In My Own Shire: Region and Belonging in British Writing, 1840-1970

(Hardback)

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Description

An overview of 19th- and 20th-century writing from the British Isles shows a constant interplay between metropolitan centers and regional peripheriesan interplay that points to the basic importance of place and belonging in literary creation and evaluation. This volume examines the relationship between British literatureincluding poetry, fiction, biography, and dramaand regional consciousness in the Victorian and modern periods, introducing the reader to a range of responses to the profound feelings of belonging engendered by the sense of place. The works covered are a mixture of familiar classics and less well-known writings from working-class writers or forgotten writers who were successful in their era. After accounting for the emergence of regional writing in the early 19th century, the author analyzes the development of regional writing in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, focusing on issues such as the sociopolitical context of the regional novel, the print and literary cultures around regional presses, and the place of documentary in regional consciousness.

Reviews

This study is impossible to summarize: nearly every page develops a different concept of regionalism or defines a British writer's individual handling of it. Wade's concern is to pin down as precisely as possible "the attachments to place and community" or the sense of regional belonging. The subject is staggeringly complicated and lends itself neither to easy geographical orderliness nor simple sequential chronology, yet Wade seems to make sense of it all with his sharp thumbnail biographies and incisive definitions....Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.-Choice
"This study is impossible to summarize: nearly every page develops a different concept of regionalism or defines a British writer's individual handling of it. Wade's concern is to pin down as precisely as possible "the attachments to place and community" or the sense of regional belonging. The subject is staggeringly complicated and lends itself neither to easy geographical orderliness nor simple sequential chronology, yet Wade seems to make sense of it all with his sharp thumbnail biographies and incisive definitions....Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty."-Choice

Author Bio

STEPHEN WADE is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Huddersfield, England. He has published several scholarly books and articles, as well as some collections of poems.