The Nostalgic Imagination: History in English Criticism

The Nostalgic Imagination: History in English Criticism image
ISBN-10:

0198800177

ISBN-13:

9780198800170

Author(s): Collini, Stefan
Released: Mar 10, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 258 pages
to view more data

Description:

This unusual book explores the historical assumptions at work in the style of literary criticism that came to dominate English studies in the twentieth century. Stefan Collini shows how the work of critics renowned for their close attention to 'the words on the page' was in practice bound up with claims about the nature and direction of historical change, the interpretation of the national past, and the scholarship of earlier historians. Among the major figures examined in detail are T.S. Eliot, F.R. Leavis, William Empson, and Raymond Williams, while there are also original discussions of such figures as Basil Willey, L.C. Knights, Q.D. Leavis, and Richard Hoggart. The Nostalgic Imagination argues that in the period between Eliot's The Sacred Wood and Williams's The Long Revolution, the writings of such critics came to occupy the cultural space left by academic history's retreat into specialized, archive-bound monographs. Their work challenged the assumptions of the Whig interpretation of English history, and entailed a revision of the traditional relations between "literary history" and "general history". Combining close textual analysis with wide-ranging intellectual history, this volume both revises the standard story of the history of literary criticism and illuminates a central feature of the cultural history of twentieth-century Britain.

Low Price Summary






Top Bookstores


























We're an Amazon Associate. We earn from qualifying purchases at Amazon and all stores listed here.

DISCLOSURE: We're an eBay Partner Network affiliate and we earn commissions from purchases you make on eBay via one of the links above.

Want a Better Price Offer?

Set a price alert and get notified when the book starts selling at your price.

Want to Report a Pricing Issue?

Let us know about the pricing issue you've noticed so that we can fix it.