20th Century and Later British Literature

We feature comprehensive coverage of the British and Anglophone literatures of the twentieth century (and beyond). We range from London in the years preceding the First World War to the post-colonial locations of the post-Cold War.  We orient the richness of this literary history from strongly staked centers of critical interest.  What are the relations between literary and political history, we ask, paying special attention to the impact of the two World Wars on the understandings of a national literary tradition.  We also follow the evolving forms of cultural nationalism within the empire, mapping the prelude and aftermath of the Irish Rising in an early moment and the longer process of imperial devolution in the British Caribbean as well as the Indian subcontinent across the second half of the century.  "Modernism" is probably the most important center of attention for our group, and we are committed not only to focusing the meaning of this term but to expanding its range of reference in ways that can illuminate the culture of its production.

Faculty Experts