Atlantic republic [Book] : the American tradition in English literature / Paul Giles.

By:

Giles, Paul

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009.Description: xii, 419 p. : ill. ; 24 cmISBN:

9780199206339 (hbk.) :
9780199567034 (pbk.) :
0199567034 (pbk.) :

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

820.93273 22

Other classification:

820.93273

Summary: Atlantic Republic traces the legacy of the United States both as a place and as an idea in the work of English writers from 1776 to the present day. Seeing the disputes of the Reformation as a precursor to this transatlantic divide, it argues that America has operated since the Revolution as a focal point for various traditions of dissent within English culture. By ranging over writers from Richard Price and Susanna Rowson in the 1790s to Angela Carter and Salman Rushdie at the turn of the twenty-first century, the book argues that America haunts the English literary tradition as a parallel space where ideology and aesthetics are configured differently. Consequently, it suggests, many of the key episodes in British history--parliamentary reform in the 1830s, the imperial designs of the Victorian era, the twentieth-century conflict with fascism, the advance of globalization since 1980--have been shaped by implicit dialogues with American cultural models. Rather than simply reinforcing the benign myth of a "special relationship," Paul Giles considers how various English writers over the past 200 years have engaged with America for various complicated reasons: its promise of political republicanism (Byron, Mary Shelley); its emphasis on religious disestablishment (Clough, Gissing); its prospect of pastoral regeneration (Ruxton, Lawrence); its vision of scientific futurism (Huxley, Ballard). The book also analyzes the complex cultural relations between Britain and the United States around the time of the Second World War, suggesting that writers such as Wodehouse, Isherwood, and Auden understood the United States and Germany to offer alternative versions of the kind of technological modernity that appeared equally hostile to traditional forms of English culture. The book ends with a consideration of ways in which the canon of English literature might appear in a different light if seen from a transnational rather than a familiar national perspective. .

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Books	Junaid Zaidi Library, COMSATS University Islamabad 2nd Floor	820.93273 GIL-A (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		45512
Books	Junaid Zaidi Library, COMSATS University Islamabad Ground Floor	322.420956 MIL-M (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		53996

Total holds: 0

Browsing Junaid Zaidi Library, COMSATS University Islamabad shelves, Shelving location: 2nd Floor Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

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Previous	820.90091 GUI A Guide to twentieth century literature in English	820.900912 BLA-T Twentieth-century English literature	820.900914 FRO From Orwell to Naipaul Volume 8.	820.93273 GIL-A Atlantic republic the American tradition in English literature /	820.9353 WIL-C The chamber of maiden thought literary origins of the psychoanalytic model of the mind /	820.9355 PHI 62127 Philanthropic discourse in Anglo-American literature, 1850-1920 /	820.9358 ELD-I The imperial experience from Carlyle to Forster /	Next

Originally published: 2006.

Atlantic Republic traces the legacy of the United States both as a place and as an idea in the work of English writers from 1776 to the present day. Seeing the disputes of the Reformation as a precursor to this transatlantic divide, it argues that America has operated since the Revolution as a focal point for various traditions of dissent within English culture. By ranging over writers from Richard Price and Susanna Rowson in the 1790s to Angela Carter and Salman Rushdie at the turn of the twenty-first century, the book argues that America haunts the English literary tradition as a parallel space where ideology and aesthetics are configured differently. Consequently, it suggests, many of the key episodes in British history--parliamentary reform in the 1830s, the imperial designs of the Victorian era, the twentieth-century conflict with fascism, the advance of globalization since 1980--have been shaped by implicit dialogues with American cultural models. Rather than simply reinforcing the benign myth of a "special relationship," Paul Giles considers how various English writers over the past 200 years have engaged with America for various complicated reasons: its promise of political republicanism (Byron, Mary Shelley); its emphasis on religious disestablishment (Clough, Gissing); its prospect of pastoral regeneration (Ruxton, Lawrence); its vision of scientific futurism (Huxley, Ballard). The book also analyzes the complex cultural relations between Britain and the United States around the time of the Second World War, suggesting that writers such as Wodehouse, Isherwood, and Auden understood the United States and Germany to offer alternative versions of the kind of technological modernity that appeared equally hostile to traditional forms of English culture. The book ends with a consideration of ways in which the canon of English literature might appear in a different light if seen from a transnational rather than a familiar national perspective. .

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