British literature and the life of institutions speculative states Kohlmann, Benjamin 1981- creator author. text bibliography Electronic books. History Criticism, interpretation, etc. enk 2021 2021 First edition. monographic eng remote 1 online resource : illustrations "Speculative States pursues two related goals, one reconstructive and literary-historical, the other conceptual. First, the book restores to view literature's engagements with the slow politics of reform by linking the development of the institutional forms of the state to the aesthetic forms of literary writing. In doing so, it maps out a literary prehistory of the welfare state in Britain that spans the late Victorian and modernist periods. Second, the book also makes visible an ambitious reformist idiom which insists that we think about the state as an aspirational (speculative) figure--as a form of life in its own right rather than as a set of detached administrative procedures and bureaucratic processes. Placing literary studies in dialogue with political theory, philosophy, and the history of ideas, Speculative States marks a major contribution to current debates about literature and the state, but it also centrally intervenes in conversations in critical theory by urging a fuller engagement with the critical and speculative dimensions of the dialectical imagination"--Publisher's description. Front Matter -- Introduction: Thinking the State (Again) -- 1. Literature as Speculative Thought: Britain's Long Hegelian Moment, c.1900 -- 2. 'The Hope of Pessimism': George Gissing, Mary Ward, and the Idea of an Institution -- 3. 'True Ownership': Edward Carpenter and the Nationalization of Land -- 4. 'Kinetic' Reform: H. G. Wells and Redistributive Taxation -- 5. Welfare State Romance: E. M. Forster and Unemployment Insurance -- Coda: Reformist Legacies -- Bibliography -- Index Benjamin Kohlmann. Includes bibliographical references and index. e-uk--- English literature 19th century History and criticism English literature 20th century History and criticism Welfare state in literature Economics in literature Social problems in literature State, The, in literature Literature and society Great Britain History 19th century Literature and society Great Britain History 20th century Littérature anglaise 19e siècle Histoire et critique Littérature anglaise 20e siècle Histoire et critique État providence dans la littérature Économie politique dans la littérature Problèmes sociaux dans la littérature État dans la littérature Littérature et société Grande-Bretagne Histoire 19e siècle Littérature et société Grande-Bretagne Histoire 20e siècle 19th Century Modern Social Services & Welfare Public Policy POLITICAL SCIENCE State, The, in literature Social problems in literature Literature and society Economics in literature English literature Welfare state in literature Great Britain 1800-1999 fast PR468.S6 K64 2021 820.9/355609034 British literature and the life of institutions Kohlmann, Benjamin, 1981- Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2021 First edition. (DLC) 2021937354 (OCoLC)1258070819 9780191945588 0191945587 9780192573179 0192573179 9780198836179 http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=https://academic.oup.com/book/38985 YDX 210623 20260319184520.7 in00005720702 eng