Ao refletir sobre o seu próprio romance anos depois de tê-lo escrito, George Eliot disse a respeito de Romola que foi esse o romance que ela escreveu com seu melhor sangue, indicando assim uma predileção por esse livro. Uma análise de sua fortuna crítica, ainda que superficial, revela que Romola é o menos conhecido entre os seus romances. Ao passo que alguns poucos críticos contemporâneos, como Henry James e Robert Browning, por exemplo, publicaram elogios entusiasmados, o tom geral das opiniões contemporâneas sobre a obra é de decepção. O motivo mais comumente apresentado para isso é que o quarto romance de Eliot se desvincula da realidade que a autora muito bem conhecia e, por isso, falha ao tentar representar verdadeiramente o estado de espírito de Florença e dos florentinos ao final do século quinze. O resultado de tal fracasso seria a produção de um romance construído a partir de esforço intelectual e não de imaginação poética, com uma fuga desnecessária ao passado e a um cenário estrangeiro que teria produzido personagens e eventos improváveis. O conflito entre a apreciação de Eliot sobre sua própria obra e a opinião geralmente expressa em sua fortuna crítica é notável e prove a motivação inicial do presente trabalho. Ao resumir o foco central da crítica de Romola, a professora Felicia Bonaparte diz que George Eliot jamais desapontou seus leitores tanto quanto o fez em Romola. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar o que considero ser os principais motivos para tal desapontamento: que, em Romola, mais especificamente do que em seus outros romances, George Eliot estava experimentando com a forma do romance e alargando os seus limites para acomodar convenções formais e efeitos estéticos que, até então, eram entendidos como pertencentes, quase que exclusivamente, a outros gêneros literários que não o romance. O efeito imediato desse experimento é uma reconfiguração do realismo e da interação entre os gêneros literários que pareceu aos contemporâneos uma junção descriteriosa de elementos soltos. Em Romola, observa-se a escritura de George Eliot progredindo para um tipo mais moderno de romance. O presente trabalho terá atingido seus objetivos se argumentar coerentemente que, ao invés de uma mistura aleatória de convenções, Romola é um precursor do romance modernista. O trabalho seminal de Georg Lukács na Teoria do Romance ilumina o potencial de Romola em conter boa parte dos gêneros literários dentro de si e a coleção O Romance, de Franco Moretti, fornece à presente reflexão um valioso suporte crítico e teórico em pontos nos quais se percebe lacunas deixadas pela obra de Lukács. O trabalho de Felicia Bonaparte sobre George Eliot e os estudos de George Levine sobre realismo embasam a reflexão sobre a literatura inglesa do século dezenove que se desenvolve aqui. / Looking back on her own novel several years after its composition, George Eliot said of Romola that it had been the novel she had written with her best blood, thus indicating a predilection for it among her other books. A survey of her critical fortune, even if a quick one, reveals that Romola is the least popular of her novels. Whereas a few contemporary critics, such as Henry James and Robert Browning, have published enthusiastic reviews, the general tone of these opinions is of disappointment. The most common reason presented is that George Eliot’s fourth novel departs too much from the reality the author knew so well and fails to represent truthfully the zeitgeist of Florence and Florentine people at the close of the fifteenth century. The result of such failure would be a novel constructed out of intellectual effort rather than poetic imagination, with an unnecessary flight to the past and foreign setting which produced improbable events and characters. The clash between George Eliot’s appraisal of her book and the general opinion expressed in its critical fortune is noteworthy and provides the initial motivation of this thesis. Summarising the bulk of criticism about Romola, professor Felicia Bonaparte states that George Eliot never disappointed her readers as much as she did with Romola. The goal of this work is to investigate what I consider to be the main reason for this disappointment: that in Romola, more explicitly than in her other novels, George Eliot was experimenting with the form of the novel and stretching its limits to accommodate formal conventions and aesthetic effects until then generally thought to belong almost exclusively to other genres. The immediate effect of this experiment is a reconfiguration of realism and of the interplay between literary genres which looked like an unselective assortment of loose elements. In Romola, we see George Eliot’s writing progressing towards a more modern kind of novel. This work will have been successful if it can coherently argue that, rather than a random mixture of conventions Romola is a harbinger of the modernist novel. The seminal work of Georg Lukács in The Theory of the Novel sheds some light on the potential of Romola for containing most genres within it and Franco Moretti’s collection The Novel provides valuable critical and theoretical support for this thesis at points in which blanks are left by Lukács’s book. Felicia Bonaparte’s work on George Eliot and George Levine’s studies on realism contribute valuably to the interpretation of English nineteenthcentury that unfolds in the present work.

Ao refletir sobre o seu próprio romance anos depois de tê-lo escrito, George Eliot disse a respeito de Romola que foi esse o romance que ela escreveu com seu melhor sangue, indicando assim uma predileção por esse livro. Uma análise de sua fortuna crítica, ainda que superficial, revela que Romola é o menos conhecido entre os seus romances. Ao passo que alguns poucos críticos contemporâneos, como Henry James e Robert Browning, por exemplo, publicaram elogios entusiasmados, o tom geral das opiniões contemporâneas sobre a obra é de decepção. O motivo mais comumente apresentado para isso é que o quarto romance de Eliot se desvincula da realidade que a autora muito bem conhecia e, por isso, falha ao tentar representar verdadeiramente o estado de espírito de Florença e dos florentinos ao final do século quinze. O resultado de tal fracasso seria a produção de um romance construído a partir de esforço intelectual e não de imaginação poética, com uma fuga desnecessária ao passado e a um cenário estrangeiro que teria produzido personagens e eventos improváveis. O conflito entre a apreciação de Eliot sobre sua própria obra e a opinião geralmente expressa em sua fortuna crítica é notável e prove a motivação inicial do presente trabalho. Ao resumir o foco central da crítica de Romola, a professora Felicia Bonaparte diz que George Eliot jamais desapontou seus leitores tanto quanto o fez em Romola. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar o que considero ser os principais motivos para tal desapontamento: que, em Romola, mais especificamente do que em seus outros romances, George Eliot estava experimentando com a forma do romance e alargando os seus limites para acomodar convenções formais e efeitos estéticos que, até então, eram entendidos como pertencentes, quase que exclusivamente, a outros gêneros literários que não o romance. O efeito imediato desse experimento é uma reconfiguração do realismo e da interação entre os gêneros literários que pareceu aos contemporâneos uma junção descriteriosa de elementos soltos. Em Romola, observa-se a escritura de George Eliot progredindo para um tipo mais moderno de romance. O presente trabalho terá atingido seus objetivos se argumentar coerentemente que, ao invés de uma mistura aleatória de convenções, Romola é um precursor do romance modernista. O trabalho seminal de Georg Lukács na Teoria do Romance ilumina o potencial de Romola em conter boa parte dos gêneros literários dentro de si e a coleção O Romance, de Franco Moretti, fornece à presente reflexão um valioso suporte crítico e teórico em pontos nos quais se percebe lacunas deixadas pela obra de Lukács. O trabalho de Felicia Bonaparte sobre George Eliot e os estudos de George Levine sobre realismo embasam a reflexão sobre a literatura inglesa do século dezenove que se desenvolve aqui. / Looking back on her own novel several years after its composition, George Eliot said of Romola that it had been the novel she had written with her best blood, thus indicating a predilection for it among her other books. A survey of her critical fortune, even if a quick one, reveals that Romola is the least popular of her novels. Whereas a few contemporary critics, such as Henry James and Robert Browning, have published enthusiastic reviews, the general tone of these opinions is of disappointment. The most common reason presented is that George Eliot’s fourth novel departs too much from the reality the author knew so well and fails to represent truthfully the zeitgeist of Florence and Florentine people at the close of the fifteenth century. The result of such failure would be a novel constructed out of intellectual effort rather than poetic imagination, with an unnecessary flight to the past and foreign setting which produced improbable events and characters. The clash between George Eliot’s appraisal of her book and the general opinion expressed in its critical fortune is noteworthy and provides the initial motivation of this thesis. Summarising the bulk of criticism about Romola, professor Felicia Bonaparte states that George Eliot never disappointed her readers as much as she did with Romola. The goal of this work is to investigate what I consider to be the main reason for this disappointment: that in Romola, more explicitly than in her other novels, George Eliot was experimenting with the form of the novel and stretching its limits to accommodate formal conventions and aesthetic effects until then generally thought to belong almost exclusively to other genres. The immediate effect of this experiment is a reconfiguration of realism and of the interplay between literary genres which looked like an unselective assortment of loose elements. In Romola, we see George Eliot’s writing progressing towards a more modern kind of novel. This work will have been successful if it can coherently argue that, rather than a random mixture of conventions Romola is a harbinger of the modernist novel. The seminal work of Georg Lukács in The Theory of the Novel sheds some light on the potential of Romola for containing most genres within it and Franco Moretti’s collection The Novel provides valuable critical and theoretical support for this thesis at points in which blanks are left by Lukács’s book. Felicia Bonaparte’s work on George Eliot and George Levine’s studies on realism contribute valuably to the interpretation of English nineteenthcentury that unfolds in the present work.

Ao refletir sobre o seu próprio romance anos depois de tê-lo escrito, George Eliot disse a respeito de Romola que foi esse o romance que ela escreveu com seu melhor sangue, indicando assim uma predileção por esse livro. Uma análise de sua fortuna crítica, ainda que superficial, revela que Romola é o menos conhecido entre os seus romances. Ao passo que alguns poucos críticos contemporâneos, como Henry James e Robert Browning, por exemplo, publicaram elogios entusiasmados, o tom geral das opiniões contemporâneas sobre a obra é de decepção. O motivo mais comumente apresentado para isso é que o quarto romance de Eliot se desvincula da realidade que a autora muito bem conhecia e, por isso, falha ao tentar representar verdadeiramente o estado de espírito de Florença e dos florentinos ao final do século quinze. O resultado de tal fracasso seria a produção de um romance construído a partir de esforço intelectual e não de imaginação poética, com uma fuga desnecessária ao passado e a um cenário estrangeiro que teria produzido personagens e eventos improváveis. O conflito entre a apreciação de Eliot sobre sua própria obra e a opinião geralmente expressa em sua fortuna crítica é notável e prove a motivação inicial do presente trabalho. Ao resumir o foco central da crítica de Romola, a professora Felicia Bonaparte diz que George Eliot jamais desapontou seus leitores tanto quanto o fez em Romola. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar o que considero ser os principais motivos para tal desapontamento: que, em Romola, mais especificamente do que em seus outros romances, George Eliot estava experimentando com a forma do romance e alargando os seus limites para acomodar convenções formais e efeitos estéticos que, até então, eram entendidos como pertencentes, quase que exclusivamente, a outros gêneros literários que não o romance. O efeito imediato desse experimento é uma reconfiguração do realismo e da interação entre os gêneros literários que pareceu aos contemporâneos uma junção descriteriosa de elementos soltos. Em Romola, observa-se a escritura de George Eliot progredindo para um tipo mais moderno de romance. O presente trabalho terá atingido seus objetivos se argumentar coerentemente que, ao invés de uma mistura aleatória de convenções, Romola é um precursor do romance modernista. O trabalho seminal de Georg Lukács na Teoria do Romance ilumina o potencial de Romola em conter boa parte dos gêneros literários dentro de si e a coleção O Romance, de Franco Moretti, fornece à presente reflexão um valioso suporte crítico e teórico em pontos nos quais se percebe lacunas deixadas pela obra de Lukács. O trabalho de Felicia Bonaparte sobre George Eliot e os estudos de George Levine sobre realismo embasam a reflexão sobre a literatura inglesa do século dezenove que se desenvolve aqui. / Looking back on her own novel several years after its composition, George Eliot said of Romola that it had been the novel she had written with her best blood, thus indicating a predilection for it among her other books. A survey of her critical fortune, even if a quick one, reveals that Romola is the least popular of her novels. Whereas a few contemporary critics, such as Henry James and Robert Browning, have published enthusiastic reviews, the general tone of these opinions is of disappointment. The most common reason presented is that George Eliot’s fourth novel departs too much from the reality the author knew so well and fails to represent truthfully the zeitgeist of Florence and Florentine people at the close of the fifteenth century. The result of such failure would be a novel constructed out of intellectual effort rather than poetic imagination, with an unnecessary flight to the past and foreign setting which produced improbable events and characters. The clash between George Eliot’s appraisal of her book and the general opinion expressed in its critical fortune is noteworthy and provides the initial motivation of this thesis. Summarising the bulk of criticism about Romola, professor Felicia Bonaparte states that George Eliot never disappointed her readers as much as she did with Romola. The goal of this work is to investigate what I consider to be the main reason for this disappointment: that in Romola, more explicitly than in her other novels, George Eliot was experimenting with the form of the novel and stretching its limits to accommodate formal conventions and aesthetic effects until then generally thought to belong almost exclusively to other genres. The immediate effect of this experiment is a reconfiguration of realism and of the interplay between literary genres which looked like an unselective assortment of loose elements. In Romola, we see George Eliot’s writing progressing towards a more modern kind of novel. This work will have been successful if it can coherently argue that, rather than a random mixture of conventions Romola is a harbinger of the modernist novel. The seminal work of Georg Lukács in The Theory of the Novel sheds some light on the potential of Romola for containing most genres within it and Franco Moretti’s collection The Novel provides valuable critical and theoretical support for this thesis at points in which blanks are left by Lukács’s book. Felicia Bonaparte’s work on George Eliot and George Levine’s studies on realism contribute valuably to the interpretation of English nineteenthcentury that unfolds in the present work.

Le présent rapport porte sur l'étude d'un ensemble d'artefacts du premier tiers du XIXe siècle. Il s'agit d'un dépôt archéologique retrouvé dans les latrines de la maison occupée par le militaire George Augustus Eliot entre ca 1823 et 1831. Cette habitation de cinq niveaux s'élevait sur le côté est de la rue des Carrières à Québec. Elle a fait l'objet de recherches archéologiques a l'été 1981, au cours desquelles plusieurs artefacts à caractère domestique ont été mis au jour, tant dans le secteur de la maison que dans celui des latrines. L'analyse qui suit concerne les objets ou fragments d'objets retrouvés à l'intérieur des latrines. Il s'agit d'un ensemble très homogène recueilli dans une seule sous-opération très clairement délimitée par quatre murs de pierres, c'est-à-dire les parois de la fosse. Diverses opérations ont précédé la rédaction de ce rapport. Tout d'abord, un inventaire sommaire des artefacts a été dressé, au fur et à mesure que ceux-ci étaient dégagés du sol, ce qui a permis de prendre connaissance du dépôt dès le début des recherches. Parallèlement, un dossier historique a été constitué, dans l'espoir d'établir des liens entre les occupants de cette maison et le dépôt archéologique (Courcy 1981). Cette étape était en fait un prérequis à l'étude, puisqu'il aurait été inutile d'analyser les artefacts dans le but de les associer à George Eliot si ces deux éléments n'avaient pu correspondre chronologiquement. Les artefacts ont ensuite été nettoyés et numérotés d'après leur provenance, puis regroupés selon leur matériau et leur forme, afin d'être remontés en objets lorsque cela était possible. Suite à cette première confrontation des données historiques et archéologiques, nous avons jugé qu'il était possible d'associer les artefacts à un individu, soit George Eliot. Par l'étude des artefacts, nous voulons confirmer cette hypothèse, en tenant compte des matériaux, des techniques de fabrication et des motifs décoratifs caractérisant les objets de ce dépôt. En second lieu, notons que la découverte de quelques articles de journaux, ainsi que des documents notariés de l'époque nous a permis de supposer que monsieur Eliot vivait avec sa famille sur la rue des Carrières et qu'il jouissait d'un statut social relativement élevé en raison de ses fonctions au sein de l'armée britannique. Nous tenterons donc de vérifier si les restes de culture matérielle correspondent à ce que nous nous attendons de trouver chez un tel individu, et si les artefacts confirment sa situation familiale. L'iconographie historique a aussi révélé que George Eliot possédait une écurie située à quelques mètres de la maison (fig. 1). Cette dernière a fait l'objet de fouilles archéologiques en 1980. Le rapport indique qu'une partie de l'écurie devait servir de logement puisque plusieurs artefacts à caractère domestique y ont été retrouvés (Renaud, 1981: 16). Il s'agit de la seule mention nous permettant de supposer que la famille Eliot avait une ou plusieurs personnes à son service. Les artefacts de l'écurie n'ont malheureusement pas été analysés en profondeur et il n'est pas possible de comparer la qualité et la diversité de ceux-ci, par rapport aux objets retrouvés dans les latrines. Par contre, les Zooarchaelogical Identification Centre du Musée national des sciences de la nature à Ottawa, a effectué une étude qui nous livre une quantité d'informations sur les ossements retrouvés à la maison Eliot et à l'écurie. Par le biais de ces témoins de l'alimentation, nous tenterons de voir si les personnes logeant à l'écurie se nourrissaient différemment de ceux de la maison. Après la présentation des contextes historique et archéologique, nous avons décrit les objets retrouvés dans les latrines de cette habitation, en les regroupant selon les activités qu'ils nous suggèrent. Cette façon de procéder nous a semblé la meilleure, dans ce cas-ci, puisque nous voulons au cours de cette recherche, découvrir la place occupée par ces objets, dans le cadre général du mode de vie de George Augustus Eliot et de sa famille. Les résultats de cette étude donneront un aperçu de quelques aspects de la vie matérielle d'une maisonnée aisée de la haute-ville de Québec au premier tiers du XIXe siècle, ainsi que des informations sur quelques habitudes de vie a cette époque. Nous espérons aussi que cette recherche sera utile à d'autres chercheurs, soit pour l'identification et la datation des artefacts, ou en tant qu'outil de comparaison entre différents dépôts provenant de fouilles archéologiques. A l'appendice C, nous avons voulu vérifier le degré d'efficacité de l'enregistrement sommaire des données sur le chantier, en comparant les formulaires d'inventaire des artefacts trouvés dans les latrines, avec les résultats obtenus suite à une étude plus approfondie de ces mêmes objets. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013

Over the course of the nineteenth century, gaslight supplanted the candles and oil lamps that had brightened Europe and America for centuries, and, by 1900, electricity would attain decisive dominance over both. In their narrative figurations of lighting, however, novels of the same period often arrest this march of progress, lingering in an Arcadian past organized around the rhythms of the solar day and the agricultural year. Mining works by Frances Burney, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust, and others, my dissertation argues that novelists employ obsolete lighting technologies not merely to provide historical texture, but to express narrative impulses that run counter to the realist mode, to dramatize transgressive forms of ambition within the rural communities they depict, and sometimes even to voice ambivalence about the commercial constraints of the serial form. Characters in these novels who avail themselves of artificial illumination alter the rhythm of the workday in order to satisfy desires inconsistent with the interests and pursuits sanctioned by their neighbors: by the light of lamps and candles, they pursue cross-class romance, literary aspirations, or professional goals that fall outside the parameters dictated by social class and the historical moment. For Proust’s narrator, this entails a series of adjustments to his evening schedule over the course of the Recherche, first to accommodate an aristocratic social calendar, and, later, to facilitate the nocturnal composition of his own novel. In Eliot’s case, the inclination to stay awake after nightfall—whether the illicit romantic fantasies of a Hetty Sorrel or the workmanlike resolve of an Adam Bede—constitutes a meaningful challenge to the author’s narrative realism. By examining the formal innovations these technologies provoke in nineteenth-century fiction, my research unearths a pervasive counter-realist tendency in novels often famed for their fidelity to the protocols of realist representation.

The thesis explores how readings of two nineteenth century English novels, Little Dorrit and Middlemarch, can be enhanced by using key elements of Mikhail Bakhtin’s ‘prosaics’ as a lens through which to examine them. Additionally, the readings are used to provide a platform from which to explore the Bakhtinian notion that language is inextricably connected to selfhood. The Introduction (1.1.) offers a brief discussion on Bakhtin and, in particular, to his formulation of a ‘prosaics’, offered in opposition to traditional linguistics (or ‘poetics’) which, he feels, is unable adequately to do justice to the social, ethical and ideological complexity of a dialogised heteroglossia, such as is found in the novel. An explanation follows (1.2.) of why the ‘word’ should not be conceived of as static lexical element but rather as an ‘utterance’. Invested with both clear and distinct meanings as well as dialogic overtones, the word forms the basis of all human communication. As the primary means of expressing the ‘self’, it cannot be heard in isolation but is always responsive and dependent upon “another’s reaction, another’s word – the two ‘interpenetrating’ the single utterance, establishing, as a result, its specific locus of meaning” (Danow 22). Likewise, it follows that the ‘self’ cannot exist purely in and for the individual but is irrevocably linked to the ‘other’. Chapter Two begins with a discussion on the way in which ‘centripetal’ and ‘centrifugal’ forces work simultaneously to shape language (2.1.). It looks at the Bakhtinian idea that language cannot ever have been monologic and unmediated, being instead ever-changing and evolving as a result of numerous influences brought to bear on it such as context, ideology and the discourses of others. The nature of heteroglossia is discussed (with particular reference to ‘dialogized heteroglossia’), as is ‘hybridization’ in which, although a statement appears to emanate from one voice, another parodic or ironic voice will also be evident in refracted form. 2.2. and 2.3 engage in a detailed analysis of selected passages from Books I and II respectively of Little Dorrit with a view to exploring ways in which a Bakhtinian reading is able to provide heightened appreciation of the text. With particular regard to the overtly parodic style of Dickens, I aim to show how Bakhtin’s prosaics, which militates against privileging one ‘voice’ over another, enables the voice of a relatively neglected character, such as Fanny Dorrit, to be adequately heard. Although the emphasis in this chapter is on language, I broach the Bakhtinian notion that both the ‘word’ and the ‘self’ are inscribed through the ‘other’. In Chapter Three the focus shifts to Middlemarch and to Bakhtin’s notion that selfhood can only be properly located in its dialogic relations to ‘another’. The chapter is offered in four parts, beginning with a brief discussion on some similarities between Bakhtin’s and Eliot’s philosophical thinking, particularly in regard to the ethical nature of the self (3.1.). The next three parts provide detailed thematic analyses of selected passages from Middlemarch. Particular attention is paid to Rosamond Vincy and Tertius Lydgate, whose relationship is explored in some detail. In order adequately to chart their development in the novel I begin by situating each of these characters in his or her various ‘fields of action’, or, as Bakhtin would have it, ‘character zones’. Character zones take into account not only the characters’ direct discourses but also other aspects of their being, including their backgrounds, ideologies and the various attitudes held by both the narrator and other characters towards them (3.2.). The next section (3.3.) explores, in dialogical terms, the rise and fall of Rosamond’s and Lydgate’s difficult alliance and it is suggested that their relationship represents the antithesis of the Bakhtinian notion of ‘finding the self in and through the other’. In the final section (3.4.), Rosamond’s and Lydgate’s possibilities for ‘real becoming’ are canvassed when each enters into dialogic relation with Dorothea Brooke. The Conclusion (4) offers a brief discussion of some of the ways in which the novel, as a genre, is open-ended. As such, it affords ongoing discussion in which completeness and conclusiveness is replaced with unfinalizability because “the final word has not yet been spoken” in the ongoing search for meaning (EaN 30). / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

No description available.

The enjoyment of any form of literature presupposes, in the reader, an understanding of the subject matter and a fundamental inclination to identify with the characters, to empathize with them and to appreciate varying perspectives. It follows that the choice of text is an important consideration especially, when the reader is not reading in the mother tongue. The choice of novel prescribed by the DET for Second Language, non-White, non-English-speaking, Ciskeian pupils poses many problems which lead to poor examination results. The increasing unpopularity of English Literature among Ciskeian pupils and teachers appears to stem largely from the predominance of works selected from the Great Tradition. To determine how far the choice of texts is responsible for the lack of success of literature teaching in Ciskei is the aim of this investigation. The DET syllabus for Black schools and the set books prescribed for Stds. 9 and 10 between 1980 and 1990 are examined to expose their Euro-centric focus. The effects of the DET examinations on literature study in Ciskei are also considered to show how examinations complicate the situation further. The aims of teaching literature to Second Language pupils are reviewed. Literary merit, relevance, aesthetic value and scope for moral seriousness, skill development are suggested as criteria suitable for an appropriate choice of literary texts for Second Language pupils. A comparative study of the prescribed novel, Silas Marner and an alternative African novel in English, Things Fall Apart has been attempted to find out whether Things Fall Apart is of equal literary value to Silas Marner and, perhaps, more relevant than Silas Marner to the experience of Black pupils. Six teachers have been interviewed for their opinions of the books prescribed. A miniature survey also has been conducted among pupils of Stds. 9 and 10 from selected schools to verify general attitudes to the study of literature. The findings indicate a dire need to make the syllabus more flexible and more open to include good African writing in English, such as Things Fall Apart.

This dissertation considers the role of affective management in realist aesthetics and British imperial culture. Drawing on formalist analyses of English novels, nineteenth-century theories of emotion, and postcolonial accounts that identify the colonizer’s affective desensitization as the ground from which ongoing violence can be perpetrated, this study explores how domestic English novels developed new techniques for deflating the heightened feelings surrounding empire and distant intimacy. Through satires of sensibility, the replacement of epistolary style with impersonal omniscience, and newly dispassionate presentations of villains and protagonists alike, realist novelists explored affective restraint as at once a generic characteristic and an increasingly central element of British imperial and racial identities. This dissertation therefore argues, through readings of works by Jane Austen, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot, and Joseph Conrad, for the deep influence of imperial culture on the realist novel’s distinguishing formal features. At the same time, it prompts critics to revisit longstanding accounts of the relationship between the novel and sympathy. Since the Victorian era, critics have readily understood the realist novel as concerned with the expansion of readers’ sympathies: this study reframes this important account by examining how the insistence on sympathy in novels often rerouted more turbulent reactions to empire’s dislocations—such as longing, desire for vengeance, and guilt—into cooler, more tractable feelings.

No description available.