Emily C. Bloom
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198749615
- eISBN:
- 9780191813979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198749615.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
During the Second World War, Elizabeth Bowen wrote three radio features that resurrect Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, and Fanny Burney on the air as ghostly voices. This chapter defines these ...
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During the Second World War, Elizabeth Bowen wrote three radio features that resurrect Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, and Fanny Burney on the air as ghostly voices. This chapter defines these literary haunting as an electronic gothic, in a time of book-burnings, paper rationing, and government censorship. This literary exorcism carries over into her critical writing, in which she argues that, in a changing media environment, the novelist must develop what she calls ‘good reception in the radio sense’. This involved developing the auditory features of the novel and focusing on the ephemerality of the present rather than re-inscribing nostalgic representations of the past. While critics have attributed changes in Bowen’s late writing to the strains of war, this is the first study to connect formal and thematic shifts in her post-war novels A World of Love (1955), The Little Girls (1963), and Eva Trout (1968) to her radio-inflected literary theories.Less
During the Second World War, Elizabeth Bowen wrote three radio features that resurrect Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, and Fanny Burney on the air as ghostly voices. This chapter defines these literary haunting as an electronic gothic, in a time of book-burnings, paper rationing, and government censorship. This literary exorcism carries over into her critical writing, in which she argues that, in a changing media environment, the novelist must develop what she calls ‘good reception in the radio sense’. This involved developing the auditory features of the novel and focusing on the ephemerality of the present rather than re-inscribing nostalgic representations of the past. While critics have attributed changes in Bowen’s late writing to the strains of war, this is the first study to connect formal and thematic shifts in her post-war novels A World of Love (1955), The Little Girls (1963), and Eva Trout (1968) to her radio-inflected literary theories.
Nicola Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198749394
- eISBN:
- 9780191869754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198749394.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter explores why working-class fictions flourished in the period from the late 1950s through to the early 1970s and the distinctive contributions that they made to the post-war British and ...
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This chapter explores why working-class fictions flourished in the period from the late 1950s through to the early 1970s and the distinctive contributions that they made to the post-war British and Irish novel. These writers of working-class fiction were celebrated for their bold, socially realistic, and often candid depictions of the lives and desires of ordinary working people. Their works were seen to herald a new and exciting wave of gritty social realism. The narrative focus on the individual signalled a shift in the history of working-class writing away from the plot staples of strikes and the industrial community, striking a chord with a post-war reading public keen to see ordinary lives represented in books in a complex and realistic manner. The cultural significance of such novels was enhanced as they were adapted in quick succession for a mass cinema audience by a group of radical film-makers.Less
This chapter explores why working-class fictions flourished in the period from the late 1950s through to the early 1970s and the distinctive contributions that they made to the post-war British and Irish novel. These writers of working-class fiction were celebrated for their bold, socially realistic, and often candid depictions of the lives and desires of ordinary working people. Their works were seen to herald a new and exciting wave of gritty social realism. The narrative focus on the individual signalled a shift in the history of working-class writing away from the plot staples of strikes and the industrial community, striking a chord with a post-war reading public keen to see ordinary lives represented in books in a complex and realistic manner. The cultural significance of such novels was enhanced as they were adapted in quick succession for a mass cinema audience by a group of radical film-makers.
Deirdre David
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199609185
- eISBN:
- 9780191803598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199609185.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter describes the time when Olivia Manning began writing ‘The Great Fortune’ in 1956. She conceived this as a novel at first, but eventually it came to be an autobiographical narrative ...
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This chapter describes the time when Olivia Manning began writing ‘The Great Fortune’ in 1956. She conceived this as a novel at first, but eventually it came to be an autobiographical narrative anchored in recollection of the time from her marriage in August 1939 to her departure from Romania for Greece in April 1941. She always found it more comfortable with a fictional character as stand-in than with an unmediated depiction of her life. This chapter also states that in 1956, after reviewing regularly for ‘The Spectator’ from 1947 to 1949, she concentrated almost entirely on her own fiction rather than writing about the work of other writers, she had five post-war novels behind her.Less
This chapter describes the time when Olivia Manning began writing ‘The Great Fortune’ in 1956. She conceived this as a novel at first, but eventually it came to be an autobiographical narrative anchored in recollection of the time from her marriage in August 1939 to her departure from Romania for Greece in April 1941. She always found it more comfortable with a fictional character as stand-in than with an unmediated depiction of her life. This chapter also states that in 1956, after reviewing regularly for ‘The Spectator’ from 1947 to 1949, she concentrated almost entirely on her own fiction rather than writing about the work of other writers, she had five post-war novels behind her.
Ben Masters
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198766148
- eISBN:
- 9780191820731
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198766148.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, Criticism/Theory
Re-examining elaborate English stylists from the post-war period to the present day (including Anthony Burgess, Angela Carter, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, Nicola Barker, and David Mitchell) through a ...
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Re-examining elaborate English stylists from the post-war period to the present day (including Anthony Burgess, Angela Carter, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, Nicola Barker, and David Mitchell) through a fresh style of ethical criticism that does not over-rely on notions of character and interiority (the terrain of the ‘humanist revival’), and that returns the author to centre-stage (contra the approach of the ‘new ethics’, with its indebtedness to poststructuralism), Novel Style defends the stylistic excesses of writers who were conscious of both writing out of excessive times and of the need for new kinds of artistic response to contemporary ethical pressures. Through its methodology, Novel Style calls for a return to close reading and aesthetic evaluation and recovers its subjects from theoretical quagmires by repositioning them as stylists and ethicists, arguing that the two positions are inextricable. For example, it considers how forms of stylistic excess—ranging from puns and wordplay to long sentences, proliferating imagery, repetitions, idiosyncratic rhythms, multiple levels of narration, and variable points of view—might enact ethically-charged dynamics like curiosity, particularity, complexity, and empathy. As well as being an impassioned defence of literary excess, flamboyance, and close reading, Novel Style asks fundamental questions about how novels think, see, and feel, and how they might change us.Less
Re-examining elaborate English stylists from the post-war period to the present day (including Anthony Burgess, Angela Carter, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, Nicola Barker, and David Mitchell) through a fresh style of ethical criticism that does not over-rely on notions of character and interiority (the terrain of the ‘humanist revival’), and that returns the author to centre-stage (contra the approach of the ‘new ethics’, with its indebtedness to poststructuralism), Novel Style defends the stylistic excesses of writers who were conscious of both writing out of excessive times and of the need for new kinds of artistic response to contemporary ethical pressures. Through its methodology, Novel Style calls for a return to close reading and aesthetic evaluation and recovers its subjects from theoretical quagmires by repositioning them as stylists and ethicists, arguing that the two positions are inextricable. For example, it considers how forms of stylistic excess—ranging from puns and wordplay to long sentences, proliferating imagery, repetitions, idiosyncratic rhythms, multiple levels of narration, and variable points of view—might enact ethically-charged dynamics like curiosity, particularity, complexity, and empathy. As well as being an impassioned defence of literary excess, flamboyance, and close reading, Novel Style asks fundamental questions about how novels think, see, and feel, and how they might change us.
David Seed
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846312120
- eISBN:
- 9781846315190
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846315190
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This book examines American cinematic classics and also looks at some lesser-known figures such as Karl Van Vechten and Tom Kromer. The phrase cinematic fiction has now been generally accepted into ...
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This book examines American cinematic classics and also looks at some lesser-known figures such as Karl Van Vechten and Tom Kromer. The phrase cinematic fiction has now been generally accepted into critical discourse, but is usually applied to post-war novels. The book asks a simple question: given their fascination with the new medium of film, did American novelists attempt to apply cinematic methods in their own writings? From its very beginnings the cinema has played a special role in defining American culture. Covering the period from the 1910s up to the Second World War, the book offers insights into classics such as The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, discussing major writers' critical writings on film and active participation in film-making. It is careful not to portray ‘cinema’ as a single or stable entity. Some novelists drew on silent film; others looked to the Russian theorists for inspiration; and yet others turned to continental film-makers rather than to Hollywood. Film itself was constantly evolving during the first decades of the twentieth century and the writers discussed here engaged in a kind of dialogue with the new medium, selectively pursuing strategies of montage, limited point of view, and scenic composition towards their different ends. The book contrasts a diverse range of cinematic and literary movements.Less
This book examines American cinematic classics and also looks at some lesser-known figures such as Karl Van Vechten and Tom Kromer. The phrase cinematic fiction has now been generally accepted into critical discourse, but is usually applied to post-war novels. The book asks a simple question: given their fascination with the new medium of film, did American novelists attempt to apply cinematic methods in their own writings? From its very beginnings the cinema has played a special role in defining American culture. Covering the period from the 1910s up to the Second World War, the book offers insights into classics such as The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, discussing major writers' critical writings on film and active participation in film-making. It is careful not to portray ‘cinema’ as a single or stable entity. Some novelists drew on silent film; others looked to the Russian theorists for inspiration; and yet others turned to continental film-makers rather than to Hollywood. Film itself was constantly evolving during the first decades of the twentieth century and the writers discussed here engaged in a kind of dialogue with the new medium, selectively pursuing strategies of montage, limited point of view, and scenic composition towards their different ends. The book contrasts a diverse range of cinematic and literary movements.
