An introduction to modern European literature : from romanticism to postmodernism / Martin Travers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Travers, Martin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European literature--19th century--History and criticism.

European literature.

European literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

x, 281 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Summary:

Wide-ranging and imaginative, this volume provides an incisive guide to the rich heritage of European literature. The book gives a lively account of major figures and texts as well as previously marginalised writers, assessing their relevance to the broad European tradition and the social, political and intellectual issues which shaped it. Structured around the major literary movements of the period - Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, Modernism, the Literature of Political Engagement and Postmodernism - the book will be invaluable to all students of modern literature and European cultural history. Each chapter concludes with a detailed chronology of the major literary texts of each movement, covering fiction, drama and poetry. A detailed, annotated bibliography also guides the student through the seminal works of critical scholarship in the field.

Contents:

1 Romanticism 1

1 Radical Energy: The Context of European Romanticism 1

2 'The Way Within': Romanticism

Goals and Programme 9

3 Self and World: The Literature of Romantic Individualism 16

4 Revolt and Declaration: Romantic Drama 21

5 'All things are sentient': Romantic Nature Poetry 27

6 The Darker Self: Romantic Gothic 31

7 'Hymns to the Night': The Longing for Transcendence 36

8 Literature in the Age of Romanticism: A Chronology 41

2 Realism and Naturalism 45

1 'Force and Matter': The Context of European Realism 45

2 'All is True': The Aesthetic of Literary Realism 54

3 'Lost Illusions': Realism and the Experience of the City 62

4 The Limits of Subjectivity: The (Female) Self and the Realist Novel 69

5 Integration and Community: Poetic Realism and the Bildungsroman 74

6 The Problem of Action: Drama in the Age of Realism 80

7 The Literary Laboratory: Naturalism 85

8 Literature in the Age of Realism: A Chronology 90

3 Modernism 93

1 'The Will to the End': The Context of European Modernism 93

2 Modernism: Between Experimentation and Tradition 100

3 The Literature of the Aesthetic Revival: Symbolism and Decadence 108

4 Hearts of Darkness: The Self as Other 116

5 Memory, Time and Consciousness: Modernism and the Epistemological 'Breakthrough' 121

6 Libido and the Body Culture: Sexuality in the Modernist Novel 126

7 Fragments of Modernity: Modernist Poetry 132

8 The Literature of Modernism: A Chronology 139

4 The Literature of Political Engagement 143

1 Literature in the Age of Political Commitment: The Context 143

2 Writers and Politics: Programme and Practice 152

3 The Politicisation of Modernism: Between Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit 160

4 The Imperative of Commitment: The Literature of Radical Humanism 166

5 'The God that failed': Disillusion/Dystopia 171

6 The Attractions of Fascism: The Literature of the Conservative Revolution 177

7 The Leap of Faith: The Literature of the Catholic Revival and Existentialism 182

8 Literature in the Age of Political Commitment: A Chronology 189

5 Postmodernism 192

1 After All: The Context of European Postmodernism 192

2 Postmodernism: A Theoretical Project 201

3 The Self-Conscious Text: From the Nouveau Roman to Metafiction 207

4 The Politics of Ritual: The Theatre of the Absurd 211

5 Self, History, Myth: The Literature of Magic Realism 217

6 Structures of Subjectivity: Postmodernism and the Poetic Text 221

7 Written as the Body: Feminist Writing and Postmodernism 227

8 The Literature of Postmodernism: A Chronology 233

From Romanticism to Postmodernism: An Annotated Bibliography 237

1 Romanticism 237

2 Realism and Naturalism 239

3 Modernism 241

4 The Literature of Political Commitment 243

5 Postmodernism 246.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-248) and index.

ISBN:

0312176384

0312176392

OCLC:

36767912