Post-War British Women Novelists and the Canon

Description

With the increasing number of books on contemporary fiction, there is a need for a work that examines whom we value, and why. These questions lie at the heart of this book which, by focusing on four novelists, literary and popular, interrogates the canon over the last fifty years. The argument unfolds to demonstrate that academic trends increasingly control canonicity, as do the demands of genre, the increasing commercialisation of literature, and the power of the literary prize. Turner argues that literary excellence, demonstrated by style and imaginative power, is often missing in many works that have become modern classics and makes a case for the value of the 'universal' in literature. Written in a jargon-free style, with reference to many supporting writers, the book raises a number of significant cultural questions about the arts, fashions and literary reputations, of interest to readers in contemporary literary studies.

Nick Turner is an Associate Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He reviews for and contributes to the Iris Murdoch Review.

"Nick Turner's timely, provocative study probes the vexed question of contemporary women writers and their literary reputations. How and why do certain women writers enter the literary canon? Why are others excluded? In this intelligent and accessible book Turner examines the roles of the market, prize culture and the academy in securing a writer's continuing existence in print. This is a tendentious, readable and exciting book, written with intelligence and authority, which will generate disagreement and discussion both inside and outside the academy." - Professor Patricia Duncker, The University of Manchester, UK Rethinking crucial aspects of literary and critical history relating to public reception and canon formation, Turner addresses the fundamental question of how far literary awards are really reflective of artistic merit. -- Routledge ABES Nick Turner's curious and lively study of post-war British female novelists aims to interrogate the apparent masculine dominance of the canon while also examining the often elusive criteria of canonical inclusion... [an] original, perceptive and highly readable study. -- Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature (29.2)