1st Edition

The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction

Edited By Daniel O'Gorman, Robert Eaglestone Copyright 2019
    476 Pages
    by Routledge

    474 Pages
    by Routledge

    The study of contemporary fiction is a fascinating yet challenging one. Contemporary fiction has immediate relevance to popular culture, the news, scholarly organizations, and education – where it is found on the syllabus in schools and universities – but it also offers challenges. What is ‘contemporary’? How do we track cultural shifts and changes? The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction takes on this challenge, mapping key literary trends from the year 2000 onwards, as the landscape of our century continues to take shape around us. A significant and central intervention into contemporary literature, this Companion offers essential coverage of writers who have risen to prominence since then, such as Hari Kunzru, Jennifer Egan, David Mitchell, Jonathan Lethem, Ali Smith, A. L. Kennedy, Hilary Mantel, Marilynne Robinson, and Colson Whitehead.



    Thirty-eight essays by leading and emerging international scholars cover topics such as:



    • Identity, including race, sexuality, class, and religion in the twenty-first century;



    • The impact of technology, terrorism, activism, and the global economy on the modern world and modern literature;



    • The form and format of twenty-first century literary fiction, including analysis of established genres such as the pastoral, graphic novels, and comedic writing, and how these have been adapted in recent years.



    Accessible to experts, students, and general readers, The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction provides a map of the critical issues central to the discipline, as well as uncovering new perspectives and new directions for the development of the field. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of contemporary literature.

    Acknowledgements

    List of contributors

    Introduction

    Daniel O’Gorman and Robert Eaglestone

    PART I: Forms

    Chapter 1. The networked novel

    Caroline Edwards

    Chapter 2. Globalization

    Kristian Shaw

    Chapter 3. Sincerity

    Martin Paul Eve

    Chapter 4. Autobiografiction

    Timothy C. Baker

    Chapter 5. Experiment

    Jennifer Hodgson

    Chapter 6. Comedy

    Huw Marsh

    Chapter 7. Metafiction

    Xavier Marcó del Pont

    Chapter 8. Pastoral

    Deborah Lilley

    Chapter 9. Realisms

    Sophie Vlacos

    Chapter 10. Comics and graphic novels

    Harriet E.H. Earle

    PART II: Identities

    Chapter 11. Black British fiction

    Sara Upstone

    Chapter 12: Queer

    Alexandra Parsons

    Chapter 13. Family

    Stephen J. Burn

    Chapter 14. Religion

    Arthur Bradley and Andrew Tate

    Chapter 15. Diaspora

    Leila Kamali

    Chapter 16. Indian fiction in English

    E. Dawson Varughese

    Chapter 17. Northern Irish fiction

    Caroline Magennis

    Chapter 18. Animals

    Danielle Sands

    PART III: Ruptures

    Chapter 19. (The) Digital

    Zara Dinnen

    Chapter 20. Anthropocene

    Sam Solnick

    Chapter 21. Displacement

    Emily J. Hogg

    Chapter 22. Asylum

    Agnes Woolley

    Chapter 23. Finance

    Paul Crosthwaite

    Chapter 24. The 9/11 Novel

    Arin Keeble

    Chapter 25. War on Terror

    Daniel O’Gorman

    Chapter 26. From Civil Rights to #BLM

    Anna Hartnell

    Chapter 27. The past

    Robert Eaglestone

    Chapter 28. Hope

    Emily Horton

    PART IV: Case studies

    Chapter 29. Granta’s ‘Best of Young British Novelists’

    Katy Shaw

    Chapter 30. Hari Kunzru

    Lucienne Loh

    Chapter 31. Jennifer Egan

    Dorothy Butchard

    Chapter 32. David Mitchell

    Sarah Dillon

    Chapter 33. Jonathan Lethem

    Joseph Brooker

    Chapter 34. Ali Smith

    Daniel Lea

    Chapter 35. A. L. Kennedy

    Carole Jones

    Chapter 36. Hilary Mantel

    Jenny Bavidge

    Chapter 37. Marilynne Robinson

    Rachel Sykes

    Chapter 38. Colson Whitehead

    Christopher Lloyd

    Index

    Biography

    Daniel O’Gorman is Lecturer in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He works on contemporary literature and terror.



     





    Robert Eaglestone is Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK and works on contemporary literature and literary theory, contemporary philosophy and on Holocaust and Genocide studies.