Introduction: Twenty-First-Century British Fiction and the City

Abstract

The essays in this edited collection offer incisive and nuanced analyses of and insights into the state of British cities and urban environments in the twenty-first century. Britain?s experiences with industrialization, colonialism, post-colonialism, global capitalism, and the European Union (EU) have had a marked influence on British ideas about and British literature's depiction of the city and urban contexts. Recent British fiction focuses in particular on cities as intertwined with globalization and global capitalism (including the proliferation of media) and with issues of immigration and migration. Indeed, decolonization has brought large numbers of people from former colonies to Britain, thus making British cities ever more diverse. Such mixing of peoples in urban areas has led to both racist fears and possibilities of cosmopolitan co-existence. Intro; Acknowledgements; Contents; Notes on Contributors; Chapter 1 Introduction: Twenty-First-Century British Fiction and the City; Bibliography; Chapter 2 "Why Should You Go Out?": Encountering the City in Monica Ali's Brick Lane; The Poetics of Space; The Politics of Space; Bibliography; Chapter 3 The Cosmopolitan Potential of Urban England?: Jon McGregor's If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things; One Day in the Life of a City Street; When the "I" Dominates; Conclusion; Bibliography. Chapter 4 "We Exist Only in the Reflection of Others": Imagining London's History in Bernardine Evaristo's The Emperor's BabeBibliography; Chapter 5 Gated Communities and Dystopia in J.G. Ballard's Super-Cannes; Ideology and Architectural Forms of the City; Private and Public Spaces: Eden-Olympia and Spaces of Exception; Violence: Reality and Metaphor; Conclusion; Bibliography; Chapter 6 Celetoids and the City: Tabloidization of the Working Class in Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Martin Amis' Lionel Asbo: State of England; "A Mug's Game": Working-Class Promise and Punishment in the Tabloids. Welcome to the Street of Shame: Assimilation and Infamy in Lionel AsboFundamental/Fundamentalist: Tabloidization in White Teeth; Conclusion: Making Light of the State of England; Bibliography; Chapter 7 Belonging and Un-belonging in London: Representations of Home in Diana Evans' 26a; London; Nigeria; Dreams; The Loft; Conclusion; Bibliography; Chapter 8 Between Urban Ecology and Social Construction: Environment and the Ethics of Representation in Zadie Smith's NW; Bibliography; Chapter 9 The Queer Gothic Spaces of Contemporary Glasgow: Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room; Bibliography. Chapter 10 Convulsions of the Local: Contemporary British Psychogeographical FictionReading the A13: Iain Sinclair's Post-millennial Psychogeography; Walking to Hollywood; Scarp: Deep Topography at the Edge Lands; Bibliography; Chapter 11 Trauma, Negativities, and the City in Trezza Azzopardi's Remember Me; Bibliography; Index.