Mutating Idylls2019

"Mutating Idylls examines the surprising presence of the antique literary topos of the idyllic landscape, the locus amoenus, in European literature from the latter half of the 19th century. The book sets out to identify how this topos, which for many obvious reasons has no place in politically and socially realistic and naturalist literature, actually does have a role to play. Chapters on central 19th century authors like Flaubert and Zola, Fontane, Verga and Hamsun, Austen, Eliot and Wilde, Jime nez, Cernuda, and Galdo s demonstrate both the presence and the multiple refunctionalizations of the locus amoenus. The theoretical aim of Mutating Idylls is to rehabilitate the notion of literary topos. This feature is present in the introduction as a possibility in literary studies today. The...