Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2021
Abstract
The Intellectuals and the Masses offers a critique of the elitist tendencies prevalent among the prominent figures of the British literary scene in the late 19th and early 20th century. It examines the response of Modernist and other authors to the social changes connected with rapid population growth and the rise of mass culture - whether they reacted to this cultural "revolt of the masses" by cultivating exclusivity in their art - thus removing it from the grasp of the "undereducated" - or by devising social engineering projects designed to deal with the problem of overpopulation.