Voicing female ambition and purpose: The role of the artist figure in the works of George Eliot.
Item
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Title
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Voicing female ambition and purpose: The role of the artist figure in the works of George Eliot.
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Identifier
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AAI3310593
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identifier
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3310593
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Creator
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Mahkovec, Linda.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Anne Humpherys
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Date
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2008
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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This dissertation explores the role of the artist figure in the works of George Eliot, examining the connection between female "voice" and female ambition and purpose. By tracing the figure of the artist throughout the course of Eliot's works, two patterns are identified: the male artist who serves as a stand-in for women and gives voice to the heroine's issues, and the female artist/performer who speaks for herself. The artist figure is used as a somewhat subversive strategy on the part of Eliot and provides an alternative point of view from her mainstream ideas. This figure voices the larger concerns of all women, which I frame in terms of separate spheres ideology. Eliot casts these figures as "others," usually foreign, and endows them with gender attributes from both the feminine and masculine spheres; thus, they are marginalized characters, yet representative of a fuller humanity. Through the artist figure Eliot argues for a revisioning of society that is more just and balanced and that allows women more agency. The works and characters examined are: Caterina Sarti in "Mr. Gilfil's Love-Story," Dinah Morris in Adam Bede, Maggie Tulliver and Philip Wakem in The Mill on the Floss, Dorothea Brooke and Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch, Armgart in the poem of the same name, and the multiple artist characters in Daniel Deronda---Mirah Lapidoth, the Alcharisi, Julius Klesmer, Catherine Arrowpoint, and to a lesser degree Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
