イギリスのジャンル小説における英国らしさと環境 1890-1940年 Englishness and Environment in Genre Fiction, 1890-1940

Smyth, Gerry

Bloomsbury Academic（2026/06発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 248 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781350412460

Full Description

In this moment of growing anxiety about the environment and the fate of humanity, literature continues its vital role of articulating dynamic new ways of thinking about the relations between humanity, environment and technology. In this book, cultural historian Gerry Smyth focuses on English genre fiction of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exploring the ways in which popular novelists of the period engaged with debates relating to environment (England), culture (English language and literature) and identity (Englishness). In 16 case studies, the author covers examples of fantasy, science fiction, murder mystery and children's stories in order to trace the prehistory of modern environmentalism, especially as experienced in a key 50-year period running up to the start of the Second World War.

Englishness and Environment in Genre Fiction, 1890-1940 offers new approaches to a variety of well-loved English novels, describing an unlikely but important alternative genealogy for both modern English literature and modern ecocriticism. Case studies include The Island of Dr Moreau, Heart of Darkness, The Wind in the Willows, Cold Comfort Farm, Brave New World and The Hobbit. In these and other popular novels Smyth examines themes such as evolution, industrialisation, the growth of technology, Britain's fading imperial status, assaults on traditional discourses of class, gender and sexuality, animal rights, artificial intelligence and war. The central focus is on the ways in which popular genre authors responded to a variety of changes that were overtaking the idea of England itself during this period. Accessible and innovative, this book reconfigures modern English literary history from an environmental perspective, insisting that questions of environment were always already embedded in the field of modern cultural debate.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Timeline
Introduction
Chapter 1: News from Nowhere (1890) by William Morris
Chapter 2: The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) by H.G. Wells
Chapter 3: Heart of Darkness (1901) by Joseph Conrad
Chapter 4: The Hill of Dreams (1907) by Arthur Machin
Chapter 5: The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame
Chapter 6: The Lost World (1912) by Arthur Conan Doyle
Chapter 7: The Return of the Soldier (1918) by Rebecca West
Chapter 8: Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Chapter 9: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) by Agatha Christie
Chapter 10: Swallows and Amazons (1930) by Arthur Ransome
Chapter 11: Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons
Chapter 12: Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
Chapter 13: The Hobbit (1937) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Chapter 14: Coming Up for Air (1939) by George Orwell
Conclusion: Optimism with a Broken Heart
Notes
References
Index