A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction [Hardcover]

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• Focuses on the fiction that has emerged since the late 1970s, roughly since the start of the Thatcher era.
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• Comprises original essays from major scholars.
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• Topics range from the rise and fall of the postcolonial novel to controversies over the celebrity author.
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• The emphasis is on the whole fiction scene, from bookstores and prizes to the changing economics of film adaptation.
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• Enables students to read contemporary works of British fiction with a much clearer sense of where they fit within British cultural life.

Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction: British Fiction in a Global Frame 1
James F. English

The increasing importance since the 1970s of transnational markets and circuits of exchange, and the consequent repositioning of British fiction in “world literary space.”

Part I Institutions of Commerce

1 Literary Fiction and the Book Trade 19
Richard Todd

The triangulated relation between (i) authors and agents, (ii) publishers, and (iii) retail booksellers, and
the rise of the retailers to a position of dominance.

2 Literary Authorship and Celebrity Culture 39
James F. English and John Frow