Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-193). Also available on the Internet.

The aim of this thesis on the Victorian poet/novelist George Meredith is to analyse the philosophical and psychological aspects of some of his poetry in relation to his reputation as a ‘difficult’ author. The study attempts to create a working definition of poetic difficulty by referring to George Steiner’s influential work in this regard, while also discussing some of the limitations of Steiner’s theory. A consideration of Rita Felski’s examination of critique in the field of literary studies is used to frame the debate around formalist versus ideological criticism and to introduce the conciliatory and reparative approach aimed at in this study, which, though mostly focusing on formalist close readings, also acknowledges the importance of context. The introduction includes a discussion of Meredith’s reputation as a difficult author, and argues that this is one of the main reasons for his critical and popular neglect, with his poetry being seen as particularly obscure. In the first chapter I look at Meredith’s response to the mythological past, elements of which are evident throughout his writing. I suggest that a lack of familiarity with Meredith’s sources can lead to misreadings of his poems, and look at two longer narrative poems, ‘Cassandra’ and ‘The Day of the Daughter of Hades’, to illustrate these claims. The second chapter focuses on Meredith’s Modern Love sequence, and includes detailed analyses of a large selection of the sequence’s 16-line sonnets to show how Meredith makes use of indeterminate narration and other ambiguities to create a complex depiction of mid-Victorian married life. The last chapter is concerned with Meredith’s philosophy of nature, an aspect of his thought which received a great deal of critical attention in the early and mid-twentieth century, though not as much in terms of Meredith’s obscurity. I provide a detailed close reading of his long poem ‘Earth and Man’ to illustrate some of the philosophical underpinnings of his poetry, while also suggesting that his was not a rigorous or fully thought-through system, but rather a lyrical exploration of the implications of evolutionary theory for nature-poetry. I conclude my study by considering how the Modernists T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound responded to the troubling question of poetic influence from their Victorian predecessors. By referring to Harold Bloom’s ‘anxiety of influence’, I suggest how Meredith’s difficult legacy — and legacy of difficulty — continues to reverberate even in the work of poets who attempted to reject Meredith and his Victorian contemporaries. / Thesis (PhD (English))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / English / PhD (English) / Restricted

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong. / Type-written copy.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1957. / Also available in print.

Focusing on four early works, then three from his middle period and three from the 1890s, this dissertation explores Meredith’s role as a novelist in the unfolding of a social and literary paradox, namely, that with the death of George Eliot in 1880, the dominant writers of fiction were male, and this remained the case until the advent of Virginia Woolf, while at the same time the woman’s movement for emancipation in all spheres of life—domestic, commercial, professional and political—was gathering in strength and conviction. None of the late nineteenth-century male novelists—James, Hardy, Moore and Gissing, as well as Meredith—was ideologically committed to the feminist cause; in fact the very term ‘feminist’ did not begin to become current in England until the mid-1890s. But they were all interested in one aspect or another of the ‘Woman Question’, even if James was ambivalent about female emancipation, and Gissing, on the whole, was somewhat hostile. Of all these novelists, it was Meredith whose work, especially in its last two decades, most copiously reveals a profound sympathy for women and their struggles to realize their desires and ambitions, both inside and outside the home, in a patriarchal world. The dissertation therefore concentrates on his presentation of his heroines in their relationships with the men who, in one way or another, dominate them, and with whom they must negotiate, within the social and sexual conventions of the time, a modus vivendi—a procedure that will entail, especially in the later work, some transgression of those conventions. Chapter 1 sketches more than two centuries of development in female consciousness of severe social disadvantage, from literary observations in the mid-seventeenth century to the intensifying of political representations in the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, and the rise of the woman’s movement in the course of the Victorian century. The chapter includes an account of the impact on Meredith of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869), and an examination of some of his female friendships by way of illuminating the experiential component of his insights into the ‘Woman Question’ as reflected in his fiction and letters. His unhappy first marriage is reserved for consideration in Chapter 2, as background to the discussion of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859). This early novel, Meredith’s first in the realist mode, is widely accepted as being of high quality, and is given extended treatment, together with briefer accounts of three other early works, The Shaving of Shagpat (1855), Evan Harrington (1861), and Rhoda Fleming (1865), and one from Meredith’s middle period, Beauchamp’s Career (1876). Two more novels of this period, The Egoist (1879) and Diana of the Crossways (1885), are generally considered to be among his best works, and their heroines are given chapters to themselves (3 and 4). Chapter 5 provides further contextualization for the changing socio-political circumstances of the 1880s and 1890s, with particular reference to that heightening of feminist consciousness represented by the short-lived ‘New Woman’ phenomenon, to which Diana of the Crossways had been considered by some to be a contribution. Brief discussion of some other ‘New Woman’ novels of the 80s and 90s follows, giving literary context to the heroines of Meredith’s three late candidates in the genre, One of Our Conquerors (1891), Lord Ormont and His Aminta (1894), and The Amazing Marriage (1895). The dissertation concludes with a glance at Meredith’s influence on a few early twentieth-century novelists.

George Meredith's Modern Love deals with a formula for achieving happiness in life by a man whose marriage has failed. His marital breakup serves as a catalyst for the husband's internal journey which, through intense self questionings, leads him to a fuller understanding of himself and his purpose within the harmony of nature. Definite overt action and external events are secondary in the sonnet sequence. Indeed, the major portion of the work is conveyed by images which reveal the husband's developing psychological states. As Lionel Stevenson says of Modern Love in the standard biography of Meredith, . . . the action is not easy to decipher; and, once deciphered, it sounds like the plot of a conventional "problem" drama. This was merely the framework, however, on which Meredith displayed his interpretation of . . . ethical and psychological issues.1 Modern Love, then, which expresses a vision of reality based upon the interaction of the protagonist's inner consciousness with his external environment, is the vehicle for Meredith's philosophy concerning right--proper--action in life. The husband in the sonnet sequence learns through suffering that man must observe nature, accommodate himself to and accept change, and apply reason to his instinct. 1. Lionel Stevenson, The Ordeal of George Meredith (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953), p. 104.

Early nineteenth-century Eurocentric perceptions of natural history led to the flora and fauna of Australia being thought of as deficient and inferior compared with those of other lands. By the 1820s, Australia had become known as ???the land of contrarieties???. This, and Eurocentric attitudes to nature in general, influenced the expectations and perceptions of immigrants throughout the century. Yet at the same time there was developing an aesthetic appreciation of the natural history of Australia. This thesis examines the tension between these two perceptions in the popular natural history writing of the nineteenth century, mainly through the writing of five authors ??? George Bennett (1804-1893), Louisa Anne Meredith (1812-1895), Samuel Hannaford (1937-1874), Horace Wheelwright (1815-1865) and Donald Macdonald (1859?-1932). George Bennett was a scientist, who saw Australian plants and animals more as scientific specimens than objects of beauty. Louisa Meredith perceived them in the familiar language of English romantic poetry. Samuel Hannaford used another language, that of popular British natural history writers of the mid-nineteenth century. To Horace Wheelwright, Australian animals were equally valuable to the sportsman???s gun as to the naturalist???s pen. Donald Macdonald was the only one of these major writers to have been born in Australia. Although proud of his British heritage, he rejoiced in the beauty of his native land. His writing demonstrates his joy, and his novel attitude to Australian natural history continued and developed in the present century.

The scarcity of speech in George Meredith’s Modern Love creates a deeply psychological narrative, reflecting a distrust of speech and the effectiveness of language in general. The narrator of the poem exists in a space of ambiguity, both blaming and yearning for speech; in his confusion, he remains largely silent. His silence does not only emphasize the distance between husband and wife but also between language and meaning. Furthermore, the narrator’s distrust of language ultimately exposes a breakdown in his certainty of self and truth.

This thesis explores the intersections of a Black Power leisure identity, real property ownership, the progression of economic agency and land development through the example of Black resorts, focusing on Azurest North, a summer community in Sag Harbor, New York developed in the 1950s by Azurest Syndicate Incorporated. The project traces the history of real estate syndicates during the mid-twentieth century as a way to circumvent the practices of Jim Crow housing discrimination. Independent mortgage financing and land development especially in the field of resort housing, also points to the emergence of what I call a Black Power leisure identity. This study also seeks to determine how the American pursuit of leisure during the twentieth century forged identity and how real estate property ownership has been used to maintain and secure community and individual identity.