Espionage and Exile (Paperback)

Phyllis Lassner

ISBN 10: 147443147X / ISBN 13: 9781474431477

Published by Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. Analyses mid-twentieth century British spy thrillers as resistance to political oppressionEspionage and Exile demonstrates that from the 1930s through the Cold War British writers Eric Ambler, Helen MacInnes, John le Carre, Pamela Frankau and filmmaker Leslie Howard combine propaganda and popular entertainment to call for resistance to political oppression. Their spy fictions deploy themes of deception and betrayal to warn audiences of the consequences of Nazi Germanys conquests and later, the fusion of Fascist and Communist oppression. With politically charged suspense and compelling plots and characters, these writers challenge distinctions between villain and victim and exile and belonging by dramatising relationships between stateless refugees, British agents, and most dramatically, between the ethics of espionage and responses to international crisis.Key FeaturesThe first narrative analysis of mid-twentieth century British spy thrillers demonstrating their critiques of political responses to the dangers of Fascism, Nazism, and CommunismCombines research in history and political theory with literary and film analysisAdds interpretive complexity to understanding the political content of modern cultural productionOriginal close readings of the fiction of Eric Ambler, John Le Carre and British women spy thriller writers of World War II and the Cold War, including Helen MacInnes, Ann Bridge, and Pamela Frankau as well as the wartime radio broadcasts and films of Leslie Howard 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. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781474431477

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Espionage and Exile (Paperback)
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 147443147X
• ISBN 13: 9781474431477
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Analyses mid-twentieth century British spy thrillers as resistance to political oppression
Espionage and Exile demonstrates that from the 1930s through the Cold War British writers Eric Ambler, Helen MacInnes, John le Carré, Pamela Frankau and filmmaker Leslie Howard combine propaganda and popular entertainment to call for resistance to political oppression. Their spy fictions deploy themes of deception and betrayal to warn audiences of the consequences of Nazi Germany’s conquests and later, the fusion of Fascist and Communist oppression.  With politically charged suspense and compelling plots and characters, these writers challenge distinctions between villain and victim and exile and belonging by dramatising relationships between stateless refugees, British agents, and most dramatically, between the ethics of espionage and responses to international crisis.
Key Features
The first narrative analysis of mid-twentieth century British spy thrillers demonstrating their critiques of political responses to the dangers of Fascism, Nazism, and CommunismCombines research in history and political theory with literary and film analysisAdds interpretive complexity to understanding the political content of modern cultural productionOriginal close readings of the fiction of Eric Ambler, John Le Carré and British women spy thriller writers of World War II and the Cold War, including Helen MacInnes, Ann Bridge, and Pamela Frankau as well as the wartime radio broadcasts and films of Leslie Howard

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 University Press, 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 University Press).