The English countryside : representations, identities, mutations / David Haigron, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Haigron, David, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Landscapes in literature.

Landscapes--England.

Landscapes.

England.

Physical Description:

x, 273 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2017]

Summary:

"This collection of essays examines representations of the English countryside and its mutations, and what they reveal about a nation's, communities' or individuals' search for identity - and fear of losing it. Based on a pluridisciplinary approach and a variety of media, this book challenges the view that the English countryside is an apolitical space characterised by permanence and lack of conflict. It analyses how the pastoral motif is actually subverted to explore liminal spaces and temporalities. The authors deconstruct the "rural idyll" myth to share how it plays a distinctive and yet ambiguous part in defining Englishness/Britishness. A must read for both scholars and students interested in British rural and cultural history, media and literature."--Back cover.

Contents:

Part I. Rural communities and modernity: the English countryside as an invested space

Rural protest in England / Brendan Prendiville

Agents, beneficiaries and victims: picturing people on the land / Jonathan Bignell and Jeremy Burchardt

Visions of rurality in popular British fictional television series from the 1970s to the present day / Renée Dickason

Part II. Praised harmony and revealing dissonance: the English countryside as a resonant space

Rural landscape in Patrick Keiller's Robinson in space and Robinson in ruins / Georges Fournier

London's parks, suburbs and environs: the English countryside through the eyes of French visitors (1814-1914) / Richard Tholoniat

Myths of 'Old England' revisited: Thomas Hardy's dissonant representations of rural spaces in Under the greenwood tree, Far from the madding crowd, and the Woodlanders / Thierry Goater

Going and staying: traditional music in the poetry of Thomas Hardy / Dennis Siler

Part III. Exploration and meaning: the English countryside as a liminal space

'The innocent island': a language of violence in Woolf and Bowen / Gregory Dekter

Rosamond Lehmann's in-between landscapes: taking possession of the 'empty pastoral scene' / Jessica Le Flem

Rural sites: transformations and experiment in the poetry of Mark Goodwin / Kerry Featherstone.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

3319532723

9783319532721

OCLC:

967837890