Genealogical fictions : cultural periphery and historical change in the modern novel / Jobst Welge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Welge, Jobst, 1969- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

European fiction.

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

Brazilian fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

Brazilian fiction.

Brazilian fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Families in literature.

Social change in literature.

Social change--Europe.

Social change.

Social change--Brazil.

Genealogy--Social aspects.

Genealogy.

Literature and history.

Brazil.

Europe.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 254 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Cultural periphery and historical change in the modern novel

Historical change in the modern novel

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press , 2015.

Summary:

"Taking its cue from recent theories of literary geography and fiction, Genealogical Fictions argues that narratives of familial decline shape the history of the modern novel, as well as the novel's relationship to history. Stories of families in crisis, Jobst Welge argues, reflect the experience of historical and social change in regions or nations perceived as "peripheral." Though geographically and temporally diverse, the novels Welge considers all demonstrate a relation among family and national history, genealogical succession, and generational experience, along with social change and modernization. Welge's wide-ranging comparative study focuses on the novels of the late nineteenth century, but it also includes detailed analyses of the pre-Victorian origin of the genealogical-historical novel and the evolution of similar themes in twentieth-century literature. Moving through time, he uncovers often-unsuspected novelistic continuities and international transformations and echoes, from Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, published in 1800, to G. Tomasi di Lampedusa's 1958 book Il Gattopardo.By revealing the "family resemblance" of novels from Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, this volume shows how genealogical narratives take on special significance in contexts of cultural periphery. Welge links private and public histories, while simultaneously integrating detailed accounts of various literary fields across the globe. In combining theories of the novel, recent discussions of cultural geography, and new approaches to genealogical narratives, Genealogical Fictions addresses a significant part of European and Latin American literary history in which texts from different national cultures illuminate each other in unsuspected ways and reveal the repetition, as well as the variation, among them. This book should be of interest to students and scholars of comparative literature, world literature, and the history and theory of the modern novel"-- Provided by publisher.

"In this truly comparative study of 19th and 20th-century literature, Jobst Welge argues that there is a "deep structure" to certain novels of this period that centers on the idea of genealogy and family history. Welge examines British, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian novels that share a "genealogical narrative" featuring stories of familial decline. Stories of families in crisis, Welge argues, reflect the experience of historical and social change among groups at the periphery of society. Though geographically and temporally diverse, the novels Welge considers all demonstrate a relation among family and national history, genealogical succession, generational experience, as well as social change and modernization. Welge links private and public histories, and also integrates detailed accounts of various literary fields across the globe. In combining theories of the novel, recent discussions of cultural geography, and new approaches to genealogical narratives, this study addresses a significant part of European (and, partly, Latin American) literary history in which texts from different "national" cultures illuminate each other in unsuspected ways and reveal the repetition, as well as the variation, among them"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Periphery and Genealogy in the Novel of the Celtic Fringe

Progress and Pessimism in the Sicilian Family Novel

National and Genealogical Crisis in Spain

Nature, Nation, and De-/Regeneration in the Regional Novels of Emilia Pardo Bazan

The Novel of Portuguese Decline: Dissolution and Disillusion in Eca de Queiros' Os Maias

Machado de Assis' Esau e Jaco and the Problem of Historical Representation

The Last of the Line: Regional Genealogies/Geographies

Death of a Prince, Birth of a Nation: G. Tomasi di Lampedusa's Il Gattopardo

Epilogue: The Perspective from the End.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781421414355

142141435X

OCLC:

879584120