York Notes Companions: Postwar Literature: 1950 to 1990

The literature of the second half of the twentieth century is characterised by a tension between conservatism and innovation. This volume examines the key writers and genres that explore this idea, including the postmodern novels of Julian Barnes, Angela Carter and Graham Swift, the modern lyrics of Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath and Stevie Smith, and the inventive dramas of Samuel Beckett, Caryl Churchill and Tom Stoppard. Chapters focussing on “Nostalgia and Nationality”, “Class and Education” and “Sex and Identity” provide important historical and social context, and combine with a range of key critical approaches to provide an indispensable guide to the era.

Dr William May is a lecturer in Humanities at the University of Southampton. He completed a doctorate on the work of Stevie Smith at Balliol College, Oxford, and lectured at Bath Spa, Roehampton and St. Anne's College, Oxford, before joining Southampton in 2008. He has published widely on postwar British literature, co-edited the interdisciplinary essay collection From Self to Shelf: The Artist Under Construction (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), and recently published the monograph Stevie Smith and Authorship (OUP, 2010). His current research project, 'Setting Agendas', examines the relationship between contemporary British music and literature.