Cultural Politics at the Fin de Siècle

This book considers the ways in which current conflicts of 'race', class, and gender have their roots in the 1890s.

Cultural Politics at the Fin de Siècle scrutinises ways in which current conflicts of 'race', class, and gender have their origins in the cultural politics of the last fin de siècle, whose influence stretched from the 1890s, when economic depression signalled the end of Britain's role as 'the workshop of the world', to 1914 when world war accelerated imperial decline. This collaborative venture by new and established scholars includes discussion of the 'New Woman', the reconstruction of masculinities, and of feminism and empire. The imperialist theme is pursued in essays on Yeats and Ireland, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the figure of the vampire. The rise of socialism and psychoanalysis, and the relationship between nascent modernism and late twentieth-century postmodernism are also addressed in this radical account.

Introduction Sally Ledger and Scott McCracken; 1. The flight to the real Terry Eagleton; 2. The New Woman and the crisis of Victorianism Sally Ledger; 3. Empire, 'race' and feminism in the fin de siècle: the work of George Egerton and Olive Schreiner Laura Chrisman; 4. W. B. Yeats and Irish cultural politics in the 1890s Stephen Regan; 5. The double lives of man: narration and identification in late nineteenth-century representations of eccentric masculinities Ed Cohen; 6. Henry James and the spectacle of loss: psychoanalytical metaphysics Marcia Ian; 7. 'A very curious construction': masculinity and the poetry of A. E. Housman and Oscar Wilde Ruth Robbins; 8. The Pilgrims of Hope: William Morris and the dialectic of romanticism Anne Janowitz; 9. Urban utopias: socialism, religion and the city, 1880–1900 Lynne Hapgood; 10. Vampires and the empire: fears and fictions of the 1890s Alexandra Warwick; 11. Utopia, Limited: nationalism, empire and parody in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan Carolyn Williams; 12. Technologies of monstrosity: Bram Stoker's Dracula Judith Halberstam; 13. Postmodernism, a chance to re-read? Scott McCracken; 14. Is market society the fin of history? Regina Gagnier.

The end-of-century experience is generating intense interest among contemporary critics. This wide-ranging collaborative venture examines ways in which current conflicts of 'race', class, and gender have their origins in the cultural politics of the last fin de siècle.