The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction

David Glover editor Scott McCracken editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:5th Apr '12

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The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction cover

An overview of popular literature from the early nineteenth century to the present day from a historical and comparative perspective.

A definitive and up-to-date survey of popular fiction from its early nineteenth-century origins to the contemporary world of bestsellers, graphic narratives, computer gaming and visual fictions, including a long view of the increasingly global market for popular writing.Popular commercial fiction emerged in the nineteenth century, with serialised novels and sensational penny dreadfuls. Today it remains a multi-million dollar industry giving pleasure to many, but it is also a field of growing interest for scholars and students of literature. This Companion covers the major developments in the history of popular fiction, with specially commissioned chapters on pulp fiction, bestsellers, and comics and graphic narratives. The volume also examines the public and personal everyday contexts within which popular texts are read, highlighting the ways in which such narratives have circulated across a variety of constantly changing media, including theatre, television, cinema and new computer-based digital forms. Case studies from key genres - crime fiction, romance and Gothic horror - as well as a full chronology and guide to further reading make this collection indispensable to all those interested in this complex and vibrant cultural field.

'It is a subject which stretches back (and forward) in time, across cultures, media, readers or consumers and is constantly shifting, especially now in the light of rapidly developing technology. This is a thorough survey of the current state of academic study of this area … for academics and students it is an invaluable source and guide to a subject, or subjects, of wide social, cultural and academic application.' Stuart James, Reference Reviews

ISBN: 9780521513371

Dimensions: 235mm x 157mm x 16mm

Weight: 510g

244 pages