Nick Bentley
I studied English and History at undergraduate level at Keele University in the UK and stayed on to complete an MA in Twentieth-Century British Fiction. I finished my doctorate on 1950s British fiction in 2001. I have taught at a number of Universities including University of Birmingham, Staffordshire University, and the Open University before taking up the post of lecturer in English Literature at Keele in January 2005. I became senior lecturer in 2010. My main research interests are in twentieth and twenty-first century literature and literary and cultural theory, and more specifically in the connections between postmodernism, postcolonialism and contemporary fiction and culture. I have published four monographs: Radical Fictions: The English Novel in the 1950s (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007), Contemporary British Fiction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008), Martin Amis (Northcote House, 2015) and Contemporary British Fiction: A Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). I am editor of British Fiction of the 1990s (London and New York: Routledge, 2005) and have co-edited three collections: The 2000s: A Decade of Contemporary Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2015) (edited with Nick Hubble and Leigh Wilson); The 1950s: A Decade of Modern Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2018) (edited with Alice Ferrebe and Nick Hubble); and Teenage Dreams: Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media (Palgrave 2018) (edited with Beth Johnson and Andrzej Zieleniec). I have also had several journal articles published on post-Second World War literature and culture. I am currently working on a book on subcultural fictions, and developing research interests in contemporary working-class writing and representations of mental health in contemporary fiction. I was a founding member (and am currenlty on the executive committee) of The British Association of Contemporary Literary Studies. I was also a founding member of the Literary London Society and acted as their Treasurer for several years.
Phone: 01782 733304
Address: School of Humanities
Keele University
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG
Phone: 01782 733304
Address: School of Humanities
Keele University
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG
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Books by Nick Bentley
* analyses the criticism surrounding a range of British novelists including Monica Ali, Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Alan Hollinghurst, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, David Mitchell, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson
* explores experiments with literary form
* examines current issues in the cultural politics of class, ethnicity, gender and sexuality
* considers cutting-edge concerns relating to the neo-historical novel, the relationship between literature and science, literary geographies, and trauma narratives.
Engaging with key literary theories, and identifying present trends and future directions in the literary criticism of contemporary British fiction, this is an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers and scholars alike.
British Fiction of the 1990s:
* traces the concerns that emerged as central to 1990s fiction, in sections on millennial anxieties, identity politics, the relationship between the contemporary and the historical, and representations of contemporary space
* offers distinctive new readings of the most important novelists of the period, including Martin Amis, Beryl Bainbridge, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Iain Sinclair, Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson
* shows how British fiction engages with major cultural debates of the time, such as the concern with representing various identities and cultural groups, or theories of ‘the end of history’
* discusses 1990s fiction in relation to broader literary and critical theories, including postmodernism, post-feminism and post colonialism.
Together the essays highlight the ways in which the writing of the 1990s represents a development of the themes and styles of the post-war novel generally, yet displays a range of characteristics distinct to the decade.
Papers by Nick Bentley
* analyses the criticism surrounding a range of British novelists including Monica Ali, Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Alan Hollinghurst, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, David Mitchell, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Sarah Waters and Jeanette Winterson
* explores experiments with literary form
* examines current issues in the cultural politics of class, ethnicity, gender and sexuality
* considers cutting-edge concerns relating to the neo-historical novel, the relationship between literature and science, literary geographies, and trauma narratives.
Engaging with key literary theories, and identifying present trends and future directions in the literary criticism of contemporary British fiction, this is an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers and scholars alike.
British Fiction of the 1990s:
* traces the concerns that emerged as central to 1990s fiction, in sections on millennial anxieties, identity politics, the relationship between the contemporary and the historical, and representations of contemporary space
* offers distinctive new readings of the most important novelists of the period, including Martin Amis, Beryl Bainbridge, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, Iain Sinclair, Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson
* shows how British fiction engages with major cultural debates of the time, such as the concern with representing various identities and cultural groups, or theories of ‘the end of history’
* discusses 1990s fiction in relation to broader literary and critical theories, including postmodernism, post-feminism and post colonialism.
Together the essays highlight the ways in which the writing of the 1990s represents a development of the themes and styles of the post-war novel generally, yet displays a range of characteristics distinct to the decade.
The British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies brings together scholars and practitioners from across the UK and beyond in order to explore the current moment and its contexts. We are committed to literary studies in the broadest sense, including written, visual, performative and audible texts, in English and in other languages. We aim to foster research at every level and to support both practice and pedagogy.
From Charles Dickens' "Oliver" to Alan Sillitoe's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", literary descriptions of the social world - and working class life in particular - have often been called "realistic". But how has 'real life' been misrepresented by scholars and novelists alike? Can ethnography produce fictions of its own? And what skills are vital for any writer who wants to capture the complexity of everyday life?
Plus, is it really true, as WH Auden once suggested, that "poetry makes nothing happen"? Laurie and guests discuss the influence of literature and sociology on attitudes and policy, reflecting on how both can make a meaningful impact.
Producer: Alice Bloch.
This programme was first broadcast in July 2015.
This interview was first broadcast in January 2016