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Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Document Type
Presentation
Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-53.htm
Start Date
5-8-2024 10:00 AM
End Date
5-8-2024 10:50 AM
Description
John Wain (1925-1994) - novelist, poet, and general man of letters – was caught between two literary generations. A tutorial pupil of C.S. Lewis’s at Oxford, he was invited by Lewis to join the Inklings, a private literary club consisting mostly of dons. While Wain enjoyed the company of his seniors, he felt at odds with them on basic matters of literary preference, in particular seeing no point to fantasy. Wain is more often classed with his contemporaries, post-WW2 writers known as The Movement, the University Wits, or the Angry Young Men, poets and novelists in a realist, often sarcastic manner. But his more earnest literary style didn’t fit well with them either. This paper will explore how Wain did, or didn’t, fit in with the two groups he’s associated with, and will then embark on a brief overview of most of his 14 novels, with recommendations for the prospective reader.
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Included in
John Wain: The Inkling in the Middle
Minneapolis, Minnesota
John Wain (1925-1994) - novelist, poet, and general man of letters – was caught between two literary generations. A tutorial pupil of C.S. Lewis’s at Oxford, he was invited by Lewis to join the Inklings, a private literary club consisting mostly of dons. While Wain enjoyed the company of his seniors, he felt at odds with them on basic matters of literary preference, in particular seeing no point to fantasy. Wain is more often classed with his contemporaries, post-WW2 writers known as The Movement, the University Wits, or the Angry Young Men, poets and novelists in a realist, often sarcastic manner. But his more earnest literary style didn’t fit well with them either. This paper will explore how Wain did, or didn’t, fit in with the two groups he’s associated with, and will then embark on a brief overview of most of his 14 novels, with recommendations for the prospective reader.
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc53/schedule/56
Comments
Melody Green ultimately presented the paper on David's behalf since he was not able.