Peripheral Visions

Throughout contemporary British writing, the question of national identity recurs. By means of its testimony to lived experience, the novel seems to offer the possibility of exploring local communities and marginalized identities in various elaborate ways. However, by its very metropolitanism, and as a result of the material circumstances of publishing and the cosmopolitan nature of the audience, the British novel inevitably conglomerates around London, and its exploration of the remainder of Britain has tended to be patchy and "touristy". This book investigates the ways in which contemporary writing disseminates a consciousness of local and national identity, and the ways in which the writers negotiate a space for their locality. It contains commentary by academics alongside testimony from writers describing what is involved in trying to re-negotiate some sense of local allegiance in fiction.