"Writing as though It mattered": the persistence of the experimental novel in british fiction of the sixties and seventies. B.S. Johnson, Ann Quin, Eva Figes

This thesis focuses on the work of three avant-garde writers who operated in the London of the 60s and early 70s (Bryan Stanley Johnson, Ann Quin and Eva Figes), proposing a sort of neo-Modernist style in a context where the literary industry pushed almost unanimously for the homogeneous affirmation of a neo-Victorian model of realist novel, thus leaving little room for experimentations or innovations of any kind. More specifically, this work deals with the novelistic production of these three authors, proceeding by specific themes or aspects transversal to different texts by each author, though still attempting to provide a choral point of view (in fact, these authors formed, together with a fourth writer, Alan Burns, a sort of group, although they did not represent a proper movement, nor did they share a manifesto or a list of common aesthetic principles). Where possible, archival materials and collected testimonies have been used to shed further light on certain aspects of the work of these writers. The ultimate goal is to provide a critical interpretation of these authors, who are still little known on the international literary scene, also trying to inscribe their production within the greater context of an English avant-garde which contested the realist dominion of the post-War decades, assuming on itself the legacy of Modernism and trying to bring it forward, reworking its spirit within a new historical, social and literary context.