Book

Literature, immigration and diaspora in fin-de-siècle England : a cultural history of the 1905 Aliens Act

Glover, David, 1946-

Overview

\"The 1905 Aliens Act was the first modern law to restrict immigration to British shores. In this book, David Glover asks how it was possible for Britain, a nation that had prided itself on offering asylum to refugees, to pass such legislation. Tracing the ways that the legal notion of the 'alien' became a national-racist epithet indistinguishable from the figure of 'the Jew', Glover argues that the literary and popular entertainments of fin de siècle Britain perpetuated a culture of xenophobia. Reconstructing the complex socio-political field known as 'the alien question', Glover examines the work of George Eliot, Israel Zangwill, Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad, together with forgotten writers like Margaret Harkness, Edgar Wallace and James Blyth. By linking them to the beliefs and ideologies that circulated via newspapers, periodicals, political meetings, Royal Commissions, patriotic melodramas and social surveys, Glover sheds new light on dilemmas about nationality, borders and citizenship\"-- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Literature and society Great Britain History 20th century. / National characteristics, British. / Emigration and immigration in literature. / Emigration and immigration law Great Britain. / LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
• ISBN: 9781107022812, 1107022819

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
PR478.N37 G57 2012	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE