ABSTRACT
The 1970s and 1980s were watershed years. Spiraling economic and political crises spawned a radical shift away from the inclusionary politics whose gradual consolidation had defined the twentieth century up to that point. The name of this realignment was Thatcherism. Although Thatcher claimed that there was no such thing as society, she needed some form of legitimation for her project to reestablish the free market. Core concepts used to justify Thatcherism were enterprise and heritage. Literary culture of the Thatcher era was largely built on excoriation of the conservative restoration. Enterprise was attacked through satire of the hedonistic, empty, and violent culture promoted during these years. Writers also sought to document the growing inequality produced by the dismantling of the welfare state, and the marginalization of many segments of Britain’s population by a winner-takes-all ideology. While the conservative restoration destroyed many communities, it also championed reactionary notions of British heritage grounded in nostalgia for the lost age of aristocracy and empire. Writers of the Thatcher era reacted by highlighting the constructed nature of history in general, and by reminding the public of the violence of much of the British past. Not content to leave the past to Thatcherism, radical writers also reimagined the historical record, excavating neglected moments in which those most disempowered by the conservative restoration created alternative worlds and possible futures.
