Climate change the rise of right-wing parties across Europe the growing power and impact of
social media or the Covid-19 pandemic - the discussions surrounding some of the most pressing
issues of our times lay bare growing chasms between conflicting group interests hierarchies
and identities. In light of these debates understanding how groups are constructed how
identification processes work and what may lie behind inclusion and exclusion seems more
relevant and pertinent than ever. This book sheds light on how 21st-century British fiction
represents the relationship between groups and individual identities and also zooms in on the
construction of groups as social entities. By doing so this study highlights the importance of
literature and literary studies in understanding (and possibly even bridging the gap between)
some of the divides between groups in the 21st century.Contents1. Introduction11.1 Studying
Groups in Literary Studies: Aims and Methodology41.2 State of Research: Group Studies across
the Disciplines72. Establishing a Theoretical Framework: Groups and Identities112.1 I - Me -
Us: The Nexus of Groups and Individuals122.1.1 Contextual Selves? Personal and Social
Identity122.1.2 Interactive Selves162.2 Groups as Social Systems183. Groups and Identities in
Literary Narratives253.1 Forms Functions and Ways of Narrative Representation253.2 Three
Stages of Groups and Group Identities303.2.1 Becoming: Similarity and Difference313.2.2
Belonging: Experience and Performance343.2.3 Maintaining: Memory and Group Identity as
Inseparable Concepts364. Becoming: New Constellations New Beginnings424.1 Challenging
Perceptions of Similarity and Difference: Andrea Levy's Small Island (2004)434.2 Similarity in
Difference: Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down (2005)574.3 Comparative Conclusion: Negotiating Group
Identities695. Experiencing Group Identity: Performing Faithful Allegiances735.1 Ambivalent
Roots: Zadie Smith's NW (2012)745.2 Comparative Conclusion I: Collective Spaces895.3 Forms and
Formations: Jon McGregor's Even the Dogs (2010)965.4 Comparative Conclusion II: Performing
Groups through Narratives1096. Maintaining Group Identities: Shared Pasts and Entangled
Lives1136.1 Groups That Never Let You Go: Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending (2011)1146.2
Sensing the End in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005)1266.3 Comparative Conclusion:
Memories as Tools for Belonging1427. Outlook and Concluding Remarks1458. Works Cited154
