Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film

by Phyllis Lassner

Overview

The first narrative analysis of mid-twentieth century British spy thrillers demonstrating their critiques of political responses to the dangers of Fascism, Nazism, and Communism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474401104
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	07/06/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Phyllis Lassner is a Professor in The Crown Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, The Gender Studies and Cook Family Writing Programs at Northwestern University. She is the author of Anglo-Jewish Women Writing the Holocaust: Displaced Witnesses (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire (Rutgers UniversityPress, 2004), British Women Writers of World War II: Battlegrounds of their Own (St. Martin's, 1998), Elizabeth Bowen: A Study of the Novels (Macmillan, 1990), The Short Fiction of Elizabeth Bowen (G.K. Hall, 1991) and the co-editor of Rumer Godden: International and Intermodern Storyteller (Ashgate, 2010) and of Antisemitism and Philosemitism in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Representing Jews, Jewishness, and Modern Cultury (U Delaware P, 2008). Professor Lassner is also the series editor of Cultural Expressions of World War II: Interwar Preludes, Responses, Memory (Northwestern UniversityPress).

Table of Contents

Exile: The Heart of the Secret World;
1. Eric Ambler: Espionage Chronicler of the 1930s;
2. Double Agency: Women Writers of Espionage Fiction;
3. Leslie Howard: Propaganda Artist;
4. John le Carré's Never Ending War of Exile;
Conclusion;
Bibliography.

What People are Saying About This

Espionage and Exile is set to advance scholarship in the field of spy fiction. It is original, daring, carefully arranged and argued. Lassner offers a new understanding of espionage literature, one that moves interpretation far beyond the preoccupation with genre, formulae, masculinity, or realism.

Allan Hepburn

Espionage and Exile is set to advance scholarship in the field of spy fiction. It is original, daring, carefully arranged and argued. Lassner offers a new understanding of espionage literature, one that moves interpretation far beyond the preoccupation with genre, formulae, masculinity, or realism.

Editorial Reviews

...a valuable and interesting study, which amply succeeds in bringing to prominence the more subaltern figures of the genre – characters and authors.

George Orwell Studies 1:2 - Andrew Glazzard

...wide-ranging study of twentieth-century spy fiction.

Studies in the Novel, Vol 49, No 1 - Oliver Buckton

Lassner offers a compelling case for recognizing the political and literary complexity of espionage fiction.

Modernism/Modernity - Erin G. Carlston

This is a timely critical work in an age of resurgent fascist nationalisms. Scholars and students of modern British fiction and film will benefit from the ethical lines of questioning strongly established by Lassner throughout her oeuvre and which continue in this book.
— Judy Suh, Cercles

[A] wide-ranging study of twentieth-century spy fiction.
— Oliver Buckton, Studies in the Novel, Vol 49, No 1

While I
can imagine scholars reading selectively, choosing one chapter or another for specific attention, the Conclusion shows how well the book works as a whole, and I
would recommend it strongly.
— Mary McGlynn, Literature & History 26:1

From the Publisher

While I can imagine scholars reading selectively, choosing one chapter or another for specific attention, the Conclusion shows how well the book works as a whole, and I would recommend it strongly.

Literature & History 26:1 - Mary McGlynn

This is a timely critical work in an age of resurgent fascist nationalisms. Scholars and students of modern British fiction and film will benefit from the ethical lines of questioning strongly established by Lassner throughout her oeuvre and which continue in this book.

Cercles - Judy Suh

Espionage and Exile is set to advance scholarship in the field of spy fiction. It is original, daring, carefully arranged and argued. Lassner offers a new understanding of espionage literature, one that moves interpretation far beyond the preoccupation with genre, formulae, masculinity, or realism.

Allan Hepburn

Espionage and Exile is a perceptive and welcome addition to the field, especially in its movement away from the more familiar analytical approaches to the genre, and towards much-needed fresh ground.

The Modern Language Review, September 2017 - Sam Goodman

Lassner's central argument is original, productive, and persuasive...

Jewish Film & New Media, Vol 5, No 1 - Toby Manning