Theorist of Modern Novel
THEORISTS OF THE MODERNIST NOVEL
In the early twentieth century the modernist novel exploded literary conventions and expectations, challenging representations of reality, consciousness and identity.These novels were not simply creative masterpieces but also crucial articulations of revolutionary developments in critical thought. In this volume Deborah Parsons traces the developing modernist aesthetic in the thought and writings of James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf. Considering cultural, social and personal influences upon the three writers and connections between their theories, Parsons pays particular attention to their work on: • • • • forms of realism the representation of character and consciousness gender and the novel concepts of time and history.
An understanding of these three thinkers is fundamental to a grasp of modernism, making this an indispensable guide for students of modernist thought. It is also essential reading for those who wish to understand debates about the genre of the novel or the nature of literary expression which were given a new impetus by Joyce, Richardson and Woolf’s pioneering experiments within the genre of the novel. Deborah Parsons is a senior lecturer and chair of postgraduate programmes at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her principal interests are in Modernism and visual and urban culture.
ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL THINKERS
Series Editor: Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London
Routledge Critical Thinkers is a series of accessible introductions to key figures in contemporary critical thought. With a unique focus on historical and intellectual contexts, the volumes in this series examine important theorists’: • • • • significance motivation key ideas and their sources impact on other thinkers.
Concluding with extensively annotated guides to further reading, Routledge Critical Thinkers are the student’s passport to today’s most exciting critical thought. Already available:
Louis
In the early twentieth century the modernist novel exploded literary conventions and expectations, challenging representations of reality, consciousness and identity.These novels were not simply creative masterpieces but also crucial articulations of revolutionary developments in critical thought. In this volume Deborah Parsons traces the developing modernist aesthetic in the thought and writings of James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf. Considering cultural, social and personal influences upon the three writers and connections between their theories, Parsons pays particular attention to their work on: • • • • forms of realism the representation of character and consciousness gender and the novel concepts of time and history.
An understanding of these three thinkers is fundamental to a grasp of modernism, making this an indispensable guide for students of modernist thought. It is also essential reading for those who wish to understand debates about the genre of the novel or the nature of literary expression which were given a new impetus by Joyce, Richardson and Woolf’s pioneering experiments within the genre of the novel. Deborah Parsons is a senior lecturer and chair of postgraduate programmes at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her principal interests are in Modernism and visual and urban culture.
ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL THINKERS
Series Editor: Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London
Routledge Critical Thinkers is a series of accessible introductions to key figures in contemporary critical thought. With a unique focus on historical and intellectual contexts, the volumes in this series examine important theorists’: • • • • significance motivation key ideas and their sources impact on other thinkers.
Concluding with extensively annotated guides to further reading, Routledge Critical Thinkers are the student’s passport to today’s most exciting critical thought. Already available:
Louis