Description
This comprehensive chronological introduction offers a detailed analysis of Rose Tremain’s novels and examines the critical reception of her work. It situates Tremain – listed by Granta magazine as one of the twenty most promising young British novelists in 1983 – in the landscape of contemporary British literature by demonstrating how the variety of her work touches upon major concerns of contemporary fiction. The book aims to satisfy the needs of students by providing an extensive reading of Tremain’s novels based on critical discussions of key notions in contemporary literary theory and cultural studies. It includes a comprehensive bibliography and overview of Tremain’s critical reception. It points up the suitability of Tremain’s novels as practical illustrations of major concepts in contemporary literary debates.
Table of Contents
1: Introduction.- 2: Displacement in Rose Tremain’s first novel, Sadler’s Birthday.- 3: Female Itineraries: The Road to Empowerment in Letter to Sister Benedicta and The Cupboard.- 4: Gender Provinces: Realism and Feminism in The Swimming Pool Season.- 5: Seventeenth-Century Panorama: the Function of History in Restoration.- 6: Mindscapes as Landscapes: Journeys of the Self in Sacred Country and The Way I Found Her.- 7: Historical ‘Terrains’: Music and Silence and The Colour.- 8: Foreign Prospects and Local Entrenchments: Immigration in The Road Home and Trespass.- 9: A Picaresque Journey: Merivel. A Man of His Time.- 10: Conclusion: The Gustav Sonata.- Appendix Observations by Rose Tremain.- Bibliography.- Index
