Pat Barker

Mark Rawlinson

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780230001800
• eBook ISBN: 9781350308862
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Pat Barker is one of the leading British political and historical novelists of her generation. This introduction places her fiction in historical and theoretical contexts. Including a timeline of key dates and an interview with the author, Rawlinson establishes the cultural importance of her work and provides an overview of its critical reception.

PART I

Introduction

TIMELINE

1960	Harold Macmillan ‘Winds of Change’ speech, Cape Town, South Africa John F. Kennedy elected as US President Aged six, Kazuo Ishiguro arrives in Britain
1961	Adolf Eichmann on trial in Israel for role in Holocaust Bay of Pigs: attempted invasion of Cuba Berlin Wall constructed Yuri Gagarin first person in Space Silicon chip patented Private Eye magazine begins publication Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Jonathan Coe born
1962	Cuban Missile Crisis Marilyn Monroe dies Independence for Uganda; followed this decade by Kenya (1963), Northern Rhodesia (1964), Southern Rhodesia (1965), Barbados (1966)
1963	John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas Martin Luther King Jr delivers ‘I Have a Dream’ speech Profumo Affair Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop present O, What a Lovely War at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East
1964	Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment Commercial pirate radio challenges BBC monopoly
1965	State funeral of Winston Churchill US sends troops to Vietnam A. L. Kennedy born in Dundee, Scotland
1966	Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sentenced to life imprisonment for Moors Murders England beats West Germany 4–2 at Wembley to win Football World Cup Star Trek series debut on NBC television Jean Rhys, The Wide Sargasso Sea
1967	Six-Day War in the Middle East World’s first heart transplant Abortion Act legalizes termination of pregnancy in UK Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released by The Beatles Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman
1968	Anti-Vietnam War protestors attempt to storm American Embassy in Grosvenor Square Martin Luther King Jr assassinated Robert F. Kennedy assassinated Student protests and riots in France Lord Chamberlain’s role as censor of plays in the UK is abolished Lindsay Anderson, If . . .
1969	Civil rights march in Northern Ireland attacked by Protestants Apollo 11 lands on the Moon with Neil Armstrong’s famous first steps Rock concert at Woodstock Yasser Arafat becomes leader of PLO Booker Prize first awarded; winner P. H. Newby, Something to Answer for Open University founded in the UK John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
1970	Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacks five planes Students activists and bystanders shot in anti-Vietnam. War protest at Kent State University, Ohio, four killed, nine wounded UK voting age reduced from 21 years to 18
1971	Decimal currency introduced in the UK Internment without trial of terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland begins India and Pakistan in conflict after Bangladesh declares independence
1972	Miners’ strike Bloody Sunday in Londonderry, 14 protestors killed outright or fatally wounded by British troops Aldershot barracks bomb initiates IRA campaign with seven dead Britain enters Common Market Massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics Watergate scandal Controversy over Stanley Kubrick’s film of Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange Samuel Beckett, Not I
1973	US troops leave Vietnam Arab–Israeli 15-day Yom Kippur War PM Edward Heath introduces three-day working week Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers
1974	Miners’ strike IRA bombings in Guildford (five dead) and Birmingham (21 dead)
1975	Microsoft founded Sex Discrimination Act Zadie Smith born in North London Malcolm Bradbury, The History Man The ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ killings begin Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory
1976	Weak economy forces UK government loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Ian McEwan, First Love, Last Rites
1977	Star Wars released UK unemployment tops 1,600,000 Nintendo begins to sell computer games Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy in the UK’ tour
1978	Soviet troops occupy Afghanistan First test-tube baby born in Oldham, England
1979	Iranian Revolution establishes Islamic theocracy Margaret Thatcher becomes PM after Conservative election victory USSR invades Afghanistan Lord Mountbatten assassinated by the IRA
1980	Iran–Iraq War starts Iranian Embassy siege in London CND rally at Greenham Common airbase, England IRA hunger strike at Belfast Maze Prison over political status for prisoners Julian Barnes, Metroland
1981	Prince Charles and Lady Diana marry in St Paul’s Cathedral with 750 million worldwide television audience Widespread urban riots in UK including Brixton, Holloway, Toxteth, Handsworth, Moss Side AIDS identified Peter Sutcliffe convicted of the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders First IBM personal computer Alasdair Gray, Lanark Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, which wins Booker Prize for Fiction
1982	Mark Thatcher, PM’s son, disappears for three days in Sahara during the Paris-Dakar rally Falklands War with Argentina, costing the UK over £1.6 billion Body of Roberto Calvi, chairman of Vatican-connected Banco Ambrosiano, found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge, London Pat Barker, Union Street
1983	Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, arrested in Bolivia Beirut: US Embassy and barracks bombing, killing hundreds of members of multinational peacekeeping force, mostly US marines US troops invade Grenada Microsoft Word first released Salman Rushdie, Shame, which wins Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (France)
1984	Miners’ strike HIV identified as cause of AIDS IRA bomb at Conservative Party Conference in Brighton kills four British Telecom p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• General Editors’ Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Major Works
• Part III: Criticism and Contexts
• Bibliography
• Index