The Labour of Literature in Britain and France, 1830-1910: Authorial Work Ethics (Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture)

This volume examines the anxieties that caused many nineteenth-century writers to insist on literature as a laboured and labouring enterprise. Following Isaac DÆIsraeliÆs gloss on Jean de La Bruy?re, it asks, in particular, whether writing should be æcalled workingÆ. Whereas previous studies have focused on national literatures in isolation, this volume demonstrates the two-way traffic between British and French conceptions of literary labour. It questions assumed areas of affinity and difference, beginning with the labour politics of the early nineteenth century and their common root in the French Revolution. It also scrutinises the received view of France as a source of a æleisure ethicÆ, and of British writers as either rejecting or self-consciously mimicking French models. Individual essays consider examples of how different writers approached their work, while also evoking a broader notion of æwork ethicsÆ, understood as a humane practice, whereby values, benefits, and responsibilities, are weighed up.

• | Author: Marcus Waithe, Claire White
• | Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• | Publication Date: May 13, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 283 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Literary Criticism
• | ISBN-10: 1137552522
• | ISBN-13: 9781137552525