Figures of Catastrophe

The Condition of Culture Novel

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British, Books & Reading, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Political
Cover of the book Figures of Catastrophe by Francis Mulhern, Verso Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Francis Mulhern ISBN: 9781784781934
Publisher: Verso Books Publication: February 16, 2016
Imprint: Verso Language: English
Author: Francis Mulhern
ISBN: 9781784781934
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication: February 16, 2016
Imprint: Verso
Language: English

A bold new vision of the modern English novel

The leading critic Francis Mulhern uncovers a hidden history in the fiction of the past century, identifying a central new genre: the condition of culture novel. Reading across and against the grain of received patterns of literary association, tracing a line from Hardy and Forster, through Woolf, Waugh and Bowen, to Barstow, Fowles, Rendell, Naipaul, Amis, Kureishi and Smith, he elucidates the recurring topics and narrative logics of the genre, showing how culture emerges as a special ground of social conflict, above all between classes. The narrative evaluations of culture’s ends—the aspirations and the destinies of those whose lives are the subject of these novels—grow steadily darker over time, and the writing itself grows more introverted.

A concluding discussion elicits the characteristics of the English condition of culture novel, in an international setting, and closes in, finally, on the central conundrum of the genre: its uncanny reprise, in its own plane, of the historical arc of the modern labour movement in Britain, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century through its post-war heyday to the seemingly inexorable decline of recent decades.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A bold new vision of the modern English novel

The leading critic Francis Mulhern uncovers a hidden history in the fiction of the past century, identifying a central new genre: the condition of culture novel. Reading across and against the grain of received patterns of literary association, tracing a line from Hardy and Forster, through Woolf, Waugh and Bowen, to Barstow, Fowles, Rendell, Naipaul, Amis, Kureishi and Smith, he elucidates the recurring topics and narrative logics of the genre, showing how culture emerges as a special ground of social conflict, above all between classes. The narrative evaluations of culture’s ends—the aspirations and the destinies of those whose lives are the subject of these novels—grow steadily darker over time, and the writing itself grows more introverted.

A concluding discussion elicits the characteristics of the English condition of culture novel, in an international setting, and closes in, finally, on the central conundrum of the genre: its uncanny reprise, in its own plane, of the historical arc of the modern labour movement in Britain, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century through its post-war heyday to the seemingly inexorable decline of recent decades.

More books from Verso Books

Cover of the book Futurability by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book Class War Conservatism by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book Ryszard Kapuscinski by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book An Ecology of World Literature by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book What Goes Up by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book The Village Against The World by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book How Race Survived US History by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book Virtue and Terror by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book The American Crucible by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book C.L.R. James by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book The ABCs of Socialism by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book Class, Race and Marxism by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book The Future by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Francis Mulhern
Cover of the book Aesthetics and Politics by Francis Mulhern
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy