London Narratives: Post-War Fiction and the CityThe post-war redevelopment of London has been the most extensive in its history, and has been accompanied by a dramatic social and cultural upheaval. This book explores the literary re-imagining of the city in post-war fiction and argues that the image, history, and narrative of the city has been transformed alongside the physical rebuilding and repositioning of the capital. Drawing on the ideas of Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Anthony Vigler and others as well as the latest work on urban representation, this book is an important contribution to the study of the intersection between place, lived experience, and the literary imagination. Texts covered include novels by some of the most significant and lesser known authors of the period, including Graham Greene, George Orwell, J. G. Ballard, Stella Gibbons, David Lodge, Doris Lessing, B. S. Johnson, Sam Selvon, V. S. Naipaul, Peter Ackroyd and Iain Sinclair. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 10 | |
2 The Centre Cannot Hold | 35 |
3 Love in a Cold Climate | 56 |
4 Stress Fractures | 80 |
5 The New Londoners | 106 |
6 London Revenant | 132 |
7 Coda | 158 |
| 161 | |
| 171 | |
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Ackroyd Adah Albert Angelo alienation architecture argues attempt becomes Bendrix Blitz bomb Bottle Court buildings Capital Certeau chapter characters cinema City of Spades city’s Clockwork Orange colonial contemporary contrast creates Daisy desire fabric fear fiction flâneur gentrification Hawksmoor Heat High-Rise historian identity imagination increasingly inhabitants Jane Jerry White Johnny Johnny Fortune Josef Kiss L-Shaped Room landscape literary lived experience Lonely Londoners material Meepers memory metaphor middle-class Ministry of Fear Miss Roach modern myth narrative Nineteen Eighty-Four nostalgia novel observes Party passage past Peter Ackroyd physical Picturegoers Pink Front Door post-war psychological Raban reader reformulation relationship representation represents Robert sense sexual significant Sinfield social space spatial Stella stories streets structure suburban suburbs suggests swinging London symbolic tension textual Thames Lockdon thence Thwaites tion tower block traditional uncanny urban Vicki Victorian violence wartime London Winston working-class writing