British Fiction and the Cold War [Hardcover]

This book offers a unique analysis of the wide-ranging responses of British novelists to the East-West conflict. Hammond analyses the treatment of such geopolitical currents as communism, nuclearism, clandestinity, decolonisation and US superpowerdom, and explores the literary forms which writers developed to capture the complexities of the age.Introduction 1. Literary Containment 2. The Nuclear Debate 3. An Age of Espionage 4. From Socialism to Postmodernism 5. The End of Empire 6. The American Age

British Fiction and the Cold War by Andrew Hammond demonstrates that the Cold War was part of everyday British life, and that British literature & . His breadth of exploration of Cold War themes in literature is of great value and Hammonds monograph will be seen as vital for students seeking to study British literature and the Cold War. & useful to scholars in better understanding the interactions between Cold War cultures, the state and populations of East and West. (Nicholas Barnett, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 52 (3), 2017)

Andrew Hammond is Senior Lecturer of English Literature at the University of Brighton, UK. His research interests are Cold War fiction, postcolonial writing and cross-cultural discourse. Previous publications include Global Cold War Literature: Western, Eastern and Postcolonial Perspectives (editor, 2012) and British Literature and the Balkans: Themes and Contexts (2010). British Fiction and the Cold War is a real map of the territory, suggesting lines of enquiry as well as, with specific cases, doing sterling work contextualizing and analyzing the text to demonstrate the Cold War focus as workable hermeneutically. The Cold War frame picks out the ideology underpinning the withdrawal from empire, and the revolutionary rhetoric and right wing propaganda structuring the conflict between militant and conservative forces in the UK. An excellent book, much needed. - Adam Piette, University of Sheffield, UK