Alienation is a familiar theme in the contemporary global environment where identities have become fragmented, where cultures have been irrevocably changed by mass migrations and the impact of globalization, and where the media seems to have saturated the global human consciousness, but how does it manifest in contemporary fiction? Burgert A. Senekal discusses recent postmodern and systems theory reinterpretations of Melvin Seeman's landmark sociological study of alienation, and illustrates some of the ways in which powerlessness, meaningless, normlessness, and social isolation manifest in the characters and plots of works by Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Irvine Welsh and Pat Barker. Although aimed at an academic readership, Senekal's accessible style ensures that the casual reader will also find the book a fresh approach to literary studies and the contemporary Western world.