Cambridge History Of Twentieth Century English Literature

Description:
This new Cambridge History is the first major history of twentieth-century English literature to cover the full range of writing in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The volume also explores the impact of writing from the former colonies on English literature of the period and analyses the ways in which conventional literary genres were shaped and inflected by the new cultural technologies of radio, cinema and television. In providing an authoritative narrative of literary and cultural production across the century, this History acknowledges the claims for innovation and modernisation that characterise the beginning of the period. At the same time, it attends analytically to the more profound patterns of continuity and development which avant-garde tendencies characteristically underplay.

Review:
'To read it is to feel an irresistible pull towards the classroom. The editors are long-serving professors of literature at Sussex and there is a strong sense of that university's pedagogic idealism, as formulated in the early 1960s by the new university's founders, David Daiches and Asa Briggs. It is an impressive monument to a distinctive style of British scholarship.' Times Literary Supplement 'The editors of this volume, the first published literary history of the whole of the twentieth-century, have laid down an authoritative marker against which future histories of the period should be judged. As a reference work, it is an essential tool for the undergraduate and taught postgraduate market.' Emerald 'The range is enormous and the contributions from scholars in Britain, Australia and the U. S. bring their individual insights to bear on the century's literary output and trends. It fully maintains the high standard already set by this series.' Contemporary Review 'The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature is an event to be celebrated by modernist and other twentieth-century scholar ...individual contributions are, without exception, written with both intelligence and an engaging energy, and many, even most, manage both to present economically what 'everyone knows or else should know' ... The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature is then an altogether fitting monument to the literature of the past century, and a rich artefact of modernist and twentieth-century studies...' Kevin J. H. Dettmar, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Table of Contents:
Introduction Laura Marcus and Peter Nicholls; Part I. Before Modernism: 1. Science and knowledge at the beginning of the twentieth century Patrick Parrinder; 2. The Victorian Fin de Siecle and the decadence century: versions of the modern Enlightenment Regenia Gagnier; 3. Empire and modern writing Elleke Boehmer; 4. The gender of modernity Ann Ardis; Part II. The Emerging Avant-Garde: 5. Edwardians to Georgians Robert Caserio; 6. The avant-garde, Bohemia, and mainstream culture Tyrus Miller; 7. 'Our London, my London, your London': the modernist moment in the metropolis Peter Brooker; 8. Futurism, literature and the market Paul Edwards; 9. Literature and the First World War Vincent Sherry; Part III. Modernism and its Aftermath, 1918-1945: 10. Trauma and war memory Deborah Parsons; 11. The time-mind of the nineteen-twenties Michael Levenson; 12. Modern life: fiction and satire David Bradshaw; 13. Modernist poetry and poetics Ronald Bush; 14. Modernity and myth Steven Connor; 15. Psychoanalysis and literature Lyndsey Stonebridge; 16. Biography and autobiography: 1918-45 Max Saunders; 17. 'Speed, violence, women, America': popular fictions, 1918-1945 David Glover; 18. Theatre and drama between the wars 1918-1939 Maggie Gale; 19. Literature and cinema Laura Marcus; 20. The 1930s Rod Mengham; 21. Literary criticism and cultural politics David Ayers; 22. Surrealism in England Peter Nicholls; 23. World War Two: Contested Europe Adam Piette; 24. World War Two: the city in ruins Michael North; Part IV. 1945-1970: Postwar Cultures: 25. Culture, class and education, 1945-70 Ken Hirschkop; 26. Post-War broadcast drama Keith Williams; 27. Drama and the new theatre companies Trevor Griffiths; 28. British poetry 1945-1970: Modernism and anti-modernism Keith Tuma and Nate Dorward; 29. Nation, region, place: devolving cultures Morag Shiach; 30. The nineteen-sixties: Realism and experiment John Lucas; 31.'Voyaging in': colonialism and migration 1945-70 Susheila Nasta; Part V. 1970-2000: 32. The seventies and the cult of culture Tim Armstrong; 33. Feminism and writing: the politics of culture Patricia Waugh; 34. The half-lives of literary fictions: genre fictions in the twentieth century Scott McCracken; 35. Theatre and politics 1970-2002 Simon Shepherd; 36. Tradition and modernity: Irish literature since 1970 Ronan McDonald; 37. Second Renaissance: Scottish literature since 1968 Gerry Carruthers; 38. Towards devolution: Welsh writing since 1970 Jane Aaron; 39. British-Jewish writing and the turn towards diaspora Bryan Cheyette; 40. Fiction and postmodernity Julian Murphet; 41. Postcolonial fictions Tim Woods; 42. Writing lives: biography and autobiography 1970-2000 Alison Light; 43. Poetry since 1970 Peter Middleton; 44. Ending the century: literature and digital technology Roger Luckhurst.

Author Biography:
Laura Marcus is Reader in English at the University of Sussex. Peter Nicholls is Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Sussex.