Twenty-First Century Global Fiction

Module code: EN3200

What characterises twenty-first century fiction? Does it have distinctive formal and thematic features? What does it tell us about the times we are living in? As Peter Boxall notes, the contemporary moment is ‘always difficult to bring into focus, and often only becomes legible in retrospect’. It is tempting to read contemporary literature through the lens of postmodernist theory of the 1980s and 90s, and yet as we move further and further away from those decades, new critical frameworks are needed. This module will consider how ideas, concerns and events which shape our experience in the twenty-first century inform the work of contemporary writers. 

The texts covered on this module are global in two respects: firstly, they are produced by a diversity of Anglophone writers from across the globe, and set in multiple locations including the UK, India, Africa, the Caribbean and North America. Secondly, looking beyond the nation, they engage with global phenomena. Drawing on relevant theoretical and contextual material, we will discuss a wide range of twenty-first century issues such as globalisation, global capitalism, digital cultures, environmental change, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, multiculturalism and its failures, cosmopolitanism and (in)voluntary migration. We will also consider how long-standing questions of race, class and gender are addressed by twenty-first century writers. We will ask: how does writers’ engagement with contemporary issues impact on their use of the novel form? Is the novel becoming a global genre? What are the possibilities and potential problems of reading twenty-first century fiction from a global perspective?