Nicola Barker: Critical Essays

Nicola Barker's exuberant novels here receive the scholarly attention they deserve in a collection of essays which moves chronologically through her oeuvre. The chapters are broad-ranging, placing Barker's work in its contemporary context and collectively making a convincing case for her importance as one of our most inventive novelists.ContentsForewordNicola BarkerThe Barkeresque An IntroductionBerthold SchoeneIndie Reversed Forecast and a Turn-of-the-Century AestheticBen Masters'Temporary People': Wide Open as an Island NarrativeDaniel Marc Janes'You grew up in this shithole, then?': Literary Geographics and the Thames Gateway SeriesLen Platt'The Pair of Opposites Paradox': Ambivalence, Destabilization and Resistance in Five Miles from Outer HopeGinette Carpenter'Woah there a moment. Time out!': Slowing Down in A Transparent NovelBeccy KennedyBeneath the Thin Veneer of the Medievalism in DarkmansChristopher VardyBurley Cross Postbox Theft as ComedyHuw Marsh'Tuning into My "Awareness Continuum"': Optimized Attention in The YipsAlice BennettExuberant Narration as Metaphysical Currency in In the ApproachesBerthold SchoeneThe Pursuit of Happiness in H(A)PPY , or What a Difference an (A) MakesEleanor ByrneNotes on ContributorsIndex