Modernism, Space and the City: Outsiders and Affect in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and London - Paperback

by Andrew Thacker (Author)

Explores the crucial role played by the city in the construction of modernism

This innovative book examines the development of modernist writing in four European cities: London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Focusing on how literary outsiders represented various spaces in these cities, it draws upon contemporary theories of affect and literary geography. Particular attention is given to the transnational qualities of modernist writing by examining writers whose view of the cities considered is that of migrants, exiles or strangers, including Mulk Raj Anand, Blaise Cendrars, Bryher, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Hope Mirrlees, Noami Mitchison, Jean Rhys, Sam Selvon and Stephen Spender.

Key Features

• The first book in modernist studies to bring detailed discussion of these four cities together
• Breaks new ground in being the first book to bring affect theory and literary geography together in order to analyse modernism
• An extensive range of authors is analysed, from the canonical to the previously marginal
• Situates the literary and filmic texts within the context of urban spaces and cultural institutions

Front Jacket

Explores the crucial role played by the city in the construction of modernism This innovative book examines the development of modernist writing in four European cities: London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. 'Focusing on how literary outsiders represented various spaces in these cities, it draws upon contemporary theories of affect and literary geography to offer an original account of the geographical emotions of modernism. Particular attention is given to the transnational qualities of modernist writing by examining writers whose view of the cities considered is that of migrants, exiles or strangers, including Mulk Raj Anand, Bryher, Blaise Cendrars, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Hope Mirrlees, Noami Mitchison, Jean Rhys, Sam Selvon and Stephen Spender. Andrew Thacker is Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature at Nottingham Trent University.

Author Biography

Andrew Thacker is Professor of Twentieth Century Literature at Nottingham Trent University. He has published extensively upon modernism, including the three volumes of The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines (2009-13), Geographies of Modernism (2005), and Moving Through Modernity: Space and Geography in Modernism (2003). He was the first Chair of the British Association for Modernist Studies and is an editor of the long-running interdisciplinary journal, Literature & History.