“Untied” Kingdom: British Literature Since 1945

British literature is often described in terms of tradition and continuity. This course takes a very different point of view and, looking at British writing since 1945, explores a literary culture marked by disruption, change, and remarkable variety. Through fiction, poetry, and drama written since 1945, we examine how the alleged consensus of the postwar period gradually gave way to challenging and provocative questions about the nature of Britishness itself. We consider the cultural effects of the dismantling of the once-powerful British empire and of Cold War politics, the Women’s Movement, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Thatcherism, the rise of Scottish and Welsh nationalism, and the emergence of the modern, multicultural United Kingdom. Why are Sam Selvon’s Caribbean Londoners so lonely? What is Belfast confetti? What did it take to be a “top girl” in the 1980s? When did North Britain become devolved Scotland? These and other questions direct our conversation—with works by George Orwell, Philip Larkin, Jean Rhys, Jeanette Winterson, Seamus Heaney, Caryl Churchill, Tom Stoppard, Alisdair Gray, Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, and others.