By broadening the focus beyond classic English detective fiction, the American hard-boiled crime novel and the gangster movie, Crime Cultures breathes new life into staple themes of crime fiction and cinema. Leading international scholars from the fields of literary and cultural studies analyze a range of literature and film, from neglected examples of film noir and true crime , crime fiction by female African American writers, to reality TV, recent films such as Elephant, Collateral and The Departed, and contemporary fiction by J. G. Ballard, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood. They offer groundbreaking interpretations of new elements such as the mythology of the hitman, technology and the image, and the cultural impact of senseless murders and reveal why crime is a powerful way of making sense of the broader concerns shaping modern culture and society.

Postmodern fiction presents a challenge to the reader: instead of enjoying it passively, the reader has to work to understand its meanings, to think about what fiction is, and to question their own responses. Yet this very challenge makes postmodern writing so much fun to read and rewarding to study. Unlike most introductions to postmodernism and fiction, this book places the emphasis on literature rather than theory. It introduces the most prominent British and American novelists associated with postmodernism, from the 'pioneers', Beckett, Borges and Burroughs, to important post-war writers such as Pynchon, Carter, Atwood, Morrison, Gibson, Auster, DeLillo, and Ellis. Designed for students and clearly written, this Introduction explains the preoccupations, styles and techniques that unite postmodern authors. Their work is characterized by a self-reflexive acknowledgement of its status as fiction, and by the various ways in which it challenges readers to question common-sense and commonplace assumptions about literature.

D.M. Thomas is one of the most controversial writers of our time - considered by some a major voice in contemporary fiction, by others a dubious literary 'impostor' who repeatedly appropriates female sexuality, the holocaust and the work of other writers for personal gain. Though best known for his best-selling novel The White Hotel, he has written twelve other novels and is also an acclaimed poet and translator of Russian literature. This, the first book-length study of his work, suggests that what troubles people about Thomas' work is the way it presents literature as a complex process of collaboration, translation, and improvisation. Central to this is Thomas' distinctive practice of uncannily impersonating the voices of other writers, thus destabilising conventional categories like authorship, originality and the self. the book considers the influence of Russian literature on Thomas' work, his interest in Freud and psychoanalysis, and his commitment to finding suitable literary form to reflect the ways in which the uniquely violent, often nightmarish events of our times intersect with the desires and fantasies within us all.

Postmodern fiction presents a challenge to the reader: instead of enjoying it passively, the reader has to work to understand its meanings, to think about what fiction is, and to question their own responses. Yet this very challenge makes postmodern writing so much fun to read and rewarding to study. Unlike most introductions to postmodernism and fiction, this book places the emphasis on literature rather than theory. It introduces the most prominent British and American novelists associated with postmodernism, from the "pioneers," Beckett, Borges and Burroughs, to important post-war writers such as Pynchon, Carter, Atwood, Morrison, Gibson, Auster, DeLillo, and Ellis. Designed for students and clearly written, this Introduction explains the preoccupations, styles and techniques that unite postmodern authors. Their work is characterized by a self-reflexive acknowledgement of its status as fiction, and by the various ways in which it challenges readers to question common-sense and commonplace assumptions about literature.

Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel: A Reader is the first book to collect together the most important contributions to the theory of the postmodern novel over the last forty years and to guide readers through the complex questions and wide-ranging debates: what are its characteristics? Which novels and authors belong to the category? Does it even deserve to be a category on its own? From which traditions does it emerge? How does it relate to previous forms of the novel and to other aspects of postmodern culture? While discussion of the contemporary novel has been dominated by the question of postmodernism, developments in contemporary fiction are also central to the wider debate about postmodernism. Fiction is referred to frequently in the work of postmodernist thinkers not explicitly concerned with literature, like Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Haraway. The selections in this book will also enable readers to place the theory of postmodern fiction in a broader intellectual and cultural context. * Analyses postmodern fiction from both thematic and formal perspectives, giving in-depth coverage to key features and issues such as metafiction, the relation to modernism, history, and politics * Features work by some of the most important theorists and critics of the last few decades, such as Ihab Hassan, Jean Baudrillard, Linda Hutcheon, and Brian McHale * Provides a sense of historical, social and cultural context to the debate about postmodernism in fiction * Gives ample coverage to some of the most compelling issues raised in relation to postmodern fiction in recent years, such as science and new technologies, the cyborg, 'race' and gender

By broadening the focus beyond classic English detective fiction, the American 'hard-boiled' crime novel and the gangster movie, Crime Culture breathes new life into staple themes of crime fiction and cinema. Leading international scholars from the fields of literary and cultural studies analyze a range of literature and film, from neglected examples of film noir and 'true crime', crime fiction by female African American writers, to reality TV, recent films such as Elephant, Collateral and The Departed, and contemporary fiction by J. G. Ballard, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood. They offer groundbreaking interpretations of new elements such as the mythology of the hitman, technology and the image, and the cultural impact of 'senseless' murders and reveal why crime is a powerful way of making sense of the broader concerns shaping modern culture and society.