{"product_id":"9781474488617-the-alternative-modernity-of-the-bicycle-in-british-and-french-literature-1880-1920","title":"The Alternative Modernity of the Bicycle in British and French Literature, 1880–1920","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eExamines the bicycle as a literary device and a cultural phenomenon at the turn of the century in Britain and France.\u003cbr\u003eThis book engages with the long-overlooked bicycle as a crucial literary and cultural object. In a selection of turn-of-the-century fiction, travel writing and non-fiction, cycling is revealed to be a favoured literary device, allowing writers to structure their narratives in new ways or depict a fresh sensory and aesthetic experience. Moreover, this study reveals that from its earliest days, the bicycle played a compelling counter-cultural role, proposing an alternative modernity that directly challenged bourgeois, patriarchal, capitalist society. From blurring gender and class divisions, to offering a more empowering interaction with the machine and allowing an embodied and social experience of space, the bicycle pointed a human-powered route to progress amidst increasingly mechanised visions of the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41514348609633,"sku":"9781474488617","price":26.59,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_41655551_827b2802-4cae-490c-bc05-a82b4fd0458d.jpg?v=1781787697","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781474488617-the-alternative-modernity-of-the-bicycle-in-british-and-french-literature-1880-1920","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}