Romances of the archive in contemporary British fiction

By Suzanne Keen

Subjects: Libraries, Archives dans la littérature, English Historical fiction, Libraries in literature, English fiction, English fiction, history and criticism, 20th century, Literature and history, Postcolonialism, Bibliothèques dans la littérature, Archives, History and criticism, Histoire et critique, Archives in literature, Historical fiction, English, Stagecoach robberies, History, Decolonization in literature, Roman anglais

Description: "Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction is a discussion of the debates about the uses of the past contained in British fiction since the Falklands crisis. Suzanne Keen provides a detailed examination of the range of contemporary 'romances of the archive,' a genre in which British novelists both deal with the loss of Empire and a nostalgia for the past, and react to the postimperial condition of Great Britain. Keen identifies the genre and explains its literary sources from Edmund Spenser to H. P. Lovecraft and John LeCarre. She also accounts for the rise in popularity of the archival romance and provides a context for understanding the British postimperial preoccupation with history and heritage."--BOOK JACKET.