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A study of London suburban-set writing, exploring the links between place and fiction. This book charts a picture of evolving themes and concerns around the legibility and meaning of habitat and home for the individual, and the serious challenges that suburbia sets for literature.
List of contents
Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: 'Where is Clapham? Does Clapham even exist?': Suburban Invisibility 1. "Houseless-Homeless-Hopeless!": Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts 1830 - 1870 2. 'A World of Mud and Fog': The High Victorian and Edwardian Suburb, 1880 - 1914 3. 'The Third England': Suburban Fiction and Modernity, 1918 - 1939 4. 'Your Environment Makes as Little Sense as your Life': Post-War Suburbia 1945-1980 5. 'I Tried to Work Out Where I Was': Contemporary Suburbia Conclusion: 'All Stories are Spatial Stories' Notes Bibliography
About the author
Ged Pope teaches on the English Literature degree course at London Metropolitan University.
Summary
A study of London suburban-set writing, exploring the links between place and fiction. This book charts a picture of evolving themes and concerns around the legibility and meaning of habitat and home for the individual, and the serious challenges that suburbia sets for literature.
Additional text
“Despite the countless studies that have been published on London and its geographical and cultural make-up, Ged Pope is clearly correct in identifying the city's suburbs as an as yet under-researched area. His volume sets out to address this gap by adopting a very broad perspective, both in terms of the time frame (as indicated in the volume's subtitle) and with regard to the kinds of texts selected.” (Merle Tönnies, Anglistik, Vol. 28 (1), 2017)
Report
"Despite the countless studies that have been published on London and its geographical and cultural make-up, Ged Pope is clearly correct in identifying the city's suburbs as an as yet under-researched area. His volume sets out to address this gap by adopting a very broad perspective, both in terms of the time frame (as indicated in the volume's subtitle) and with regard to the kinds of texts selected." (Merle Tönnies, Anglistik, Vol. 28 (1), 2017)
