The Second World War in Contemporary British Fiction

Stewart's study of secrets is a richly suggestive examination of the tension between memory and history, and the ongoing power of the Second World War to fascinate and disturb. This long overdue exploration of the war's afterlife opens up new territory for scholars of war writing and contemporary fiction. -- Gill Plain, Professor of English Literature and Popular Culture, University of St Andrews Secrecy, concealment and occlusion are inescapable effects of modern war, but they seem almost constitutive of relations in the Second World War. What Victoria Stewart has now shown, powerfully and meticulously, is the extent to which they are also crucial to our understanding of how we are still joined to, and separated from, the conditions of that decisive historical episode. This is an admirably questioning and probing study of an extremely important dimension of post-war fiction. -- Rod Mengham, University of Cambridge Stewart's study of secrets is a richly suggestive examination of the tension between memory and history, and the ongoing power of the Second World War to fascinate and disturb. This long overdue exploration of the war's afterlife opens up new territory for scholars of war writing and contemporary fiction. Secrecy, concealment and occlusion are inescapable effects of modern war, but they seem almost constitutive of relations in the Second World War. What Victoria Stewart has now shown, powerfully and meticulously, is the extent to which they are also crucial to our understanding of how we are still joined to, and separated from, the conditions of that decisive historical episode. This is an admirably questioning and probing study of an extremely important dimension of post-war fiction.