Literature of the 1980s: After the Watershed

The 1980s were a time of tumultuous transition in Britain. While the Cold War's endgame was played, the Thatcher government transformed the social landscape of the post-war consensus. This wide-ranging study tracks the development of a new generation of London novelists, the impact of feminism, working-class reactions to Thatcherism, Black British writing, the emergence of postmodernism, the rise of literary theory and the popularity of reflexive and self-conscious modes of writing. It ranges across the genres of fiction, poetry and drama, and sets these against the background of other cultural forms including television, film and music.