Böcker av Lyn Pykett

The fin de siecle, the period 1880-1914, long associated with decadence and with the literary movements of aestheticism and symbolism, has received renewed critical interest recently. This book introduces fin de siecle cultural studies and commentates on aspects of current critical debate.

Employing a range of theoretical and methodological approaches - including reader response theory, narratology, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, cultural materialism and a range of feminisms - these essays examine Collins's fiction from several perspectives: historical, psychological, structural, generic and political (including gender politics).

The first comparative study of the women's sensation novel of the 1860s and the New Woman fiction of the 1890s, two genres which undermined the ideal of the 'proper feminine' and dangerously put female sexuality on the literary agenda.

This work examines the full spectrum of Dickens's writing, including his journalism, work as an editor of periodicals, sketches and stories, placing his work in its contemporary context as well as reassessing it in the light of late modern/postmodern rereadings.