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The Routledge Concise History of Nineteenth-Century Literature

By Josephine Guy, Ian Small

Published November 15th 2010 by Routledge – 282 pages

Series: Routledge Concise Histories of Literature

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Description

Nineteenth-century Britain saw the rise of secularism, the development of a modern capitalist economy, multi-party democracy, and an explosive growth in technological, scientific and medical knowledge. It also witnessed the emergence of a mass literary culture which changed permanently the relationships between writers, readers and publishers.

Focusing on the work of British and Irish authors, The Routledge Concise History of Nineteenth-Century Literature:

  • considers changes in literary forms, styles and genres, as well as in critical discourses
  • examines literary movements such as Romanticism, Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism and Decadence
  • considers the work of a wide range of canonical and non-canonical writers
  • discusses the impact of gender studies, queer theory, postcolonialism and book history
  • contains useful, student-friendly features such as explanatory text boxes, chapter summaries, a detailed glossary and suggestions for further reading.

In their lucid and accessible manner, Josephine M. Guy and Ian Small provide readers with an understanding of the complexity and variety of nineteenth-century literary culture, as well as the historical conditions which produced it.

Contents

Introduction: What is Nineteenth-Century Literature? 1. An Outline History of Nineteenth-Century Literature 2. Form, Style and Genre in Nineteenth-Century Literature 3. Nineteenth-Century Literary Movements 4. Nineteenth-Century Literature and History 5. Nineteenth-Century Literature and the Politics of Sex and Nationalism 6. Nineteenth-Century Literature, Consumerism and Commodity Culture: The Production of Texts.

Author Bio

Josephine M. Guy is Professor in Modern English Literature at the School of English Studies, University of Nottingham.

Ian Small is Professor of English Literature at the Department of English, University of Birmingham.