Something Else Very Barbara Pym: Cultural Criticism in Quartet in Autumn

In this article—providing both historical context and critical analysis—I challenge the popular line of scholarly thought that has for years maintained that Miss Pym is not an “issues” writer. I specifically employ Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (1977) and Al...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interdisciplinary literary studies 2016-06, Vol.18 (2), p.179-202
Main Author: Murphy, Ryan Francis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdication
Communities
Humans
Literary criticism
Morality
Narratives
Older adults
Retirement
Social services
Social work
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this article—providing both historical context and critical analysis—I challenge the popular line of scholarly thought that has for years maintained that Miss Pym is not an “issues” writer. I specifically employ Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (1977) and Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (1981)—recognized classics of twentieth-century cultural criticism—to show how Pym, in her last novels, independently arrives at many of the same conclusions for which Berry and MacIntyre are celebrated. It is my further contention that one need not disagree with Lord David Cecil's assessment of Pym's novels as superb “examples of high comedy,” to also include her among the relevant cultural critics of her time.
ISSN:1524-8429
2161-427X
DOI:10.5325/intelitestud.18.2.0179