The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 7: British and Irish Fiction Since 1940

Volume Seven the Oxford History of the Novel in English offers the fullest and most nuanced account available of the last eight decades of British prose fiction. It debunks the notion that the best fiction after the war was written in the contemporary (post-1973) period. It does this by following the Granta Best of Young British Novelist lists in 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013 – adding the periods 1943, 1953, 1963 and 1973– which shows that ‘the best’ novels are not always produced in the latest period. Rather than simply distinguishing between the post-war, contemporary, and twenty-first century fiction, the volume shows the historical continuities between these different periods. As well as
literary
fiction the collection engages with a comprehensive range of popular genres, such as the spy novel, the children’s novel, the historical novel, the serial novel, the science fiction novel, and the comic novel, and has a full account of the influence of film and television on the novel.