Book contents
- Nostalgia and National Identity in the British and Irish Modernist Epic
- Nostalgia and National Identity in the British and Irish Modernist Epic
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface: The Books I Might Have Written
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Competing Nostalgias and Irish Identity in James Joyce’s Ulysses
- Chapter 2 Epic Satire and Epiphanic Nostalgia in Mina Loy’s Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose
- Chapter 3 Place, Transcendence, and Equivocal Nostalgia in Lynette Roberts’ Gods with Stainless Ears and T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets
- Chapter 4 Anamnesis and Nostalgic Temporality in David Jones’ The Anathemata
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Introduction
Chosen Homelands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 November 2025
Book contents
- Nostalgia and National Identity in the British and Irish Modernist Epic
- Nostalgia and National Identity in the British and Irish Modernist Epic
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface: The Books I Might Have Written
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Competing Nostalgias and Irish Identity in James Joyce’s Ulysses
- Chapter 2 Epic Satire and Epiphanic Nostalgia in Mina Loy’s Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose
- Chapter 3 Place, Transcendence, and Equivocal Nostalgia in Lynette Roberts’ Gods with Stainless Ears and T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets
- Chapter 4 Anamnesis and Nostalgic Temporality in David Jones’ The Anathemata
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
This methodological introduction outlines definitions of both the modernist epic and of nostalgia. In particular, it introduces the concept of “archaeological nostalgia,” the longing for the past of a place one already inhabits. This new categorization of nostalgia proves key to understanding the emotion’s role in modernist poetics. Existing scholarly debates surrounding the nature of nostalgia are also surveyed to demonstrate its political significance, and a “weak theory” of modernist epic as a capacious genre is offered.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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