Idealizing or Critical? Nostalgia for the Edwardian Golden Age - SYLWIA WOJCIECHOWSKA (Autor) (2022)
https://pjes.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/PJES_8-2_3_Wojciechowska.pdf
Oryginalny artykuł naukowy
The myth of the Golden Age found in 20th-century British prose fiction and,particularly, in accounts of the Edwardian decade, seems from the current perspec-tive to be a nostalgically envisioned idyllic haven. Suggestive of peace, innocence, andprosperity, the myth of the Golden Age features in literary renditions of a pre-WWIworld, with the works of Kenneth Grahame being a notable example. In stories aimedat younger readers, and in adult fiction too, war – and particularly WWI – constitutesa caesura at which the playful agon of the Edwardian Golden Age transforms intoa life-and-death struggle; by the same token, it dramatically severs the nostalgically re-called visions of peace and security. In the paper, I first focus on defining the mythicaland the nostalgic. I argue that, exposed through the workings of nostalgia, the notionof war becomes a pivot upon which the myth of the golden-age of Edwardian Englandis constructed and preserved in the collective memory. Furthermore, I argue that Brit-ish literature includes literary examples which, paradoxically, both re-enforce and yetsimultaneously challenge the golden-age traits of the Edwardian decade. In KennethGrahame’s The Golden Age and Dream Days the golden past is perpetuated and firmlycemented, whereas in Siegfried Sassoon’s autobiographical fiction as well as L. P. Hart-ley’s The Go-Between the initial reminiscences of an idyllic pre-WWI countryside aresubsequently questioned. In these texts, the retrospective viewpoint helps investigatethe links between myth and nostalgia, which ultimately culminates in a critical mes-sage: while deploying the “gilded” images and established rhetoric Sassoon and Hart-ley challenge the myth of the Golden Age and expose the reality of the Edwardian era.
Keywords: literaturoznawstwo