Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Rhode Island, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-167).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX219170.

Diss.--Bochum--Ruhr-Universität, 1991.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-214).

Thesis (M.A.)--Boise State University, 2009. / Title from t.p. of PDF file (viewed May 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-100).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 2007. / Title from document title page.

This thesis offers an analysis of George Eliot's aesthetics and ethics from the interdisciplinary perspective of literature and theology. I examine the role that religious motifs play in Eliot's "ethics of art," and argue that the motifs of incarnation, revelation, and transcendence are central to Eliot's aesthetic aim of extending her reader's sympathies. Eliot's ethics of art is designed to help her reader transcend his or her inherent egoism, and to improve the way her reader understands his or her own self in relation to the world and to others. An exploration of the religious motifs of incarnation, revelation, and transcendence explains how Eliot achieved this aim without resorting to didacticism or preaching. In order to demonstrate this, the thesis offers a reading of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda in which I employ three concepts that are present in the early philosophical writings of Mikhail Bakhtin; non-alibi in being, excess of seeing, and self/other relations. The motif of incarnation is central to each of these concepts and forms a bridge between Bakhtin's aesthetics and ethics. In applying these concepts to a reading of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, I demonstrate the way in which Eliot's "ethics of art" relies on theological motifs.

Middlemarch is the novel at the centre of this thesis. George Eliot's writing, and Middlemarch in particular, is the paradigm of what has come to be known as Classic Realist fiction. In reading Middlemarch, it seems, one is introduced to a fictional world. The characters are psychologically complex, and they are presented with moral and social problems which are created and discussed with subtlety and intelligence. Until recently, critical assessment of Middlemarch has focussed on evaluation of Eliot's achievement in just these terms. The thesis begins with a question, how, and indeed is it possible for a novel to depict a fiction in this way? The introductory chapter proposes an answer to this question which opens the way to a radical critical appraisal of the status of Middlemarch as a psychologically realistic novel. The scope of the thesis is in one sense very narrow: it is on the ways in which George Eliot creates the moral psychology of her characters, and the ways in which she develops and sustains our interest in their motives, their emotions and in general their mental states and processes. My suggestion is that the language Eliot uses is deeply coloured by her commitments in the Philosophy of Mind. The argument will be that in order to take Eliot's fiction to be psychologically realistic, we are committed to sharing her unacceptable philosophical presuppositions. The second chapter of the thesis is a discussion of Eliot's novella The Lifted Veil. This is an odd piece of fiction, both technically and in subject matter. It does not fit easily into the Eliot canon, and until recently it has received little attention. The purpose of Chapter Two is partly to redress that balance but more to diagnose Eliot's philosophical commitments. The eerie fantasy of unnatural mind-reading reveals Eliot's ideas in a very explicit way. My suggestion is that in the struggle to make this fantasy coherent, a picture of the mind emerges which is both seductive and ultimately nonsensical. Narrow as the focus is, the arguments to establish my point take us deep into Wittgenstein's later Philosophy. The fundamental insight of Wittgenstein's work on the philosophy of mind was that in order to understand how it is possible to talk meaningfully about mental states and processes, we must resist the seductive, ultimately nonsensical picture seemingly imposed upon us by the grammar of ordinary psychological remarks. And if those arguments are thought to be convincing, the thesis has important negative implications for at least one important perennial question in the philosophy of aesthetics. The starting point of this thesis takes seriously the idea that novelists can, and ought to, examine themes of deep human significance. The larger goal of this piece of work has been to open up a line of enquiry which might examine, from within the Analytic tradition in philosophy, the extent to which that task is feasible. I have sought to establish an important connection between the creation of the moral psychology of fictional characters, and Wittgenstein's later work in the philosophy of mind. I believe that the examination I have conducted of the way issues in the philosophy of mind, especially those treated in the Philosophical Investigations, bear on the way Eliot writes places much of the psychological language of Middlemarch in a new light, and discloses certain quite general limits on what is possible in creating fictional minds.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o conceito de autoria no contexto da obra de George Eliot. Para realizá-lo, definiram-se dois aspectos relevantes da atividade do autor. O primeiro deles é sua existência empírica, situada dentro de determinadas práticas, como apontado por Martha Woodmansee, Michel Foucault, Marisa Lajolo e Regina Zilberman. O segundo, seu funcionamento intratextual, como instância discursiva, destilado das teorias enunciativas de Emile Benveniste e das proposições teóricas de Wayne Booth, Umberto Eco e Wolfgang Iser. A partir dessas elaborações, foram desenvolvidas as análises, de um lado, da trajetória de Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) e seu papel como escritora do final do século XIX, e, de outro, do romance The Mill on the Floss, obra de 1860, na qual se percebe o autor George Eliot em funcionamento. Pode-se notar, através da reconstrução da vida da autora, sua reflexão própria sobre o significado da prática da autoria como missão social. É também notável, através de seu romance, a atuação de uma figura autoral que organiza o texto e encaminha a interpretação de seu leitor para determinadas direções. / This work’s objective is to analyze the concept of authorship in the context of George Eliot’s production. In order to do so, two relevant aspects of the author’s activity were defined. The first one is its empirical existence, located within certain practices, as pointed by Martha Woodmansee, Michel Foucault, Marisa Lajolo and Regina Zilberman. The second one, its intratextual operation, as a discoursive instance, distilled from Emile Benveniste’s enunciative theories and from the theoretical propositions of Wayne Booth, Umberto Eco and Wolfgang Iser. These elaborations allowed the development of two analyses: on one hand, of Mary Ann Evans’ (George Eliot’s) trajectory and her role as a late nineteenth century writer, and, on the other, of the novel The Mill on the Floss (1860), in which George Eliot’s authorship is perceived at work. It is noticeable, through the reconstruction of the author’s life, her own reflection on the meaning of authorial practice as a social mission. It is also remarkable, through her novel, the performance o an author figure which organizes the text and directs its reader’s interpretations to determined directions.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o conceito de autoria no contexto da obra de George Eliot. Para realizá-lo, definiram-se dois aspectos relevantes da atividade do autor. O primeiro deles é sua existência empírica, situada dentro de determinadas práticas, como apontado por Martha Woodmansee, Michel Foucault, Marisa Lajolo e Regina Zilberman. O segundo, seu funcionamento intratextual, como instância discursiva, destilado das teorias enunciativas de Emile Benveniste e das proposições teóricas de Wayne Booth, Umberto Eco e Wolfgang Iser. A partir dessas elaborações, foram desenvolvidas as análises, de um lado, da trajetória de Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) e seu papel como escritora do final do século XIX, e, de outro, do romance The Mill on the Floss, obra de 1860, na qual se percebe o autor George Eliot em funcionamento. Pode-se notar, através da reconstrução da vida da autora, sua reflexão própria sobre o significado da prática da autoria como missão social. É também notável, através de seu romance, a atuação de uma figura autoral que organiza o texto e encaminha a interpretação de seu leitor para determinadas direções. / This work’s objective is to analyze the concept of authorship in the context of George Eliot’s production. In order to do so, two relevant aspects of the author’s activity were defined. The first one is its empirical existence, located within certain practices, as pointed by Martha Woodmansee, Michel Foucault, Marisa Lajolo and Regina Zilberman. The second one, its intratextual operation, as a discoursive instance, distilled from Emile Benveniste’s enunciative theories and from the theoretical propositions of Wayne Booth, Umberto Eco and Wolfgang Iser. These elaborations allowed the development of two analyses: on one hand, of Mary Ann Evans’ (George Eliot’s) trajectory and her role as a late nineteenth century writer, and, on the other, of the novel The Mill on the Floss (1860), in which George Eliot’s authorship is perceived at work. It is noticeable, through the reconstruction of the author’s life, her own reflection on the meaning of authorial practice as a social mission. It is also remarkable, through her novel, the performance o an author figure which organizes the text and directs its reader’s interpretations to determined directions.