Poverty in Contemporary Literature ― Themes and Figurations on the British Book Market

Poverty and inequality have gained a new public presence in the United Kingdom. At a time of social cuts, new austerity measures and a rhetoric about 'broken Britain', poverty is present in the public imagination, and it is visible in the streets of British cities. Literature can (re-)configure how people think, feel and behave in relation to poverty. This study investigates life-writing, fiction and non-fiction with a poverty theme, produced in Britain from the mid-1990s to the present and contributes to the new transdisciplinary field of poverty studies.

Barbara Korte is Professor of English Literature at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Her books include English Travel Writing from Pilgrimages to Postcolonial Explorations (2000) and she is editor of The Penguin Book of First World War Stories (2007).

Georg Zipp is an academic researcher at the University of Freiburg, Germany. His study on poverty in Contemporary Caribbean fiction is forthcoming.