English Modernism, National Identity and the Germans, 18901950 - 9781138259454

Name: English Modernism, National Identity and the Germans, 18901950 - 9781138259454
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

This is the first systematic analysis of the relationship between representations of 'Germanness' in modernist British literature, the construction of English identity and the negotiation of modernity. Major figures such as Conrad, Woolf and Ford are examined alongside popular or less-familiar writers such as Saki and Stevie Smith. Rau's book will be invaluable to scholars and will serve undergraduates working in modernism, literary history, and European cultural relations. > This is the first systematic study to trace the way representations of 'Germanness' in modernist British literature from 1890 to 1950 contributed to the development of English identity. Petra Rau examines the shift in attitudes towards Germany and Germans, from suspicious competitiveness in the late Victorian period to the aggressive hostility of the First World War and the curious inconsistencies of the 1930s and 1940s. These shifts were no simple response to political change but the result of an anxious neg.