Modernism, War, and Violence [Hardcover]

The modernist period was an era of world war and violent revolution. Covering a wide range of authors from Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy at the beginning of the period to Elizabeth Bowen and Samuel Beckett at the end, this book situates modernism's extraordinary literary achievements in their contexts of historical violence, while surveying the ways in which the relationships between modernism and conflict have been understood by readers and critics over the past fifty years. Ranging from the colonial conflicts of the late 19th century to the world wars and the civil wars in between, and concluding with the institutionalization of modernism in the Cold War,Modernism, War, and Violenceprovides a starting point for readers who are new to these topics and offers a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the field for a more advanced audience.

1. A Terrible Beauty is Born
2. Modernism and the Great War
3. Modernism and Political Violence
4. Journeys to a War
5. Modernism and the Second World War
Epilogue: Cold War Modernism?
Works Cited
Bibliography
Index

Marina MacKayis Associate Professor in the Faculty of English and Tutorial Fellow at St Peter's College, University of Oxford. She is the author ofModernism and World War II(2007) andThe Cambridge Introduction to the Novel(2010), and editor ofThe Cambridge Companion to the Literature of World War II(2009).