The 1920s

The particularity of 1920s British fiction has become obscured by an academic focus on modernism. This book takes a fresh approach to the decade by examining both canonical writers such as Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster as well as less widely-studied writers such as A. A. Milne and Naomi Mitchison. From the aftermath of First World War to the Great Depression of 1929, and its political consequences, the 1920s were a decade marked by radical social change. Internationally, there was an ongoing shift of global power and nationally, Britain was adjusting to the aftermath of WWI, to no longer being the dominant imperial power in the world, and to the introduction of universal male suffrage and votes for women over 30, which was extended to those over 21 in 1928. This volume relates the British fiction of the decade to these contexts in order to reassess and explain trends of the period, such as war books, fantastic romance, literary modernism, and new expressions of gender and sexuality. A major critical re-evaluation of the decade, the book covers such writers as Agatha Christie, E. M. Forster, Ethel Mannin, Somerset Maugham, R. H. Mottram, D. H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, A. A. Milne, Hope Mirrlees, Naomi Mitchison, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf, among others; illustrating how their key themes and concerns fit within the social and political circumstances of the decade.

Auteur
Tamás Bényei is Professor of English Literature at the Department of British Studies, University of Debrecen, Hungary. Shene Boskani has recently completed her PhD at Brunel University London, UK. Nick Hubble is Professor of Modern and Contemporary English at Brunel University London, UK and the co-editor of The Science Fiction Handbook (2013), The 1970s (2014), The 1990s (2015), The 2000s (2015) and London in Contemporary British Fiction (2016) all published by Bloomsbury.

Texte du rabat

A wide-ranging critical re-evaluation of British fiction of the 1920s, this book examines writers from Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster to A. A. Milne and Naomi Mitchison.

Contenu

Series Introduction: Nick Hubble, Brunel University, UK, Philip Tew, Brunel University, UK and Leigh Wilson, University of Westminster, UK

Critical Introduction: Nick Bentley, Keele University, UK, Emily Horton, Brunel University, UK, Nick Hubble, Brunel University, UK, Philip Tew, Brunel University, UK and Leigh Wilson, University of Westminster, UK

1. Fictions of the Break-Up, Nick Hubble, Brunel University London, UK
2. Fiction in the Age of Distraction: Reading and Attention in the 2010s, Alice Bennett, Liverpool Hope University, UK
3. Border Crossings: Diasporic British Fiction of the 2010s, Emily Horton, Brunel University London, UK
4. 'Defining it as a Struggle': Working-Class Fiction in the 2010s, Matti Ron, University of East Anglia, UK
5. What's To-day? Politics and Typography in Ali Smith's Decade, Tory Young, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
6. The 'Teenie' Novels of Jonathan Coe: Intertextuality, Satire, Parody, Farce and Irony, *Philip Tew, Brunel University London, U*K
7. 'The English Problem': Reading the Body Politic in Post-Brexit Fictions, Kristian Shaw, University of Lincoln, UK
   
   8. Inexhaustible Literature? Contemporary Experimental Approaches in Literature, Mark P Williams, independent scholar

8. Speculative Fiction of the 2010s, Anna McFarlane, University of Leeds, UK

   10. The Neo-mythological Novel: Re-writing the Epic in Contemporary British Fiction, Nick Bentley, Keele University, UK

   Timelines (of works, national events and international events)
   Brief Biographies
   Index