Aesthetics and Ethics in Twenty-First Century British Novels: Zadie Smith, Nadeem Aslam, Hari Kunzru and David Mitchell

Description

A fresh set of concerns face the twenty-first century British novelist. In this study of the four key novelists Zadie Smith, Nadeem Aslam, Hari Kunzru and David Mitchell, the the changes in narrative approaches and critical directions of a new post-1989 fiction are explored. Close readings of the writers are informed by a range of contemporary theorists, critics and commentators to reveal the emphases of twenty-first century fiction. Terror, fear, consumerism, multinationalism, and corporatism: the terms circulating in culture and social networks are evident in Smith's faith in ethical living, Aslam's consideration of multiculturalism, the novels Kunzru builds around the politics of identity and in the importance Mitchell places on the interconnectedness of human life. By putting the emergence of a new British literary dynamic in the context of ethical as well as global contexts, this study analyzes the transformed fictional perceptions of a world no longer defined by the stand off of super powers.

Peter Childs is Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research & Scholarship and Professor of Modern & Contemporary English Literature, Newman University, UK. He has published widely on twentieth and twenty-first century fiction. James Green has previously published an essay on the work of David Mitchell (together with Peter Childs) and an article on Wilson Harris in The Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

The book offers thoughtful and pertinent readings, and makes a convincing case for understanding the work of [Zadie] Smith, [Nadeem] Aslam, [Hari] Kunzru, and [David] Mitchell as an attempt in fiction to think through the new socio-cultural movements of the twenty-first century. * The Year's Work in English Studies *