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Convulsions of the Local: Contemporary British Psychogeographical Fiction

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Twenty-First-Century British Fiction and the City

Part of the book series: Literary Urban Studies ((LIURS))

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Abstract

Formulated by the Situationist International in France in the 1950s, psychogeography broadly refers to the influence of the urban environment on the emotion and behavior of individuals. This chapter explores the reconstitution of psychogeography in Britain from the 1990s onward with a specific focus on the convulsion of the local that is a defining feature of its textual corpus. Such texts typically feature intertextual and non-linear narratives structured peripatetically by walking; ambiguous autofictional or alter ego narrators; and a concern for the intersection of place and memory. Close reading of novels by Iain Sinclair, Will Self, and Nick Papadimitriou reveal the capacity of contemporary psychogeographical fiction to question neoliberal capitalism’s pervasive restructuring of everyday life in the cities of twenty-first-century Britain and beyond.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Ella Mudie

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  1. Ella Mudie
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Correspondence to Ella Mudie .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA

    Magali Cornier Michael

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Mudie, E. (2018). Convulsions of the Local: Contemporary British Psychogeographical Fiction. In: Michael, M. (eds) Twenty-First-Century British Fiction and the City. Literary Urban Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89728-8_10

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