Alternative Cornwalls : Literature and the Invention of Place

This book takes a fresh look at the representation of Cornwall in literature. It offers new readings of familiar texts, and re-inserts little-known textual versions of Cornwall alongside those that have predominated. All of the alternative versions of place discussed in this book complicate more familiar tourist-friendly imaginings of Cornwall.

This book takes a fresh look at the representation of Cornwall in literature from the nineteenth century to the present day. It identifies alternative literary ''Cornwalls'' and seeks to understand these lost, hidden or subsumed versions and their relationship to the dominant, tourist-friendly ways in which Cornwall has been culturally produced, which often focus on Celtic, exotic or Arthurian, tropes. Taking as its subject matter the work of both Cornish and visiting writers, literary scholar and Cornishwoman Gemma Goodman explores the fictional terrain beyond the creative landmarks that dominate the way in which Cornwall is fashioned and understood in the national imaginary, to establish a more detailed cultural geography of place. The book helps position Cornish literature as a body of work in its own right as well as within the wider context of British literature and literary studies.