Scale, crisis, and the modern novel : extreme measures / Aaron Rosenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosenberg, Aaron, 1982- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 145.

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 145

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English fiction.

Scale (Philosophy).

Crises in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 188 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

At the turn of the twentieth century, novelists faced an unprecedented crisis of scale. While exponential increases in industrial production, resource extraction, and technological complexity accelerated daily life, growing concerns about deep time, evolution, globalization, and extinction destabilised scale's value as a measure of reality. Here, Aaron Rosenberg examines how four novelists moved radically beyond novelistic realism, repurposing the genres-romance, melodrama, gothic, and epic-it had ostensibly superseded. He demonstrates how H. G. Wells, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, and Virginia Woolf engaged with climatic and ecological crises that persist today, requiring us to navigate multiple temporal and spatial scales simultaneously. The volume shows that problems of scale constrain our responses to crisis by shaping the linguistic, aesthetic, and narrative structures through which we imagine it. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Contents:

Introduction: Extreme Measures

1. Rescaling Romance: H. G. Wells

2. Infinitesimal Lives: Thomas Hardy's Economies of Scale

3. Joseph Conrad and the Scalability of Empire

4. Virginia Woolf and the Problem of Generations

Conclusion: Welcome to the Psychozoic

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Oct 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781009271820

1009271822

9781009271806

1009271806

9781009271813

1009271814

Access Restriction:

Open Access. Unrestricted online access