Open AccessPATRICK HAMILTON’S CRAVEN HOUSE: PARODYING THE EDWARDIAN WELTANSCHAUUNG
Author(s) -
Roy Janoch
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
odisea
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2174-1611
pISSN - 1578-3820
DOI - 10.25115/odisea.v0i21.3904
Subject(s) - depiction , nothing , comics , metaphor , literature , class (philosophy) , social class , philosophy , art , classics , history , law , epistemology , theology , political science
The following article is concerned with the depiction of the social decay of the Edwardian middle class in Patrick Hamilton’s serio-comic inter-war novel Craven House (1926). It is argued that while Hamilton satirises their conservative Weltanschauung, he also associates it with their social downfall. Beginning with an analysis of Hamilton’s own experience as a child of an Edwardian middle-class family, the article proceeds to examine the various facets of the Edwardian worldview that Hamilton satirises. It is concluded that the author’s critique of the Edwardian worldview acts at its core as nothing more than a metaphor for their social disintegration.