Modernism, Space and the City Outsiders and Affect in Paris, Vienna, Berlin and London - Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture

Explores the crucial role played by the city in the construction of modernism

This innovative book examines the development of modernist writing in four European cities: London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Focusing on how literary outsiders represented various spaces in these cities, it draws upon contemporary theories of affect and literary geography. Particular attention is given to the transnational qualities of modernist writing by examining writers whose view of the cities considered is that of migrants, exiles or strangers, including Mulk Raj Anand, Blaise Cendrars, Bryher, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Hope Mirrlees, Noami Mitchison, Jean Rhys, Sam Selvon and Stephen Spender.

Key Features

• The first book in modernist studies to bring detailed discussion of these four cities together
• Breaks new ground in being the first book to bring affect theory and literary geography together in order to analyse modernism
• An extensive range of authors is analysed, from the canonical to the previously marginal
• Situates the literary and filmic texts within the context of urban spaces and cultural institutions