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Modernism, Romance and the Fin de Siècle: Popular Fiction and British Culture


Modernism, Romance and the Fin de Siècle: Popular Fiction and British Culture

Paperback by Daly, Nicholas (Trinity College, Dublin)

Modernism, Romance and the Fin de Siècle: Popular Fiction and British Culture

£39.99

ISBN:
9780521032926
Publication Date:
18 Jan 2007
Language:
English
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Pages:
232 pages
Format:
Paperback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 28 May - 2 Jun 2024
Modernism, Romance and the Fin de Siècle: Popular Fiction and British Culture

Description

In Modernism, Romance and the Fin de Siècle Nicholas Daly explores the popular fiction of the 'romance revival' of the late Victorian and Edwardian years, focusing on the work of such authors as Bram Stoker, H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. Rather than treating these stories as Victorian Gothic, Daly locates them as part of a 'popular modernism'. Drawing on work in cultural studies, this book argues that the vampires, mummies and treasure hunts of these adventure narratives provided a form of narrative theory of cultural change, at a time when Britain was trying to accommodate the 'new imperialism', the rise of professionalism, and the expansion of consumerist culture. Daly's wide-ranging study argues that the presence of a genre such as romance within modernism should force a questioning of the usual distinction between high and popular culture.

Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Incorporated bodies: Dracula and professionalism; 2. The imperial treasure hunt: The Snake's Pass and the limits of romance; 3. 'Mummie is become merchandise': the mummy story as commodity theory; 4. Across the great divide: modernism, popular fiction and the primitive; Afterword: the long goodbye; Notes; Index.

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