The 1990s: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction (The Decades Series). This item is unavailable.The 1990s: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction (The Decades Series)

How did social, cultural and political events in Britain during the 1990s shape contemporary British Fiction? The 1990s: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction provides a comprehensive guide to, and critical reassessment of, British fiction in the 1990s including aspects of its international reception. From the release of Nelson Mandela and the collapse of the communist bloc through to the NATO campaign against Serbia, the 1990s witnessed a realignment of global politics and the apparent birth of a New World Order. These events seemed to be mirrored in Britain, where the decade began with Margaret Thatcher being unseated from power by her own party and ended with Tony Blairs New Labour Government preparing for a triumphant celebration of the turn of the Millennium. However, much of the sense of relief and self-celebration that was manifested at the time has palled over the subsequent years and the decade may be seen in retrospect to have set the precedent for the divisive politics, economic problems and military interventions that have characterised Britain and the West in the twenty-first century. The understanding that the context of the decade is more complex than appeared at the time informs this volumes critical surveys and in-depth readings of work by authors such as Pat Barker, A.S. Byatt, Jonathan Coe, James Kelman, John King, Hanif Kureishi, Caryl Phillips, Christopher Priest, Andrea Levy, Kim Newman, Will Self, Sarah Waters and Irvine Welsh. Through a series of incisive research-led studies, the 1990s are shown to be a period when existing assumptions were turned on their head by new literary approaches such as the re-imagination of Victorian values and the redirection of techniques of writing national identity.

Nick Hubble is Head of English Literature at Brunel University, UK. Philip Tew is Professor of English (Post-1900 Literature) at Brunel University, UK, Director of Brunel's Centre for Contemporary Writing and Director of the Modern and Contemporary Fiction Studies Network. Leigh Wilson is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Westminster, UK.