Moral Complexities in Turn of the Millennium British Literature

Mara E. Reisman

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781978798731
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Moral Complexities in Turn of the Millennium British Literature offers a critical analysis of moral complexity and social responsibility in works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Patrick McGrath, Graham Swift, Andrea Levy, and Jeanette Winterson. Mara Reisman argues that through their writing, these authors reveal and upset literary, cultural, and political fictions and encourage readers to think carefully about language, power, community, and social justice. The book examines moral issues in two different ways: how books by these authors address morally complex social, political, and cultural issues and how their books serve a moral function by challenging readers to be socially engaged. Reisman provides an in-depth analysis of The Remains of the Day, Asylum, The Light of Day, Small Island, and The Daylight Gate and uses these books to discuss twentieth- and twenty-first-century British politics and culture. These books address a wide variety of issues often associated with moral judgments: war, racism, adultery, maternal neglect, murder, professional misconduct, witchcraft, and religion. Despite this diversity and settings that range from the seventeenth century to the late twentieth century, these books include similar arguments about how empathy, personal responsibility, and civic engagement can create more productive social relations and a less divided world.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Credits
• Introduction
• Chapter One History, Morality, and Social Responsibility in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day
• Chapter Two Destabilizing Institutional and Social Power in Patrick McGrath’s Asylum
• Chapter Three The Language of Transgression and Empathy in Graham Swift’s The Light of Day
• Chapter Four Negotiating Identity and Building Community in Andrea Levy’s Small Island
• Chapter Five Subverting Cultural and Political Power in Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author