Literature & Literary Studies

Graham Swift

by Daniel Lea, Susan Williams

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. ;

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Author Biography

Daniel Lea is Senior Lecturer in English Studies at Oxford Brookes University

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Series Part

Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Manchester University Press
  • Publication Date December 2005
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9780719068379
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatPaperback
  • Primary Price 28 USD
  • Pages240
  • ReadershipProfessional and scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions216 X 138 mm
  • SeriesContemporary British Novelists
  • Reference CodeIPR4194

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