May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity

Although May Sinclair’s work has tended to be relegated to the periphery of modernism, Sinclair entertained close relationships with many major modernist figures such as Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound, and Rebecca West. A prolific novelist, Sinclair also wrote extensively on ways in which literature co...

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Main Author: Isabelle BRASME
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) 2018-06-01
Series:E-REA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/erea/6178
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author Isabelle BRASME
author_facet Isabelle BRASME
author_sort Isabelle BRASME
collection DOAJ
description Although May Sinclair’s work has tended to be relegated to the periphery of modernism, Sinclair entertained close relationships with many major modernist figures such as Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound, and Rebecca West. A prolific novelist, Sinclair also wrote extensively on ways in which literature could participate in the modern movement, from the Brontë sisters to the Imagist poets, and is perhaps best known for first applying William James’s metaphor of the “stream of consciousness” to literary technique in her analysis of Dorothy Richardson’s first three instalments of Pilgrimage. Additionally, Sinclair’s intensely personal and dynamic critical style is itself a mindful exercise in a more innovative approach to criticism that proves akin to the modernist works that she tackles. Lastly, Sinclair’s criticism of her fellow modernist writers gives us a better insight into the innovation present in Sinclair’s own literary works, and into her career’s trajectory as it moved away from traditional realism to psychological realism. Examining Sinclair’s critical work thus allows us to establish the specificity of her perspective on modernist practices of writing and to re-examine the canons of modernism against the grain of what came to be the accepted definition of avant-garde writing.
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spelling doaj-art-8bcf85017b7a4449a74d4024b78e34962025-01-09T12:53:55ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182018-06-0115210.4000/erea.6178May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to ModernityIsabelle BRASMEAlthough May Sinclair’s work has tended to be relegated to the periphery of modernism, Sinclair entertained close relationships with many major modernist figures such as Ford Madox Ford, Ezra Pound, and Rebecca West. A prolific novelist, Sinclair also wrote extensively on ways in which literature could participate in the modern movement, from the Brontë sisters to the Imagist poets, and is perhaps best known for first applying William James’s metaphor of the “stream of consciousness” to literary technique in her analysis of Dorothy Richardson’s first three instalments of Pilgrimage. Additionally, Sinclair’s intensely personal and dynamic critical style is itself a mindful exercise in a more innovative approach to criticism that proves akin to the modernist works that she tackles. Lastly, Sinclair’s criticism of her fellow modernist writers gives us a better insight into the innovation present in Sinclair’s own literary works, and into her career’s trajectory as it moved away from traditional realism to psychological realism. Examining Sinclair’s critical work thus allows us to establish the specificity of her perspective on modernist practices of writing and to re-examine the canons of modernism against the grain of what came to be the accepted definition of avant-garde writing.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/6178criticismmodernismrealismnovelimagismSinclair
spellingShingle Isabelle BRASME
May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity
E-REA
criticism
modernism
realism
novel
imagism
Sinclair
title May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity
title_full May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity
title_fullStr May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity
title_full_unstemmed May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity
title_short May Sinclair’s Literary Criticism: A Commitment to Modernity
title_sort may sinclair s literary criticism a commitment to modernity
topic criticism
modernism
realism
novel
imagism
Sinclair
url https://journals.openedition.org/erea/6178
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