English Literature A-Level
Urban alienation
What Urban alienation means in English Literature A-Level, as defined for Pearson Edexcel.
Definition of Urban alienation
Check what you remember
Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Urban alienation in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: Pearson Edexcel
The speaker's disgust with contemporary urban life, expressed through visceral sensory detail such as dirty trains, strong smells, papers and commercial details.
Topics that use Urban alienation
- Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, editor Philip Larkin with foreword by Andrew Motion (OUP, 1973) (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
Related terms
- Bureaucracy and control
- Childhood and Memory
- Commerce and labour
- Consumerism
- Cultural decay
- Death and ambiguous renewal
- Death and bodily identity
- Desire and impossibility
Using Urban alienation in the exam
Check the command word and mark scheme for your exact question. After comparing your explanation with the reference, use the term in an answer on the linked topic. This practice does not predict an exam mark.
Practise English Literature questions
Create a free account to answer exam-style questions on this topic and get feedback on your answers.
Start free
All English Literature A-Level termsA week of Premium from your first lesson · Then the free plan continues · No card, no charge