Contemporary British Fiction and the Cultural Politics of Disenfranchisement - by A Beaumont (Paperback)

About the Book

"During the 1980s, urban space became an important battleground in a confrontation between left and right over the meaning of freedom. While Thatcherism sought to harness the power of the free market to rationalise and reform the inner cities, the response of the 'cultural' left was to celebrate the emancipatory potential of flexible identities and expressive practices associated with urban subcultures. However, through close readings of eight contemporary authors, this book argues that a problematic consequence of the left's experiment with freedom was to elevate exclusion to the status of a political principle and to close down the space of politics itself. It explores how, in less than two decades, the coexistence of flexible cultural identities and urban space has become a virtual impossibility in British fiction. And it suggests that, today, the British novel is frequently marked by structures of failed utopianism, frustrated or incomplete experiments and even withdrawal and quietism, all of which are a consequence of the left's celebration of a cultural politics of disenfranchisement"--

Book Synopsis

By examining the representation of urban space in contemporary British fiction, this book argues that key to the political left's strategy was a model of action which folded politics into culture and elevated disenfranchisement to the status of a political principle.

Review Quotes

"Beaumont ultimately provides a timely, accessible and highly engaging analysis of the battle between left culturalism and Thatcherism, and its subsequent influence on contemporary British literature. ... The wide-ranging and interdisciplinary nature of the study ensures the work will be essential reading to cultural theorists and literary researchers alike." (Kristian Shaw, English Studies, Vol. 97 (7), 2016)

About the Author

Alexander Beaumont is Lecturer in English Literature at York St John University, UK.