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Behaviorism and literary modernity, 1913-2009
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Title
Behaviorism and literary modernity, 1913-2009
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Gang
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Joshua
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Joshua Gang
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author
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Walkowitz
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Rebecca
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Rebecca Walkowitz
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chair
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Kramnick
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Jonathan
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Jonathan Kramnick
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Advisory Committee
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internal member
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Diamond
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Elin
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Elin Diamond
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Advisory Committee
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internal member
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Mao
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Douglas
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Douglas Mao
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Advisory Committee
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Rutgers University
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degree grantor
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Graduate School - New Brunswick
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theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated
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2012
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2012-10
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2012
Place
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xx
Language
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eng
Subject
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Topic
Literatures in English
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Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD_4146
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electronic resource
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Extent
vii, 223 p. : ill.
Note
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Ph.D.
Note
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Includes bibliographical references
Note
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by Joshua Gang
Subject
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Topic
Modernism (Literature)--History--20th century
Subject
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Topic
Behaviorism (Psychology) in literature--History--20th century
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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000066739
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Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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rucore19991600001
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doi:10.7282/T3XP73P7
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ETD doctoral
Abstract
“Behaviorism and Literary Modernity, 1913-2009”constructs a history of twentieth-century literature by examining how writers incorporated behaviorism’s arguments against consciousness into discussions of aesthetics, subjectivity, and empire. Skeptical of introspective knowledge, behaviorist thinkers argued that only external behaviors—and not mental states—could be known empirically. This paradigm not only dominated twentieth-centurypsychology and philosophy but also made crucial, if unrecognized, contributions to modern literature. Examining how behaviorism circulated and competed against other psychological doctrines,this dissertation substantially alters the idea of modernism as a “turn inward.” Instead, I argue that modernism comprised an intense debate about the nature of such interiority and about the relationship of internal mental states to external aesthetic forms. Where some modernists saidthat literary forms offered unique access to mental states, others came to understand form itself as a behavior with no necessary ties to consciousness. Competing with explanations offered by psychoanalysis, structuralism, and cognitive science, behaviorism was at the heart of this debate—as well as others about the nature of subjectivity, agency, and language. Writers skeptical of depth psychology found through behaviorism new modelsof aesthetic formand political action that seemingly circumvented the problems of self-knowledge and other minds. Bringing together analysesof the New Critics, Samuel Beckett, Djuna Barnes, Bertolt Brecht, Richard Wright and JM Coetzee, this dissertationdemonstrateshowbehaviorism changed literary thinking across the globe and allows new insights into the psychological dimensions of aesthetic form, critical interpretation, and globalization.
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Rights
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Gang
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Joshua
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Permission or license
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2012-06-11 17:26:54
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Joshua Gang
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Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Author Agreement License
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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2016-06-15
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2017-06-30
Type
Embargo
Detail
Access to this PDF has been restricted at the author's request. It will be publicly available after June 30, 2017.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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