Philip Davis

Why Victorian Literature Still Matters (eBook, PDF)

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is a passionate defense of Victorian literature's enduring impact and importance for readers interested in the relationship between literature and life, reading and thinking. * Explores the prominence of Victorian literature for contemporary readers and academics, through the author's unique insight into why it is still important today * Provides new frames of interpretation for key Victorian works of literature and close readings of important texts * Argues for a new engagement with Victorian literature, from general readers and scholars alike * Seeks to remove Victorian literature from an entrenched set of values, traditions and perspectives - demonstrating how vital and resonant it is for modern literary and cultural analysis

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Januar 2009
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781444304626
• Artikelnr.: 38308671

Autorenporträt

Philip Davis is Professor of English Literature in the School of English, University of Liverpool, UK. He is the author of The Victorians and, most recently, Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life. His other books include The Experience of Reading; Real Voices: On Reading, and Memory and Writing: from Wordsworth to Lawrence, as well as works on Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson. He is also editor of The Reader, a non-academic literary magazine aimed at the serious reader.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction: The Victorian Bump and Where to Find It 1

1 Victorian Hard Wiring 9

2 Isaiah and Ezekiel - But What About Charley? 35

3 Not So Straightforward: Realist Prose and What It Hides WithinItself 54

4 A Literature In Time 81

5 Individual Agents 112

6 A Few of My Favorite Things: A Glove, a Sandal, and PlaitedHair 138

Notes 161

Index 168

Rezensionen

"Philip Davis's Blackwell manifesto offers a spirited, polemicaldefence of Victorian literature in general, and Victorian realismin particular, against its modernist and postmodernist detractors."(Oxford Journals, 1 June 2011)

"In Why Victorian Literature Still Matters, Davis writes as areader. Readers, as he defines them, are different fromscholars and critics. Who distance themselves from the worldsbefore them by turning to history or theory instead. Readers,by contrast, do not distance themselves at all, but rather seekever more closeness." (Victorian Studies, Winter2010)"Davis's manifesto will capture the attention of a widereadership of intellectuals and serious readers alike who willappreciate his rigorous discussions and insightful analyses, forwhile he directs such readers away from questions merely academicand critical, he is not afraid to reveal the personal significanceof Victorian literature to modern sensibilities." (The CambridgeQuarterly, June 2009)

"With its thought-provoking readings and non-pretentious displayof erudition, the book could serve well as a useful introduction tothe literature of the Victorian period or as a source ofstimulation for teachers and scholars in the field."(Neo-Victorian Studies, Winter 2008/2009)

"Why Victorian Literature Still Matters is at its bestwhen it attends to the small detail, the odd or apt grammaticalgesture, the minute editorial changes that produce meaning at themost micro of levels." (Times Higher Education Supplement,January 2009)

"Part of a series exploring a broad range of subjectareas, this book is admittedly subjective in its exploration of therelevance of Victorian literature in the 21st century.Davis notes that it is intended for the reader rather than thescholar, but it will be of more interest to academic than to publiclibraries." (Library Journal, January 2009)

"Philip Davis's [book] ... Was fascinating about Victorianwriting, and one of the best books written about how novels canwork." (The Guardian, November 2008)"This book argues fearlessly and passionately for therelevance of Victorian literature to contemporary society,addressing a question too rarely asked in literary study: whyshould we care?"
-Marion Thain, University of Birmingham