eprintid: 10099942
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 695
dir: disk0/10/09/99/42
datestamp: 2020-06-08 13:26:55
lastmod: 2020-06-08 13:26:55
status_changed: 2020-06-08 13:26:55
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Smith-Bingham, Richard David
title: Narrative and vision: Constructing reality in late Victorian imperialist, decadent and futuristic fiction
ispublished: unpub
keywords: Language, literature and linguistics; Constructing; Decadent; Fiction; Futuristic; Imperialist; Late Victorian; Narrative; Reality; Vision
note: Thesis digitised by ProQuest.
abstract: This study deals with works of imperialist, decadent and futuristic fiction written roughly between 1885 and 190A. The main authors under discussion are Conrad, Kipling, Haggard, Pater, Wilde, Huysmans and other European decadents. Wells, Morris and Hudson, and its primary aim is to show the similarity of vision between late nineteenth century authors writing in different genres or fields. The thesis starts by taking the 'strange' worlds presented in the fiction of these writers and relating them to the aesthetic idea that fiction involves the construction of the world of the text, a world which is determined according to the principles of art and perception, a world which is not simply imitative of a supposedly actual world of facts. To support this, the thesis proceeds to analyse late nineteenth century ideas on observation, representation and mythologization. The focus then shifts from the concept of the world to that of the self as the thesis investigates the complicated relationship between the fictional human subject and the society or world of the novel in which he or she figures. After this, the thesis examines how the late Victorian fictional individual seeks, through the power of narration, to remake the world according to his or her aspirations. It also records the violence associated with this ambition when it is put into practice and the failure which ensues when the subject's imagination makes him or her unable to distinguish between what is real and what is not. Indeed, that which forms the late Victorian fictional subject's experience of the world tends more to destabilize his or her identity than to strengthen it. The final chapter considers the fiction's imagery of fluidity, disintegration and collapse, paying close attention to the frequent appearance of crowds, chaos, darkness, rebellions and catastrophes in the texts. The conclusion looks again at the nature of late Victorian aesthetics, reviewing the importance of perception, oppositionality, balance and closure to the works.
date: 1997
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
thesis_class: doctoral_open
thesis_award: Ph.D
language: eng
thesis_view: UCL_Thesis
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
full_text_status: public
pages: 336
institution: UCL (University College London)
department: English
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        Smith-Bingham, Richard David;      (1997)    Narrative and vision: Constructing reality in late Victorian imperialist, decadent and futuristic fiction.                   Doctoral thesis  (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10099942/1/Narrative_and_vision_Construc.pdf