A Companion to the British and Irish Novel, 1945 - 2000

A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000 serves as an extended introduction and reference guide to the British and Irish novel between the close of World War II and the turn of the millennium. Covers a wide range of authors from Samuel Beckett to Salman Rushdie Provides readings of key novels, including Graham Greene's Heart of the Matter, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day Considers particular subgenres, such as the feminist novel and the postcolonial novel Discusses overarching cultural, political and literary trends, such as screen adaptations and the literary prize phenomenon Gives readers a sense of the richness and diversity of the novel during this period and of the vitality with which it continues to be discussed

Notes on Contributors ix Preface xvi Acknowledgments xx PART I Contexts for the British and Irish Novel, 1945–2000 1 1 The Literary Response to the Second World War 3 Damon Marcel DeCoste 2 The ‘‘Angry’’ Decade and After 21 Dale Salwak 3 English Dystopian Satire in Context 32 M. Keith Booker 4 The Feminist Novel in the Wake of Virginia Woolf 45 Roberta Rubenstein 5 Postmodern Fiction and the Rise of Critical Theory 65 Patricia Waugh 6 The Novel and the End of Empire 83 Reed Way Dasenbrock 7 Postcolonial Novels and Theories 96 Feroza Jussawalla 8 Fictions of Belonging: National Identity and the Novel in Ireland and Scotland 112 Gerard Carruthers 9 Black British Interventions 128 John Skinner 10 The Recuperation of History in British and Irish Fiction 144 Margaret Scanlan 11 The Literary Prize Phenomenon in Context 160 James F. English 12 Novelistic Production and the Publishing Industry in Britain and Ireland 177 Claire Squires 13 The Novel and the Rise of Film and Video: Adaptation and British Cinema 194 Brian McFarlane 14 The English Heritage Industry and Other Trends in the Novel at the Millennium 210 Peter Childs PART II Reading Individual Texts and Authors 225 15 Samuel Beckett’s Watt 227 S. E. Gontarski and Chris Ackerley 16 George Orwell’s Dystopias: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four 241 Erika Gottlieb 17 Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Other Late Novels 254 Bernard Schweizer 18 Modernism’s Swansong: Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano 266 Patrick A. McCarthy 19 The Heart of the Matter and the Later Novels of Graham Greene 278 Cedric Watts 20 William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Other Early Novels 289 Kevin McCarron 21 Amis, Father and Son 302 Merritt Moseley 22 Dame Iris Murdoch 314 Margaret Moan Rowe 23 Academic Satire: The Campus Novel in Context 326 Kenneth Womack 24 Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet 340 Julius Rowan Raper 25 The Oxford Fantasists: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien 354 Peter J. Schakel 26 Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 367 Bryan Cheyette 27 Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook 376 Judith Kegan Gardiner 28 Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea 388 John J. Su 29 John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman 398 James Acheson 30 Angela Carter 409 Nicola Pitchford 31 Margaret Drabble 421 Margaret Moan Rowe 32 V. S. Naipaul 432 Timothy Weiss 33 Salman Rushdie 444 Nico Israel 34 The Irish Novel after Joyce 457 Donna Potts 35 Anita Brookner 469 Cheryl Alexander Malcolm 36 Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot 481 Merritt Moseley 37 Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day 493 Cynthia F. Wong 38 Ian McEwan 504 Rebecca L. Walkowitz 39 Graham Swift 515 Donald P. Kaczvinsky 40 The Scottish New Wave 526 David Goldie 41 A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance 538 Lynn Wells 42 Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy 550 Anne Whitehead Index 561