Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The Middle Ages, especially the period from the Norman Conquest of 1066 in England until the Renaissance in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, has been popular in fiction at least since Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott’s hugely influential historical novel from 1819. Below, we […]
Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The twentieth century gave us literary modernism, postmodernism, magical realism, dystopian fiction, and new perspectives on race, empire, gender, and politics. Below, we introduce ten classic twentieth-century novels which anyone aiming to be well-read in twentieth-century fiction should aim to read.
Literary criticism (or even ‘literary theory’) goes back as far as ancient Greece, and Aristotle’s Poetics. But the rise of English Literature as a university subject, at the beginning of the twentieth century, led to literary criticism focusing on English literature – everything from Shakespeare to contemporary literature – being […]
Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The 1920s was the Jazz Age in America, and the age of modernism in Britain. It was the era of flappers, cocktail parties, and experimenting with the novel; but for others, who couldn’t afford the luxury of gin fizzes in luxury mansions or a room […]
The best literary travelogues There are plenty of books out there telling the story of English literature: its history and development. But what about those guidebooks which take a geographical approach to literary Britain, and offer suggestions for places to visit around the UK based on their literary associations? Here […]