Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: The 1860s

A reappraisal of the 1860s and British literature, featuring chapters on key genres and themes by top international scholars.

An in-depth exploration and reappraisal of the 1860s in British literature, featuring chapters by a wide range of scholars on characteristic literary genres and themes. Thematic chapters range from empire and slavery to evolution, economics, and the environment. The Introduction limns historical as well as current scholarly context.Offering an in-depth overview and reappraisal of the 1860s in British literature, this innovative volume features in-depth analyses from noted scholars at the tops of their fields. Covering characteristic literary genres of the 1860s (including sensation and lyric, as well as Golden Age children's literature), and topics of current and enduring interest in the field, from empire and slavery to evolution, environmental issues and economics, it incorporates drama as well as poetry and fiction, and emphasizes the history of publishing and periodicals so important to the period. Chapters are attentive to the global context, from Ireland on the stage, to Bengali literature, to Britain's muted response to the US Civil War. The Introduction gives an overview that places these individual chapters in the historical context of the 1860s, as well as the current scholarly conversation in the field.