Dark humor and social satire in the modern British novel /
General Material Designation
[Book]
First Statement of Responsibility
by Lisa Colletta.
EDITION STATEMENT
Edition Statement
1st ed.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
New York :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Palgrave Macmillan,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2003.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
154 pages ;
Dimensions
22 cm
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-150) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Introduction: Modernism and Dark Humor -- Comic Theory, the Social Novel, and Freud -- Criticizing the Social System: Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf's Dark Comedy of Manners -- The Dark Domestic Vision of Ivy Compton-Burnett: A House and Its Head -- The Too, Too Bogus World: Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies -- Astolpho Meets Sisyphus: Melancholy and Repetition in Anthony Powell's Afternoon Men.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
"Social satire in the modern period is traditionally seen as a conservative genre in opposition to the experimental aesthetic of literary modernism. In Dark Humor and Social Satire in the Modern British Novel, Lisa Colletta challenges this prevailing view, arguing that the darkly humorous social satires of the interwar years in Britain display a deep ambivalence and a delight in disorder that denies the reader the comfort of a stable or totalizing critique. Combining analysis of canonical writers and those often overlooked - Virginia Woolf, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Evelyn Waugh, and Anthony Powell - Colletta draws on psychoanalytic theories of joke-work and gallows humor to make the claim that dark humor is a defining characteristic of Modernism. She deftly connects these writers through their humor and offers an innovative rereading of Modernist texts."--Jacket.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Black humor.
English fiction-- 20th century-- History and criticism.
Humorous stories, English-- History and criticism.
Literature and society-- Great Britain-- History-- 20th century.
Modernism (Literature)-- Great Britain.
Social problems in literature.
Social satire, English-- History and criticism.
Humour noir.
Littérature et société-- Grande-Bretagne-- Histoire-- 20e siècle.
Modernisme (Littérature)-- Grande-Bretagne.
Problèmes sociaux dans la littérature.
Récits humoristiques anglais-- Histoire et critique.
Roman anglais-- 20e siècle-- Histoire et critique.