Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Manning, Peter | Munich, Adrienne | Ramachandran, Ayesha | Sharpe, William.
Date
2015-12-01
Keywords
Genre, Keats, Tennyson | Literature
Department
Department of English.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77559
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
What is " a classic" ? The OED defines it as: " A writer, or a literary work, of the first rank and of acknowledged excellence" . Significantly the etymology also links it with another English noun: " class" . This suggests that the idea of literary worth conveyed by " classic" , and the idea of categorization implied by " class" are deeply intertwined. Starting in what is usually referred to as the Romantic Period, many writers seemed eager to reject such labels altogether. I believe that this is because, around the turn of the nineteenth century, genre itself acquired a kind of stigma, which continued to be felt keenly throughout Victorian period -consciously literary writers, such as Keats and Tennyson, seemed particularly sensitive to this stigma, and both poets apparently took pains to evade overt classification in their work. By examining the various strategies that two these influential poets adopted for avoiding established definitions throughout their careers, I hope, not only to show their own growing suspicion towards fixed labels, but also to make a case that this trend in their writing reflects a more widespread change in attitude towards genre; a change which not only colored the work of many nineteenth century writers, but can be seen even today, in our ideas about what is worth reading and studying. | 297 pages
Recommended Citation
Hershman, Elizabeth Julia, "Beyond Compare: Nineteenth Century Poets and the Stigmatization of Genre" (2015). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3359.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3359