Modernism, romance, and the fin de siècle
Subtitle: popular fiction and British culture, 1880-1914
By: Nicholas Daly.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Popular literature -- Great Britain -- History and criticism.; English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Literature and anthropology -- Great Britain -- History.; Adventure stories, English -- History and criticism.; Gothic revival (Literature) -- Great Britain.; Modernism (Literature) -- Great Britain.; Culture in literature.
Description: "In Modernism, Romance and the fin de siecle: Popular Fiction and British Culture, 1880-1914, Nicholas Daly explores the popular fiction of the 'romance revival' of the late Victorian and Edwardian years, focusing on the work of such authors as Bram Stoker, H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. Rather than treating these stories as Victorian Gothic, Daly locates them as part of a 'popular modernism'. Drawing on recent work in cultural studies, this book shows how the vampires, mummies and treasure hunts of these adventure narratives provided a form of narrative theory of cultural change, at a time when Britain was trying to accommodate the 'new imperialism', the rise of professionalism and the expansion of consumerist culture. Daly argues that the presence of a genre such as romance within modernism should force a questioning of the usual distinction between high and popular culture."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.