Contemporary British Fiction

Nick Bentley lectures in English literature at Keele University. His main research interests are in post-1945 British fiction and literary and cultural theory. He is author of Radical Fictions: The English Novel in the 1950s (Peter Lang, 2007) and editor of British Fiction of the 1990s (Routledge, 2005). He has published journal articles on Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith, Colin MacInnes, Sam Selvon, and the representations of youth in British New Left writing.

• Series Preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Introduction: Historical and Theoretical Contexts 1979-2005; Chapter 1 Narrative Forms: Postmodernism and Realism; Martin Amis, London Fields (1989); Alasdair Gray, Poor Things (1992); Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000); Chapter 2 Writing Contemporary Ethnicities; Salman Rushdie, Shame (1983); Courttia Newland, Soceity Within (1999); Monica Ali, Brick Lane (2003); Chapter 3 Gender and Sexuality; Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve (1977); Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985); Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch (1992); Chapter 4 History, Memory and Writing; Graham Swift, Waterland (1983); A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance (1990); Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001); Chapter 5 Narratives of Cultural Space; Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990); Iain Sinclair, Downriver (1991); Julian Barnes, England, England (1998); Conclusion; Student Resources; Internet Resources; Questions for Discussion; Alternative Primary Texts; Glossary; Guide to Further Reading; Index.