Dr. Nick Bentley

Title: Senior Lecturer
Phone: (+44) 01782 733304
Email:
Location: CBB2.057
Role:
Contacting me:
Bentley_Nick

I studied English and History at undergraduate level at Keele and stayed on to complete an MA in Twentieth-Century British Fiction. I finished my doctorate on 1950s British fiction in 2001. I have taught at a number of Universities including Staffordshire University, Birmingham University and the Open University before taking up my post as lecturer in English Literature at Keele in January 2005.

My main research interests are in twentieth-century literature and literary and cultural theory, and more specifically in the connections between postmodernism, postcolonialism and contemporary fiction and culture. I have published two monographs: Radical Fictions: The English Novel in the 1950s (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007) and Contemporary British fiction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008). I have also had several journal articles published on post-Second World War literature and culture.

I am currently working on a book on Martin Amis, and on further research interests I’m developing around subcultural fictions and aesthetic representations of the events of 9/11.

I am a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies and a member of:

  • ACLA: The American Comparative Literature Association
  • BAMS: The British Association of Modernist Studies

Selected Publications

  • BENTLEY N. 2010. 'New Elizabethans': The Representation of Youth Subcultures in 1950s British Fiction. Literature & History, vol. 19(1), 16-33. link>
  • Bentley N. 2008. Contemporary British Fiction (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature). Edinburgh University Press.
  • BENTLEY NP. 2007. 'Re-writing Englishness: imagining the nation in Julian Barnes's "England, England" and Zadie Smith's "White Teeth"'. Textual Practice, vol. 21(3), 65-83. doi>
  • BENTLEY NP. 2007. Radical Fictions: The British Novel in the 1950s. Peter Lang Pub Inc.
  • Bentley N. Bentley N (Ed.). 2005. British Fiction of the 1990s. Routledge.

Full Publications List show

Books

  • Bentley NP, Hubble N, Wilson L. 2014. 2000-2009: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction. London: Continuum.
  • Bentley NP. 2014. Reader's Guide to the Essential Criticism of Contemporary British Fiction. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Wain J and Bentley N. 2013. Hurry on Down. Kansas City: Valancourt Press.
  • Bentley NP. 2013. FORTHCOMING: Martin Amis.
  • Bentley N. 2008. Contemporary British Fiction (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature). Edinburgh University Press.
  • BENTLEY NP. 2007. Radical Fictions: The British Novel in the 1950s. Peter Lang Pub Inc.
  • Bentley N. Bentley N (Ed.). 2005. British Fiction of the 1990s. Routledge.

Journal Articles

  • Bentley NP. 2011. Post-1945 Fiction. The Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 90, 814-824.
  • BENTLEY N. 2010. 'New Elizabethans': The Representation of Youth Subcultures in 1950s British Fiction. Literature & History, vol. 19(1), 16-33. link>
  • Bentley NP. 2010. Post-1945 Fiction. The Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 89, 847-857.
  • Bentley NP. 2009. Post-1945 Fiction. The Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 88, 925-935.
  • Bentley NP. 2009. Satiromania: Postmodern Satire in Martin Amis's Dead Babies. Critical Engagements: A Jounal of Criticism and Theory, vol. 3(2), 53-71.
  • Bentley NP. 2008. Post-1945 Fiction. The Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 87, 907-915.
  • BENTLEY NP. 2007. 'Re-writing Englishness: imagining the nation in Julian Barnes's "England, England" and Zadie Smith's "White Teeth"'. Textual Practice, vol. 21(3), 65-83. doi>
  • Bentley NP. 2007. Developing the Canon: Texts, Themes and Theories in Teaching Contemporary British Fiction. Anglistik & Englishunterricht, 27-45.
  • Bentley N. 2007. Modern Literature: English Fiction Post-1945. The Years's Work in English Studies, vol. 86(14).
  • BENTLEY NP. 2005. 'Form and language in Sam Selvon's "The Lonely Londoners"'. Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, vol. 36(3-4), 67-84.
  • Bentley NP. 2005. The Young Ones: A reassessment of the British New Left's representation of youth subcultures. The European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 8(1), 65-83.
  • Bentley NP. 2004. Cruel Britannia: Translating Englishness in Colin McInnes' "City of Spades" and "Absolute Beginners". Connotations: A Journal of Critical Debate, vol. 13(1-2), 149-169.
  • Bentley N. 2003. Black London : The Politics of Representation in Sam Selvon's\fIThe Lonely Londoners\fP. WASAFIRI, vol. 39(39), 41-45.
  • Bentley N. 2003. Writing 1950s London: Narrative strategies in Colin MacInnes's"City of Spades" and"Absolute Beginners". Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London.

Chapters

  • Bentley NP. 2014. FORTHCOMING: The Novel Sequence. In The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Volume 7: British and Irish Fiction Since 1940. Boxall P (Ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • Bentley NP. 2014. Subcultural Fictions. In 2000-2009: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction. Bentley N, Hubble N, Wilson L (Eds.). London: Continuum.
  • Bentley NP. 2014. The Changingman: Maculinity, Violence and Revenge in Martin Amis's Yellow Dog. In Beyond the City: Return of the Real London in Contemporary British Fiction. Hubble N and Tew P (Eds.). Continuum.
  • Bentley NP. 2013. Mind and Brain: the Representation of Trauma in Martin Amis's Yellow Dog and Ian McEwan's Saturday. In The Syndrome Syndrome: Disorders and Diseases in Contemporary Literature. Peacock J and Lustig T (Eds.). Routledge.
  • Bentley NP. 2013. British National Identities. In 1990-1999: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction. Hubble N (Ed.). London: Continuum.
  • Bentley NP. 2012. Northern Yobs: Representations of Youth in 1950s Writing: Hoggart, Sillitoe and Waterhouse. In The Literary North. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bentley NP. 2011. Angry Young Man Fiction. In The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Bentley NP. 2010. ‘Alan Sillitoe: Realism, Representation and the (Ir)responsibility of Writing’. In Realism’s Others. Baker G and Aldea E (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
  • BENTLEY NP. 2009. Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook: An Experiment in Critical Fiction. In Doris Lessing: Border Crossing. Ridout A and Watkins S (Eds.). London and New York: Continuum.
  • Bentley NP. 2005. Introduction: Mapping the Millennium: themes and trends in Contemporary British Fiction. In British Fiction in the 1990's. N B (Ed.). Routledge.

I teach on three programmes: English; English and American Literatures; and Media, Communications and Culture (MCC) 

 

Undergraduate modules:

Telling Tales: An Introduction to Narrative Fiction

Transatlantic Gothic: Studies in Nineteenth-Century English and American Literature

Understanding Culture

Postwar British Fiction and Poetry

Aspects of the Novel 1740-1930

Twentieth Century Novels into Films

Contemporary British Fiction

Postmodernism: Fiction, Film and Theory

 

Postgraduate

Postgraduate Director for MA Global Media and Culture

Criticism, Theory, Analysis

Contemporary Cultural and Media Theory

Post/Colonialism: Fiction, Film and Theory

 

MRes pathways

Contemporary British Fiction

Postmodern Fiction, Film and Theory

Postcolonial Fiction, Film and Theory

Subcultures

 

MPhil/PhD

I am keen to supervise MPhil/PhD research in the following areas:

Contemporary British Fiction

Postmodernism: Fiction, Film and Theory

Postcolonial Fiction and Theory

Literature and Culture of the 1950s and 1960s

Interdisciplinary studies of post-1950 literary and cultural studies

Subcultures: theory and literature

Representations of 9/11

Englishness in Post-War fiction and film