Introduction : liberal politics and liberal literature -- 'To stab a country in the conscience' : Alan Paton's Cry, the beloved country (1948) -- When worlds collide : Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart (1958) -- Allegories of freedom : Ken Kesey's One flew over the cuckoo's nest (1962) -- 'Befitting emblems of adversity' : Seamus Heaney's Bog Poems (1972-1975) -- Patriarchy, autonomy and liberal feminism : Fay Weldon's Praxis (1978) -- Violence, reconciliation and the ending of apartheid : Athol Fugard's drama (1984-1992) -- Power, will and freedom : Mario Vargas Llosa's The feast of the goat (2000) -- Postmodern liberal literature : Richard Rorty's 'liberal ironists' (1961-2006) -- Liberalism in the new millennium : Ian McEwan's Saturday (2005).