"The Subtle Art: Poison in Victorian Literature" rethinks how nineteenth-century crime fiction responds to cultural perceptions about the progress of Victorian science. To this end, this project examines how authors use the poisoner--a figure who adapted empiric methodology for murderous ends--in order to explore criminal applications of cutting-edge science. Indeed, poison rapidly became labeled as the "Crime of the Age" precisely because it represented both scientific innovation and the potential for scientific abuse. The duality of poison is evocative of Jacques Derrida's work on the pharmakon, a Greek word which simultaneously means both "remedy" and "poison." Derrida's theory is useful for understanding how the Victorians employed poison in their literary discourses because poison, like the pharmakon, has a slippery hybridity that collapses binary distinctions. In literature, poison acts as disrupting force that reveals deep anxieties about the scope of scientific influence in everyday life. Derrida, of course, uses the idea of the pharmakon to discuss Western culture's suspicion of "dangerous" writing. Since "poison" was often used as a metaphor for dangerous texts, this dissertation also uses poisonous works to reexamine the nature of Victorian writing, particularly in relation to generic change. My analysis therefore focuses on critically ignored works from authors such as George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and Ellen Wood in order to reassess these authors' relationship to science as well as their contributions to generic innovations in crime fiction. Thus, while revealing how authors used the poisoner to challenge the growing power and prestige of nineteenth-century science, my project also provides an alternate history of the development of Victorian crime fiction. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2012. / April 23, 2012. / Crime, Nineteenth-Century, Poison, Science, Victorian / Includes bibliographical references. / Barry Faulk, Professor Directing Dissertation; Frederick Davis, University Representative; Meegan Kennedy Hanson, Committee Member; Eric Walker, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183072 |
| Contributors | Price, Cheryl Blake (authoraut), Faulk, Barry (professor directing dissertation), Davis, Frederick (university representative), Hanson, Meegan Kennedy (committee member), Walker, Eric (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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