Worlds within Words: Twenty-first Century Visions on the Work of Julian Barnes

The essays collected in this volume were partly drawn from the contributions to the 2008 international conference “Julian Barnes and the European Tradition” held at Liverpool Hope University. They cover a large part of Julian Barnes's literary output, including his novels, short stories and non-fiction. Several essays examine Barnes's early novels in the larger context of the writer's persistent pursuit of truth in a postmodernist world which has lost its faith in the reassuring stability and teleology of grand narratives. Another recurrent concern in Barnes's novels which is analysed here pertains to the complex issue of Englishness and the definition of a national identity. Finally, contributors propose a thorough examination of Barnes's recent production and more particularly his preoccupation with death, illness, old age and religion.