Rural Modernity in Britain: A Critical Intervention

Kristin Bluemel; Michael McCluskey

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2018

Rural Modernity in Britain

A Critical Intervention

Kristin Bluemel and Michael McCluskey

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474420969

Overview
Contents

About this book

Defines the interdisciplinary field of Rural Modernity through analysis of British literature, art and culture

Rural Modernity in Britain argues that the rural areas of Britain were impacted by modernisation just as much – if not more – than urban and suburban areas. It is the first study of modernity and modernism to focus on rural people and places that experienced economic depression, the expansion of transportation and communication networks, the roll out of electricity, the loss of land, and the erosion of local identities. Who celebrated these changes? Who resisted them? Who documented them?

Essays in this collection make the case that the rural means more than just the often-studied countryside of southern England, a retreat from the consequences of modernity; rather, the rural emerges as a source for new versions of the modern, with an active role in the formation and development of British experiences and representations of modernity.

Key Features

Introdues readers to concept of rural modernity that locates its critical intervention in fields of modernism and modernity studies
Split into five sections addressing Networks, Landscapes, Communities, Heritage, and War
Includes In dialogue with" suggestions to guide readers across interdisciplinary contents of diverse chapters
Contributors from England, Scotland, USA, New Zealand and Canada, representing fields of literature, art history, history, geography, and cultural studies

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Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Introduction: Rural Modernity in Britain Kristin Bluemel and Michael McCluskey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Networks
Chapter 1 Ringing the Changes: Thomas Hardy’s Communication Networks Edward Allen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter 2 Change in the Village: Filming Rural Britain Michael McCluskey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
Chapter 3 Electricity Comes to the Countryside: Visual Representations of a Connected Countryside in the Early Twentieth Century Rosemary Shirley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
Part II Landscapes
Chapter 4 Weighing Down the Landscape: The Quarry as a Site of Rural Modernity Samuel Shaw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Chapter 5 Windmills and Woodblocks: Agnes Miller Parker, Wood Engraving and the Popular Press in Interwar Britain Kristin Bluemel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
Chapter 6 Hiraeth and Ambiguous Pastorals: Wales, England and Rural Modernities between the Wars Chris Hopkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Part III Communities
Chapter 7 The ‘Uncertainty of Our Climate’: Mary Kelly and the Rural Theatre Andrew Walker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter 8 The Spinster in Eden: Reclaiming Civilisation in Interwar British Rural Fiction Stella Deen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Chapter 9 Transformative Pastoral: Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s A Scots Quair Nick Hubble Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Part IV Heritage
Chapter 10 Borderlands: Visual and Material Culture in the Interwar Anglo-Scottish Borders Ysanne Holt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Chapter 11 Beyond Portmeirion: The Architecture, Planning and Protests of Clough Williams-Ellis Nigel Harrison and Iain Robertson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Chapter 12 Celebrating England: ‘Heritage’ Writing and the Rural Novelist Dominic Head Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Part V Wars
Chapter 13 Altered Countrysides: Paul Nash, David Jones and Eric Ravilious in Wartime Eluned Summers-Bremner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Chapter 14 Eden in Sussex: Atheist Moderns and the Berwick Church Murals Hana Leaper and Polly Mills Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Chapter 15 Rural Modernity in a Time of Crisis: Preservation and Reform in the Books of B. T. Batsford Peter Lowe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	294

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 328
Illustrations
- Other: 46 B/W illustrations 13 colour illustrations 1 B/W tables
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 9781474420969