Rebecca West's Subversive Use of Hybrid Genres: 1911-41 (Continuum Literary Studies)

"Bringing new insights from genre theory to bear on the work of the journalist and novelist Rebecca West, this study explores how West's usage and mixing of multiple genres (often in single works) was informed and furthered by her subversive feminist goals. Rebecca West's Subversive Use of Hybrid Genres analyses West's sense of genres as dynamic and strategic processes with transgressive political ends rather than as fixed and reified taxonomies, a radical new approach at the time that is now mirrored in much contemporary theory. Surveying her oeuvre from this point of view, the book goes on to systematically examine West's writing from 1911-41, including her early journalism and criticism, such novels as The Return of the Soldier and her controversial multi-genre epic Black Lamb and Grey Falcon."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Chapter 1 The Wide Interstices between West’s Genres Part 1 West’s variety of genres Part 2 Scholarly context Part 3 West’s short story “Elegy” as exemplary West hybrid Part 4 Theoretical construct for West’s subversive hybrid genres Part 5 Features of West’s hybrid genres Part 6 Scope and goals Chapter 2 “The Wild Eye of the Artist”: Early Journalism, Henry James, and The Return of the Soldier Early journalism Henry James (1916) The Return of the Soldier (1918) Part 1 Woman’s war novel Part 2 Pastoral Chapter 3 “The Miraculous Beauty of the Common Lot”: New Woman Meets Female Gothic in The Judge Part 1 The New Woman and the hybrid imperative Part 2 The Judge as hybrid of two New Woman novels Part 3 Gothic connections Part 4 A male gothic reading of The Judge Part 5 Female gothic: Terror and matrophobia reconciled Chapter 4 “A Mystical Confusion of Substance”: Satire and Fantasy Fuse in Rebecca West’s Harriet Hume Part 1 Political satire Part 2 Fantasy Chapter 5 Art’s “Blazing Jewel” in The Strange Necessity Part 1 Novella Part 2 Scientific analysis Part 3 Poetics Part 4 Book review of James Joyce’s Ulysses Part 5 Pater familias Part 6 Critical reception of The Strange Necessity Chapter 6 “The Tragic Spirit has Come Back into Life”: West’s Works of the 1930s, A Letter to a Grandfather, St Augustine, The Thinking Reed, and The Harsh Voice A Letter to a Grandfather (1933) St Augustine (1933) The Thinking Reed (1936) Part 1 Tragedy Part 2 Farce The Harsh Voice (1935) Chapter 7 “To Cast Away All Acquisitions and Certainties”: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Combines Travel Genres and the Epic Section 1 “Fusions that infuriate”: The subversion of the travel chronicle and the travel guidebook in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Part 1 Travel writing in the 1930s Part 2 Imperialist critique: West’s criticism of imperialism and her subversion of the colonizing potential of travel genres Part 3 Nationalism as a “fusion that infuriates” Part 4 Theorizing a “fusion that infuriates”: Genre as politics Part 5 Contradictory genre expectations create a transformative space in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Section 2 “Magnificence and its adoration”: The manipulation of epic conventions in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Notes References Cited Index Bringing new insights from genre theory to bear on the work of the journalist and novelist Rebecca West, this study explores how West's use of and combinations of multiple genres (often in single works) was informed and furthered by her subversive feminist goals. Rebecca West's Subversive Use of Hybrid Genres analyzes West's sense of genres as dynamic and strategic processes with transgressive political ends rather than as fixed and reified taxonomies, a radical new approach at the time that is now mirrored in much contemporary theory. Surveying her oeuvre from this point of view, the book goes on to examine systematically West's writing from 1911-1941, including her early journalism and criticism, such novels as The Return of the Soldier and her controversial multi-genre epic Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Laura Cowan is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Maine, USA. Publisher's note