ageing as portrayed in these fictional texts..Less
The binary old age and sexuality is still taboo in contemporary society, despite the exponential ageing of the population. Age Critics such as Lynne Segal and Kathleen Woodward have argued that the negative cultural conceptions attached to the ageing body are the ones that relate old age to a lack of desire. In this sense, fiction is a powerful media that allows the reader to go into the deeper recesses of protagonists in their old age and witness the culturally-based contradictions which seem to limit desire and sexuality to youth and youthful appearance. By analysing two novels and a short story of well-known contemporary British writers, this chapter aims to discern the vicissitudes of sexuality and ageing as portrayed in these fictional texts..
Peter Morey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198749394
- eISBN:
- 9780191869754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198749394.003.0029
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter explores some issues in black British and British Asian fiction since the 1980s. It shows certain key characteristics of the white British apprehension of those non-white imperial ...
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This chapter explores some issues in black British and British Asian fiction since the 1980s. It shows certain key characteristics of the white British apprehension of those non-white imperial subjects who, after decolonization, were to arrive, in increasing numbers, on British shores. This chapter takes a sample of five writers — three women and two men — and explores those key recurring themes that give a unity to their otherwise very different novels. Through the work of Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy, Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, and Monica Ali, this chapter traces the persistence of issues of race and racism. The chapter also considers the importance of recuperating black history, the rise of identity politics, and the tenacity with which the gaze of the racial Other — whether white on black or black on white — fixes its object in the expectation of certain forms of limiting and supposedly ‘authentic’ behaviour.Less
This chapter explores some issues in black British and British Asian fiction since the 1980s. It shows certain key characteristics of the white British apprehension of those non-white imperial subjects who, after decolonization, were to arrive, in increasing numbers, on British shores. This chapter takes a sample of five writers — three women and two men — and explores those key recurring themes that give a unity to their otherwise very different novels. Through the work of Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy, Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, and Monica Ali, this chapter traces the persistence of issues of race and racism. The chapter also considers the importance of recuperating black history, the rise of identity politics, and the tenacity with which the gaze of the racial Other — whether white on black or black on white — fixes its object in the expectation of certain forms of limiting and supposedly ‘authentic’ behaviour.
Deirdre David
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198729617
- eISBN:
- 9780191843280
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198729617.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Women's Literature
This literary biography traces the life of Pamela Hansford Johnson from her birth in a theatrical family to her death as the widow of C.P. Snow. A prolific writer, she published almost thirty novels, ...
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This literary biography traces the life of Pamela Hansford Johnson from her birth in a theatrical family to her death as the widow of C.P. Snow. A prolific writer, she published almost thirty novels, reviewed fiction for major newspapers, and made regular appearances on BBC cultural programmes. She lived through tumultuous changes in British life—1930s political unrest, World War 2, and postwar austerity: social changes that form the background for her fiction. Persuaded by her first love, Dylan Thomas, to abandon writing poetry for writing fiction about her life in South London, she devoted herself to restoring the traditions of social and psychological realism in the English novel at a time when the modernist experimentation of Woolf and Joyce prevailed. Hers was a courageous writing life.Less
This literary biography traces the life of Pamela Hansford Johnson from her birth in a theatrical family to her death as the widow of C.P. Snow. A prolific writer, she published almost thirty novels, reviewed fiction for major newspapers, and made regular appearances on BBC cultural programmes. She lived through tumultuous changes in British life—1930s political unrest, World War 2, and postwar austerity: social changes that form the background for her fiction. Persuaded by her first love, Dylan Thomas, to abandon writing poetry for writing fiction about her life in South London, she devoted herself to restoring the traditions of social and psychological realism in the English novel at a time when the modernist experimentation of Woolf and Joyce prevailed. Hers was a courageous writing life.
Robert Eaglestone
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198749394
- eISBN:
- 9780191869754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198749394.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter argues that Iris Murdoch’s view that the fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s could not address evil is narrow and hence incorrect. Several important writers, such as William Golding, ...
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This chapter argues that Iris Murdoch’s view that the fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s could not address evil is narrow and hence incorrect. Several important writers, such as William Golding, Muriel Spark, J. R. R. Tolkien, were precisely imagining evil in a range of different ways. Indeed, it was exactly as a response to the question of evil that they chose different forms (fantasy, fable, allegory). Importantly, for each of these writers, evil was not simply an abstract thing: the abstract was bound ineluctably into the historical reality of the Holocaust. It also raises the issue of the problem of evil as the fundamental question of post-war Europe. Each of these writers thus addressed this fundamental problem in different ways.Less
This chapter argues that Iris Murdoch’s view that the fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s could not address evil is narrow and hence incorrect. Several important writers, such as William Golding, Muriel Spark, J. R. R. Tolkien, were precisely imagining evil in a range of different ways. Indeed, it was exactly as a response to the question of evil that they chose different forms (fantasy, fable, allegory). Importantly, for each of these writers, evil was not simply an abstract thing: the abstract was bound ineluctably into the historical reality of the Holocaust. It also raises the issue of the problem of evil as the fundamental question of post-war Europe. Each of these writers thus addressed this fundamental problem in different ways.
Jean Webb
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496831910
- eISBN:
- 9781496831965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496831910.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
An increasingly ageing population across Europe raises the issue of understanding between the young and older generations with respect to the problems emanating from dementia in older people. This ...
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An increasingly ageing population across Europe raises the issue of understanding between the young and older generations with respect to the problems emanating from dementia in older people. This chapter demonstrates how selected British fiction for children engages the younger generation in concrete approaches to reducing the generational divide and bringing about greater understanding and solidarity. The texts discussed herein are Anne Fine’s The Granny Project (1983); Melvin Burgess and Lee Hall’s Billy Elliot (2001); Jenny Downham’s Unbecoming (2008); David Walliams’ Grandpa’s Great Escape (2015), and The Dementia Diaries (2016) by Matthew Snyman and the Social Innovation Lab Kent. Each approaches the problems differently but nonetheless have the common intention of showing how intergenerational understanding and solidarity can be developed in living with those suffering from dementia.Less
An increasingly ageing population across Europe raises the issue of understanding between the young and older generations with respect to the problems emanating from dementia in older people. This chapter demonstrates how selected British fiction for children engages the younger generation in concrete approaches to reducing the generational divide and bringing about greater understanding and solidarity. The texts discussed herein are Anne Fine’s The Granny Project (1983); Melvin Burgess and Lee Hall’s Billy Elliot (2001); Jenny Downham’s Unbecoming (2008); David Walliams’ Grandpa’s Great Escape (2015), and The Dementia Diaries (2016) by Matthew Snyman and the Social Innovation Lab Kent. Each approaches the problems differently but nonetheless have the common intention of showing how intergenerational understanding and solidarity can be developed in living with those suffering from dementia.