The British Novel in the Twenty-First Century

The contemporary British novel is not only alive and kicking, it has continued to flourish by engaging with 21st-century issues, generating new forms and sub-genres, and enjoying great popularity and cultural prestige. This handbook offers an overview of some of the most important recent trends in the British novel in the 21st century and provides a provisional map of the most salient developments that are already discernible. The novels discussed in detail are situated in the broader cultural transformations, looking at how they respond to and engage with contemporary concerns. The selected authors, works, and trends provide a more or less representative overview of the broad spectrum of current themes, genres, contexts, and formal developments. This handbook pursues three main aims: First, the chapters explore key works of as many of the most influential novelists of the new millennium as possible. Second, this conceptually oriented volume tries to provide a survey of the most important developments, subgenres, themes, narrative techniques and contexts of the contemporary British novel, while being particularly geared towards the cultural concerns and contexts which the novels examined in each chapter address. Third, the chapters are designed in such a way as to offer exemplary in-depth analyses and interpretations of the novels in question, while also demonstrating various theoretical and methodological approaches in action, thus hopefully serving as model interpretations. Dealing with literary history in the making, this handbook offers an essential guide to teachers, students and readers interested in salient new departures and the multi-facetted trajectories of British novels in the 21st century.