Contemporary British Fiction: Narrating Violence, Trauma and Loss (International Conference, 17-18 September 2010)
Contemporary British fiction is preoccupied with scenarios of violence, trauma and loss: destruction, guilt, traumatic experiences and apocalyptic anxieties are prevalent thematic and aesthetic concerns that seem to be related to incisive and far-reaching political events. With the postmodern fascination with fragmentation and the dissolution of meaning on the wane, the preoccupation with physical and psychological collapse has prompted some critics to postulate the 'traumatological' (Philip Tew) nature of contemporary writing and to detect a post-millennial aesthetic of responsibility and conscience. These trends and tendencies have been identified, but have not yet received due (and differentiated) critical attention.