WEEK 11. THIS YEAR’S BOOKER PRIZE COMPETITION AND WINNER (2009)

‘The Booker Prize represents the very best of contemporary fiction. One of the world’s most famous literary prizes, it continues to be the ultimate accolade for every fiction writer’ – Booker’s description of the Booker Prize

‘Posh bingo’ – Julian Barnes’s description of the Booker Prize

2009 Judges:

James Naughtie (chair), Lucasta Miller, John Mullan, Sue Perkins, Michael Prodger

2009 Shortlist:

A.S. Byatt, The Children’s Book
J.M. Coetzee, Summertime
Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer, The Glass Room
Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger

Abjection

I thought you'd all done Kristevan 'abjection' on your Theory core already, or I'd have spent a little longer on it in the lecture today. If you're a little unsure what it means, you could do a lot worse than to follow these links:

Here's a fairly straightforward definition.

This introductory account situates Kristeva's theory in its Lacanian theoretical context.

Here are some Google Books monographs that use the concept (sadly Kristeva's own Powers of Horror book isn't up for preview on Google Books).

And here's an applicaton of Kristeva's theory to Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and Keri Hulme's The Bone People (by Samantha Pentony).