English Subject Centre Mini Projects
FINAL REPORT
SURVEY ON TEACHING CONTEMPORARY BRITISH FICTION
Authors: Philip Tew
Brunel University
Mark Addis
UCE Birmingham
April 2007
The English Subject Centre
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX
Tel 01784 443221 Fax 01784 470684
Email esc@rhul.ac.uk www.english.heacademy.ac.uk

English Subject Centre Departmental Projects
This report and the work it presents were funded by the English Subject
Centre under a scheme which funds projects run by departments in Higher
Education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. Some projects are run in collaboration between departments in different HEIs. Projects run under the scheme are concerned with developments in the teaching and learning of English
Language, Literature and Creative Writing. They may involve the production of teaching materials, the piloting and evaluation of new methods or materials or the production of research into teaching and learning. Project outcomes are expected to be of benefit to the subject community as well as having a positive influence on teaching and learning in the host department(s). For this reason, project results are disseminated widely in print, electronic form and via events, or a combination of these.
Details of ongoing projects can be found on the English Subject Centre website at www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/deptprojects/index.htm
. If you would like to enquire about support for a project, please contact the English
Subject Centre:
The English Subject Centre
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX
T. 01784 443221 esc@rhul.ac.uk
www.english.heacademy.ac.uk

Prof. Philip Tew (Brunel University) & Dr. Mark Addis (UCE Birmingham)
Project Co-ordinators
Philip Tew is Professor of English Literature (Post-1980) at Brunel University.
He has published five books in this field, and is a leading researcher and teacher in this area. He is elected Director of the UK Network for Modern
Fiction Studies. He has organized various conferences and events in this field
(including ones on the teaching of contemporary British fiction). He has been involved in British council events, speaking and publishing widely in contemporary literature and theory.
Dr. Mark Addis is Reader in Philosophy and Cultural Theory at UCE
Birmingham. He researches and teaches critical theory, and has some teaching expertise in contemporary fiction. He has experience of empirical and qualitative research on funded projects with allied teaching and publication. He has prior funded project management expertise.
Postdoctoral Assistants
Dr. Nicola Allen (UCE Birmingham & Northampton University)
Dr. David Simmons (University of Birmingham)
1. Introduction
In order to introduce the current project it is necessary to synthesize on the one hand an overall view of contemporary British fiction, one gleaned by the project’s lead researchers from those involved both in generally relevant research and pedagogy, with on the other the tenor of the very specific conversations undertaken with the respondents in the English Subject Centre
(ESC) Survey carried out as specified below. In so doing we do not intend to preempt the survey’s full details which are explored below. Among those interested in this field a general consensus appears to have emerged that contemporary British fiction is a growing and increasingly vigorous area attractive both for academic researchers and as a topic for the HE classroom.
Those concerned with literary and cultural studies both in the UK and internationally increasingly accept this field as both intellectually worthwhile and respectable, potentially with a wider public interest.
Some scholars object to the very term contemporary British Fiction, claiming it is both contentious and controversial. One can respond by pointing out that however periodized or geographically and/or culturally defined this descriptor may be, certainly this specific type of academic engagement has in practical terms entered the zeitgeist and moreover it is generally agreed to be infused increasingly with a notion of contemporaneity. Given that such teaching is taking place throughout the world, whatever the disagreements about situating textual choice, which finally could be endless and largely unproductive, perhaps it is important to note that academics feel pragmatically that in terms of teaching, such courses tend currently to be undertaken in an

ad hoc fashion in several ways. First the belief is that current pedagogic practice may be somewhat limited, first because such practice is not necessarily supported by or responsive to any large body of available critical materials which may hamper student work and intellectual development.
Second some practitioners are uneasy about the legitimacy either ideologically or aesthetically of the grounds by which choices are made concerning both textual selections and precise choices of periodization, partly as a response to the preceding critical hegemonies discussed below in
Section 2.
This project has a straightforward intention; it is intended to review teaching that can be described as being concerned with contemporary British fiction in academic English (and affiliate) departments in the United Kingdom by considering a range of issues, including exactly what literary and theoretical texts are taught and on what courses, and additionally consider the use and availability of different kinds of supplementary literary-critical materials. These are not primarily value-judgments, but rather an evaluative engagement with current practice. Additionally the project seeks to explore what current theoretical markers are used (if at all) to delineate an appropriate area or field of study (for instance geographically, chronological and so forth). The issue of canonicity is potentially contentious, but of course textual choices are and must be made in order to construct courses. The appropriateness of the ideological basis of choice can be restrictive even when the grounds of that selection appear to be to those making the choice apparently progressive and radical (while often being essentialist or unnecessarily unrepresentative of a consensus view). These are in some ways irresolvable issues, and a range of choice rather than a new hegemony might be the most appropriate pedagogic position.
All of the above has been achieved through first an empirical study derived from a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with academics offering such courses, second from material submitted via the web by practitioners, and also, third, by a supplementary survey of available online material published by departments and schools concerned with English literary studies
(defined in the broadest fashion). The next stage hopefully, after this initial survey, will be that an opportunity will present itself for others to engage upon a more comprehensive picture of classroom practice, concerned with perhaps what materials are produced and published, and a broader collation of views from a far larger range of academics, even perhaps including various nationalities. Online repositories of sources geared toward both research and classroom practice would be useful to supplement the more generalist and commendable webpage, ‘Contemporary Writers in the UK,’ produced by the
British Council, found at: www.contemporarywriters.com
. It remains the case that contemporary British fiction is a significant area internationally that has the advantage of presenting a progressive, culturally diverse and thoroughly up-to-date view of British aesthetic culture, hopefully serving as a conduit in terms of interesting increasing numbers of international students to follow their engagement with English language and literature more generally.
2. Similar Work

The general position is that there is a limited amount of work on the issue of classroom practice and research supervision in this field, and the survey confirmed this view. There is a recently published essay that is derived from a study of the emergent contemporary canon in terms of contemporary British fiction taken from a database (undertaken between 2002 and 2004) the analysis of which is not yet complete; this appeared in print after our current
ESC project had been undertaken. The essay offers first a list of the twelve most popular novelists taught on ‘contemporary and post-war literature courses’ (35) and includes: Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing and Toni
Morrison. Equally it presents as an appendix a broad chart of an extract from the database including authors from A – B (which includes American, Irish and other authors). The current project is less concerned with the theoretical peregrinations one might undertake in discussing and theorizing the legitimacies of canon formation than it is intended to engage with pedagogic practice as an informing context or functional principle of that which is framed as the canonical (which can be regarded sociologically as a collective practice). See: Bentley, Nick. ‘Developing the Canon: Teaching Contemporary
British Fiction .’ Teaching Contemporary British Fiction: Special Edition 69
Anglistik & Englischunterricht
. Barfield, Steve, Anja Müller-Wood, Philip Tew, and Leigh Wilson. (Eds.). Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2007: 27 –
45.
3. Aims & Objectives
Generally, the survey was designed so as to actively collect, to survey and so disseminate information concerning the teaching in HE establishments of contemporary British fiction, and thereby help to improve the teaching of a growing and significant area of English studies. Although interpretative intervention is difficult, some approximate view of current practice is surely useful. The ESC survey examines the issue of existing available resources in the field, but additionally highlights a number of deficiencies in this area. It was intended that the information would be both detailed and suggestive, but that the meanings gleaned might be potentially open and wide. The information is designed so that practitioners and others interested (and involved) in this literary field may reflect on current practice and provision in what is an important developing curriculum area.
3.1 Aims
To record and help to codify (and potentially improve through the delivery of information) the existing teaching of contemporary British fiction; to spread good practice and knowledge of available secondary (support) materials and resources, and particularly to create a source of information for publishers and others concerned with the development of such introductory, critical and supplementary materials.
3.2 Objectives
These were:

o To produce a map of the current selection of authors, critical materials offered on such courses and thereby reflect upon the consequent ongoing production of what some consider a “new canonicity” or more simply textual selections; o To reflect on the themes and contexts seen as appropriate to the contemporary; o To identify the curriculum areas in which the contemporary is taught; o To note the choices and contexts influencing periodising the contemporary (e.g. are lecturers still opting for courses periodized by a sense of a post-1945 aesthetic or has the point of literary and cultural relevance shifted more to a periodization commencing with the
1960s/mid-1970s onward); o To reflect on how the concept of the contemporary is theorised; o To identify in curriculum terms how the contemporary relates to previous periods (post-war, modernism, between the wars and
Victorian); o To produce an overview of available critical interpretive materials and sources; and o To suggest how the data collected might help improve the teaching of contemporary fiction.
4. Methodology
4.1 A literature survey was undertaken, plus a survey of relevant HE (chiefly
English Department) websites in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 university academics in English (and affiliate) departments in order to explore specifically their views about and practices in terms of teaching contemporary fiction. In part the ESC survey was geared toward the logistics of pedagogic practice rather than intervening (or judging) ideologically such activities. Interviewing of this kind is a well-established social science research method which we adapted to the area of English studies. Semi-structured interviews involve asking a number of predetermined questions in a systematic and consistent order whilst allowing the interviewers to probe beyond the answers given to the prepared questions.
After the semi-structured interviews 14 further follow-up email interviews with major specialists in contemporary fiction were conducted providing an additional source of further information. The universities contacted form a representative sample that reflects both the pre and post-92 sectors and most of the major regions of the United Kingdom (any omissions were due to the failure to respond of a number of academics who were approached with a request to participate).
4.2 The primary objective of the interviews was to encourage colleagues to articulate their conceptual understanding and actual teaching experiences of the contemporary. The methodology adopted was a standpoint approach and interviews were regarded as both specific conversations and as part of an ongoing dialogue among practitioners. Exhibiting the standpoint that the researchers are colleagues/peers of the interviewees has the benefit of aiding the establishment of a good rapport with respondents. Care was taken to

ensure that familiarity with the perspectives of the interviewees did not inhibit insight. The interview data was explored via intra-case and cross-case thematic analysis. This analysis investigated patterns and themes within and across interviews respectively. Several post-doctoral students were employed as clerical assistants in the organisation of and analysis of the results of interviews, and other required supplementary support.
5. Timetable
Key activity Date
Start date
Literature survey
Semi-structured interviews
Data analysis
Conclusions recommendations
Report
End date
&
June 2005
June to October 2005
November 2005 to March
2006
April to May 2006
June to July 2006
October to December 2006
Dec 2006
6. Survey
6.1 Survey results from respondents.
Please note that the following data was gleaned from the respondents survey returns supplemented by details taken from both semi-structured interviews and informal follow-up interviews when this proved necessary to fill data gaps):
Figure 1: number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses on contemporary (post-1970) British and Anglophone fiction.
% of
Universities
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Number of Courses
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
The chart shows the relationship between the number of courses and the percentage of universities which offer that number of courses.
Figure 2: number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses on modern/contemporary (1945 – 1970) British and Anglophone fiction.

70
60
50
40
% of Universities
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Number of Courses
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
4
1
1
The chart shows the relationship between the number of courses and the percentage of universities which offer that number of courses. Figures 1 and 2 in some ways are broadly similar. The largest numbers of courses are (as might be expected) at universities offering only 1 – 3 courses in this area (i.e. the lower end), but nevertheless a substantial proportion of institutions did have at least five courses in these areas which appears to confirm a conscious decision to focus upon contemporary fiction whether in a discrete fashion or within courses dealing with broader perspectives.
Table 1: classification of British and Anglophone fiction in terms of teaching and research by period.
Number universities
5 of Period
Pre and post World War II fiction
Excluding pre-1970 fiction
Including pre-1970 fiction
No distinction by period
A few respondents did not know how British and Anglophone was classified by period and so did not return any data for this question. The view appears to be that respondents consider that the distinction between pre- and post-World
War II was historically considered as perhaps more important than that between pre- and post-1970 in distinguishing courses in this general area.
The reason for this appears to be that 1970 is still sufficiently recent for it to be difficult to decide how to treat it historically whilst there is apparently no such problem with the Second World War as a marker point.
However, a more nuanced view is beginning to emerge with a more recent historical ‘cut-off point.’ There are several reasons cited. One is that the period from 1945 until the end of the 1960s is more remote for students and with subseq uent global events such as the end of the ‘Cold War’ and 9/11 the view that geo-political, cultural and therefore aesthetic conditions have been transformed yet again is becoming more widespread. Another reason is that the critical, cultural and theoretical view of subjectivity and the world has changed under the influence of a number of waves of theoretical dispositions

including feminism, post-structuralism, postmodernism, and so forth. This has occurred in the main since the 1970s and encouraged again a view of a different periodization to that of 1945 to 1970 or 1975. A further, in part practical reason emerged in follow-up interviews. This indicated that gradually practitioners are following the example of a range of critical or survey books in the field positing strongly that either implicitly or explicitly a more recent periodization is required to distinguish the contemporary in all kinds of ways, both pragmatically and theoretically. Student preference and identification was regarded as a potential force moving lecturers in so structuring courses. A number of courses are emerging (and there are others that are being considered currently) that select fiction either from the 1990s or even only fiction from the post-millennial period.
Table 2: proportion of undergraduate and postgraduate degree(s) constituted by modern and/or contemporary (1945-1970) fiction.
Number of universities
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
3
2
2
1
1
2
2
Percentage of degree 1945-70 fiction
15 %
60%
20 %
35 %
12.5%
15 %
20 %
1 50%
It was unclear from respondents whether the modules were optional or compulsory. A number of respondents did not know what the proportion of modern and/or contemporary fiction was and so did not return any data for this question. One further institution reported a figure of 60-80% in terms of undergraduate teaching. However, this might be an extreme example (or doubtful description of the situation) as it would involve stretching the subject benchmarks well beyond the recommended balance of period to be covered.
This may simply be a case of respondent error (but there was no follow-up in this case). Nevertheless both the estimated percentages and follow-up interviews indicate a strong commitment to and popularity of such courses both among staff and students. It is evidence of a willingness by departments to include very recent primary materials as part of a significant course offer.
However, it is important to note that in follow-up interviews a number of respondents indicated that some of their colleagues appeared to be at least obliquely sceptical of the legitimacy of such courses, regarding them as variously ‘populist,’ ‘lightweight,’ or without sufficient objective distance from the period of aesthetic and cultural production. Nevertheless, there was an overall impression that such objections were diminishing over time. In a number of cases when interviewed respondents indicated that the very success of courses with staff and specifically with students (see Table 3 immediately below) was regarded as an appropriate reason to continue this trajectory, especially given the potential benefits in terms of recruitment and retention.

Table 3: number of undergraduate and postgraduate students taking contemporary fiction courses
Number of universities Estimated number of students
Undergraduate 2
1
5
2
25-50
50-75
75-1 00
100-125
1
1
1
Postgraduate 6
150-175
175-200
200-250
25 or less
All the respondents except one returned data for this question. Although these figures are estimates (and in certain cases it was clear that broadly they were
‘guesstimates’ drawn from impressions and memory, not recorded official statistics) it is clear from the ranges of figures that contemporary fiction is popular with undergraduates whenever it is offered. The reasons cited for this are interesting. Some respondents argue that this is in part because the immediacy of the novels which offer a world-view familiar to students; partly one suspects also from academic responses that this is because prose offers fewer generic barriers for the collective student mind; for women, working class students and those from ethnic groups all arguably underrepresented in traditionally canonical literature the field provides familiarity, social relevance and role models absent elsewhere; and moreover, other respondents referred to the availability of authors for visits, lectures, and interviews on campus which helps creates a certain degree of excitement about the field for students.
Table 4: classification of the influences upon the formation of a new canon.
Typology of influence Number of respondents
Review materials
Academic studies
Personal recommendation
Conferences and author readings
6
5
3
3
Course development
Media and news report
3
2
Research interest
Other
2
5
In follow-up interviews, when pressed for more information, most respondents indicated that the texts featured in academic monographs, collections, review materials and other essays studies influenced their own choice of fiction, and thus contribution to the formation of a new canon which is in essence a collective practice influenced by critics in the field. This was in part thought to be due first to the practical issue of the need to offer secondary resources to students as material; second as offering lecturers both a legitimacy for such

choices and a resource to aid preparation of lectures and other materials; and third a proportion of respondents had produced such materials themselves, interacted with others who had done so, and adopted these works that resulted from their own research and those with whom they networked. In the main, practitioners favoured book collections that focused on the field, chapters from such collections, and other internet resources as supplementary critical materials. The British Council website, in focusing on recent publication to a large degree, has also helped legitimise the periodization implicit in much of this ‘new canonicity’.
The choice of authors in published collections was in part influential in the selection of core texts (but not all of those adopted). Interestingly essays from academic journals were sometimes used (although far less so), but only in the main with what were considered to be the more established authors from the contemporary period. Reviews from the so-called quality press were more persuasive than journal articles in influencing text adoption and furthermore helped shaped academics’ critical commentaries. Additionally the pragmatics of the student experience in part influenced adoption of critical sources.
Respondents indicated books were more easily deposited in libraries, were easier to limit in terms of use (or abuse) and some respondents indicated students appeared to regard books and book chapters as more legitimate and authoritative in their view. Some respondents reflected on the undue caution about canon formation and opposition to canonicity from academics who were seduced by often highly theoretical debates with points of reference in postcolonialism, feminism, ‘high theory’ and cultural studies exactly where arguably in each a canon of theorists has emerged and ironically often became conservatively hegemonic. As one respondent commented F. R.
Leavis’ canon engages with both women and those culturally other in its propounding of an elite Englishness.
A number of academics selected authors and texts on the basis of being able to interview such authors either in advance in recorded form or in the presence of the students. This is clearly one of the advantages of the field currently. (See Living Writers in the Curriculum: A Good Practice Guide by
Vicki Bertram and Andrew Maunder, English Subject Centre 2005) Of course as all such materials grow in numbers and if they continue to be accessible they will be hopefully taken up, and it may well be the range and accessibility of these materials may affect the development of the field, and create yet again (as many noted was already the case) revisions in the ‘new canon’ that appears to have formed.
Table 5: how is the concept of the contemporary theorized or historicized by respondents
Type Number of respondents
Historicization 4

Chronology 3
Different cultural location 2
A number of respondents did not know how the contemporary was theorized and so did not return any data for this question. Historical period whether defined chronologically or with respect to ideological or social trends was cited as the primary determinant of situating or theorizing contemporaneity. Clearly the notion of the ‘contemporary’ is seen as being interconnected with that of a periodization, increasingly one framed by recent events and experiences.
However, a number of respondents indicated that such courses had emerged in an ad hoc and pragmatic way, sometimes deriving from post-war literary courses, and therefore the theoretical frame for this process of accounting for contemporaneity could in many cases be regarded inexact or loose. Peer pressure and persuasion among academics also seems to be a strong factor.
Table 6: classification of the most common forms of themes and contexts considered both appropriate to and essential in the teaching contemporary fiction for Number of respondents Theme and context contemporary fiction teaching
Postcolonial 6
Nation/nationality
Feminism
Gender and sexual politics
Postmodernism
Diasporas
Changes in identities
Thatcherism
Globalisation
Other
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
15
Issues concerned with identity and nationality in a general sense comprise the predominant context followed by the themes of sexual politics broadly understood. There were a range of other responses, such as class, the holocaust, and the cold war, all of which were cited as experiences that could help situate crucial issues and debates that themselves shapes the contemporary world. Some respondents indicated these were contexts of interest to the students. Moreover, many respondents indicated that these contexts were interesting not only in staff research terms, but could provide a beneficial understanding for students of what might be described as the faultlines of Western culture. In some ways certain respondents indicated that such selections are not surprising given that this very range of topics broadly mirror those that are of interest to the authors creating contemporary British fiction.
Table 7: classification of institutional periodization of contemporary fiction

Institutional periodization
1960 onwards
Mid 1970 onwards
Number of respondents
2
4
No institutional perspective
Others
5
3
Clearly increasingly periodization is defined by a concept of common understandings, ideologies and experiences that frame contemporaneity, which means that books are chosen increasingly from post-1960. However, the majority of respondents indicated that there was no single institutional perspective, and that such choices (as indicated elsewhere) are primed by influential critical publication, or become conventions that emerge because of multiple points of reference in the field (derived from published sources and such networking as conferences and so forth). Another reason cited is that this kind of more recent periodization responds to the relative youth of those generally researching, studying and writing about the field and thus mirrors their immediate world-view. This too is increasingly true of the authors featured, and thus periodization appears to develop as people’s experience of life and history changes.
Table 8: choice and contexts influencing conceptions of how contemporary fiction should be periodized
Influences on periodization of contemporary fiction
Number of respondents
Historical context 3
Not sure
Institutional context
Shifting critical perspectives
Trends set by prizes
Relation to research interest
Political and cultural debates
Aesthetic experimentation
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Other 6
As is the case with tables 5 and 7 history appears to broadly define those factors determining periodization. However, apart from the factors cited above with reference to table 7, currently the impression is that the overall picture is in some ways diffuse and may well still be subject to change, as many respondents reflected during follow-up interviews. Respondents on the one hand classified possibilities of periodization in terms of concrete examples and availability of critical materials; often they retained a broader picture of possibilities that might if allowed shape such conceptions. There were fewer absolute givens than it appears had historically been the case.
Table 9: how the field of the contemporary is seen to relate to previous periods
Relation to previous periods Number of respondents

Chronological development only 9
Combination of chronological development and genre
3
Reponses to this question reflected the role of historical teleology in determining the concept of the contemporary and accorded with the findings of tables 5, 7 and 8. Whatever the reservations about the grounds for justifying any periodization as a method of dividing the curriculum, together with genre and quasi-geographic definitions, these remain the predominant structures and descriptors in use.
Table 10: key resources used for the teaching of contemporary fiction
Key resources for teaching contemporary fiction
Library stock
Student owned texts
Websites
Cited journals
Review materials
Critical and theoretical books
Number of respondents
12
10
10
8
8
7
Online bibliographies 7
As might be expected the principal teaching resources are still printed materials. The emphasis upon library stock may be a cause for concern given the acute financial pressures which many academic libraries are facing.
Nevertheless, the number of respondents citing websites reflects the fundamental importance which electronic resources now have in the teaching of English. It also indicates the need for a whole range of sources to be provided and produced electronically. Journals were cited, but follow-up interviews indicated they were less widely used by practitioners themselves in classroom practice. Such sources were recommended to students for further reading. Critical and theoretical works recurred in courses and modules, and in certain cases were regarded as a ‘backbone’ around which other readings were situated. This was true of certain collections that featured in the sources cited as influential.
Table 11: deficiencies in resources for teaching contemporary fiction
Number of respondents Deficiencies in resources for teaching contemporary fiction
Lack of books and essays in print
Lack of journals
Lack of database for reviews
Lack of current online information
3
2
2
1
A number of respondents had no views on resource deficiencies and so did not return any data for this question. Respondents indicated that a lack of printed material was the largest lacuna. This deficiency takes the form of both

insufficient material being published and difficulties in accessing published work. However, suggestions for improving resources focused on the online environment with calls for better websites and databases. Generally more secondary materials concerned specifically with the fiction or authors studied were something practitioners would welcome, and they indicated that this appeared to be happening slowly as the field grew, being aware of at least two new series that were beginning to appear (Manchester UP, Ed. Daniel
Lea; Palgrave Macmillan, Eds. Philip Tew & Rod Mengham). .
7. General Conclusions
7.1 The project was originally intended to be undertaken from spring to autumn 2005, so as to obtain the broadest possible number of courses over the cycle of two halves of the academic year. The timetable proved difficult because follow-up of non-respondents was both slow and arduous. This may be a reflection of the workload of colleagues generally, and the emphasis on a whole variety of issues including the RAE and such internal matters as recruitment and retention.
7.2 The decision was taken to undertake the web survey to supplement the information received and although not a comprehensive or complete guide, it offered an additional perspective and source of empirically-based, published information. Hence, there were two major aspects to the project:
(a) The survey involving semi-structured interviews (online, by telephone and in-person) with back-up questions addressed to a nominated member of staff.
(b) A web survey, where departmental web-pages were analyzed for overall raw data published in an unmediated fashion, and analyzed subsequently.
7.3 Although as stated above an attempt was made to cover the whole of the regions of the UK and as many different kinds of universities (pre-1992 and post-1992) as possible; returns could only be made determined on the willingness of individuals and departments, and therefore some selected institutions had to be altered. Late informal follow-up interviews were required to add information and (in part) to maintain a reasonable geographic spread to ensure statistical relevance and viability.
7.4 The web survey undertaken has a number of deficiencies but it cannot be improved upon without the creation of a comprehensive database about contemporary fiction, and a broader survey of all departments as to their current practice. The problems with the survey results at present are that they:

clearly contain certain gaps as not all departments or individuals provide clear and comprehensive information;

do not necessarily in all responses distinguish between periods (such as 1945-1960, 1960 onwards, 1970 onwards and so forth);

in terms of the context and opinions taken from respondents cannot always sufficiently offer a clear distinction between contemporary fiction and postcolonial literature (since it is absent in the response);


are not always clear about exactly what kind of sources are being referenced especially as published literature from the areas of cultural studies and sociology is listed by respondents as secondary material;

are not always precise about when a source was first published;

offer a duplication of reading lists between different modules that makes it hard to determine whether some reading lists are really distinct from others;

mean that because of the above it is not really possible to estimate the percentage of contemporary fiction being taught on undergraduate and postgraduate degrees
7.5 As indicated above the periodization and focus of general contemporary
British fiction courses is emerging from a more diffuse field where postmodern, gendered and postcolonial readings still to some degree shape courses/modules and therefore the experience of students, and tend to effect periodizations. As a result some respondents indicated that such periodizations can appear vague since it is the case that they have simply have emerged in an adaptive fashion as the module developed. This would appear to explain the earlier lack of consensus, and exactly why a new post-
1970s idea of contemporaniety is rapidly emerging. Some hazarded the opinion that this too would change as cultural and historical issues divide us from that period. Overall the indication was that tutor preference would appear to dominate in this sense rather than any specific logic or rational purpose subtending the choice, in which case the emergence of the new field might become successively in very large part generational.
As a result of habit and long-established practice, until recently courses/modules often do not distinguish between the post-war (postimperial) and more recent periods. However, although as indicated above increasingly a period of the mid-1970s is being adopted to distinguish new aesthetic and cultural practice, in fact several academics indicated when interviewed that either the 1990s or the post-millennial (post-9/11) periods are already being used in certain new courses to delineate new phases of fiction.
This too is reflected in recent events and publications.
The generalized nature of critical materials can be read in three major ways:

as indicating a healthy and broad critical, historical and cultural engagement;

a sign that new materials specifically focused on this area are still limited in number (depending on author choices), and that a database of such materials (to include author-based studies as well as generalist books) might prove useful for academics teaching in the field (not all of whom are research experts in this area).

gendered, postmodern (poststructuralist) and postcolonial readings are still relevant and will adapt to the new critical and historical concepts of the contemporary.
7.6 Of the primary texts the most popular (seven or more) had few writers from the most recent generations, but many respondents still indicated that

their choices tended still to represent either post-war writers, or those emerging in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Certain insistent themes seem to include postcolonial (including Scottish) voices. The most popular authors in this field are: Monica Ali; Martin Amis ; J.G. Ballard; Pat Barker ; Julian
Barnes ; A.S. Byatt; Angela Carter; John Fowles; J. Galloway; Kazuo Ishiguro;
James Kelman; Jamaica Kincaid; Hanif Kureishi; David Lodge; Ian McEwan ;
V.S. Naipaul; Jean Rhys; Salman Rushdie ; Zadie Smith ; Muriel Spark;
Graham Swift ; Marina Warner; Sarah Waters; Irvine Welsh; and, Jeanette
Winterson . Those in bold also feature in Nick Bentley’s essay, discussed above, which outlines the twelve authors most often taught on post-war and contemporary literature cours es. Of course, given the ESC survey’s methodologies, this remains by its nature an incomplete account, but it does nevertheless offer a useful ‘snapshot’ of current teaching practice.
7.7 In the follow-up interviews, supplemented by knowledge of ongoing conversations among practitioners in the field, certain other issues in terms of pedagogic practice emerged which may well be worth noting.
7.7.1 Although critical theory was often used this was a matter of concern for respondents in terms of its appropriateness for the level of students. Although high theory had perhaps predominated in the 1980s and 1990s, the general feeling was that respondents had doubts about student capacity, and the need to take them through close reading practices that could no longer be taken for granted. However, in terms of the range of theoretical sources, pedagogic practice was to deploy a more fluid and wider range of theorists.
Some felt that literary and critical studies were in the midst of a theoretical paradigm shift, where the tenets of post-structuralism and postmodernism, no longer pertained as a requirement.
There was a general view that there was a need for close reading and a requirement to enable the students to undertake such a practice confidently.
Certain respondents felt that contemporary British fiction was ideal for this engagement.
Another view emerging was the need, in order to sustain interest among students, of a return to the concept of and study of the author. Respondents were aware of certain dangers such as a cult of celebration of intentionality, but such traditional issues were thought to be relevant and to sustain legitimacy.
Certainly increasingly practitioners seemed to indicate that there was growing pressure from young people about selection of texts that could reflect cultural and historical changes that might be relevant to their lives. The whole issue of an ‘ownership of cool’ could potentially make this problematic, as fiction choices were often behind the times to some degree. Plus, there is often a generational difference between tutors and those studied, particularly at undergraduate level.
7.7.2 As indicated above, one further conclusion, both from the survey and other work undertaken for the project, is that to date monographs and book

collections rather than articles seem to serve as the critical landmarks of this field, a return perhaps to a responsive mode of criticism, the production of materials supporting efforts in the classroom, where many academics simply seemed to want to respond to recent fiction (in fact, this is a periodic recurrent emphasis in Literary Studies apparent in American universities as early as the
1880s).
Future Benefits
These may include the following: o This material may prove to be useful in helping publishers and English departments respond to the needs of the academic community; o This project may help develop guide direction for the future funding for academic scholarship, research, and curriculum development in what is an important area of study; o Hopefully the results will contribute to an awareness of the broad commitment to this field will encourage networking between staff in this area; and, o Finally the project offers a provisional overview of this area and its growing significance, and seeks to share good practice and information regarding available resources
11. Appendices
APPENDIX 1
Overview essay [Prof. Philip Tew]
In the sense that this project is concerned with the most contemporary of fictional texts and their reception in the classroom of the academy, the consensus appears to be that contemporary British fiction is a growing area in literary and cultural studies both in the UK and internationally, but often taught in an ad hoc fashion without necessarily responding to the availability of support materials which hampers student work and intellectual development.
This project was intended to review such teaching of contemporary fiction in academic English (and affiliate) departments by considering a range of issues, including exactly what literary and theoretical texts are taught and on what courses, and additionally assess the use and availability of different kinds of supplementary literary-critical support materials. This might be achieved through an empirical study by conducting semi-structured interviews with academics offering such courses, from material submitted via the web by practitioners, and also by a supplementary survey of available material published by departments and schools concerned with English literary studies
(defined in the broadest fashion).
The project is concerned with what happens after the death of the author, death of the text, and the ludic displacement of meaning in the text, after the postmodern furore has died away, given that exegesis and close reading

appear to have survived the onslaught, as does our interest in the contemporaneous, products of late modernity that we all have proved to be.
Once it may have seemed much as Edmund J. Smyth reports of the zeitgeist in the introduction to his edited collection, Postmodernism and Contemporary
Fiction (1991), that postmodernism prevailed as a descriptor and ‘that postmodernism differs from modernist aesthetics principally in its abandonment of subjectivity: the representation of consciousness is alleged to have been forsaken with the emphasis on the fragmentation of the subject.’
(10) Significantly few of Smyth’s contributors abandon the practice of close textual reading (or a viable sense of their own critically situated subjectivity), and certainly maintain a clear sense of contemporaneity. Judiciously as an editor Smyth cautions us that although ‘for Brian McHale and others, epistemological doubt is conveyed through disjointed formal structures in a work of postmodern fiction. However tempting this view may appear, it is still a totalizing perspective in that it remains predicated on a reflectionist (not to say reductive) description of the complexity of the language of fiction and its relationship to “reality.”’ (13) Others might well have been better advised to heed Smyth’s implicit warnings, for as has become increasingly evident (as of course most of us always knew) all literary and critical positions are part of an ongoing historical process, one that adapts and suffers periodic crises of confidence, and often more simply responds to shifts in generational disputes, cultural dispositions and spaces of possibles (to paraphrase Pierre Bourdieu).
This project arose from exactly a recognition that, in terms of looking at the recent novel, currently we may well inhabit in the academy precisely one of those transitional periods. The impulses that motivated its undertaking were various, but the primary one was to assess whether the general sense that contemporary British fiction had become a major focus in English and literary studies was an accurate reflection of current practice, especially given the interest in North America and elsewhere. Of course like many things this impression was gained both anecdotally, in part, and quasi-empirically, through the increasing numbers of introductory books and collections published in the area (although in truth this is a very recent development since around 2000). The second motivation was to position or perhaps understand the nature of the transition, by recognizing what occurs in classroom practice in a relatively new field, but one which has to be initially situated, which we shall do in very broad terms that should be recognizable.
As indicated obliquely above, in the academy previously postmodern, gendered and postcolonial accounts of the novel held sway for a number of years both critically and in the classroom, despite the inherent limitations and exclusions in such critical practices, and the essentialist and reductive nature of such descriptors, and for all their initial verve and apparent radicality.
Critical materials, courses and modules created what seemed an immovable disposition and entrenchment. According to the new orthodoxies, one no longer periodized twentieth century fiction (although a broad historical situatedness and practice informed reading and theoretical practices). There was a kind of nihilistic pessimism stated in a certain infectious grandiloquence that plagued many commentators, as did an almost unwarrantable confidence in their expositions. Consider Matei Calinescu who says in Five Faces of

Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism
(1987):
In the postmodern age, kitsch represents the triumph of the principle of immediacy-immediacy of access, immediacy of effect, instant beauty. The great paradox of kitsch, as I see it, is that being produced by an extremely time-conscious civilization, which is nevertheless patently unable to attach any broader values to time, it appears as designed both to ‘save’ and ‘kill’ time, in the sense that, like a drug, it frees man temporarily from his disturbed time consciousness, justifying ‘aesthetically,’ and making bearable an otherwise empty, meaningless present. (8-9)
However, as with all things this seems to be in the process of being challenged, although as ever a new critical transformation is both initially almost imperceptible and then its subsequent progress increasingly rapid.
Thus in the last five years (a significant date perhaps for a new kind of realism and need to reconsider the contemporaneous) it was as if a dyke or damn had broken. With the challenges to and crisis in legitimacy in post-modern (and post-structuralist) theory this had the effect of undercutting those who had confidently delegitimatized periodizations and geographic boundaries in terms of British fiction, contesting the establishment of coherent meaning (while ironically at least provisionally doing so) and opposing any differently centred critique with the inchoate and the unsayable. In Contemporary Metafiction: A
Poetological Study of Metafiction in English since 1939
(1986) Rüdiger Imhof notes the self-reflexive nature of such fiction, and comments,
Metafiction is play, as all art is; it involves a form of game-playing. Much of what a reader encounters in this type of narrative is, in fact, part of a game the writer is playing with and on him. It is of special interest to find out why this should be so. Further, metafiction is clearly dominated by an impulse towards joking and parody. (10)
Even in literary studies the study of literature had perhaps become a way of encountering an ideological understanding rather than aesthetic and cultural concerns; it seemed that the accelerating trajectory was of hordes of overconfident critics supervening in terms of accounting for not just the archtectonics of the text or texts in question, but of textualization itself, and additionally, indeed, to negate the very possibility of meaning. For Luigi
Cazzato in Metafiction of Anxiety: Modes and Meanings of the Postmodern
Self-Conscious Novel (2000),
‘Fictionality is a human construction, not an ontological primum , hence, the possible fictionality of postmodern reality is the historical product of a society in which the power of language meets the need of fictionalization of power. In this light, the postmodernist habit of transforming everything into text, linguistic game, style, fiction, in short into the aesthetic, is merely a mimetic act of passive acceptance of postmodern reality.’
(97) Such textualizing embraces everything at the same time it apparently ironizes and contests its legitimacy, often invoking a misuse of the Derridean

concept of nothing existing beyond the text, and as Christopher Norris indicates in Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science, Deconstruction and
Critical Theory (1997):
Derrida, like Bachelard, shows a special interest in problematic cases where the relationship between concept and metaphor –or science in its
‘normal’ and ‘revolutionary’ modes – is most visibly thrown into doubt. Nor is it to play down those many passages where he writes about the strictly undecidable order of priority that can be shown to operate whenever science (or philosophy) comes up against the limits of its powers to explain or conceptualize the workings of metaphor. But we should not be misled – like so many commentators – into taking this as a deconstructive fait accompli, or an allpurpose rhetoric of ‘undecidability’ which can then be applied pretty much across the board, without the kind of rigorous exegetical commentary that Derrida brings to his reading of Bachelard and Canguilham. It is the same habit of premature generalization – often
(one suspects) from a weak grasp of the issues involved – that leads cultural and literary theorists to invoke notions l ike ‘indeterminacy’,
‘complementarity’, ‘undecidability’ and the like as if these could serve as a knock-down argument against the appeal to the absolute criteria of truth, reason or logic. (29)
Despite this overarching impression of a postmodern critical hegemony, in fact increasing numbers of theorists were working toward the return of either a concept of the real or a universally (of course, locally speaking) comprehensibility even in fiction, anathema to the poststructuralist/postmodern axis. As Robert C. Koons says in Realism Regained: An Exact
Theory of Causation, Teleology, and the Mind (2000), ‘Everything that is posited to exist is posited to exist because of some role it plays in the causal network of the world. My approach is resolutely non-dualistic: I reject any sort of Cartesian or neo-Cartesian postulation of a scientifically inaccessible realm of subjectivity.’ (2) He continues:
If a robust sense of reality leads us to recognize causal connections as first-class citizens of our ontological inventory, we must also make room for those special kinds of objects that can serve as relata for causal relations, whether we call these objects possible ‘facts’, ‘situations’, or
‘states of affairs’. These objects must be distinguished from propositions and from quasi-linguistic representations if we are to capture accurately the logical relations governing causal idioms. (4 –5)
This is part of an insistent return to the real or at least a sense of referentiality by a whole variety of critics (including traditionalists) of many dispositions.
Simply put, for them the world and literature’s complex relationship with it persists despite the deconstructive efforts and its approximations are synonymous with our perceptual presence, both partial and yet intuitively whole. Neither language nor semiosis defines either life (ontology) or creativity (fiction as our current concern) in their entireties. In fact they barely scratch the surface. Finally, everyone has to rest upon at least a provisional stability to establish a passing meaning, in order however imperfectly to

communicate (to err is human, making it hardly an original observation that we cannot achieve perfection). Perhaps as elsewhere, in literary studies, reflexively, ironically and hubristically enough, postmodern and poststructuralist critique overpowered (and over-determined) itself. In essence as the critical claims became more extravagant, first, the idea of the radicality of such textual manoeuvres wore thin, and, second, writers carried on only marginally affected or shaped by such observations. Furthermore in practice it was producing or tending toward a study of literature that was not only excessively obtuse, but according to many essentially theoretically weak, dependent as it seemed to become on a deconstructive methodology.
Given that postmodern critical hegemony had foundered, those in the academy progressive enough to think ahead were left with the problem of framing courses (and larger understandings) in which to respond to recent publications of fiction and ones that achieved at least a workable coherence that was sufficiently and logically responsive to the general, broad, catholic culture of which most students were a part (all of them in the smallest part by being an inhabitant of Britain at the time of studying). Of course there are many other affiliative aspects to our being, but all groupings are both compromises and provisional, all accounts however apparently radically disposed are partial and contain errors of judgment and misreadings. To many it seemed as if the secular evangelicalism of contemporary theory might be at times somewhat hubristic.
How can one account for such shifts or transformations? It may be in part generational: new academics with new careers to forge. Possibly too a recognition came about among practitioners —and it is extremely difficult to delineate precise evidence of how exactly such social processes come about in practice —that students needed to be led to their own understanding that aesthetic acts possess cultural dimensions and relevance; cultures create
(and influence) texts, and texts respond to cultural forms. The particularity is important, but not the sole or even crucial point of recognition (especially given everything in life changes, which is one of the few constants, ironically enough). In the early part of the last century in Themis: A Study of the Social
Origins of the Greek Religions . (1912), Jane Harrison in drawing upon
Durkheim, Henri Bergson and William James, and linking ritual to drama, sees in literature generally patterns of prehistoric fertility rites and myth. In her introduction she says, “The all-important point is not which particular structure is represented, but the general principle that social structure and the collective con science which utters itself in social structure ...” (xxii)
The newness of focusing upon contemporary British fiction becomes evident if one notes the few monographs to date in the field (especially those that consider the dynamics of the field toward something as a whole, rather than author-based studies ands introductions). This newness not only characterizes this area of study, but perhaps it currently both limits its expansion and its credibility among academics whose area of expertise lies elsewhere. As I have commented elsewhere (most especially in my monograph, The Contemporary British Novel [2004]) there are innate notions

of conservatism and tradition that subtend much of English studies. If English
Studies is to thrive, this is something that needs to be overcome.
APPENDIX 2
6.2
The following form was used for the semi-structured interviews:-
UNIVERSITY DETAILS:
Respondent details:
NAME: SPECIFY
TITLE AND AFFILIATION: SPECIFY
LENGTH OF TIME AT CURRENT INSTITUTION (YEARS): SPECIFY
E-MAIL ADDRESS AND LANDLINE CONTACT NUMBER: SPECIFY
RESPONSES:
1. Title(s) and number of undergraduate and postgraduate course(s) on which contemporary (post-1970) British and Anglophone fiction is taught at the institution
SPECIFY
2. Title(s) and number of undergraduate and postgraduate course(s) on which modern/contemporary (post-1945 - 1970) British and Anglophone fiction is taught at the institution?
SPECIFY
SUMMARY: according to the respondent at the University of INSERT there are SPECIFY ACTUAL OR APPROXIMATE NUMBER discrete courses concerned with this area as a central feature
3. Assessment of where chronologically the field of contemporary fiction in terms of teaching and British and Anglophone /or research is situated historically at the institution, either including or excluding pre-1970 fiction, or in any other way.
SPECIFY
4. Modern and/or contemporary fiction constitutes approximately SPECIFY % in terms of the delivery of English courses for UG and PG degree(s).
5. Estimate of such students taking such courses on a semester basis: UG
SPECIFY and PG SPECIFY
6. List of staff and postgraduates (with e-mail contacts) concerned with research and teaching in the field of contemporary fiction:
SPECIFY

7. Authors and major texts, variously literary, theoretical, and literary-critical, are used on the modern/contemporary fiction courses:
SPECIFY
8. Form/method of the tutor’s ongoing production of new canonicity take: i.e. how are tutors influenced in their choice of new authors and/or literary texts
(reviews, academic studies, personal recommendation, etc.)?
SPECIFY
9. How the concept of the contemporary is theorized or historicized at the particular institution, if at all
10. Themes and contexts which are felt to be both appropriate to and essential in the teaching contemporary fiction: i.e. the post-imperial age, migration, gender etc. etc.?
11. At this institution whether it is felt that contemporary fiction should be periodized (such as post-1945 to 1970, 1960s onwards, or mid-1970s onwards)? Is this accurately reflected in the structure and content of the courses taught, or not?
12. What kind of choices and contexts influence the conception of how contemporary fiction should be periodized?
13. How is the field of the contemporary seen to relate to previous periods
(Victorian, modernism, inter and post-war)? Is it a matter of chronological development, an issue of genre, or other?
14. List and description of the key resources used for the teaching of contemporary fiction (library stock, student owned texts, journals, review materials, critical and theoretical books, websites, online bibliographies etc. etc.).
15. Deficiencies existing in the available resources in this field in respondent’s opinion. Resources they would like to see developed if this were to be feasible.
APPENDIX 3
Bibliography.
Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde,
Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism . Durham : Duke University
Press, 1987.
Cazzato, Luigi. Metafiction of Anxiety: Modes and Meanings of the
Postmodern Self-Conscious Novel . Fasano : Schena, 2000.

Harrison, Jane Ellen. Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of the Greek
Religion . [1912]. London: Merlin Press, 1989.
Imhof, Rüdiger. Contemporary Metafiction: A Poetological Study of Metafiction in English since 1939 . Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 1986.
Koons, Robert C. Realism Regained: An Exact Theory of Causation,
Teleology, and the Mind . Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.
Norris, Christopher. Against Relativism: Philosophy of Science,
Deconstruction and Critical Theory . Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
Smyth, Edmund J. Ed. Postmodernism and Contemporary Fiction . London: B.
T. Batsford, 1991.
Tew, Philip. The Contemporary British Novel . London and New York:
Continuum, 2004.
APPENDIX 4
Related Websites
British Council, ‘Contemporary
Writers in the www.contemporarywriters.com
Brunel University School of Arts: www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/sa
English Subject Centre: www.english.heacademy.ac.uk
UK
UCE School of English: www.lhds.uce.ac.uk/english
UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies
APPENDIX 5
Texts cited as used currently in teaching contemporary British fiction
,’:
(a) Authors/ primary texts adopted most frequently (cited at least three times)
Ali M. (2003) Brick Lane .
London: Doubleday 8
Amis M. (1985) Money London: Penguin 3
Amis M. (2003)
Time’s Arrow
. London: Vintage 3
Amis M. other texts ((1988) Einstein’s Monsters . Harmondsworth: Penguin;
(2001) Experience . London: Jonathan Cape; (1999) London Fields . London:
Vintage; (1982) Other People .
Harmondsworth: Penguin ; (1996) The
Information. London: Flamingo) 7
Ballard, J.G. (1973) Crash . London: Jonathan Cape. 4
Ballard, J.G. (2001) The Atrocity Exhibition . London: Flamingo Modern
Classics 3

Ballard, J.G., other texts ((1994) The Empire of the Sun. London: Flamingo;
(1992) The Unlimited Dream Company.
London: Flamingo) 2
Barker, P. (1990) Regeneration Harmondsworth: Penguin. 5
Barker, P. other texts ((2003) Double Vision . London: Hamish Hamilton;
(1994) The Eye in the Door . Harmondsworth: Penguin; (1995) The Ghost
Road . Harmondsworth: Penguin; (1982) Union Street . London: Virago) 6
Barnes, J. (1990) A History of the World in 10 1/
2
Chapters . London: Picador 4
Barnes, J. (1999) England, England . London: Picador 3
Barnes, J. (1999) Flaubert’s Parrot . London: Picador 4
Byatt, A. S., (1991) Possession: a Romance . London: Vintage 11
Byatt A.S. other texts ((1992) Angels and Insects . London: Chatto and
Windus; (1998) Elementals.
London: Chatto and Windus; (2003) The
Biographer’s Tale . London: Vintage) 3
Carter A. (1982) The Passion of New Eve . London: Virago 11
Carter A. (1985) Nights at the Circus . London: Vintage 14
Carter A. other texts ((1976) Fireworks .
London: Quartet Books; (1987) Love .
London: Chatto and Windus; (1982) The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr
Hoffman . London: Penguin) 5
Carter A. (1992) Wise Children . London: Vintage 3
Carter A., (1979) The Sadeian Woman. London: Virago 2
Carter, A. (1981) The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories . London: Penguin
12
Carter, A. (1981) The Magic Toyshop . London: Virago 3
Coe J. (1994) What A Carve Up!
London and New York: Penguin 3
Coe J. (2001)
The Rotters’ Club
. London: Viking 2
Deane S. (1996) Reading in the Dark. London: Vintage 5
Desai A. (1980) Clear Light of Day . London: Vintage 3
Desai A. (1977) Fire on The Mountain . London: Heinemann 2
Erdrich, L. ((1994) The Beet Queen . London: Flamingo; (1988) Tracks .
New
York: Henry Holt; (1985) Love Medicine .
London: Deutsch; (1994) The Bingo
Palace . London: Flamingo) 5
Fowles J. (1963 ) The Collector .
Jonathan Cape: London 2
Fowles, J. (1969) The French Lieutenant’s Woman London: Pan 10
Galloway, J. (1998) The Trick is to Keep Breathing . London: Vintage 3
Ishiguro K. (1999) The Remains of the Day .
London: Faber 3
Ishiguro K. other texts ((1996) When We Were Orphans . London: Faber;
(1986) An Artist of the Floating World , London: Penguin; (1995) The
Unconsoled . London: Faber) 4

Kelman J. (1989) A Disaffection . London: Picador. 3
Kelman J. (1995) How Late It Was, How Late. London: Vintage. 3
Kelman J. other texts ((1987) Greyhound for Breakfast . London: Secker and
Warburg; (1992) The Burn . London: Vintage; (1985) The Bus Conductor
Hines. London and Melbourne: J.M. Dent ) 3
Kennedy, A. L ((1993) Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains. London:
Phoenix; (1995) Now That You’re Back . London: Vintage; (1996) So I Am
Glad London: Vintage) 4
Kincaid J. (1985) Annie John. London: Picador 3
Kincaid J. (1994) Lucy . London: Picador 2
Kincaid J. (1988) A Small Place . London: Virago 3
Kincaid J. (1996) The Autobiography of My Mother .
London: Vintage 2
Kureishi H. (1995) The Black Album . London and Boston: Faber and Faber 5
Kureshi, H.
(1991) The Buddha of Suburbia . London: Faber and Faber. 9
Lodge D. (1978) Changing Places. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 3
Lodge D. (1989) Nice Work. London: Penguin 3
Lodge D. other texts ((1991) Paradise News . London: Secker and Warburg;
(1984) Small World: An Academic Romance .
London: Secker and Warburg) 2
McEwan, I. (2002) Atonement. London: Vintage 4
McEwan, I. (1987) The Child in Time . London: Picador 3
McEwan, I. other texts ((1997) First Love, Last Rites . London: Vintage; (1978)
The Cement Garden. London: Jonathan Cape; (1981) The Comfort of
Strangers .
London: Jonathan Cape; (1997)
‘Psychopolis’ in
In Between the
Sheets . London: Vintage; (1992) Black Dogs . London: Cape) 11
Naipaul, V.S., (1967) The Mimic Men . London: Deutsch 3
Naipaul, V S., other texts ((1979) A Bend in the River . London: Deutsch ;
(1961) A House for Mr Biswas.
London: Deutsch; (1971) In a Free State .
London: Deutsch; (1987) The Enigma of Arrival . London: Viking ; (2001) The
Mystic Masseur . London: Picador) 6
Ondaatje, M., (1996) The English Patient.
London: Picador. 4
Phillips, C., ((2003) A Distant Shore . London: Jonathan Cape; (1985) The
Final Passage.
London Faber; (1997) The Nature of Blood . London: Faber;
(1993) Crossing the River . London Bloomsbury) 5
Rhys, J. (1968) Wide Sargasso Sea . Harmondsworth: Penguin. 12
Rushdie, S, (1995)
Midnight’s Children
. London: Vintage. 16
Rushdie, S, (1983) Shame . London: Picador. 6
Rushdie, S, (1988) The Satanic Verses . London: Picador 5
Rushdie, S, other texts ((1994) East, West .
London: Jonathan Cape; (2001)
Fury.
London: Jonathan Cape ; (1995)
The Moor’s Last Sigh
. London:
Jonathan Cape) 5

Smith, Z. (1999) White Teeth.
London: Penguin. 12
Spark, M., (1974) The Driver’s Seat . London: Penguin.
5
Spark, M, (2000) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
London: Penguin 5
Spark, M., other texts ((1981) Loitering with Intent . London: Bodley Head;
(1961) Memento Mori .
Harmondsworth: Penguin; (1963) The Girls of Slender
Means . London: Macmillan) 5
Swift, G. (1999) Waterland . London: Picador 8
Swift, G. (1996) Last Orders . London: Picador 3
Warner, A. (1996) Morvern Callar . London: Vintage 6
Warner, A., (1997) These Demented Lands. London: Jonathan Cape
Waters, S. (2002) Fingersmith . London: Virago 4
Waters, S. (1999) Tipping the Velvet .
London: Virago 3
Welsh, I. (1993) Trainspotting . London: Secker and Warburg. 5
Welsh, I. other texts ((2002) Glue . London: Vintage; (1995) marabou stork nightmares . London: Jonathan Cape; (2003) The Cutting Room . Edinburgh:
Canongate) 3
Winterson, J. (1991) Oranges are Not the Only Fruit . London: Vintage. 7
Winterson, J. (1989) Sexing the Cherry . London: Bloomsbury. 3
Winterson, J. (1987) The Passion .
London: Bloomsbury 3
Winterson, J.
(1992) Written on the Body . London: Vintage 5
Winterson, J. other texts ((1997) Gut Symmetries.
London: Granta Books;
(2000) The Powerbook . London: Jonathan Cape) 3
(b) Critics / secondary or theoretical texts cited (cited at least twice)
Abel E., (1982) (ed.), Writing and Sexual Difference . Brighton: Harvester 2
Adam I and Tiffin H (eds.), (1991) Past the Last Post: Theorizing Postcolonialism and Post-modernism.
London: Harvester Wheatsheaf 2
Adams P., (1996) The Emptiness of the Image: Psychoanalysis and Sexual
Differences . London: Routledge 2
Ahmad, A., (1994) In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures . London: Verso 4
Allen, W. (1958) The English Novel: a Short Critical History . Harmondsworth:
Penguin 2
Anderson B., (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and
Spread of Nationalism . London: Verso 2
Anderson L.(ed.) (1990) Plotting Change: Contemporary Women’s Fiction .
London: Edward Arnold 2
Armitt L. (ed.) (1991) Where No Man Has Gone Before: Women and Science
Fiction . London: Routledge 2
Ashcroft B., Griffiths G. and Tiffin H. (eds.) (1998) Key Concepts in Postcolonial Studies . London: Routledge 3
Ashcroft B., Griffiths G., and Tiffin H. (eds). (1985) The Empire Writes Back :
Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures .
London: Routledge. 7

Ashcroft, B., Griffiths G. and Tiffin H. (eds.) (1995) The Post-Colonial Studies
Reader . London: Routledge 11
Auerbach, E. (1953) Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western
Literature . Princeton: Princeton University Press 3
Auslander P. (1997) From Acting to Performance: Essays in Modernism and
Postmodernism .
London: Routledge 2
Barker F., Hulme P. and Iversen M. (1994) Colonial Discourse, Postcolonial
Theory . Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2
Barry, P. (1995) Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural
Theory . Manchester: Manchester University Press 4
Barry, P. (1995) Issues in Contemporary Critical Theory . Manchester:
Manchester University Press
Bell E. (2004) Questioning Scotland: Literature, Nationalism, Postmodernism .
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 3
Bell E. and Miller G. (eds.) (2004) Scotland in Theory: Reflections on
Literature and Culture. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 3
Belsey, C. (1980) Critical Practice . London: Routledge 3
Bennett A. and Royle N., (1999) Introduction to Literature, Criticism and
Theory . Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall 4
Bergonzi, B. (1979) The Situation of the Novel . London: Macmillan 2
Berman, M. (1999) All that is Solid Melts into Air: the Experience of Modernity.
London and New York: Verso 3
Bertens, H (1995) The Idea of the Postmodern: A History . London: Routledge
2
Bhabha H. (1994) The Location of Culture , London: Routledge 7
Bhabha, H. (1990) Nation and Narration . London: Routledge 4
Boehmer, E. (1995) Colonial and Postcolonial Literature .
Oxford: Oxford
University Press 6
Bold, A. (ed.) (1985) Muriel Spark: an Odd Capacity for Vision . London and
New York: Rowman and Littlefield 2
Booker, M, (1998) The Modern British Novel of the Left: A Research Guide .
Westport: Greenwood 2
Botting, F., (1997) Gothic .
London: Routledge 2
Bradbury, M. (1983). The Modern American Novel . Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Bradbury, M. (1993) The Modern British Novel . London: Secker and Warburg
3
Bradbury, M. (1995) Dangerous Pilgrimages: Transatlantic Mythologies and the Novel . London: Secker and Warburg
Bradbury, M. (ed.), (1977) The Novel Today: Contemporary Writers on
Modern Fiction . Manchester: Manchester University Press 3
Bradbury, M. and MacFarlane J. (eds.) (1991) Modernism: A Guide to
European Literature 1890-1930 . Harmondsworth: Penguin 3
Brennan T. (1989) Salman Rushdie and the Third World . London: Macmillan
2
Bristow J. (1995) Effeminate England: Homoerotic Writing after 1885 .
Buckingham: Open University Press
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(c) Significant published materials in the field
The key texts responding to contemporary British fiction broadly conceived
(rather than specifically gendered, post-modern or postcolonial texts in isolation) that were indicated in various additional informal interviews were variously: o Acheson, J. and Ross, S. (eds.) (2005) The Contemporary British
Novel . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press o Barfield, Steven, et al. (eds.) (2007) Teaching Contemporary British
Fiction . Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.
Book focusing upon classroom experiences and practice in the field; including initial results of a survey of emerging ‘canonical’ choices by academics. o Bentley, N. (ed.) (2005) British Fiction of the 1990s . London and New
York: Routledge
Essays, both thematic and author and novel based, on post-1990s fiction o Brannigan, J. (2003) Orwell to the Present: Literature in England,
1945 –2000 . Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan o Childs, P. (2005) Contemporary Novelists: British Fiction since 1970 .
Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Introductory, summative essays of twelve novelists with introductory and concluding essays, concentrating on British authors born after
1940, the ‘Granta-list generation’ in the main. o Ferrebe, A. (2005) Masculinity in Male-Authored Fiction, 1950
–2000:
Keeping it Up . Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Very little from post-1980; primary focus on 1950s and 1980s in particular; remains committed to a gendered account. o Head, D. (2002) The Cambridge Introduction to Modern British Fiction,
1950
– 2000
. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press
One of the first of a batch of generalist accounts of recent fiction, although it combined the post-imperial with the contemporary.

o King, B. (2004) The Oxford English Literary History; Volume 13 . 1948 –
2000 .
The Internationalization of English Literature . Oxford and New
York: Oxford University Press
Significant, if not detailed panoptic account of postcolonial fiction from
1980, as well as other post-Windrush periods. o Lane R., Mengham, R. and Tew, P. (eds.) (2000) Contemporary British
Fiction . Cambridge: Polity
An early collection of essays designed to support practitioners in offering broad courses that became an international standard and therefore highly influential. o Macleod, J. (2004) Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis .
London and New York: Routledge
Last parts feature postcolonial post-1980 fictional accounts of London o Mengham, R. (1999) An Introduction to Contemporary Fiction:
International Writing in English since 1970 . Cambridge: Polity
Conjoins writing in a contemporary period from many English speaking cultures, and in so doing became a ground-breaking text. o Morrison, J. (2003) Contemporary Fiction . London and New York:
Routledge o Shaffer, B. (2006) Reading the Novel in English 1950 – 2000 . Malden,
MA and Oxford: Blackwell
Long introduction followed by chapter length essays on key books, focusing on mainly 1960s and 1980s. Contemporary criticism features
Ishiguro and Swift
. o Stevenson, R. (2004) The Oxford English Literary History; Volume 12.
1960 – 2000. The Last of England?
Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press.
Cultural and thematic periodization of wider period; significant focus on post-1970, migrancy and gender in last part. Significant overview. o Tew, P. (2004) The Contemporary British Novel . London and New
York: Continuum; (2007) 2 nd rev. ed. London and New York:
Continuum
Influential and significant critique of fiction from mid-1970s, combining ideological placement of texts with interpretative readings. Second edition featuring post-millennial fiction was published in 2006 o Wells, L. (2003) Allegories of Telling: Self-Referential Narrative in
Contemporary British Fiction . Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi
A detailed exegetical account of novels by Fowles, Carter, Swift, Byatt and Rushdie. A significant coverage of pre-1980s fiction.
APPENDIX 6

Conferences & other academic events
Apart from author-based conferences concerned with living British writers, and events such as literary festivals (such as Hay on Way) there have been a number of events focusing upon contemporary British fiction, which have drawn interest from a number of academics. This has been important in creating a body of criticism, where scholars can try out critical ideas in a new field where initially published sources were scarce. There was a general recognition of reconsidering (but not necessarily abandoning) postmodernism, poststructuralism, feminism ad so forth, but there was a sense of broadening the cartography of the literary culture and those other cultural elements that were relevant to its study. Such events included:
 “Subjectivities in Contemporary British Fiction,” panel, 30 th Anniversary
Conference of NEMLA (North Eastern MLA), Duequesne University,
Pittsburgh 16 th – 17 th April 1999.
 “Contemporary British Fiction,” UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies,
2 June 1999, British Library Conference Centre featuring A. L.
Kennedy, Iain Sinclair, Will Self, Prof. Simon Critchley (Essex
University), Prof. James Diedrick (Albion College, Michigan)
 “Coming of Age: New Voicing in Contemporary British Fiction 1979 –
2000,” UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies colloquium, Jesus
College, Cambridge, 27 January 2000.
 “Death and the Metaphysics of Finitude: Contemporary British Fiction,” panel, North-Eastern Modern Languages Association Annual
Conference, Toronto, Canada, 11 – 14 April, 2002.
 “Teaching Contemporary British Fiction: 1970 to the Present,” UK
Network for Modern Fiction Studies in association with The British
Council, 29 May 2004, University of Westminster.

UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies Summer Research Seminar
Series, University of Westminster, 2004 – 2006.
 “Contemporary Writing Environments” Brunel University, West
London, 8
– 10 July 2004.
 ” Near and Dear: Friends and Family Figures in Contemporary Fiction,
One-day conference, University of Hull, 14 th May 2005.
 “The Twenty-First Century Novel: Reading and Writing Contemporary
Fiction,” Lancaster University, 2-3 September 2005
APPENDIX 7
Raw survey results
Results from respondents:
1. Number of undergraduate and postgraduate course(s) on contemporary
(post-1970) British and Anglophone fiction. undergraduate
3 universities had 1 course
2 universities had 4 courses

3 universities had 5 courses
1 university had 6 courses
1 university had 7 courses postgraduate
5 universities had 1 course
1 university had 2 courses
2 universities had 3 courses
2. Number of undergraduate and postgraduate course(s) on modern/contemporary (post-1945-1970) British and Anglophone fiction. undergraduate
4 universities had 1 course
1 university had 2 courses
1 university had 3 courses
1 university had 4 courses
2 universities had 5 courses
1 university had 6 courses postgraduate
4 universities had 1 course
3 universities had 2 courses
3. Is the field of contemporary fiction in terms of teaching and British and
Anglophone /or research classified as either including or excluding pre-1970 fiction, or in any other way.
1 university included pre-1970 fiction
4 universities excluded pre-1970 fiction
5 universities classified contemporary fiction by dividing between pre and post
WWII
1 university choose not to distinguish contemporary fiction by period
4. Approximately assess what proportion of your UG or PG degree(s) the above categories of modern and/or contemporary fiction constitutes in terms of the delivery of English courses. undergraduate
1 university had 12.5%
3 universities had 15%
2 universities had 20%
1 university had 35%
2 universities had 60% or more (with one having 60-80%) postgraduate
2 universities had 15%
2 universities had 20%
1 university had 50% or more

5. Estimate how many undergraduate and postgraduate students take contemporary fiction courses and the length of each of these (that is either by semester, by year or any other). undergraduate
1 university had 25-50
1 university had 50-75
4 universities had 75-100
1 university had 100-125
1 university had 150-175
1 university had 175-200
1 university had 200-250 postgraduate
6 universities had 25 or less
8. What form does the ongoing production of new canonicity take: i.e. how are tutors influenced in their choice of new authors and/or literary texts (reviews, academic studies, personal recommendation, etc.).
6 respondents named review materials
5 respondents named academic studies
3 respondents named personal recommendation
2 respondents named media and news reports
3 respondents named conferences and author readings
3 respondents named course development
2 respondents named research interests other responses which occurred once were: availability of texts relevant journals student views literary prizes discussion
9. How is the concept of the contemporary theorized or historicized at your institution, if at all?
3 respondents cited historicization (with respect to contemporary social issues or postmodern or postcolonial issues)
3 respondents cited simple chronology (such as pre and post WWII or post
1970)
1 respondent cited the perspective of various different cultural locations
1 respondent cited a definite cultural and historic change affecting aesthetic production
10. Are there any themes and contexts which are felt to be both appropriate to and essential in the teaching contemporary fiction: i.e. the post-imperial age, migration, gender etc. etc.? Please specify.
6 respondents cited postcolonial

4 respondents cited nation/ nationality
3 respondents cited feminism
3 respondents cited gender and sexual politics
3 respondents cited postmodernism
2 respondents cited diasporas
2 respondents cited changes in identities
2 respondents cited Thatcherism
2 respondents cited globalization other responses which occurred once were: history class creative writing literature and film emergence of major theoretical movements post-war multicultural holocaust and the cultural impact of WWII cold war media post postmodern experiments community race and ethnicity the city the post-millennial
11. At your institution how is it felt that contemporary fiction should be periodized (such as post-1945 to 1970, 1960s onwards, or mid-1970s onwards). How accurately is this reflected in the structure and content of the courses taught.
2 respondents cited 1960s onwards
4 respondents cited mid-1970s onwards
5 respondents cited no institutional perspective (individual views) other responses which occurred once were:
1945-1995 and 1995-present
1945-present mid 1980s- 2000
12. What kind of choices and contexts influence your conception of how contemporary fiction should be periodized?
2 respondents were not sure
2 respondents cited historical contexts other responses which occurred once were: institutional context shifting critical perspectives trends set by prizes

relation to research interests political and cultural debates aesthetic experimentation use of set texts such as Bradbury’s
The Modern British Novel specific cultural and historical contexts of particular authors and texts collective consciousness in relation to generational change gradual breakdown of the post war consensus social change in relation to class rise of mass television culture
13. How is the field of the contemporary seen to relate to previous periods
(Victorian, modernism, inter and post-war)? Is it a matter of chronological development, an issue of genre, or other?
8 respondents cited chronological development only
3 respondents cited combination of chronological development and genre
14. List and describe the key resources used for the teaching of contemporary fiction (library stock, student owned texts, journals, review materials, critical and theoretical books, websites, online bibliographies etc. etc.).
12 respondents cited library stock
10 respondents cited student owned texts
8 respondents cited journals
8 respondents cited review materials
6 respondents cited critical and theoretical books
10 respondents cited websites
7 respondents cited online bibliographies
15. What deficiencies exist in the available resources in this field in your opinion? What resources would you like to see developed if this were to be feasible? deficiencies
1 respondent cited lack of current online information
3 respondents cited lack of books and essays in print. (Lack of accessible overviews and serious monographs on single authors were mentioned)
2 respondents cited lack of journals in the area
2 respondents cited lack of a database for reviews resources to be developed
2 respondents cited better websites
2 respondents cited better databases
1 respondent cited more filmed interviews with authors