The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature

The most authoritative history of writing from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland across the twentieth century.

Laura Marcus (Edited by), Peter Nicholls (Edited by)

9781107609488, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 October 2012

897 pages
23.8 x 15.2 x 4.4 cm, 1.2 kg

'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

This 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 modernization that chracterise 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. Containing all the virtues of a Cambridge History, this new volume is a major event for anyone concerned with twentieth-century literature, its cultural context, and its relation to the contemporary.

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 Siècle 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.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]