Graham Swift
Published on 1. December 2005
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-7190-6836-2 (ISBN)
Description
This book offers an accessible critical introduction to the work of Graham Swift, one of Britain's most significant contemporary authors. Through detailed readings of his novels and short stories from 'The Sweet Shop Owner' (1980) to 'The Light of Day' (2003), Daniel Lea lucidly addresses the key themes of history, loss, masculinity and ethical redemption, to present a fresh approach to Swift.
This study proposes that one of the side-effects of modernity has been the destruction of traditional pathways of self and collective belief, leading to a loss of understanding between individuals about their duties to each other and to society. Swift's writing returns repeatedly to the question of what we can believe in when all the established markers of identity - family, community, gender, profession, history - have become destabilised. Lea suggests that Swift increasingly moves towards a notion of redemption through a lived ethical practice as the only means of finding solace in a world lacking a central symbolic authority. -- .
This study proposes that one of the side-effects of modernity has been the destruction of traditional pathways of self and collective belief, leading to a loss of understanding between individuals about their duties to each other and to society. Swift's writing returns repeatedly to the question of what we can believe in when all the established markers of identity - family, community, gender, profession, history - have become destabilised. Lea suggests that Swift increasingly moves towards a notion of redemption through a lived ethical practice as the only means of finding solace in a world lacking a central symbolic authority. -- .
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7190-6836-2 (9780719068362)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Daniel Lea is Senior Lecturer in English Studies at Oxford Brookes University
Content
Series editor's foreword; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction: Lost in transmission; 2. The Sweet Shop Owner (1980); 3. Shuttlecock (1981) and Learning to Swim and Other Stories (1982); 4. Waterland (1983); 5. Out of this World (1988); 6. Ever After (1992); 7. Last Orders (1996); 8. The Light of Day (2003); Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.