The Making of London

London in Contemporary Literature

S. Groes

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780230234789
• eBook ISBN: 9780230306011
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism Theory
• Index: Literature

London has become the focus of a ferocious imaginative energy since the rise of Thatcher. The Making of London analyses the body of work by writers who have committed their writing to the many lives of a city undergoing complex transformations, tracing a major shift in the representation of the capital city.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: From ‘ellowen deeowen’ to ‘Babylondon’: London is a Language
• 1 ‘Fabricked out of Literature and Myth’: Maureen Duffy’s Londons
• 2 ‘Of Real Experience Mixed with Myth’: Michael Moorcock’s Authentic London Myths
• 3 ‘A Zoo fit for Psychopaths’: J. G. Ballard versus London
• 4 ‘Struck out of Pure Invention’: Iain Sinclair and the Problem of London
• 5 ‘In Preordained Patterns’: Peter Ackroyd and the Voices of London
• 6 ‘Beyond the Responsibility of Place’: Ian McEwan’s Londons
• 7 ‘In a Prose so Diagonal and Mood-Warped’: Martin Amis’s Scatological London
• 8 ‘Through a Confusion of Languages’: Mastering London with Salman Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi
• 9 ‘Kyan you imagine dat?’: The New London Languages of Zadie Smith and Monica Ali
• Conclusion: London Undone?
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Index