English literature of the 1920s / David Ayers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ayers, David, 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English literature.

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

Literature and society.

Modernism (Literature)--Great Britain.

Modernism (Literature).

Nineteen twenties.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 248 pages)

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The English literature of the 1920s is commonly treated in terms of its position within European or Anglo-American Modernism. This book argues that the English literature of the period can be better understood when it is examined in the context of a more local social and literary history. Focusing principally on the novel, this book treats works that are regarded as modernist alongside non-modernist and popular forms, and demonstrates the engagement of these texts with a common context of social concerns, including sexuality, gender and class politics, Englishness, empire, and the cultural pessimism which informed the formation of English as a modern university subject. The book includes major new accounts of the best-known works of the period which challenge received wisdom on these subjects, including studies of D H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and E M Forster. These accounts are set in the context of a variety figures who are now becoming better-known to the non-specialist, including Rebecca West, Wyndham Lewis, Aldous Huxley and Sylvia Townsend Warner. The First World War heralded the creation of the modern state and of a modern culture which in its essential outline remains with us. Rejecting a current trend to dismiss modernism as an elitist cultural movement, Ayers argues that the work of this period which most commands our attention remains that which most decisively articulates a critique of the emergence of modernity. The task of the critic is to disengage the utopian moment of works which seek to create a space for difference even where these works are mired in the confusions of contemporary ideology.Concise accounts of the social and political contexts of the 1920sSustained and theoretically sophisticated accounts of key works by D H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and E M ForsterExtensive treatment of a selection of other works, including contemporary best-sellersA substantial bibliography

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 Men and Masculinity: The Response to Social Change

2 Ideals and Realities of the English Woman

3 Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture

4 Sex, Satire and the Jazz Age

5 England and its Other: Seduction and Friendship, Bodies and Ghosts

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-242) and index.

ISBN:

9781474400503

1474400507

9780585159270

0585159270