(Re-)Mapping London

The aim of this collection is to explore representations of London in contemporary literature from two main perspectives: the city as observed by British-born Londoners and the new multicultural London. The British capital is sometimes presented as a labyrinthine, hostile and even occult city which is now no longer the centre of the Empire and is a place of chaos, decay, disorder, corruption and alienation. But it can also be considered in a creative and dynamic perspective as the source of endless imagination and regeneration, as the place for growth and change, for new beginnings and possibilities. This volume examines fresh ways of re-mapping the metropolis and redefining its contours in novels from the 1960’s to the present, with special focus on Graham Swift, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Peter Ackroyd, Will Self, Caryl Phillips, Doris Lessing, Jenny Diski, Tibor Fischer and Monica Ali.
How do English novelists represent London? How do their characters move in this space of life and death, madness and violence, beauty and terror? Which interactions appear between them and the urban space, the streets, the squares, the dwellers? This volume questions the writing of the English capital from two viewpoints, depending on whether the authors are British native Londoners or come from the ex-colonial countries (including children of immigration). Two points of view which permit to grasp a subtle panorama of the city.