The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature (The New Cambridge History of English Literature)

As the first Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature, this volume has a difficult brief. The last century has yet to compose itself definitively as a ‘period’, and this volume has to reckon with the fact that the concluding phases of the century will often prompt provisional comment rather than a sense of summative closure. The volume also covers a period in which questions of history and nation are particularly volatile, and while taking its place in an extended series of literary histories, recognises that for its precursors ‘English’ has generally been a less contentious term than it is now. In this History, ‘Englishness’ is not merely a given attribute of the literature under discussion, but a cultural condition in which complex questions of identity and location are constantly at stake. Covering the complete range of writing in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, this volume also explores the impact of writing from the former colonies on English literature of the period. It analyzes the ways in which conventional literary genres were influenced by the cultural technologies of radio, cinema and television. This work is of major importance to anyone concerned with twentieth-century literature, its cultural context and its relation to the contemporary. This Cambridge History is the first major history of twentieth-century English literature to cover the full range of writing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The volume also explores the impact of writing from the former colonies on English literature of the period and analyses the ways in which conventional literary genres were shaped and inflected by the new cultural technologies of radio, cinema, and television. In providing an authoritative narrative of literary and cultural production across the century, this History acknowledges the claims for innovation and modernization that chracterise the beginning of the period. At the same time, it attends analytically to the more profound patterns of continuity and development which avant-garde tendencies characteristically underplay. Containing all the virtues of a Cambridge History, this new volume is a major event for anyone concerned with twentieth-century literature, its cultural context, and its relation to the contemporary