DOCSLIB.ORG

Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Politics, History and Personal Tragedies: The novels of Jonathan Coe in the British historical, political and literary context from the seventies to recent years Francesco Di Bernardo PhD in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Culture and Thought University of Sussex May 2014 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature : UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX PhD in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Culture and Thought Francesco Di Bernardo Politics, History and Personal Tragedies: The novels of Jonathan Coe in the British historical, political and literary context from the seventies to recent years SUMMARY The thesis focuses on the representations of British political history in the last five decades in the works of Jonathan Coe in comparison with other contemporary British authors who deal with the same historical issues. Specifically I discuss how the transition from the post-war consensus politics and the welfare state to neoliberalism is represented, and how these transformations British society has undergone are the subject of political commentary and criticism in the works of Coe. I discuss the different stylistic approaches deployed by Coe to deal with history, framing my analysis in the context of a discussion around the genre of the historical novel. The comparative approach of my thesis serves the purpose of both providing a wider depiction of the historical period taken in consideration and provides a broader critical evaluation of recent trends in the genre of the historical novel. My thesis is divided in three chapters, each focusing on the representation of a specific historical period, namely: the 1970s and the erosion of the social structure of the welfare state, the 1980s and Thatcherism, and ultimately the 1990s, New Labours reformulation of neoliberalism, Cool Britannia, and the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the society of the precariat. My argument is theoretically is inscribed in the framework of the discourse around postmodernity. My interpretation of postmodernism relies heavily on Jamesons analysis of post-industrial, late-capitalist society from the 1970s onwards and is intended to contribute to recent arguments about neoliberalism and the novel. The definition of postmodernity is also drawn from Harvey, Lyotard, Eagleton, Baudrillard, Bauman, and Hutcheon. The theoretical discussion around neoliberal consumerist society is framed in the discourse of excess of desire production and constructed lack, and therefore I use the concept of schizophrenia as theorised by Deleuze and Guattari, drawn from the Lacanian tradition. ieks analysis of the last developments of the neoliberal soc iety also contributes to the theoretical and interpretative framework of my thesis. My exploration of Coes novels, The Rotters Club , What a Carve Up! , The House of Sleep , The Closed Circle and The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim , in relation to other contemporary works by Amis, Hollinghurst, McEwan, Barnes, etc. reveals the ways in which Coes historical novels of the late 20 th /early 21 st century rework the realist novel tradition in light of a postmodern (or schizophrenic) late capitalist society. Contents Introduction: p.1 Chapter 1: p.18 1.1 The Rotters Club p. 18 1.1.1 Social Bildungsroman and the historical novel p. 20 1.1.2 Trade Unions and the Winter of Discontent p. 28 1.1.3 Nationalisms and Race p. 36 1.1.4 The Ideology and Social Formation of Thatcherism p. 43 1.2 Comparative Section p. 48 1.2.1 Union Street p. 52 1.2.2 The Ice Age p. 59 1.2.3 A Married Man p. 68 Chapter 2: p. 78 2.1 What a Carve Up! and The House of Sleep p. 78 2.1.1 Free Enterprise, Privatisations, Deregulations p. 82 2.1.2 The Issue of the NHS p. 103 2.1.3 Literary Forms and History p. 114 2.1.4 Politics and Postmodernism p. 126 2.2 Comparative Section p. 132 2.2.1 Money p. 137 2.2.2 The Child in Time p. 145 2.2.3 The Line of Beauty p. 153 Chapter 3: p. 161 3.1 The Closed Circle and The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim p. 161 3.1.1 The Closed Circle and Cool Britannia p. 162 3.1.2 Liquid Society and Financial Crisis in The Terrible Privacy of p. 172 Maxwell Sim 3.2 Comparative Section p. 188 3.2.1 Cool Britannia as the Desert of the Real in England, England p. 189 3.2.2 Financial Crisis and post-Financial Society in Capital p. 197 Conclusion: p. 205 Bibliography: p. 220 Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to a number of individuals whose support has been fundamental for the completion of this work. Foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Pam Thurschwell and Mr. Martin Ryle, for their support during these years and for their precious advice and suggestions, which have helped me to deal with the topic of my thesis. I am also grateful to all the administrative staff of the School of English for practical support throughout my PhD, particularly to the Research Enterprise Coordinator: Mrs. Laura Vellacott. Heartfelt thanks to my mother for her love, encouragement and unwavering belief in me, and to all my relatives in Italy. I would like to thank my family in the UK: my best friend Fabio, his partner Sylvia and their piccolo Samuele, Giuseppe and Yasmeen, Elisa, my brothers Kenan and Boidurjo Rick; the friends who played in the band with me in these years and contributed to make this experience in Brighton unforgettable: Arash, Koji, David, Francisco, excellent musicians and fantastic friends; my great friends Laura, Takahiro, Pedro, Miguel Angel, Brenda Madeleine, Francesca and Anahit. I would like to express my thanks to Brenda for her support, for the long and inspiring chats and all the moments together. My gratitude goes also to my old friends in Italy: Fabiana, Salvatore, Emanuele, Antonio, Simone, Tommaso, Tania. I would like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of my father Giovanni Di Bernardo. 1 Introduction ‘The 1980s weren’t a good time for me, on the whole. I suppose they weren’t for a lot of people’ 1: this statement summarises What a Carve Up! ’s protagonist Michael Owen’s attitude toward Britain’s socio-political condition in the 1980s. The sentence is imbued with irony, as we know that the 1980s were so bad for Michael Owen that he was literally unable to leave his flat. It also expresses one of the core political messages of Coe’s novels. Most of Coe’s novelistic production, in fact, is centred on critique of neoliberalism and on the vexed relationship between the individual and the neoliberal society Coe represents. The 1980s are perceived as the moment when the shift from the welfare state to neoliberalism happened. The representation and critique of British history of the last four/five decades, the critique of neoliberalism, and the literary forms deployed by Coe to represent these issues in the forms of the historical novel are therefore the main focuses of my dissertation. In the last four/five decades Britain has undergone drastic social, economic and political changes. In socio-economic and cultural terms the change has been triggered by the transition from Fordist-structured society shaped on the model of industrial production to de-industrialisation and to the ‘flexible accumulation’ 2 typical of late capitalism. This change has occurred on a global scale and it has redesigned the panorama of contemporary life. The transition from modern Fordist industrialisation to the post-industrial era coincided in Britain with fundamental political turnarounds: the rupture with post-war consensus with the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the end of the welfare state conceived after the Second World War, and the entrenchment in the mid- 1990s of the neoliberal values Thatcherism firstly fostered. Whether Thatcherism was 1 Coe, J. (1994) What a Carve Up! . London: Penguin, p. 102. 2 Harvey, D. (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change . Cambridge: Blackwell, p.141. 2 an ideology that made use of neoliberal precepts to implement the “modernisation” of Britain in late capitalist sense or, on the contrary, Thatcherism was a “tool” of a wider historical contingency that determined the rise of neoliberalism is a subject still largely debated 3. My interest here is rather to stress the importance of the change and the momentousness of the election of Margaret Thatcher as a turning point in British history. The nature of Thatcherism is in the domain of historians and political analysts and not at the core of this work. The historical issues as background of my analysis are related to the change brought about by the rise of neoliberalism in Britain and its most recent developments. The centrality of Thatcher to this process cannot be doubted. Louisa Hadley and Elizabeth Ho argue that Thatcher has been influencing British society politically and culturally uninterruptedly for the last four decades.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Brexit-Tales from a Divided Country: Fragmented Nationalism in Anthony Cartwright’S the Cut, Amanda Craig’S the Lie of the Land, and Jonathan Coe’S Middle England
    Brexit-Tales from a Divided Country: Fragmented Nationalism in Anthony Cartwright’s The Cut, Amanda Craig’s The Lie of the Land, and Jonathan Coe’s Middle England Emma Linders, S2097052 Master thesis: Literary Studies, Literature in Society: Europe and Beyond University of Leiden Supervisor: Prof. Dr. P.T.M.G. Liebregts Second reader: Dr. M.S. Newton Date: 01-02-2020 (Zaichenko) Emma Linders 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 1 – Strangers in a Familiar Land: National divisions in Anthony Cartwright’s The Cut ......... 10 Outsider Perspective ......................................................................................................................... 10 Personification .................................................................................................................................. 11 Demographic Divides ........................................................................................................................ 11 Foreign Home Nation ........................................................................................................................ 13 Class Society ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Geography ......................................................................................................................................... 16 Language
    [Show full text]
  • SUPPORTING Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA
    Calendar January - April 2015 JANUARY Saturday 10 Young Writers’ Foundation Group £80/£65 for the year Thursday 15 Short and Sweet: Short Fiction Salon Free Saturday 24 Writer Networking Morning: Stafford Free Tuesday 27 Short Course: Towards a Poetry Collection £110 for six sessions FEBRUARY Thursday 5 Poetry by Heart - Birmingham & West Midlands Final Free Tuesday 10 David Lodge: / Quite a Good Time to be Born, A Memoir £4 Thursday 12 Short and Sweet: Short Fiction Salon Free Monday 16 - Friday 20 Page Talk Young Writers’ Week £5 per day | £25 for the week Saturday 21 Page Talk Young Writers’ Festival Free Saturday 28 The Student Writers’ Toolkit £12 MARCH Thursday 12 Short and Sweet: Short Fiction Salon Free Saturday 14 Writer Networking Morning: Dudley Free APRIL Thursday 2 Jonathan Coe - Short Stories and Live Music £10 / £8 Thursday 9 Short and Sweet: Short Fiction Salon Free Thanks to all Friends, Supporters & Benefactors of Writing West Midlands. Programme of Activities If you would like more information about our Friends scheme, please visit the January - April 2015 Support Us page on either of our websites. www.writingwestmidlands.org / www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org Writing West Midlands, Unit 204, The Custard Factory, SUPPORTING Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA. Tel: 0121 246 2770 CREATIVE WRITERS AND CREATIVE WRITING www.writingwestmidlands.org IN THE WEST MIDLANDS. Company Registration Number: 6264124. Registered Charity Number: 1147710. WWW.WRITINGWESTMIDLANDS.ORG The advertised programme is subject to change without notice where unavoidable. WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO WELCOME We are the region’s literature development Happy New Year and welcome to Writing West agency.
    [Show full text]
  • Examining the Effects of Conflict in Contemporary Culture in the Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe
    1 Adolescence in 1970s Britain: Examining the effects of conflict in contemporary culture in The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe Joshua Hinett [email protected] Word count: 2,101 Key words: Conflict, Discrimination, Community, Identity Abstract Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters’ Club primarily focuses on the lives of three young schoolboys growing up in 1970s Birmingham during emerging youth culture and civil unrest. Utilising the contextual factors of the backdrop, Coe presents the subtle implications this conflict has in the development of the main characters in the narrative as the characters move toward adolescence. The consequences of political unrest and extremist ideology emerging in Britain play a clear role in the irreversible shaping of each character’s disposition and social status within society, as their community echoes the conflict in the greater macrocosm of culture across the country. The aim of this article is to present Coe’s use of contextual factors to portray the impact of both explicit conflict and underlying issues in the maturation of characters in the novel. To this end, issues centred on racism, xenophobia and social progressivism are to be discussed and analysed throughout the argument to determine the true extent of how conflict shapes the lives of the youth as they come of age. 2 Conflict is defined not only by struggle between opposing forces, both physical and ideological, but the fallout of this clash. The narrative of the book The Rotters’ Club written by Jonathon Coe is largely based on the violent contextual events and ideologies of the setting of the novel in 1970s Birmingham.
    [Show full text]
  • The Necessary Biro: Writers and Writing in the Novels of Jonathan Coe
    The Necessary Biro: Writers and writing in the novels of Jonathan Coe ‘I don’t get it,’ she said at last, after reading the sentence one more time. ‘I mean, what’s so funny about a biro?’ 1 A ‘biro’ is funny because it ought to be ‘brio’. The parting shot of Michael Owen’s, the central figure of What a Carve Up!, book review ought to read, ‘he lacks the necessary brio,’ but an editorial error and the inversion of two letters suggests that the author in question is sadly bereft of the required writing equipment. What was meant to be an acerbic reflection on the subject’s lack of panache becomes a source of humiliation to Owen. The biro confusion not only reveals Jonathan Coe as a humorist, but also distils, in the form of a gag; a number of concerns that pervade the novelist’s work, namely: the precarious status of text in the public domain; the author’s anxiety regarding the interpetation of their narrative; and the figure of the unfortunate writer. Furthermore, it is an ironic twist that the punch line should refer us back to the writing implement itself. In the moment of reading the act of writing is acknowledged, with ‘the necessary biro’ prioritizing the means and action of the physical composition of text. The aim of this dissertation is to pursue an interest in the writers, acts of writing, and versions of text that populate the novels of Jonathan Coe; charting how these elements function in structuring, connecting, reinterpreting, and propelling his narratives; and how they provide a means for Coe to interrogate his own approach to writing narrative in the contemporary novel.
    [Show full text]
  • The Midlands Ultimate Entertainment Guide
    Shropshire Cover Online.qxp_cover 27/10/2015 15:30 Page 1 THE MIDLANDS ULTIMATE ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE SHROPSHIRE ’ Whatwww.whatsonlive.co.uk sOnISSUE 359 NOVEMBER 2015 DAVID WALLIAMS talks Gansta Granny interview inside... CHRIS RAMSEY All Growed Up at Theatre Severn MASKS AND PUPPETS new exhibition promises something for everyone ALAN INSIDE: FILM COMEDY THEATRE LIVE MUSIC VISUAL ARTS EVENTS DAVIESON TOUR FOOD & DRINK & MUCH MORE! Belgrade (FP) OCT 2015.qxp_Layout 1 21/09/2015 20:59 Page 1 Contents November Region 2 .qxp_Layout 1 26/10/2015 18:16 Page 1 November 2015 Brave New World Aldous Huxley’s vision of the future in Wolves, page 33 The Grahams Lee Mead Antiques For Everyone Glory Bound at talks about Some Enchanted Winter Fair at the NEC Henry Tudor House page 11 Evening interview page 6 page 71 INSIDE: 4. News 11. Music 24. Comedy 29. Theatre 45. Dance 47. Film 67. Visual Arts 73. Days Out 81. Food @whatsonwolves @whatsonstaffs @whatsonshrops Birmingham What’s On Magazine Staffordshire What’s On Magazine Shropshire What’s On Magazine Publishing + Online Editor-in-Chief: Davina Evans [email protected] 01743 281708 ’ Sales & Marketing: Lei Woodhouse [email protected] 01743 281703 Chris Horton [email protected] 01743 281704 WhatsOn Editorial: Brian O’Faolain [email protected] 01743 281701 Lauren Foster [email protected] 01743 281707 MAGAZINE GROUP Abi Whitehouse [email protected] 01743 281716 Adrian Parker [email protected] 01743 281714 Contributors: Graham Bostock, James Cameron-Wilson, Chris Eldon Lee, Heather Kincaid, David Vincent, Helen Stallard, Clare Higgins, Offices: Wynner House, Kieran Johnson Managing Director: Paul Oliver, Publisher and CEO: Martin Monahan Graphic Designers: Lisa Wassell, Chris Atherton Bromsgrove St, Accounts Administrator: Julia Perry [email protected] 01743 281717 Birmingham B5 6RG This publication is printed on paper from a sustainable source and is produced without the use of elemental chlorine.
    [Show full text]
  • Merritt Moseley, Understanding Jonathan Coe (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2016)
    Postgraduate English Journal, No. 35 (Autumn 2017) Merritt Moseley, Understanding Jonathan Coe (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2016). £30.86 / $39.99 (Hardback). 135pgs. ISBN: 978-1-61117-650-6. Reviewed by Anthony Walker-Cook, University College London Author of eleven novels, the contemporary British writer Jonathan Coe has enjoyed a career that is characterised by its variety and success, yet critical attention has tended to focus explicitly on his 1994 novel What a Carve Up!.1 Merritt Moseley’s Understanding Jonathan Coe (2016), however, offers a full discussion of Coe’s fictional and non-fictional work. Moseley presents ‘one of the most important and most consistently rewarding novelists of his generation’, drawing particular attention to the variety of Coe’s oeuvre: ‘His output includes vertiginously experimental fictions, broad- canvassed depictions of British society, political satire, and careful delineations of lonely or frustrated individuals’.2 On the 17th August 2016 Coe tweeted, ‘So this book came in the post today and it turns out I’m much harder to understand than I thought.’3 With the tweet is a picture of Coe hooked in a literary selfevaluation with an open copy of Understanding Jonathan Coe. Coe’s plots are simultaneously funny, emotive and didactic, but the exaggerated claim that his work is difficult is typical of Coe’s wry 1 This criticism has offered multiple ways of interpreting Coe’s novel. For example, Michael Shallcross’s ‘‘The Parodist’s Game’: Scrutiny of Cultural Play in Jonathan Coe’s What a Carve Up!’. Adaptation 9.2 (2016): pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Satire, Identity and State-Of-The-Nation Novels in Jonathan Coe’S Fiction
    UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA FACULTATEA DE LITERE ȘCOALA DOCTORALĂ „ALEXANDRU PIRU” SATIRE, IDENTITY AND STATE-OF-THE-NATION NOVELS IN JONATHAN COE’S FICTION SUMMARY Îndrumător științific: Prof. Univ. Dr. OLARU Victor Doctorand, ȚACU Andreea Daniela CRAIOVA 2020 SATIRE, IDENTITY AND STATE-OF-THE-NATION NOVELS IN JONATHAN COE’S FICTION SUMMARY In his essay, The Paradox of Satire, Jonathan Coe argued that “if you could not cleanse the world of its deformities, you could at least laugh at them” (Coe 2013: 3435). Coe’s novels are often regarded as satirical accounts of contemporary Britain, wrapped in what foreign audiences identify as the English sense of humour. Over the last five decades, Britain has experienced radical political, social and economic changes, from the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in 2017. This period of tension and concern permeated literature and was translated into a series of political novels regarded by the critics as contemporary state-of-the-nation fiction. Jonathan Coe is considered one of the harshest critics of British recent history and his poetic perspective on life is remarkably tied to the historical circumstances of Great Britain during the last decades. The combination of literariness with humour and wry observations about politics and society is probably what helped him achieve great critical recognition as well as commercial success. However, we find it quite surprising that Coe’s fiction has prompted rather little serious academic discussions, beyond some assertions related to his technical artistry or to the political aspect of his novels.
    [Show full text]
  • Power in Politics and Academia in Jonathan Coe's Novels Vii
    Power in Politics and Academia in Jonathan Coe’s Novels Power in Politics and Academia in Jonathan Coe’s Novels By Denisa Dumitrașcu Power in Politics and Academia in Jonathan Coe’s Novels By Denisa Dumitrașcu This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Denisa Dumitrașcu All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-0324-0 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0324-3 CONTENTS Foreword and Acknowledgements ........................................................... viii Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Introduction 1.1 Explaining the Use of the Concept of Politics and Academia.......... 5 1.2 Critical Reception of Jonathan Coe’s Work ..................................... 5 1.3 Realism or Postmodernism? ........................................................... 10 1.4 Text, Context and Power in Recent Literary and Cultural Studies ............................................................................................ 11 1.5. Text and Context in Jonathan Coe’s Fiction .................................. 13 1.6 Thesis / Intention
    [Show full text]
  • S Alisbur Y Lit Erar Y Fes Tiv Al 17
    SALISBURY LITERARY FESTIVAL 17TH - 22ND OCTOBER 2018 The Salisbury WELCOME Story Prize The aims of the festival are: Firstly, the festival is one with a strong local content that supports and celebrates local writing. There are many great writers past and present, from the Salisbury area. We want to showcase their work and, through initiatives like the Salisbury Story Prize, encourage the next generation of writers as well. 2018 Secondly, the festival is one that is predominantly www.salisburyliteraryfestival.co.uk fiction-based. We want a festival that focuses on creative writing over memoirs and celebrity-led books. I’m thrilled to be introducing this brochure for the second year of the Salisbury Literary Thirdly, the festival is one that is focused on both Festival. Following the success of the inaugural readers and writers. The Salisbury Writing Circle is To celebrate the return of the Salisbury Literary Festival, event last year, we return with an exciting about creative writing and we want this festival to we are delighted to launch the Salisbury Story Prize 2018. and expanded 2018 programme featuring have a practical element that supports writers. bestselling and award-winning authors for both adults and children. Fourthly, we want the festival to be as inclusive and Entries are invited on the themes of umbrellas or doves in the as accessible to all as possible. Once again, we have following categories… Over the following pages, you will see that we kept ticket prices low, with concessions for those on have three fantastic headliners: Val McDermid, benefits and under-25s, as well as offering a number of Matt Haig and Jonathan Coe.
    [Show full text]
  • BIRMINGHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL Writers Books Ideas
    BIRMINGHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL 4–14 October 2018 birminghamliteraturefestival.org Writers Books Ideas FESTIVAL Welcome to our HIGHLIGHTS 2018 October Festival Roy McFarlane Antonia Beck This Is Not A Safe Space, an evening with ‘the Godfather of Alternative Comedy’ Alexei Sayle and new books from well-known writers Mohammed Hanif and John Boyne. We also continue to mark 2018 as the year of women with events featuring leading women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst, musician Viv Albertine and The Inking Woman – a celebration of 250 years of women cartoonists. We hope you feel as excited by this programme Our October programme is packed with a wide as we are, and we look forward to seeing you in range of events celebrating words, books and National Poetry Day A. C. Grayling October. Page 6 Page 21 ideas in many forms. ANTONIA BECK, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR We continue to be ambitious and work to break new ground in terms of what a Literature Festival is and can be, and this programme is certainly Festival Preview: no exception. We are delighted to present 10 days of inspiring, thought-provoking and The Guilty Feminist entertaining events which not only showcase by Deborah great books and writers from the UK and abroad, Frances-White but also create space to bring people together for great conversation and ideas. Tuesday 4 September, 7.30pm, The Glee Club Tickets: £20 including a copy of the book As part of the planning for our October festival, Available at www.waterstones.com Sali Hughes AND it has been a joy to work with writer Sathnam LAUREN LAVERNE Viv Albertine Sanghera who has curated some very special Join Deborah Frances-White, the creator of Page 13 Page 26 events with key writers from the West Midlands.
    [Show full text]
  • Mémoire M2 COE 2905
    MEMOIRE DE MASTER 2 RECHERCHE ETUDES ANGLOPHONES Imad Zrari Année universitaire 2016-2017 The Blurring of Politics, Postmodernist Aesthetics and Writing in What a Carve Up! and Number 11 , Jonathan Coe Sous la direction de Laurent Mellet Professeur des Universités en Littérature et Cinéma Britanniques REMERCIEMENTS La réalisation de ce mémoire a été possible grâce au concours de plusieurs personnes à qui je voudrais témoigner toute ma reconnaissance. Je voudrais tout d’abord adresser toute ma gratitude au directeur de ce mémoire, Laurent Mellet, pour sa patience, sa disponibilité et ses précieux conseils, qui ont contribué à alimenter ma réflexion. Je voudrais également exprimer ma reconnaissance envers mes amies et collègues, Jacqueline Kempton et Blandine Michel, pour leur soutien moral et intellectuel. Enfin, une grande pensée pour ma mère qui a toujours valorisé l’éducation. 2 Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................... 5 I. Satire, Engagement and Humor in Coe’s Novels ................................................ 9 1. Coe as a Political Satirist .............................................................................. 9 a. Coe’s Background and Influence ................................................................................. 9 b. WACU : an Acrid Criticism of Thatcherism ................................................................ 12 c. N11 : A Dark Portrait of Blairism and Cameronism in the Same Vein as WACU
    [Show full text]
  • Herefordshire Readers' Group Book Sets
    Herefordshire Readers’ Group Book Sets Last website update February 2021 Sets have 15 copies except where indicated, and some include audio books (SW) and/or large print books (LP) Some titles are also available as ebooks and/or eaudiobooks via our BorrowBox app. For more details go to https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/herefordshire/ or see https://www.borrowbox.com/ Allende, Isabel - Daughter of Fortune (includes SW & LP) A sweeping portrait of an era; rich in character, history, violence, and compassion. An epic tale spanning four continents. Angelou, Maya - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings The moving autobiographical account of the early years of the late, iconic, African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. Armitage, Simon – Walking Away Modern day troubadour poet Simon Armitage walks the South West coastal path performing poetry along the way. He walks penniless and after each performance he passes around a sock for the audience to make their donations. His dry sense of humour and wry observations make this a very entertaining read. Ashton, Juliet – The Sunday Lunch Club When Anna and her nearest and dearest get together for Sunday lunch every few weeks they laugh bicker and just enjoy each other’s company. Much like any other family. But Anna’s life is changing. How will she reconcile her painful past and uncertain future? Full of love and laughter, as well as tears, this is comfort food in a book – but without the calories, or the pain of burning your mouth on a roast potato. Athill, Diana - Somewhere Towards the End Aged ninety, and freed from any inhibitions that even she may once have had, Diana Athill reflects frankly on the losses and occasionally the gains that old age brings, and on the wisdom and fortitude required to face death.
    [Show full text]