Edwardianism

English

Etymology

Edwardian +‎ -ism

Noun

Edwardianism (countable and uncountable, plural Edwardianisms)

1. The culture and social climate of the Edwardian era, especially when viewed as a peaceful and romantic golden age of country houses and garden parties.
   • 1993, Russell Wilcox Ramsey, Russell Archibald Ramsey, On Law and Country:

     On the domestic scene, the cultural fabric was a mixture of British Edwardianism and U.S. Progressivism; these were both a blessing and a burden in Russell's life.

   • 2009, Andrew Britton, Barry Keith Grant, Britton on Film: The Complete Film Criticism of Andrew Britton:

     Simultaneously, 1903/4 calls up the myth of “Edwardianism”—the last halcyon days of the nineteenth century before the twentieth begins in 1914, to which Sir Edward Elgar, writing in 1917, pays significant tribute: “Everything good and nice and clean and fresh and sweet is far away never to return."

   • 2017, Samuel Shaw, Sarah Shaw, Naomi Carle, Edwardian Culture: Beyond the Garden Party:

     Jefferson Hunter's account of Edwardian fiction employs similar imagery when he argues that 'nostalgic Edwardianism' is invested in this idea of the 'single long country-house weekend from Edward's coronation to his passing and, beyond that, to the guns of August'.

2. The literary and artistic styles of the Edwardian era.
   • 1997, Brian May, The Modernist as Pragmatist, page 50:

     The modernist intimations accruing as doubts about Rickie's sentimental Edwardianism also undermine Forster's own “sober” Edwardianism.

   • 2008, C. Etherington-Wright, Gender, Professions and Discourse:

     Although Edwardianism was different from modernism, it was never the less radical. Modernism reconstructed the past and asserted a new identity. Edwardianism was thought to favour continuity and tradition, but the fiction often belies this.

   • 2015, Katharine Moore, Moving House:

     Then there was a charming American couple, to whom the Edwardianism of Rowanbank especially appealed. It was apparently quite period enough for them and they enthused over its “art nouveau” alcoves, the fireplaces with their beaten copper hoods and fenders, its leaded windows and gables.

3. A phrase or habit characteristic of the Edwardian era.