This course aims to analyze, in depth, works of later 20th century and contemporary British fiction, focusing mainly on the forerunners of contemporary fiction and the theoretical outlooks in the second half of the 20th century that gave way to the emergence of postmodernist fiction. The course is designed to include sustained discussion of the rise and development of postmodernism with the aim of dealing with the issues of contemporaneity and difficulties of evaluating very recent literature. Set texts to include works by some of the following writers: Beckett, Doris Lessing, Spark, Fowles, Golding, Carter, Lodge, Byatt, Rushdie, Barnes, Ackroyd. The texts that will be studied in this course are chosen as representatives of the period they were written in.

Provide  familiarity with a selection of significant works of modern fiction and theoretical outlooks in literature of the second half of the 20th century

Teach the essentials of a critical and analytic analysis of literary texts

Provide knowledge of the rise and development of postmodernist fiction