The Oxford Handbook of Jack London

Robert Scholes and Clifford Wulfman define modernism and modernity this way: “Modernity is a social condition. Modernism was a response to that condition.” Modernity “is an urban condition” “reached in certain parts of the world in the late nineteenth century … a mass phenomenon” characterized by the rise of technology, print culture, and material consumption. Jack London, who is routinely categorized as a naturalist and realist, can also be called a modernist. The word modern appears often in the pages of this handbook, and though it is not new to call London a modernist, the breadth of scholarship in this present volume gives the categorization new meaning. This isn’t to deny London’s status as a realist/naturalist but only a way to recognize he was much more than that. London called his era the Machine Age and created his role of political artist to respond to it. Thus the other emphasis in the handbook is on the intersection of his politics and his art. London was concerned with instigation and shock. He wasn’t a propagandist, he was a troublemaker. In both fiction and nonfiction—a binary he did not recognize—he exposed the fallacies of capitalist society. As both a nationally recognized public figure and a citizen of the world, he chose to instruct his audience in novels, short stories, essays, speeches, and newspaper reports. This handbook ultimately emphasizes the artist Jack London bringing change to the world.