Twenty-First Century Fiction

This course introduces students to the major themes, crises and debates surrounding the contemporary novel, exploring how authors have responded to the cultural and technological challenges of living in the new century. These novels allow us to examine a number of key issues and crises that have shaped contemporary experience, including (but not limited to) the events of 9/11 and the subsequent 'war on terror'; technology and internet surveillance; globalisation and the financial crash; and late modernity, temporal dislocation and historical memory. Readings of individual novels are supplemented by perspectives drawn from relevant critical and cultural theorists. Credit Level: 10 Year taken: Year 4 Undergraduate