Evading class in contemporary British literature / Lawrence Driscoll.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Driscoll, Lawrence Victor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--20th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Social classes in literature.

English literature--21st century--History and criticism.

Working class in literature.

Postmodernism (Literature).

Social classes--England--History--20th century.

Social classes.

Social classes--England--History--21st century.

History.

England.

Physical Description:

243 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

This trenchant book argues that the cultural attempt to erase class during the period from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair has only generated its return as a troubling subterranean element in British literature and theory. Driscoll critiques the way postmodern theory idealizes contemporary British literature as a space of fluid, flexible decentered subjects, arguing that beneath this ideology are clear evasions of class. Offering critical readings of canonized middle-class authors from Martin Amis to Graham Swift, Driscoll makes the compelling argument that the contemporary British novel, assisted by "class blind" postmodern literary theory, consistently works to control the problem of class.

Contents:

Introduction : questions of class in the contemporary British novel

"Unworkable subjects" : middle-class narratives in Pat Barker, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro

"Our economic position" : middle-class consciousness in Zadie Smith and Will Self

Classless fictions? : middle-class history/working-class subjects in Martin Amis, Peter Ackroyd, and Hanif Kureishi

We're all bourgeois now : realism and class in Alan Hollinghurst, Graham Swift, and Jonathan Coe

A class act : representations of class in British cinema and television 1979-2008.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0230615279

9780230615274

OCLC:

259716217