Romances of the archive in contemporary British fiction
By: Suzanne Keen.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press; University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
Subjects: English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Literature and history -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century; Historical fiction, English -- History and criticism; Postcolonialism -- Great Britain; Decolonization in literature; Libraries in literature; Archives in literature; Stagecoach robberies
Description: "Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction is a discussion of the debates about the uses of the past contained in British fiction since the Falklands crisis. Suzanne Keen provides a detailed examination of the range of contemporary 'romances of the archive,' a genre in which British novelists both deal with the loss of Empire and a nostalgia for the past, and react to the postimperial condition of Great Britain.

Keen identifies the genre and explains its literary sources from Edmund Spenser to H. P. Lovecraft and John LeCarre. She also accounts for the rise in popularity of the archival romance and provides a context for understanding the British postimperial preoccupation with history and heritage."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-272) and index.