Iain Menzies Banks is a Scottish writer, born in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1954. He was educated at the University of Stirling in the early 1970s, where he completed a degree in English Literature.
Despite being a writer of talent and originality, however, he remains comparatively neglected by the literary establishment, jostled out of position in literary directories of contemporary writers by rivals of significantly less talent or importance to the contemporary scene. There are no comprehensive monographs that attempt a comprehensive critical study of his oeuvre. Two main reasons may lie behind this comparative critical neglect: his central and sustained focus upon what one might loosely refer to as a form of “anti-realism” and the fact that he splits his writing persona into two
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Citation: Armitt, Lucie, Martyn Colebrook. "Iain Banks". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 June 2003; last revised 11 January 2006. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=243, accessed 21 November 2024.]