My book examines the ways that contemporary British literature imagines the impacts of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's (1979-1990) domestic social policies on urban working class and immigrant communities. In this study, I take for granted the marxist spatial theory that the spaces which we inhabit and have access to ultimately contribute to our identity and notions of self in the city. It's pretty academic, and I'm damn proud to have written it.
The book covers quite a bit of literary ground: Lights out for the Territory - Iain Sinclair; England England - Julian Barnes; High Rise - J.G. Ballard; Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh; Brick Lane - Monica Ali; My Beautiful Laundrette - Hanif Kureshi; The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst; and Dorian - Will Self.
“Everyone in the Tube Sock Army can hear technology building its architectures in the voice. And Kim Duff tracks the provocations of this ‘neoliberal domesticity project’ as it gets us to whisper our passwords into our cell phones ‘softly.’ So much for disembodiment. In the intimacy afforded by 30-second intervals, we relax, texting ourselves the grocery list. ‘Truthiness’ breaks down our globalized front doors (the apartment keeps shrinking, but the rent goes up). Nevertheless, it’s in the interstices of these spatializing mediations that we keep vying (hope-full) for contact. This is ‘creature address.’ Hallo:” — Laura Elrick
Articles
“Let’s Dance: Hollinghurst’s Line of Beauty and the Revenant Figure of Thatcher.” Thatcher & After: Margaret Thatcher and Her Afterlife in Contemporary Culture. Eds. Louisa Hadley and Elizabeth Ho. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 180-198. Print.
"Franken-borgs and Memorable Bodies: Representations of Memory in Ridley Scott's Bladerunner." The Everyday Fantastic: Essays on Science Fiction and Human Being. Ed. Michael Berman. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. 102-113. Print.
“The Spatial Logic of Louis Cabris and Rodrigo Toscano’s Urban Poetics.” XCP: Cross-Cultural Poetics. 19. (2008), 22-40. Print.
"The Real Body Politik of Laura Elrick’s sKincerity.” WestCoastLine. 39:1. (2005). 87-90. Print.