The Alternative Modernity of the Bicycle in British and French Literature, 1880-1920

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The Alternative Modernity of the Bicycle in British and French Literature, 1880-1920 is written by Una Brogan and published by EUP. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1474488609 (ISBN 10) and 9781474488600 (ISBN 13).

Examines the bicycle as a literary device and a cultural phenomenon at the turn of the century in Britain and France This book engages with the long-overlooked bicycle as a crucial literary and cultural object. In a selection of turn-of-the-century fiction, travel writing and non-fiction, cycling is revealed to be a favoured literary device, allowing writers to structure their narratives in new ways or depict a fresh sensory and aesthetic experience. Moreover, this study reveals that from its earliest days, the bicycle played a compelling counter-cultural role, proposing an alternative modernity that directly challenged bourgeois, patriarchal, capitalist society. From blurring gender and class divisions, to offering a more empowering interaction with the machine and allowing an embodied and social experience of space, the bicycle pointed a human-powered route to progress amidst increasingly mechanised visions of the future. Una Brogan is an independent researcher and translator and received her PhD at Université Paris 7-Diderot.