1977, or so

Miller, Meredith (2009) 1977, or so. Short Fiction, 3. p. 79. ISSN 1755-3474

Abstract / Summary

The peer-reviewed journal Short Fiction was founded by the Creative Writing department at Plymouth University in 2007, in order to address the need for an outlet for serious literary short fiction in the UK. The publication has enjoyed tremendous success, quickly becoming known for both the quality and the international breadth of its contributions. Submissions are reviewed and selected by published writers of fiction. The short story, '1977, or so', published in Short Fiction, Volume 3 in the autumn of 2009, uses hard-boiled narration to explore the relation between masculinity, national identity and incitements to violence. These themes, deployed here within the generic position accorded to literary fiction, have been signal features of hard-boiled fiction in other generic locations since the 1920s. This story sets out specifically to explore these affinities, and their social and political implications, in terms of aesthetics, literary voice and cultural engagement. The particular qualities of hard-boiled narration, in terms of the subjective turn and of conscious experience of the instability of time and memory, are features for which the body of work exemplified in the two entries included here has become known.

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