Politics and history in William Golding : the world turned upside down / Paul Crawford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crawford, Paul, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Golding, William, 1911-1993--Knowledge--History.

Golding, William.

Golding, William, 1911-1993--Political and social views.

Historical fiction, English--History and criticism.

Historical fiction, English.

Literature and history--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Literature and history.

Political fiction, English--History and criticism.

Political fiction, English.

Politics and literature--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Politics and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (275 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Columbia : University of Missouri Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Politics and History in William Golding provides a much needed politicized and historicized reading of William Golding's novels as a counter to previous, universalizing criticism. Paul Crawford argues that an understanding of fantastic and carnivalesque modes in Golding's work is vital if we are to appreciate fully his interrogation of twentieth-century life. Golding's early satirical novels question English constructions of national identity in opposition to Nazism and the "totalitarian personality." For Crawford, Golding can and must be studied in the wider European tradition of "literature of atrocity." His early novels, especially Lord of the Flies, are preoccupied with atrocity, whereas the later work betrays a greater concern for the status of language and literature.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1 Introduction The World Turned Upside Down

2 Menippean Satire, the Fantastic, and the Carnivalesque

3 Literature of Atrocity Lord of the Flies and The Inheritors

4 Self-Consciousness and the Totalitarian Personality Pincher Martin and Free Fall

5 Constructions of Fiction and Class The Spire and The Pyramid

6 Postmodernity and Postmodernism Darkness Visible and The Paper Men

7 Historiographic Metafiction, Preromanticism, and the Ship of Fools To the Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy

8 Conclusion Socialist Subversions? The Radical and Reactionary in Golding's Satire

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-254) and index.

ISBN:

0-8262-6304-6

OCLC:

298842184