Ebook: Violence in Early Modernist Fiction: The Secret Agent, Tarr and Women in Love

This study focuses on texts exploring human proclivity to violent behaviour. Building on the anthropological insights of René Girard, and on the premise that literature is a reflection of a cultural moment, Curyłło-Klag shows how early modernism registers symptoms of crisis which even the outbreak of World War I failed to resolve. Arranged in chronological order, the works of Conrad, Lewis and Lawrence reveal an unfolding pattern and form a triptych, indicative of the growing intensity of the epoch in which they were produced.

Izabela Curyłło-Klag teaches in the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków. Her research interests include: the modern British novel, dystopian writing and roman noir, and the intersections between literature, history and culture. She has published articles on modernist fiction and co-edited an anthology of immigrant memoirs, The British Migrant Experience, 1700-2000.