Synopses & Reviews
W.H. Auden established his literary reputation in a decade framedby economic depression and global war. He emerged as the defining literary voice ofthe 1930s while the documentary genre emerged as the decade's principal discourse ofsocial reality. In Auden and Documentary in the 1930s, Marsha Bryant examines thiscultural convergence to challenge standard assumptions about socially engaged art.Restoring to Auden's canon the commentaries he wrote for documentary films and thephotographs he published in his documentary travelogues, she considers the decade'sinterplay of visual and literary texts.
The 1930scontinue to provide our dominant models of socially engaged art, especially throughthe documentary genre. In Auden's alternative documentary texts, Bryant reveals, the1930s can also suggest new models of representation. This multilayered study shouldappeal to scholars of film studies, modernism, cultural studies, and gay studies, aswell as to Auden's legions of fans.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-196) and index.