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Literature in English, British Isles
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
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- Gothic (2)
- Affect (1)
- Authorship (1)
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- Charles Darwin (1)
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- Cross-dressing (1)
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- Gothicism (1)
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- Jude the Obscure (1)
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- Morality (1)
- Naturalism (1)
- Nineteenth-century (1)
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Hardy, Darwin, And The Art Of Moral Husbandry, Owen Roberts-Day
Hardy, Darwin, And The Art Of Moral Husbandry, Owen Roberts-Day
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
This study of the influence of Charles Darwin on Thomas Hardy's tragic novels centers on two key concepts in the work of Darwin. The first is Darwin's narrative of the evolution of morality, which describes moral decisions as a struggle for survival between various instincts, habits, and customs, both within the individual and within society as a whole. Of particular importance is the role of reason and sympathy in overcoming base and selfish instincts. The second is the idea, introduced in Origin, that the work of scientific breeders represents an act of Conscious Selection, a separate form of evolution …
Illuminating The Darkness: The Naturalistic Evolution Of Gothicism In The Nineteenth-Century British Novel And Visual Art, Cameron Dodworth
Illuminating The Darkness: The Naturalistic Evolution Of Gothicism In The Nineteenth-Century British Novel And Visual Art, Cameron Dodworth
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The British Gothic novel reached a level of very high popularity in the literary market of the late 1700s and the first two decades of the 1800s, but after that point in time the popularity of these types of publications dipped significantly. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the British Gothic novel rebounded in popularity, though not to the level of the early 1800s. This dissertation seeks to address why the publication of truly Gothic novels in Britain decreased during the middle of the century, only to increase once again at the fin de siècle. What this …
Beyond The Looking-Glass: The Intensity Of The Gothic Dream In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Anne N. Nagel
Beyond The Looking-Glass: The Intensity Of The Gothic Dream In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Anne N. Nagel
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The dream is a contested space in terms of allegory and affect, the non-conscious intensity associated with feelings and emotions. Readers tend to express disappointment when a narrative turns out to be “just a dream,” yet the dream is uniquely capable of evoking powerful affective intensity. Yet most scholarship approaches the literary dream through representational interpretation, which not only overlooks the intensity of affect, but dampens it. The dreamer cannot interpret the dream while engrossed in dreaming. By taking into consideration the perspective of the dreamer, this thesis moves beyond the reflective lens of symbolic interpretation to explore the intensity …
“In Counterfeit Passion”: Cross-Dressing, Transgression, And Fraud In Shakespeare And Middleton, Anastasia S. Bierman
“In Counterfeit Passion”: Cross-Dressing, Transgression, And Fraud In Shakespeare And Middleton, Anastasia S. Bierman
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
This thesis examines the way women cross-dressing as men functions as a crime in Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl and William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Twelfth Night. While many modern scholars have discussed cross-dressing in these plays, many look to the end of the plays as the foundation for their analysis rather than the play as a whole. Because of this oversight, scholars deem the characters in the plays not transgressive, when, in fact, cross-dressing is transgressive. They ignore the way cross-dressing is often presented in writing in the Renaissance, i.e. as a type …
Symbolic Capital And The Performativity Of Authorship: The Construction And Commodification Of The Nineteenth-Century Authorial Celebrity, Whitney Helms
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Victorian and Antebellum writers were the first literary figures to construct and perform their authorship within the sphere of celebrity. Unlike their Romantic predecessors who endured fame as an unexpected consequence of their popularity, the Victorians and their contemporaries understood celebrity as a condition of authorship. This dissertation takes as its subject the origins and development of symbolic power for authors as it was expressed in the trappings of celebrity and mass culture and argues that authorship became no longer strictly a profession of writing, but rather a performative endeavor that could be presented through diverse commercial markets. Investigating the …
Monstrosity, Karen N. Wohlgemuth
Monstrosity, Karen N. Wohlgemuth
Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The Early Gothic Period of English Literature was widely scrutinized for its sensationalism. This thesis explores the value of the genre by offering an alternative view of the monster typically portrayed. A close textual analysis of The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Monk, and Frankenstein prove that the real monster is society, and more importantly ourselves. While this thesis dissects the innate characteristics of humankind in the novels, the author hopes that the readers will recognize the same themes in contemporary society. As students of the learned world, we all can acknowledge that Gothic fiction can teach us more …