Suzanne Keen's Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction examines the following works as examples of what she convincingly shows to be a characteristic postimperial literary form. Romances of the Archive embrace realistic, detective, time-slip fantasy novels, and blends of these various genres.
- Peter Ackroyd, Chatterton, 1987
- Peter Ackroyd, The House of Doctor Dee, 1993
- A. S. Byatt, Possession, 1989
- Lindsay Clarke, The Chymical Wedding, 1989
- Stevie Davies, Impassioned Clay, 1999
- Peter Dickinson, Some Deaths before Dying, 1999
- Margaret Drabble, The Gates of Ivory, 1991
- J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur, 1974
- Robert Goddard, Past Caring, 1986
- Robert Harris, Fatherland, 1992
- Alan Hollingsworth, The Swimming-Pool Library, 1988
- P. D. James, Original Sin, 1992
- Penelope Lively, According to Mark, 1984
- Larwence Norfolk, Lemprère's Dictionary, 1991
- Barry Unsworth, Sugar and Rum, 1988
- Barry Unsworth, Losing Nelson, 1999
- Nigel Williams, Witchcraft, 1987
Keen also includes discussion of works she considers "postcolonial rejoinders":
- Amitav Ghosh, The Shadow Lines, 1988
- Keri Hulme, The Bone People, 1985
- Bharati Mukherjee, The Holder of the World, 1993
Links to Related Material
- Postimperial Romances of the Archive
- Postimperial Decline, the Romance of the Archive, and the Recovered past
- The Suez Crisis and Postimperialist Fiction
- History, Heritage, and Secondary School National Curriculum in the United Kingdom, 1970-2000
- The Postimperial British Debate over History versus Heritage
- The Romance of the Archive vs the Academic Novel
Bibiography
Keen, Suzanne. Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction. Toronto: U. of Toronto Press, 2001.
Last modified 24 September 2002