Abstract
This chapter is about how four twentieth-century writers looked hard at their present circumstances, took stock of how desperate the times were and offered some routes out of the crisis. The writers are: W. H. Auden (1907–1973), Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) and Raymond Williams (1921–1988). It seems a fairly random selection, covering a century of British and US experience. However, they have certain common characteristics relevant to my aim of investigating how they advance their arguments and make an appeal to audiences then and now. All, for instance could be described as ‘public intellectuals’, highly attuned to their times, rigorous researchers and critics, exponents of a variety of progressive causes and successful writers across a variety of documentary and fictional genres.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Auden, W. H. (1976) ‘In Memory of W.B. Yeats (d. Jan. 1939)’, Collected Poems. London: Faber and Faber.
Auden, W. H. (1977) The English Auden, E. Mendelson, ed. London: Faber and Faber.
Bell, Q. (1972) Virginia Woolf: A Biography. London: Hogarth Press.
Bellamy, E. (1888/1960) Looking Backward, 2000–1887. New York: New American Library.
Black, N. (1983) ‘Virginia Woolf and the Women’s Movement’, in Jane Marcus, ed., Virginia Woolf: A Feminist Slant. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 180–194.
Brodsky, J. (2011) ‘On “September 1, 1939” by W.H. Auden’, Less than One: Selected Essays. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Carpenter, H. (1981) W.H. Auden: A Biography. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Hitchens, C. (2011) Arguably. London: Atlantic Books.
Hoggart, R. (1965) Auden: An Introductory Essay. London: Chatto and Windus.
Lee, H. (1997) Virginia Woolf. London: Vintage.
Majumdar, R. and McLaurin, A. (1938/1975) Virginia Woolf: The Critical Heritage. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
Mendelson, E. (1981) Early Auden. London: Faber and Faber.
Mulhern, F. (1989) ‘Towards 2000, or news from you-know-who’, in Terry Eagleton, ed., Raymond Williams: Critical Perspectives. London: Polity Press.
Perkins Gilman, C. (1898/1966) Women and Economics. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Perkins Gilman, C. (1903/1972) The Home: Its Work and Influence. Urbana: University of Illinois.
Perkins Gilman, C. (1915/1979) Herland. London: The Women’s Press.
Silver, B.R. (1999) Virginia Woolf Icon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Williams, R. (1961) The Long Revolution. London: Chatto and Windus.
Williams, R. (1983) ‘The tenses of imagination’, in Writing in Society. London: Verso, pp. 259–268.
Williams, R. (1985) Towards 2000. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Woolf, V. (1997) A Moment’s Liberty, Anne Olivier Bell, ed. London: Pimlico.
Woolf, V. (2008) A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas, Morag Shiach, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wynn Allen, P. (1988) Building Domestic Liberty: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Architectural Feminism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Rosalind Brunt
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brunt, R. (2013). ‘Show an Affirming Flame’: Writers and Readers in Modern Dark Times. In: Philips, D., Shaw, K. (eds) Literary Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137270146_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137270146_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44426-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-27014-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)