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dc.contributor.advisorSutton, Emma
dc.contributor.advisorPlain, Gill
dc.contributor.authorMercurio, Jeremiah Romano
dc.coverage.spatial274en_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-08-10T15:42:50Z
dc.date.available2011-08-10T15:42:50Z
dc.date.issued2011-06-21
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/1964
dc.description.abstractThis Ph.D. thesis investigates the use of fantasy by British and Irish 'Decadent' authors and illustrators, including Oscar Wilde, Max Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, 'Vernon Lee' (Violet Paget), Ernest Dowson, and Charles Ricketts. Furthermore, this study demonstrates why fantasy was an apposite form for literary Decadence, which is defined in this thesis as a supra-generic mode characterized by its anti-mimetic impulse, its view of language as autonomous and artificial, its frequent use of parody and pastiche, and its transgression of boundaries between art forms. Literary Decadence in the United Kingdom derives its view of autonomous language from Anglo-German Romantic philology and literature, consequently being distinguished from French Decadence by its resistance to realism and Naturalism, which assume language's power to signify the 'real world'. Understanding language to be inorganic, Decadent writers blithely countermand notions of linguistic fitness and employ devices such as catachresis, paradox, and tautology, which in turn emphasize the self-referentiality of Decadent texts. Fantasy furthers the Decadent argument about language because works of fantasy bear no specific relationship to 'reality'; they can express anything evocable within language, as J.R.R. Tolkien demonstrates with his example of "the green sun" (a phrase that can exist independent of the sun's actually being green). The thesis argues that fantasy's usefulness in underscoring arguments about linguistic autonomy explains its widespread presence in Decadent prose and visual art, especially in genres that had become associated with realism and Naturalism, such as the novel (Chapter 1), the short story (Chapter 3), drama (Chapter 4), and textual illustration (Chapter 2). The thesis also analyzes Decadents' use of a wholly non-realistic genre, the fairy tale (see Chapter 5), in order to delineate the consequences of their use of fantasy for the construction of character and gender within their texts.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of St Andrews
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
dc.subjectDecadenceen_US
dc.subjectFantasyen_US
dc.subjectIllustrated booksen_US
dc.subjectGender identity in literatureen_US
dc.subjectOscar Wildeen_US
dc.subjectMax Beerbohmen_US
dc.subjectVernon Leeen_US
dc.subjectAubrey Beardsleyen_US
dc.subjectCharles Rickettsen_US
dc.subjectErnest Dowsonen_US
dc.subject.lccPR468.D43M4
dc.subject.lcshDecadence (Literary movement)--Great Britainen_US
dc.subject.lcshDecadence (Literary movement)--Irelanden_US
dc.subject.lcshFantasy literature--19th century--History and criticismen_US
dc.subject.lcshFantasy literature--20th century--History and criticismen_US
dc.subject.lcshIllustration of books--Great Britainen_US
dc.subject.lcshIllustration of books--Irelanden_US
dc.subject.lcshFantasy in literatureen_US
dc.titleFantasy as a mode in British and Irish literary decadence, 1885–1925en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen_US
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.rights.embargoreasonEmbargo period has ended, thesis made available in accordance with University regulations.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.17630/10023-1964


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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
Except where otherwise noted within the work, this item's licence for re-use is described as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported