English Fiction Since 1984 Narrating a Nation

This book focuses on the work of a group of British novelists who have broken in different ways from the realist British novel of the post Second World War period without losing their broad appeal among readers. Authors discussed include Salman Rushdie, A.S. Byatt, Ian McEwan, Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson and Kazuo Ishiguro. All of these writers have been compelled to seek out new narrative strategies to give appropriate expression to their different responses to a world dominated by global capital and by the media and electronic systems of communication serving its ends.

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).

Introduction * 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) * 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) * 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 Introduction * 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) * 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) * 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