Jonathan Wild
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748635061
- eISBN:
- 9781474419536
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635061.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter investigate Edwardian modernity via three areas which epitomised this quality for many readers of the day: sex, cars, and money. Investigations into the first of these categories reveal ...
More
This chapter investigate Edwardian modernity via three areas which epitomised this quality for many readers of the day: sex, cars, and money. Investigations into the first of these categories reveal the existence of a thriving and often quite explicit commentary on sex in the fiction of the day. Next, while concentrating on the motorcar as the embodiment of Edwardian technological modernity, the chapter also uncovers a wider fascination for the latest ‘thing’ in a range of contemporary publications. Finally, this chapter concentrates on the issue of money (and the corruption that it often implies in the period's literature) in the New Drama of the day.Less
This chapter investigate Edwardian modernity via three areas which epitomised this quality for many readers of the day: sex, cars, and money. Investigations into the first of these categories reveal the existence of a thriving and often quite explicit commentary on sex in the fiction of the day. Next, while concentrating on the motorcar as the embodiment of Edwardian technological modernity, the chapter also uncovers a wider fascination for the latest ‘thing’ in a range of contemporary publications. Finally, this chapter concentrates on the issue of money (and the corruption that it often implies in the period's literature) in the New Drama of the day.
Jonathan Wild
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748635061
- eISBN:
- 9781474419536
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635061.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book challenges conventional views of the Edwardian period as either a hangover of Victorianism or a bystander to literary modernism. The text investigates the literary history of the Edwardian ...
More
This book challenges conventional views of the Edwardian period as either a hangover of Victorianism or a bystander to literary modernism. The text investigates the literary history of the Edwardian decade. This period, long overlooked by critics, is revealed as a vibrant cultural era whose writers were determined to break away from the stifling influence of preceding Victorianism. In the hands of this generation, which included writers such as Arnold Bennett, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Beatrix Potter, and H. G. Wells, the new century presented a unique opportunity to fashion innovative books for fresh audiences. Wild traces this literary innovation by conceptualising the focal points of his study as branches of one of the new department stores that epitomized Edwardian modernity. These ‘departments’ — war and imperialism, the rise of the lower middle class, children's literature, technology and decadence, and the condition of England — offer both discrete and interconnected ways in which to understand the distinctiveness and importance of the Edwardian literary scene. Overall, this book offers a long-overdue investigation into a decade of literature that provided the cultural foundation for the coming century.Less
This book challenges conventional views of the Edwardian period as either a hangover of Victorianism or a bystander to literary modernism. The text investigates the literary history of the Edwardian decade. This period, long overlooked by critics, is revealed as a vibrant cultural era whose writers were determined to break away from the stifling influence of preceding Victorianism. In the hands of this generation, which included writers such as Arnold Bennett, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Beatrix Potter, and H. G. Wells, the new century presented a unique opportunity to fashion innovative books for fresh audiences. Wild traces this literary innovation by conceptualising the focal points of his study as branches of one of the new department stores that epitomized Edwardian modernity. These ‘departments’ — war and imperialism, the rise of the lower middle class, children's literature, technology and decadence, and the condition of England — offer both discrete and interconnected ways in which to understand the distinctiveness and importance of the Edwardian literary scene. Overall, this book offers a long-overdue investigation into a decade of literature that provided the cultural foundation for the coming century.
