The enchantment of place: Mary Butts, Wessex, and interwar neo-romanticism

摘要

This article offers an interdisciplinary view of the complex iconography of ‘Wessex-ness’ in the politically disruptive writing of Mary Butts (1890-1937). My argument locates Butts' theories of historically embedded selfhood in the context of interwar neo-romanticism led by the landscape painter, illustrator and designer Paul Nash's articles on the national disposition of contemporary pictorial expression. The neo-romantic enterprise sought to evoke and enshrine mystical unspoilt hinterlands in the furthest corners of the island nation; its ideals left a clear imprint on cultural artefacts and practices as various as travelogues, mass advertising publicity, urban planning and aerial archaeology. However Mary Butts' journalistic and fictional texts reveal a radically ambivalent attitude towards this cultural phenomenon. Indeed, her neo-romantic stress on safeguarding the ‘streams’ of ‘Wessex’ from external threat blurs into a partisan and divisive chauvinism that upholds an ethos of territorial as well as ethnic purity.View full textDownload full textKeywordsMary Butts, English regional identity, neo-romanticism, cultural geography, citizenshipRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2012.670213