346:, his most conventionally written novel. The novel traces the life of Norah, a working-class woman, whose life is made up of a series of encounters with institutions which exploit and oppress her, and with men who are representatives of those institutions. Toward the conclusion of the novel Norah and her large family (she has five children with five different partners) are confined to what Burns describes as "factory, hospital and work-camp into an all purpose institution to represent the power of the State", a particularly Thatcherite institution in which the workplace, the prison, the hospital and the school combine, and here in particular Burns seems to anticipate the sweatshops and maquiladoras that arrive with emerging globalisation. The novel is written in a very straightforward, vernacular style, and again Burns used interview material as his source for the novel.
280:. Burns presents their accounts in the form of transcripts from interviews, and in fact Burns did interview several people (including some left-wing activists) in preparing the novel. Though Burns is still working with found material, gone are the difficult to parse sentences, the bursts of incongruous images and non-sequiturs. Instead, the focus is on how a community performs its politics, and the way in which their personal interactions and day-to-day living conflict with their ideologies. The question of the efficacy and morality of using violence against the state in activist projects, as the real Angry Brigade did, and were imprisoned for, hangs heavy over the novel, and its protagonists endlessly discuss how they can avoid simply replicating the strategies of the state in their attempt to inspire political change.
414:. Again the title is taken from a Max Ernst painting, and the focus is a wealthy, middle-class family in which one member, on this occasion the mother, dies early on, and the remainder of the novel is focussed on the fallout from her death. The novel consists of a series of set pieces, most of which concern the incestuous relationship between the two children of the family, Hazel and Max, a relationship which seems to shield them from the institutions of the state that they encounter. Midway through the novel a war, or revolution, appears to begin, Max is imprisoned and then released, and the novel ends, in scenes that are reminiscent of the ending of
261:, which traces a fictional history of the Kennedy family in America, seeing them as exemplars of the insidious movement of money and power, and of the relationship between politics and money. In the novel the Kennedys become mythical figures, but incredibly wealth and influence cannot shield them from an essentially tragic character, and as the various members die, it's possible to see Burns replicating his own family pattern.
143:. Burns wrote eight novels, a play and the script for two short films (one in collaboration with B. S. Johnson), as well as several short pieces, a book of interviews with writers, articles and edited an American report on pornography and censorship for publication in the UK. Burns was one of the earliest teachers of creative writing as an academic discipline in Britain, appointed as the first writer in residence on the
243:, stylistically his most radical work, and the high point of his experimental phase, with no narrative, a huge cast of characters including politicians and celebrities of the time, and short sections of highly condensed, often grammatically difficult prose. Again, Burns's targets in the novel are the state, violence and power. The novel deals repeatedly with the
327:'s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which extolled the virtues of writing plainly to achieve a political effect. Burns, in his interviews, seems uncomfortable with the associations that experimental writing has with elitism and, following Böll, sees the need for a plainly expressed writing which can speak to, and inform, a wide audience.
247:, the effects of colonialism, religion, the amorality of the political class, the workplace, the violence inherent within the family, with the movement of money and state-sanctioned violence. But more than its explicit content, Burns's novel deals, on a structural level, with the increasing fragmentation of the society it depicts.
221:. As a result, the writing becomes starker, more distanced, as the novel recounts the movements of an anonymous narrator moving through an unnamed but ruined country during a war that several, also anonymous, characters say has ended but whose violence persists so that the distinction between wartime and peacetime is blurred.
231:
into the workplace, where the violence persists, but is more concealed, occluded by family hierarchies and arcane legal structures. Burns's focus seems narrower, the narrative concentrating on a factory-owning family, particularly the patriarch, Williams and his son, Michael. After
Williams's other
205:
in 1961. Largely autobiographical, it recounts a middle-class childhood spent during the Second World War and an adolescence and young adulthood in its aftermath. Burns's brother and mother both died during the war, and the novel deals with the consequences of their deaths for the remaining family
283:
Burns's drastic change in approach comes at a time when a great deal was changing in his personal life. In the early seventies his first marriage, to author and artist Carol Burns broke down, and Burns moved from being a full-time novelist to taking on teaching roles, where he became increasingly
330:
Alongside these personal and theoretical changes, the group of experimental writers that had formed in London in the mid sixties had lost much of its impetus following the suicides of Ann Quin and B.S. Johnson, both in 1973, less than three months apart, the first in August, the latter in early
421:
Burns taught briefly at
Lancaster University in the 1990s, before returning to London, where he moved in with his ex-wife, Carol Burns, as a lodger. This movement, back to his first wife, to his hometown, retraces the movement of the protagonist of Burns’s first novel, Buster, and is itself an
127:(29 December 1929 – 23 December 2013) was an English author and one of the key figures in the short-lived group of experimental writers working in Britain in the 1960s and early 1970s, which included writers such as
730:
232:
son, Phillip, is killed in what might be an industrial accident but might also be at the hands of his brother, Williams and
Michael compete for the attention of Phillip's widow, Jacqueline.
284:
permanent as a member of staff. In 1974 this led to Burns moving to
Australia to work as a senior tutor in creative writing at the Western Australia Institute of Technology (now
720:
666:
323:
In his own accounts of the period, Burns suggests that the reasons for his change in writing style are political and theoretical, claiming to be inspired by
359:"Book World" called "diverting, iconoclastic, and compulsively readable". The book included interviews with 11 authors (as well as Burns himself):
172:
740:
735:
725:
206:
members. All of his subsequent works feature a protagonist who experiences the death of a parent or sibling, and the trauma this engenders.
301:
147:'s Creative Writing Master's programme and later he went on to teach this discipline in both Australia and the USA. Burns also worked with
661:
643:
561:
335:
together, and Burns considered writing a biography of
Johnson, two short chapters of which appear in the 1997 Fall issue of the
368:
257:, whom Burns saw as supporters of his work, and sold relatively poorly. But Burns continued his commitment to its style in
179:, his first and most autobiographical novel. While at the school, Burns published an absurdist and satirical essay on
148:
20:
171:
Alan Burns was born on 29 December 1929 to a middle-class family, the second of his parents' three sons. He attended
422:
instantiation of the traumatic encircling and repetition that takes place in his novels. He died in
December 2013.
690:
309:
289:
195:, and was called to the bar in 1956. He was assistant legal manager at Beaverbrook Newspapers from 1959 to 1962.
144:
276:, 1973), presents a fictionalised account of several members of the short-lived British activist group known as
297:
376:
115:
132:
715:
710:
410:
was a return to a lighter prose style, and in places its short, gnomic utterances recall his work in
305:
679:
580:
477:
355:
313:
487:
657:
639:
557:
449:
439:
285:
277:
273:
202:
528:
388:
324:
188:
288:). Burns later taught creative writing at various educational institutions, including the
601:
180:
704:
497:
400:
380:
372:
360:
192:
128:
504:
The
Imagination on Trial: British and American writers discuss their working methods
351:
The
Imagination on Trial: British and American writers discuss their working methods
396:
140:
654:
Off-Centre Stages: Fringe
Theatre at the Open Space and the Round House 1968-1983
392:
244:
155:, a short experimental film in a montage style, which featured early music from
331:
November. Burns had been close friends with
Johnson. They wrote the short film
597:
384:
317:
254:
156:
364:
214:
100:
136:
175:. Burns recounts his experiences at the school in fictionalised form in
474:
To Deprave and Corrupt: Pornography, Its Causes, Its Forms, Its Effects
293:
218:
191:
from 1949 to 1951 in the Royal Army Education Corps. He studied law at
539:
339:
alongside another short piece by Burns and several critical essays.
90:
160:
552:
Reginald, Robert; Menville, Douglas; Burgess, Mary A. (2010).
506:(eds Burns and Charles Sugnet; Allison & Busby, 1982)
418:, the two siblings escape the country and live together.
316:. Aspiring writers who came under his tutelage included
630:
O'Brien, John (July 1997). "Wilson Harris/Alan Burns".
731:
People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
268:, Burns's style changes significantly. His next book,
217:
painting, Burns begins to use collage techniques and
554:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Checklist
106:
96:
86:
78:
70:
56:
37:
30:
575:
573:
697:, Summer 1997, Vol. 17.2. Dalkey Archive Press.
253:received mixed reviews, even from those, like
74:Novelist, creative writing teacher, playwright
8:
656:. University of Hertfordshire Press, 2005.
349:In 1982 he co-edited (with Charles Sugnet)
183:in the school magazine, which he reuses in
721:Academics of the University of East Anglia
27:
406:Burns published his final novel in 1986.
201:, Burns's debut novel, was published by
521:
19:For other people named Alan Burns, see
484:The Angry Brigade: A Documentary Novel
7:
302:University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
556:. Wildside Press LLC. p. 838.
496:(Allison & Busby, 1981, illus.
173:Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
695:The Review of Contemporary Fiction
14:
691:"A Conversation with Alan Burns"
468:Dreamerika! A Surrealist Fantasy
632:Review of Contemporary Fiction
337:Review of Contemporary Fiction
1:
542:, Ansible 319, February 2014.
264:Following the publication of
227:transposes the techniques of
741:20th-century English writers
736:20th-century English lawyers
726:Members of the Middle Temple
529:"Alan Burns – Death Record".
167:Biography and creative works
512:(Allison & Busby, 1986)
21:Alan Burns (disambiguation)
757:
617:"Book World", 4 July 1982.
18:
16:English author (1929–2013)
470:(Calder and Boyars, 1972)
464:(Calder and Boyars, 1969)
458:(Calder and Boyars, 1967)
342:In 1981, Burns published
310:University of East Anglia
290:University of East Anglia
187:. Burns subsequently did
145:University of East Anglia
510:Revolutions of the Night
408:Revolutions of the Night
298:City Literary Institute
209:With his second novel,
82:Late 1950s to mid-1980s
680:"Alan Burns obituary"
581:"Alan Burns obituary"
446:Europe After the Rain
426:Selected bibliography
416:Europe After the Rain
229:Europe After the Rain
211:Europe After the Rain
159:and an appearance by
133:Christine Brooke-Rose
111:Europe After the Rain
306:Lancaster University
615:The Washington Post
488:Allison & Busby
356:The Washington Post
314:writer-in-residence
213:, titled after the
686:, 13 January 2014.
652:Schinele, Jinnie.
587:, 13 January 2014.
494:The Day Daddy Died
344:The Day Daddy Died
239:, Burns published
689:David W. Madden,
667:Online interview.
286:Curtin University
278:The Angry Brigade
274:Allison and Busby
270:The Angry Brigade
153:Jeanette Cochrane
122:
121:
97:Literary movement
748:
649:
618:
612:
606:
605:
594:
588:
577:
568:
567:
549:
543:
537:
531:
526:
389:Michael Moorcock
308:. Burns was the
189:national service
63:
60:23 December 2013
50:29 December 1929
49:
47:
28:
756:
755:
751:
750:
749:
747:
746:
745:
701:
700:
675:
646:
629:
626:
624:Further reading
621:
613:
609:
596:
595:
591:
578:
571:
564:
551:
550:
546:
538:
534:
527:
523:
519:
428:
169:
149:Peter Whitehead
91:Fictional prose
66:London, England
65:
61:
51:
45:
43:
42:
33:
24:
17:
12:
11:
5:
754:
752:
744:
743:
738:
733:
728:
723:
718:
713:
703:
702:
699:
698:
687:
674:
673:External links
671:
670:
669:
664:
650:
644:
638:(2): 108–215.
625:
622:
620:
619:
607:
589:
569:
562:
544:
532:
520:
518:
515:
514:
513:
507:
501:
491:
481:
471:
465:
459:
453:
443:
427:
424:
300:, London, the
181:Samuel Johnson
168:
165:
120:
119:
108:
104:
103:
98:
94:
93:
88:
84:
83:
80:
76:
75:
72:
68:
67:
64:(aged 83)
58:
54:
53:
39:
35:
34:
31:
15:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
753:
742:
739:
737:
734:
732:
729:
727:
724:
722:
719:
717:
714:
712:
709:
708:
706:
696:
692:
688:
685:
681:
678:Peter Burns,
677:
676:
672:
668:
665:
663:
662:9781902806433
659:
655:
651:
647:
645:9781564781611
641:
637:
633:
628:
627:
623:
616:
611:
608:
603:
599:
593:
590:
586:
582:
579:Peter Burns,
576:
574:
570:
565:
563:9780941028776
559:
555:
548:
545:
541:
536:
533:
530:
525:
522:
516:
511:
508:
505:
502:
499:
498:Ian Breakwell
495:
492:
489:
485:
482:
479:
478:Davis-Poynter
475:
472:
469:
466:
463:
460:
457:
454:
451:
447:
444:
441:
437:
436:New Writers 1
433:
430:
429:
425:
423:
419:
417:
413:
409:
404:
402:
401:Alan Sillitoe
398:
394:
390:
386:
382:
381:B. S. Johnson
378:
374:
373:Wilson Harris
370:
366:
362:
361:J. G. Ballard
358:
357:
352:
347:
345:
340:
338:
334:
328:
326:
325:Heinrich Böll
321:
319:
315:
311:
307:
303:
299:
295:
291:
287:
281:
279:
275:
271:
267:
262:
260:
256:
252:
248:
246:
242:
238:
233:
230:
226:
222:
220:
216:
212:
207:
204:
200:
196:
194:
193:Middle Temple
190:
186:
182:
178:
174:
166:
164:
162:
158:
154:
150:
146:
142:
138:
134:
130:
129:B. S. Johnson
126:
118:
117:
112:
109:
107:Notable works
105:
102:
99:
95:
92:
89:
85:
81:
77:
73:
69:
59:
55:
40:
36:
29:
26:
22:
694:
684:The Guardian
683:
653:
635:
631:
614:
610:
602:"Class Work"
592:
585:The Guardian
584:
553:
547:
535:
524:
509:
503:
493:
483:
473:
467:
461:
456:Celebrations
455:
445:
435:
431:
420:
415:
412:Celebrations
411:
407:
405:
397:Ishmael Reed
369:John Gardner
354:
350:
348:
343:
341:
336:
332:
329:
322:
282:
269:
265:
263:
258:
250:
249:
240:
237:Celebrations
236:
234:
228:
225:Celebrations
224:
223:
210:
208:
198:
197:
184:
176:
170:
152:
141:Giles Gordon
124:
123:
114:
110:
62:(2013-12-23)
25:
716:2013 deaths
711:1929 births
393:Grace Paley
377:John Hawkes
266:Dreamerika!
259:Dreamerika!
245:Vietnam War
203:John Calder
705:Categories
598:Ian McEwan
517:References
385:Tom Mallin
318:Ian McEwan
255:Robert Nye
235:Following
157:Pink Floyd
151:, writing
125:Alan Burns
71:Occupation
46:1929-12-29
41:Alan Burns
32:Alan Burns
365:Eva Figes
312:'s first
215:Max Ernst
101:Modernism
600:(1995).
540:"R.I.P."
353:, which
137:Ann Quin
693:, from
490:, 1973)
480:, 1972)
452:, 1965)
442:, 1961)
294:Norwich
219:cut-ups
660:
642:
560:
450:Calder
440:Calder
432:Buster
399:, and
333:Unfair
304:, and
296:, the
199:Buster
185:Buster
177:Buster
79:Period
52:London
462:Babel
251:Babel
241:Babel
116:Babel
87:Genre
658:ISBN
640:ISBN
636:v.17
558:ISBN
161:Nico
139:and
57:Died
38:Born
434:in
707::
682:,
634:.
583:,
572:^
403:.
395:,
391:,
387:,
383:,
379:,
375:,
371:,
367:,
363:,
320:.
292:,
163:.
135:,
131:,
113:,
648:.
604:.
566:.
500:)
486:(
476:(
448:(
438:(
272:(
48:)
44:(
23:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.