This course will examine a range of novels by gay and lesbian writers in Britain and Ireland which have emerged in the wake of the AIDS catastrophe and queer theory. We will focus on interesting though rather peculiar trends in the post-queer novel: queer historical and biographical fictions, and explore the reasons behind the dominance of these approaches in recent gay and lesbian literature. We will also explore the various literary and political strategies employed by these writers such as historical and literary reclamation, the queer destabilisation of fixed categories of identity, the figuring of desire’s ambiguous textures, a studied engagement with form etc. By focussing on prominent contemporary writers, we will explore the evolution of gay and lesbian British fiction beyond the dictates of queer theory.