Father and Son

Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, and the British Novel since 1950

Gavin Keulks

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9780299192136
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

An innovative study of two of England's most popular, controversial, and influential writers, Father and Son breaks new ground in examining the relationship between Kingsley Amis and his son, Martin Amis. Through intertextual readings of their essays and novels, Gavin Keulks examines how the Amises' work negotiated the boundaries of their personal relationship while claiming territory in the literary debate between mimesis and modernist aesthetics. Theirs was a battle over the nature of reality itself, a twentieth-century realism war conducted by loving family members and rival, antithetical writers. Keulks argues that the Amises' relationship functioned as a source of literary inspiration and that their work illuminates many of the structural and stylistic shifts that have characterized the British novel since 1950.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Amises, Tradition, and Influence: Genealogical Dissent
• PART 1. CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY: CHARTING THE ARTISTIC ALLEGIANCES
• PART 2. INFLUENCE AND INTERSECTION: THE INTERPLAY OF INDIVIDUAL WORKS
• Conclusion: Projecting a Future: The Amises, Genealogical Dissent, and the British Novel since 1950
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index