Modern Literature Time Chart

1990

A selection of publications

Maya Angelou: I Shall Not be Moved
Charles Bukowski: Septuagenarian Stew
A S Byatt: Possession
J M Coetzee: Age of Iron
Penelope Fitzgerald: The Gate of Angels
Hanif Kureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia
Alice Munro: Friend of My Youth
V S Naipaul: India
Thomas Pynchon: Vineland
Salman Rushdie: Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Ivan Vladislavic: Missing Persons
Derek Walcott: Omeros

Historic and political events

UK: Margaret Thatcher loses leadership of Conservative party, John Major becomes Prime Minister. Iraq takes British hostages.
Germany: Reunification.
South Africa: End of ban on anti-apartheid parties. Nelson Mandela freed.
Kuwait: Iraq invades Kuwait.

Social history

UK: Anti-poll tax riots. BSE crisis. Violent storms. Strangeways prison riot. Science: First human gene experiment. Hubble Space Telescope launched. Cinema: David Lynch, Wild at Heart. Martin Scorsese, GoodFellas.

1991

Alan Bennett: The Madness of George III
Andre Brink: An Act of Terror
Anthony Burgess: Mozart and The Wolf Gang
Peter Carey: The Tax Inspector
Angela Carter: Wise Children
Roddy Doyle: The Van
Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho
Graham Greene: Reflections
Arthur Miller: The Ride Down Mount Morgan
Rohinton Mistry: Such a Long Journey
Ben Okri: The Famished Road
Lesego Rampolokeng: Horns for Hondo
Alan Sillitoe: Leonard's War
Tom Stoppard: In the Native State
James Tate: Selected Poems

Kuwait: Gulf war liberates Kuwait.
UK: IRA fires mortars at Downing St. Poll tax abandoned.
Russia: Gorbachev ousted in short-lived coup. USSR dissolved.
Croatia and Slovakia declare independence form Yugoslavia.
South Africa: End of Apartheid. Winnie Mandela sentenced to prison.
India: Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

UK: Inner city riots. Magazine Viz a best-seller. Release of Terry Waite from Beirut. Death of Robert Maxwell. Helen Sharman, first British astronaut, in Soyuz spacecraft. Classical music: Pavarotti performs in Hyde Park. Popular music: Nirvana, Nevermind, 'Grunge' music.

1992

Margaret Atwood: Good Bones
Angela Carter: Expletives Deleted
Roddy Doyle: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Thom Gunn: The Man with Night Sweats
Ted Hughes: Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being
Ian McEwan: Black Dogs
Rohinton Mistry: Tales from Firozsha Baag
Toni Morrison: Jazz
Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient

USA: William Jefferson Clinton, Democrat, becomes President.
Czechoslovakia: Partitioned into Croatia and Slovenia.
Serbia: Prison camps, 'ethnic cleansing'.
India: Rioting after destruction of Babri Masjid mosque.

UK: Over 2 million unemployed. Recession. Exit from ERM. Drought. Resignation of David Mellor. Windsor Castle fire. Church of England allows women priests. Polytechnics become universities. USA: Race riots in LA.

1993

Martin Amis: Visiting Mrs Nabokov and Other Excursions
Andre Brink: On the Contrary
Angela Carter: American Ghosts and Other World Wonders
Yusef Komunyakaa: Neon Vernacular
Lesego Rampolokeng: End Beginnings
Vickram Seth: A Suitable Boy
Tom Stoppard: Arcadia
Ivan Vladislavic: Folly

UK: IRA bomb in Warrington.
EEC single market comes into force.
Russia: Yeltsin crushes hard-line rebellion.
India: Bombings in Bombay.

UK: Queen agrees to pay tax. Floods. Murder of Stephen Lawrence. Murder of Jamie Bulger. USA: Lorena Bobbitt case. Cinema: Jane Campion, The Piano. Stephen Spielberg, Jurassic Park.

1994

Edward Albee: Three Tall Women
Carol Ann Duffy: Selected Poems
James Kelman: How Late It Was, How Late.
Philip Levine: Simple Truth
Arthur Miller: Broken Glass
Alice Munro: Open Secrets
V S Naipaul: A Way in the World
Craig Raine: History: The Home Movie
Salman Rushdie: East, West
Mongane Serote: Come and Hope with Me
Stephen Spender: Dolphins

UK/Ireland: IRA and Loyalist cease-fires. Northern Ireland peace process begins.
Russia: Troops enter Chechnya.
South Africa: Nelson Mandela becomes president.
Rwanda: Tribal massacres.
India: Phoolan Devi freed. Pneumonic plague epidemic.

UK: Channel tunnel opened. National Lottery launched. Sunday trading legalised. USA: Earthquake in LA. O J Simpson arrested. Science: Discovery of 'top quark'. Art: Damien Hirst, Away from the Flock. Cinema: Stephen Spielberg, Schindler's List.

1995

Martin Amis: The Information
Kate Atkinson: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Angela Carter: Burning Your Boats
Rita Dove: Mother Love
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled
Zakes Mda: She Plays with the Darkness; Ways of Dying
Rohinton Mistry: A Fine Balance
Salman Rushdie: The Moor’s Last Sigh
Tom Stoppard: Indian Ink
Jeanette Winterson: Art Objects

UK/Ireland: Peace plan launched.
USA: Oklahoma bomb. Bosnia: Bosnian crisis, UK and USA ready to intervene.
Tokyo: Poison gas attack on underground.
Afghanistan: Taleban fighters taking power.
AIDS: WHO reports over one million cases of AIDS.

UK: Barings Bank bankrupted by Nick Leeson. Scott Inquiry into government involvement in arms sales to Iraq. Start of first DNA database. Popular Music: Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. Cinema: Toy Story, Batman Forever.

1996

Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace
Beryl Bainbridge: Everyman for Himself
A S Byatt: Babel Tower
Allen Ginsberg: Selected Poems
Seamus Heaney: The Spirit Level
Alice Munro: Selected Stories
Harold Pinter: Ashes to Ashes
Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things
Meera Syal: Anita and Me

USA: ‘Whitewater’ scandal. O J Simpson trial begins.
Afghanistan: Taleban capture Kabul.

UK: Prince Charles and Lady Diana divorce. Dunblane school massacre. BSE scare damages beef industry. Completion of re-built Globe Theatre. First Orange Prize for fiction by female novelists. Cinema: Trainspotting

1997

Kate Atkinson: Human Croquet
Peter Carey: Jack Maggs
Ian McEwan: Enduring Love
Philip Roth: American Pastoral

UK: New Labour government under Tony Blair. Hong Kong handed back to China.

UK: Princess Diana dies in car crash in Paris.

1998

Julian Barnes: England, England
J M Coetzee: Boyhood
John Irving: A Widow for One Year
Cormac McCarthy: Cities of the Plain
Ian McEwan: Amsterdam
Toni Morrison: Paradise
Andrew Motion: Selected Poems
Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman
Tom Wolfe: A Man in Full

UK/Ireland: Northern Ireland peace plan, 'Good Friday Agreement'. Omagh bomb.
USA: Embassy bombings.
Iraq: Disarmament crisis. US and UK threaten military action.

European ban on human cloning. USA: Monica Lewinsky scandal; President Clinton charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.

1999

J M Coetzee: Disgrace
Seamus Heaney: Beowulf
Frank McCourt: 'Tis
Salman Rushdie: The Ground Beneath her Feet
Mongane Serote: Gods of our Time

UK: Scottish parliament and Welsh Assembly start.
USA: Columbine high school massacre.
Balkans: Balkans war.

UK: Millennium Dome built. Cinema: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The Matrix. American Beauty.