Writing disenchantment : British First World War prose, 1914-30 / Andrew Frayn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frayn, Andrew.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English prose literature--20th century--History and criticism.

English prose literature.

World War, 1914-1918--Great Britain--Literature and the war.

World War, 1914-1918.

War in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 259 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2014.

Summary:

It has become axiomatic that First World War literature was disenchanted, or disillusioned, and returning combatants were unable to process or communicate that experience. In Writing disenchantment, Andrew Frayn argues that this was not just about the war: non-combatants were just as disenchanted as those who fought, and writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf produced some of the sharpest criticisms. Its language already existed in contemporary sociological and historical accounts of the problems of mass culture and the modern city, whose structures contained the conflict and were strengthened during it. Archival material, sales data and reviews are used to chart disenchantment in a wide range of early twentieth-century war literature from novels about fears of invasion and pacifism, through the modernist novels of the 1920s to its dominance in the War Books Boom of 1928-1930. This book will appeal to scholars and students of English literature, social and cultural history, and gender studies.

Contents:

1 Patriotism, propaganda and pacifism, 1914-1918 40

2 From hope to Disenchantment, 1919-1922 77

3 Modernism, conflict and the home front, 1922-1927 119

4 Sagas and series, 1924-1928 163

5 Popular disenchantment: the War Books Boom, 1928-1930 201.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780719089220

0719089220

OCLC:

875151509