Written in opposition: Narrator -narratee relationship in the major novels of George Eliot.
Item
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Title
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Written in opposition: Narrator -narratee relationship in the major novels of George Eliot.
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Identifier
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AAI9986372
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identifier
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9986372
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Creator
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Sanyal, Arundhati Maitra.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Anne Humpherys
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Date
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2000
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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 examines the major novels of George Eliot from the perspective of a narrator-narratee relationship that is always dialogic and frequently oppositional. The argument is based within the context of Reader-Response and Communication theories, more specifically Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the dialogic nature of language, that posit dialogic narratives as the basis of creative writing.;Initially, George Eliot's letters are discussed to show the evolution of a narrator-narratee relationship that is later carefully honed to a dialogic and contestatory one as she focuses on various themes and issues in the novels.;The discussion of the novels involves a close reading of the narrator's addresses to the reader/narratee as also of those passages where the voice of the narrator is covertly present. The narrator's primary aim in the novels is to create his ideal narratee, and to that end the earlier novel such as Adam Bede has explicit passages on how to read and respond to the narrative. In the later novels the narrator begins to anticipate the narratee's opposition or unpreparedness for the text in more subtle ways, and also begins to inhabit more in the voices of principal protagonists than as an explicit persona.;The dissertation argues that dialogue, whether assimilative or contestatory, makes empathy possible in the novels. Those characters who are incapable of dialogue are also incapable of triumphing over irreconcilable forces.;The final discussions focus on the gradual fading out of the narrator from these dialogues as characters begin to take these on and initiate a discussion of the ambiguities of the narrator. In Daniel Deronda Deronda becomes a test case for the ubiquitous presence of a narrator/mentor figure, and the dissertation ends with hypotheses about Eliot's conscious awareness of the pitfalls of an omniscient narrator.
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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.
