Andrea Levy Contemporary Critical Perspectives

by Baxter, Jeannette; James, David

• ISBN13: 9781441160454
• ISBN10: 1441160450
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-05-08
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Andrea Levy has emerged as one of the most significant and popular voices in contemporary black British writing both in the UK and abroad. Drawing on a familial history of emigration, her critically-acclaimed novels - including the multiple award-winning Small Island - attempt to bring a variety of voices to the representation of black experience in post-war Britain.

This book is the first of its kind to be devoted to Levy's work. Combining historical, theoretical and textual perspectives, the volume hosts a wide range of current critical approaches to Levy's fiction. With chapters written by leading established and emerging scholars, the book explores issues of literary form, diasporic literature and cultural value, the BBC TV adaptation of Small Island, while also shedding fresh light on Levy's critically neglected early works. The book also includes a new interview with Levy herself, a timeline of her life, chapter summaries, as well as guides to further reading and online resources, making this an essential companion to the writings of one of the most exciting voices in contemporary fiction.

Author Biography

Jeannette Baxter teaches modern and contemporary literature at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. She is the author of J. G. Ballard’s Surrealist Imagination, and her recent co-edited collections include J. G. Ballard: Visions and Revisions (2012) and A Literature of Restitution: Critical Essays on W. G. Sebald (2013).

David James teaches modern and contemporary literature at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Editor of several collections, including The Legacies of Modernism (2011), he is author of Contemporary British Fiction and the Artistry of Space (2008) and Modernist Futures (2012).

Table of Contents

Contributors

Foreword by Lawrence Scott

Series Editors’ Preface

Acknowledgements

Chronology of Andrea Levy’s Life

INTRODUCTION
‘Towards Serious Work’
Jeannette Baxter (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge) and David James (Queen Mary University, London)

CHAPTER ONE
Unhappy Bildungsromane
Dave Gunning (University of Birmingham)

CHAPTER TWO
Council Housing and the Politics of the Welfare State in Never Far From
Matthew Taunton (University of East Anglia)

CHAPTER THREE
Existing in More than One Plane of Time: Memory and Narrative Form in Every Light in the House Michael Perfect (University of Cambridge)

CHAPTER FOUR
The Immediacy of Small
David James (Queen Mary University, London)

CHAPTER FIVE
Small Island, Small Screen: Adapting Black British
Rachel Carroll (University of Teeside)

CHAPTER SIX
Exquisite Corpse: Un/dressing History in Fruit of the Lemon/The Long Song
Jeannette Baxter (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge)

CHAPTER SEVEN
‘I am the narrator of this work’: Narrative Authority in Andrea Levy’s The Long
Fiona Tolan (Liverpool John Moores University)

CHAPTER EIGHT
At the Centre of the Picture: Andrea Levy’s The Long
Susan Alice Fischer (City University of New York)

‘Andrea Levy in Conversation with Susan Alice Fischer’

References
Index