The leading critic Francis Mulhern uncovers a hidden history in the English novel and demonstrates its intimate, formative association with the course of the British labour movement, from its rise in the early twentieth century to the years of decline from the 1980s onwards. In this striking reconstruction, culture emerges as the plane of social conflict, above all that of classes; the narrative evaluations of culture's ends--the aspirations and destinies of those whose lives are the matter of its fictions--grow steadily darker as time passes. Readings of classic and contemporary novelists from Hardy and Forster to Amis, Kureishi and Smith, among others, illuminate the forms and narrative logics of the genre he terms the 'condition of culture novel' and places it in international context.
Francis Mulhern (born 1952) comes from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. He was educated at University College Dublin and the University of Cambridge. He has taught at universities in Ireland, Italy, Brazil and the USA, and was for many years Professor of Critical Studies at Middlesex University until his resignation in 2010. He is Associate Editor of New Left Review.
Title: Figures of Catastrophe: The Condition of Culture Novel
Author: Francis Mulhern
ISBN: 9781784781910
Binding:
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication Date: 2015-12-22
Number of Pages: 176
Weight: 0.7169 kg
Very welcome and important ... the book is at once indispensable. Guardian Extraordinarily thorough and responsive ... austerely elegant ... in praise of a distinguished essay in cultural history and critical theory. Times Literary Supplement This is a book to be grateful for. Criticism A richly informing and provocative work of intellectual history ... Mulhern marshals his evidence stwith a rare power of argument and a scrupulous fairness of coverage. British Book News An important and valuable book ... written with intensity and intelligence. Nation An extraordinary, thoughtful and thought-provoking study, 'Figures of Catastrophe' is very highly recommended for community and academic library Literary Studies reference collections and supplemental curriculums. - Midwest Book Review In Mulhern's hands, the semiotic square reveals structural continuities between a wide range of novels without reducing them to an inexorable template...[F]ew critics could match the subtlety of Mulhern's interpretations or the eloquent precision of his prose. Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it sends the reader back to the novels to test out its hypotheses, thus providing an education in the condition of culture novel and its polymorphic figures of catastrophe. - Maud Ellman, Critical Inquiry
