How was modern character made or remade at the turn of the
twentieth century? Modern Character: 1888-1905 considers a range of
literary and dramatic texts, showcasing the extraordinary efforts
of various writers to rethink and reinvent 'human character' during
this period. Arguing that many of the most significant
breakthroughs happened in the small theatres of Europe in the
1890s, the book's first section demonstrates how the countervailing
currents of Naturalism and Symbolism created a vortex in which
time-honoured truisms about character consistency, depth, and
verisimilitude were jettisoned. Works by Ibsen, Strindberg,
Maeterlinck, and Chekhov provide evidence of a searching and
critical campaign against assumed models of characterization. The
second section turns to contemporary prose narratives, with
attention to Knut Hamsun, Oscar Wilde, Joris-Karl Huysmans,
Gabriele D'Annunzio, Henry James, George Egerton, Edith Wharton,
Kate Chopin, and Joseph Conrad, to ask what writers working in the
novel, novella, and short-story forms were doing to contest
prevailing expectations about represented persons. Inconsistency,
bad faith, fragmentation, and unconscious motives creep into the
character spaces of these fictions. Character description recedes
and plots disintegrate; a penumbral negativity intrudes just where
identification and sympathy might have been achieved. Ultimately,
Julian Murphet proposes that the 'modern character' emerging over
this decade and a half presents a radical rethinking of a venerable
category of narrative and dramatic art, with profound consequences
for the coming century.
General
| Imprint: |
Oxford UniversityPress
|
| Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
| Release date: |
December 2023 |
| Authors: |
Julian Murphet
(Jury Chair of English Language and Literature)
|
| Dimensions: |
234 x 156mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
272 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-19-286312-6 |
| Categories: |
Books
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
0-19-286312-6 |
| Barcode: |
9780192863126 |
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