Introduction

Abstract

N° 54 of Études britanniques contemporaines is a plural issue. It brings together a selection of articles emanating from the workshop organised by SEAC (Société d’Études Anglaises Contemporaines) at the 2017 SAES conference (Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur). The topic chosen for the conference was ‘(Re)constructions’, and the articles published here testify to the complexity and pertinence of the notion. Although it has not been systematically elaborated as adjacent notions, such as intertextuality, have been, it offers invaluable perspectives on the way literature is reworked and on its memorial dynamics. Alongside intertextuality or inter-iconicity, it allows us to understand the subversive logic of literature and the way it undoes and displaces linguistic and aesthetic hierarchies. The present issue also features an interview with Jonathan Coe and we would like to thank both Jonathan Coe and Vanessa Guignery for entrusting us with this rich and enlightening interview. To the critical reviews section is added a bibliography of recent books of critical interest. Although it does not aim at being exhaustive, the bibliography testifies once again to the vitality of the research done in the field of 20th and 21st British literature.

Keywords

• contemporary British literature
• literary reconstruction
• rewriting
• intertextuality
• literary memory
• intermediality