LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
Abstract (type = abstract)
This dissertation argues that cross-disciplinary discord between literary, philosophical, and scientific writers was central to the formal and aesthetic developments of the British and American novel in the nineteenth century and to the evolution of modern literary criticism. While most scholars of nineteenth-century literature and science work within the “one culture” thesis, emphasizing the shared questions, themes, and techniques among different genres of intellectual writing, my project deviates from these accounts by emphasizing the claims to intellectual priority made, in particular, by novelists. I argue that the realist novels of Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Henry James advance a nonscientific epistemology I call, following Stanley Cavell, “ordinary.” These novels resist the scientific imperatives of definition and generalization and instead focus on the ways that knowledge is created and shared in ordinary life. I suggest that literary realism obviates the potential violence of knowledge relations by shifting the criteria for what it means to know someone or something away from conceptual certainty and towards social responsiveness. Ultimately, I argue that this epistemological framework, which originates in nineteenth-century realism, comes to define modern literary criticism.
Subject (authority = local)
Topic
Victorian
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Literatures in English
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_11150
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (iv, 243 pages)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
School of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
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.