Cool Britannia and After British Literature, Culture, and Society from the 1990s to the Present Session Six: Lad Lit, Spicy Brits, etc.

Agenda Revisions in the programme: check website Fiction and identity: A summary

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Views of Fiction and Identity: A summary Literature as a corrective to the discursive representation of identities. Literature as an enforcer of the discursive representation of identities. Uses of literature.

Views of Fiction and Identity: A summary Helen Fielding: femininity (singletons vs the smug marrieds) Salman Rushdie: The Orpheus and Eurydice story as autobiography?

Fiction and identity Gender: masculinity Ethnicity: spicy Brits Region / nation Sexuality Ability Age

Gender: masculinity Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch Tony Parsons, Man and Boy

Tony Parsons, Man and Boy (1999) All my images of this particular birthday seemed derived from some glossy American sitcom. When I thought of turning thirty, I thought of attractive thirty-nothing marrieds fooling around like teens in heat while in the background a gurgling baby crawls across some polished parquet floor, or I saw a circle of good-looking, wisecracking friends drinking latte and showing off their impressive knitwear while wryly bemoaning the dating game. That was my problem. When I thought of turning thirty, I thought of somebody else’s life.

Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch Representations of masculinity and football: Green Street, The Football Factory

Lexi Alexander (2005)

Nick Love (2004)

John King, The Football Factory (1997)

Extreme Fandom: The Firms Chelsea: The Headhunters Tottenham Hotspurs: Yid Army Man. United: Red Army Birmingham City: Zulus Millwall: Bushwackers West Ham United: Green Street Elite (GSE) Arsenal: The Gooners

Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch How does Hornby represent fandom?

Ethnicity: Spicy Brits Discourses of etnicity: Enoch Powell’s ”River of Blood Speech” How does Sadie Smith represent ethnic identities?