Mary Butts and British Neo-Romanticism: The Enchantment of Place (Continuum Literary Studies)

"Mary Butts was an important figure in inter-war modernist circles and one who reviewed and associated with some of the major literary figures of the era, from T.S. Eliot to Gertrude Stein. Despite her importance and the varied nature of her writing, she has been a neglected figure in modernist scholarship. Providing a new analysis of the interwar literary period, Mary Butts and British Neo-Romanticism revisits her work - vividly experimental writings spanning memoir, poetry, polemic and fiction - through the lens of mid-20th-century British neo-Romanticism. The book argues that behind Butts's eco-feminist writings lies an intricate political and philosophical commentary."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Preface: Look, Stranger, at This Island Now -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 The Rescue of Romanticism? -- Magic of person and place -- Journeys without maps -- Something far more deeply interfused -- We live by an invisible sun within us -- Decoding the regional palimpsest -- Earth's sacraments -- How to go modern and be British? -- 2 Why the Margins Matter: The Critical Reception of Mary Butts -- The most obscure of major modern writers? -- Forcing new roots in the revival of ancient matter -- Recent interventions -- 3 An Atlas of Unknown Worlds -- When is a house not a home? -- A temple of the hearth -- Crystallizing inner vision -- Taking liberties with the countryside? -- Policing the edgelands -- Fear in a 'Green World' -- Making a mystery of the commonplace -- 4 Ghosts Move About Patched with Histories -- A rapture of the intellect stirred her -- A ceremonial blood-letting -- To tell of historical visions and hauntings -- Virtue in scraps, mysterium in fragments -- Taking over the gentleman's estate -- Dead things with inbreathed sense -- Alien frequencies -- You can be sure of shell-shock -- 5 This Carnival of Lunacy -- Uncovering a new value -- Objects lost and found -- Thinking backwards -- A neglected set of gods -- 6 The Whitewashing of John Bull -- Born to see strange sights -- A courageous enemy of development? -- A serpent-haunted hinterland -- The God is inside the stone? -- Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index