Diplomacy and the Modern Novel : : France, Britain, and the Mission of Literature / / ed. by Isabelle Daunais, Allan Hepburn.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2020 English
• MitwirkendeR: Biron, Michel,; Caserio, Robert L.,; Daunais, Isabelle,; Davison, Claire,; Decout, Maxime,; Dibattista, Maria,; Hepburn, Allan,; Krzakowski, Caroline Z.,; Proulx, François,; Prévost, Maxime,; Ross, Stephen,
• HerausgeberIn: Daunais, Isabelle ,; Hepburn, Allan,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (252 p.) :; 2 b&w illustrations

Between 1900 and 1960, many writers in France and Britain either had parallel careers in diplomatic corps or frequented diplomatic circles: Paul Claudel, Albert Cohen, Lawrence Durrell, Graham Greene, John le Carré, André Malraux, Nancy Mitford, Marcel Proust, and others. What attracts writers to diplomacy, and what attracts diplomats to publishing their experiences in memoirs or novels? Like novelists, diplomats are in the habit of describing situations with an eye for atmosphere, personalities, and looming crises. Yet novels about diplomats, far from putting a solemn face on everything, often devolve into comedy if not outright farce. Anachronistic yet charming, diplomats take the long view of history and social transformation, which puts them out of step with their times – at least in fiction. In this collection of essays, eleven contributors reflect on diplomacy in French and British novels, with particular focus on temporality, style, comedy, characterization, and the professional liabilities attached to representing a state abroad. With archival examples as evidence, the essays in this volume indicate that modern fiction, especially fiction about diplomacy, is a response to the increasing speed of communication, the decline of imperial power, and the ceding of old ways of negotiating to new.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- The Mission of Literature: Modern Novels and Diplomacy -- Part One: Diplomatic Experience -- 1. Making a Song and Dance of It: Staging Diplomacy in William Gerhardi’s Early Novels -- 2. The League of Nations As Seen by Albert Cohen: A User’s Guide to Social Magic -- 3. Modern Negotiations: Harold Nicolson’s Peacemaking 1919 and Public Faces -- Part Two: Novels and Diplomacy -- 4. “Diplomatic Dispatch Style”: Towards a New Aesthetic of the Novel -- 5. Conrad’s Politics of Idealism: Diplomacy without Diplomats -- 6. André Gide and the Art of Evasion -- Part Three: Documents -- 7. Proust’s Epistolary Diplomacy: Antoine Bibesco, René Peter, and “Salaïsme” -- 8. The Art of Conversation: Nancy Mitford, France, and Cultural Diplomacy -- Part Four: Foreign Affairs -- 9. Action, Diplomacy, Art: André Malraux and Graham Greene -- 10. Mythography and Diplomacy in Works by Ian Fleming and John le Carré -- 11. Lawrence Durrell: Diplomacy as Farce -- Works Cited -- Contributors -- Index