The Internationalization of English Literature

1948-2000
Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-0-19-928836-6
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 402 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 565 g

In the future, what will 'English Literary History' mean? A literary history of England, or one with much looser boundaries, defined only by a communality of language, not by location or history? In this, the last volume in the Oxford English Literary History, Bruce King discusses the literature written by those who have chosen to make England their home since 1948. With decolonization following World War II, and the growth of large immigrant communities in England, came a wave of colonial, postcolonial, and immigrant writers whose entry onto the British cultural landscape forces us to consider what it is to be British, English, or national now that England is multiracial and part of a global economy.

King addresses these new trends in English literature and the questions they raise in the first wide-ranging and comprehensive account of immigrant literature set in a social context. Ranging through Black and Asian British prose, poetry, and drama, and writers including V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, and Zadie Smith, King reveals the development of the literature from writing about immigration to becoming English. Now that the literature of England includes Sri Lankans, Egyptians, and British Nigerians, does this mean that we can no longer talk of the English nation as a cultural unit? King concludes persuasively that it does not. We have not seem the demise of national cultures; rather, a new, accomplished, and socially significant body of writing in England is influenced by the interaction between foreign cultures and British traditions. This bold and challenging account of British culture will shape debate for future generations.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of twentieth-century English literature and history with an interest in colonial, postcolonial, and immigrant literature, literary theory, and cultural identity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

King, Bruce

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction

- 1: The End of Imperial England and the Seeds of the New: 1948-1969

- 2: Transformations: 1970-1979

- 3: Fragmentation and Internationalization: 1980-1989

- 4: England's New English Literature: 1990-2000

- Author Bibliographies

- Suggestions for Further Reading

Über Autor(innen)

Bruce King has taught at universities in England, Scotland, Canada, Nigeria, New Zealand, and other countries. His publications include New English Literatures: Cultural Nationalism in a Changing World, Modern Indian Poetry in English, Three Indian Poets, V. S. Naipaul, and Derek Walcott and West Indian Drama. He has also edited many books of original essays, including Introduction to Nigerian Literature, West-Indian Literature, The Commonwealth Novel Since 1960, Post-Colonial Drama, and New Centres of Consciousness.