Soul Tourists

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER 'Evaristo possesses enough ball-busting originality to create whole novels for each of the historical characters she resurrects . . . [she creates] funky yarns so tantalising you want to devour them' Guardian Meet Stanley Williams: Single, in his thirties, grieving the death of his Jamaican father and wondering if there is more to life than his nine-to-five banking job in a sky-high glass menagerie. Enter Jessie O'Donnell: barmaid, former singer-cum-comedienne, and desperate to get into her rusty old Lady Niva and hit the freeway across Europe. The unlikely pair begin an electrifying odyssey that weaves in and out of history, colliding with the forgotten heroes of Europe's past. Shakespeare's mysterious 'Dark Lady of the Sonnet's, Pushkin and his Ethiopian great-grandfather and the mixed-race Allessandro de' Medici of Florence are all ready to have their voices heard, and Stanley and Jessie do what they can to hang on for the ride . . . 'A bouncy. . . touching novel about the search for love and belonging' The Times

The study of contemporary fiction is a fascinating yet challenging one. Contemporary fiction has immediate relevance to popular culture, the news, scholarly organizations, and education – where it is found on the syllabus in schools and universities – but it also offers challenges. What is ‘contemporary’? How do we track cultural shifts and changes? The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction takes on this challenge, mapping key literary trends from the year 2000 onwards, as the landscape of our century continues to take shape around us. A significant and central intervention into contemporary literature, this Companion offers essential coverage of writers who have risen to prominence since then, such as Hari Kunzru, Jennifer Egan, David Mitchell, Jonathan Lethem, Ali Smith, A. L. Kennedy, Hilary Mantel, Marilynne Robinson, and Colson Whitehead. Thirty-eight essays by leading and emerging international scholars cover topics such as: • Identity, including race, sexuality, class, and religion in the twenty-first century; • The impact of technology, terrorism, activism, and the global economy on the modern world and modern literature; • The form and format of twenty-first century literary fiction, including analysis of established genres such as the pastoral, graphic novels, and comedic writing, and how these have been adapted in recent years. Accessible to experts, students, and general readers, The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction provides a map of the critical issues central to the discipline, as well as uncovering new perspectives and new directions for the development of the field. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of contemporary literature.

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Feminism brings unique literary, critical, and historical perspectives to the relationship between women’s writing and women’s rights in British contexts from the late eighteenth century to the present. Thematically organised around five central concepts—Rights, Networks, Bodies, Production, and Activism—the Companion tracks vital questions and debates, offering fresh perspectives on changing priorities and enduring continuities in relation to women’s ongoing struggle for liberty and equality. This groundbreaking collection brings into focus the historical and cultural conditions which have shaped the formation of British literary feminisms, including the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and Empire. From the political novel of the 1790s to early twentieth-century suffrage theatre and contemporary ecofeminism, and from the mid-Victorian antislavery movement to anti-fascist activism in the 1930s and working-class women’s writing groups in the 1980s, this book testifies to the diverse and dynamic character of the relationship between literature and feminism. Featuring contributions from leading feminist scholars, the Companion offers new insights into the crucial role played by women’s literary production in the evolving history of women’s rights discourses, feminist activism, and movements for gender equality. It will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of women’s writing, British literature, cultural history, and gender and feminist studies.

This book analyses London fiction at the millennium, reading it in relation to an exploration of a theoretical positioning beyond the postmodern. It explores how a selection of novels can be considered as “second-wave” or “post-postmodern” in light of their borrowing more from mainstream and classical genres as opposed to formally experimental avant-garde techniques. It considers how writers utilise the cultural capital of London in a process of relocating marginalized, subjugated or under-represented voices. The millennium provides an apt symbolic opportunity to reflect on British fiction and to consider the direction in which contemporary authors are moving. As such, key novels by Martin Amis, Bella Bathurst, Bernardine Evaristo, Mark Haddon, Nick Hornby, Hanif Kureishi, Andrea Levy, Gautam Malkani, Timothy Mo, Will Self, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Rupert Thomson, and Sarah Waters are used to explore writing beyond the postmodern. ‘In this significant and welcome contribution to the field, Allen provides us with a sophisticated, detailed, and rigorous study of the move in contemporary fiction beyond postmodernism as exemplified by London fiction.’ —Nick Hubble, Brunel University London, UK

Andrea Levy has emerged as one of the most significant and popular voices in contemporary black British writing both in the UK and abroad. Drawing on a familial history of emigration, her critically-acclaimed novels - including the multiple award-winning Small Island - attempt to bring a variety of voices to the representation of black experience in post-war Britain. This book is the first of its kind to be devoted to Levy's work. Combining historical, theoretical and textual perspectives, the volume hosts a wide range of current critical approaches to Levy's fiction. With chapters written by leading established and emerging scholars, the book explores issues of literary form, diasporic literature and cultural value, the BBC TV adaptation of Small Island, while also shedding fresh light on Levy's critically neglected early works. The book also includes a new interview with Levy herself, a timeline of her life, chapter summaries, as well as guides to further reading and online resources, making this an essential companion to the writings of one of the most exciting voices in contemporary fiction.

This volume brings together contributions from various disciplines in the humanities exploring a variety of cultural, social and political configurations produced by the African presence in Europe, and attempting to consolidate a comparative framework for the study of contemporary black literatures and identities across different national and linguistic contexts. From the circumstances of black students in Russia to the recovery of a forgotten African identity in the Canary Islands, from the specificities of Portuguese postcoloniality to the representations of Africans in Iceland, the essays collected here provide a wide spectrum of research on African Diasporas in Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern Europe offering insights into previously little explored areas.

This is an open access book.We really appreciate the contributions to the success of the 18th AsiaCALL from participants from the United States, Spain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Austria, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine, and Vietnam. We also acknowledge the efficient local organizers from Hoa Sen University who paid great efforts and time to run the 18th AsiaCALL International Conference online. Without you, such effective colleagues, AsiaCALL could not gain such good prestigious fame. AsiaCALL is honored and delighted to announce that AsiaCALL2022, the 19th International Conference of the Asia Association of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, will be held on November 26-27, 2022. It will be hosted by the Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI), Ha Noi, Vietnam, at 298 Cau Dien street, Bac Tu Liem district, Hanoi, Vietnam. The Conference will be hybrid - both virtual mode (delegates outside of VN) and face-to-face mode (local delegates). Aims and ScopeThe mission of the AsiaCALL International Conference (AsiaCALL) is to give researchers, educators, and teachers from all over the world a place to share their teaching experience and classroom research. This is done through conferences and seminars. Selected full papers presented at the AsiaCALL International Conference will be published in the Conference Proceedings, and Journals with Open Access to share the participants’ research, teaching experiences. Furthermore, ASIACALL is a place where its members can be able to network and share work and research interests with other professionals in the field to maintain collaboration and advocate the use of technology in your educational environments.

This is the first volume to present an international overview of immigrant and ethnic-minority writing in 14 national contexts and a conclusion discussing this writing as a vanguard of cultural change.