Reconstructing Modernism: British Literature, Modern Architecture, and the State

Author:   Ashley Maher (Assistant Professor, University of Groningen)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
ISBN:  

9780198816485


Pages:   272
Publication Date:   26 March 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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Reconstructing Modernism: British Literature, Modern Architecture, and the State


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Overview

Reconstructing Modernism establishes for the first time the centrality of modernist buildings and architectural periodicals to British mid-century literature. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unexplored architectural criticism by British authors, this book reveals how arguments about architecture led to innovations in literature, as well as to redesigns in the concept of modernism itself. While the city has long been a focus of literary modernist studies, architectural modernism has never had its due. Scholars usually characterize architectural modernism as a parallel modernism or even an incompatible modernism to literature. Giving special attention to dystopian classics Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, this study argues that sustained attention to modern architecture shaped mid-century authors' political and aesthetic commitments. After many writers deemed modernist architects to be agents for communism and other collectivist movements, they squared themselves--and literary modernist detachment and aesthetic autonomy--against the seemingly tyrannical utopianism of modern architecture; literary aesthetic qualities were reclaimed as political qualities. In this way, Reconstructing Modernism redraws the boundaries of literary modernist studies: rather than simply adding to its canon, it argues that the responsibility for defining literary modernism for the mid-century public was shared by an incredible variety of authors--Edwardians, modernists, satirists, and even anti-modernists.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ashley Maher (Assistant Professor, University of Groningen)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.60cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.30cm
Weight:   0.488kg
ISBN:  

9780198816485


ISBN 10:   0198816480
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   26 March 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

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Reviews

Insightful and lucidly written, this book is an excellent addition to the literature. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * J. W. Moffett, CHOICE *


Author Information

Ashley Maher is an Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen. Before that, she was the Stevenson Junior Research Fellow in English at University College, Oxford, and a lecturer in English at the University of Sydney. Her work has appeared in ELH and is forthcoming in the Journal of Modern Literature.

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