Ruralism, Masculinity, and National Identity
The Rambling Clerk in Fiction, 1900–1940
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10064656 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicola Bishop (0009-0002-3266-5237, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 654-678 |
| Publication date | 2015-06-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of British Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/jbr.2015.57 |
| OpenAlex | W2215630184 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
This article examines the place of the literary lower-middle-class clerk in the English landscape between ca. 1900 and 1940. It draws attention to “clerical literature”—as typified in works by Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, and Shan Bullock—and, more specifically, a subgenre that signposts the emergent interest in getting “back to the land.” At the heart of this subgenre of “rambling fiction,” the male clerical protagonist not only engages with the natural landscape on a journey through rural England but also explores notions of masculinity, heritage, and national identity. By focusing on middlebrow works, largely those written by former clerks themselves, this article argues that clerks were pioneers in drawing connections between a re-masculating exposure to the great outdoors—necessary for suburban, domesticated, office workers—and an appreciation of a particular palimpsest of England's history. In doing so, the clerk helped to popularize the continued association of medievalism, the South of England, and the rural “idyll.”
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Hickey · Identity (music · Idyll · Literature · Masculinity · National identity · Nonconformist · Palimpsest · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis
The blackcoated worker
The blackcoated worker
Landscape and Englishness
English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850–1980
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
The Rise of the Office Clerk in Literary Culture, 1880–1939
Sociology Beyond Societies
Domestic Disappointments
Preserving The English Landscape, c .1870–1914
Power and politics at the seaside — the development of Devon's resorts in the Twentieth Century
Against ‘Englishness’
The Clarion Clubs, Rambling and the Holiday Associations in Britain since the 1890s
Pooterism or Partnership? Marriage and Masculine Identity in the Lower Middle Class, 1870–1920
Rambling and Manly Identity in Derbyshire’s Dark Peak, 1880s–1920s
Wanderlust
Sociology Beyond Societies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |