Contemporary Women's Writing and the Media Ecologies of Neoliberal Britain.

Abstract

This chapter explores how references to media in a series of twenty-first century novels by contemporary British women writers place them as ‘active agents’ within the media ecologies of neoliberal, globalised Britain. It considers how three novels, Hotel World (2001) by Ali Smith, NW (2012) by Zadie Smith, and Started Early, Took my Dog (2010) by Kate Atkinson, use references to technology, print media, television, and corporate communication in ways that enable critical commentaries of this very specific time and place. By critically discussing these forms of media and the way in which people engage with them, use them, and are impacted by them, the writers in question help to define the media environment in which they are writing. As media landscapes can evolve and change so quickly with the advent of new technologies, trends and events, these acts of recording accounts of the contemporary media ecology translates these novels into historic artefacts, allowing these environments to be remembered.