Literature of the 1980s: After the Watershed

The Edinburgh History of Twentieth-Century Literature in Britain General Editor: Randall Stevenson How did literature develop in Britain in the twentieth century? How did it interact with the wider culture and history of the times? Each of the ten volumes in this series analyses the literary developments of a single decade in their widest contexts. Literature of the 1980s: After the Watershed Joseph Brooker Joseph Brooker relates developments in fiction, poetry and drama to social change - from the new generation of London novelists such as Martin Amis and Ian McEwan to the impact of feminism in the writing of Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson. Brooker also explores the literary strategies used by writers of working-class origin in the age of Thatcherism such as James Kelman and Tony Harrison as well as the voices used by Black British writers including Fred D'Aguiar and Hanif Kureishi. The rise of postmodernism is explored in relation to developments in literary theory and the popularity of self-conscious modes of writing. Literature of the 1980s provides a vibrant account of the diverse literature from a decade which left Britain a very different place. Joseph Brooker teaches English at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of Joyce's Critics (2004) and Flann O'Brien (2005).