Contemporary British Fiction and the Cultural Politics of Disenfranchisement

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

• 1. Introduction: 'What We Need Now...' PART I: IDENTIFYING THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF DISENFRANCHISEMENT 2. Resistance and Rationalisation: Exile and the Inner Cities in Jeanette Winterson's The Passion 3. Rave to the Grave: Hanif Kureishi and the Failure of Left Culturalism 4. Politics is Over: Flexibility and Freedom in J.G. Ballard's Late Dystopias PART II: LOCATING URBAN CULTURE IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BRITISH FICTION 5. The New Culture Wars: Neo/Liberal Pedagogy in Ian McEwan's Saturday and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go 6. Placing Politics: Home and the Right to Habitation in Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Zadie Smith's NW 7. Coda: The Postcultural City and the Postculturalist Left Bibliography Index

“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)