Feeling Out of Time: Phenomenal Bodies and Temporality in the Fin de Siècle
2016-12
Loading...
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Feeling Out of Time: Phenomenal Bodies and Temporality in the Fin de Siècle
Authors
Published Date
2016-12
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
This dissertation shows the often-overlooked role that psychical research, or the study of unexplained phenomena, played in the literature of the Transatlantic Fin de Siècle. Examining the works of Fitz-James O’Brien, Henri Bergson, Bram Stoker, and Marcel Proust, I argue that the crises of temporality often discussed in literary modernism can be understood through the parallel theories proposed by psychical research. Alongside these literary primary texts, I examine psychical research from Edmund Gurney, Charlotte Anne Moberly, and Eleanor Jourdain as theoretical texts on temporality and the human self. More than contextualizing fiction with its coeval psychical research, I read these texts—fictional, philosophical, and scientific—as questioning and countering hegemonic forces of modernity. My project argues that questions of temporality and the human self that were the hallmarks of the Fin de Siècle were reactions to the homogenizing forces of capitalism and modernity. Almost every author discussed lived in a marginal position in society for one reason or another—queer, Jewish, Irish, or female. These marginal bodies felt out of sync with the dominant culture of modern society and the theories of time and the self reflect their existence within that society. By paying attention to the heterodox theories of the Fin de Siècle, we can understand the ways in which feeling out of time becomes rendered literarily, philosophically, and scientifically in texts.
Description
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2016. Major: English. Advisor: Tony Brown. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 219 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Burdine, Wesley. (2016). Feeling Out of Time: Phenomenal Bodies and Temporality in the Fin de Siècle. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/185622.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.