The Criterion
Cultural Politics and Periodical Networks in Inter-War Britain
Published on 11. April 2002
Book
Hardback
268 pages
978-0-19-924717-2 (ISBN)
Description
In this detailed study of literary culture in the inter-war period, Jason Harding examines the standing of T. S. Eliot's journal the Criterion in relation to other literary periodicals and, beyond that, to the larger cultural networks of the time. The Criterion may at first sight seem a well-studied publication, often dismissed as predictably conservative, even proto-Fascist. However, through his examination of insufficiently known archive material and interviews with living witnesses to the period, Harding significantly alters our understanding of the journal and of Eliot's role as editor. More than that, by carefully resituating the journal in its relations - of both competition and co-operation - with a range of other literary periodicals (for the most part little-studied themselves), he shows himself an authoritative and discriminating guide to the often complex networks within which Eliot worked. The Criterion: Cultural Politics and Periodical Networks in Inter-War Britain defends the journal against charges of Fascism and anti-Semitism: it is an invaluable book for scholars of Eliot and an original and incisive exploration of difficult areas of literary-cultural exchange.
Reviews / Votes
Lucid study of the Criterion so timely and so exciting. * Arete: the Arts Tri-Quarterly * Jason Harding's assiduously researched study of [The Criterion] is excellent at nipping behind its tone of Olympian hauteur to reveal the sectarian, manipulative, suavely malicious politics of the literary marketplace that lie behind it. * Terry Eagleton, London Review of Books * Jason Harding's excellent, entertaining study, The Criterion ... The book concludes with a sympathetic and scrupulous rereading of Eliot's journal as a serious "religio-political organ", with, again, the emphasis on careful contextualization and, what is a relief, a resistance to shorthand accusations and descriptions like "stodgily conservative" or "crypto-fascist".' * Stephen Romer, Times Literary Supplement * Jason Harding has taken the Criterion out of vacuum-sealed isolation and re-examined it in relation to other literary reviews...He brings a wealth of unpublished correspondence and unfamiliar archival material to this badly needed contextualization of Eliot's participation and intervention in the cultural dialogues of his day...richly informed and documented analyses...valuable and provocative...the new gateway for critical entry into Eliot's monumental editorial achievement. * Ronald Schuchard, Modernism/Modernity * an impressive endeavour of archival diligence * Yearbook of English Studies * a masterful work of scholarship on Eliot and modernism. * Virginia Quarterly Review *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
513 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-924717-2 (9780199247172)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Content
I: PERIODICAL NETWORKS ; II: THE POLITICS OF BOOK REVIEWING ; III: CULTURAL POLITICS