Hapgood, Lynne (1990) "Circe among cities" : images of London and the languages of social concern, 1880-1900. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is an investigation of sociological, documentary and
literary texts whose central concerns are the social conditions in
London during the period 1880-1899. London is chosen as a focus
because during this time it was perceived as being in a state of
crisis which produced an unprecedented amount of writing in response.
The investigation has two complementary objectives:
(i) to analyse, through the changing presentation of London in
literary texts, the response of novelists working within the realistic
tradition to the challenge of divesting language and form of inherited
social meanings;
(ii) to ascertain how conditions in London were articulated in a wide
range of non-fictional writings, and to assess the role played by
discourses inherited from Christian perspectives of society in
absorbing, hindering, expressing or developing radical thought.
The first part of the thesis will establish what the dominant images
of London were. It will concentrate on the inner city texts of the
1880s and the suburban texts of the 1890s. What these images reveal
about changing moral and political responses to social issues are
assessed.
The second part will be concerned with a London of spiritual and moral
significance. Certain doctrinal, sociological and fictional works
which attempted to make Christian terminology appropriate to the
contemporary city will be considered. The impact of Socialism on
religious and fictional discourses is evaluated.
The thesis will conclude with a discussion of London as a political
construct and assess how far such a perception sets up a break with
tradition. Fictional texts assume a peculiar importance here since
they are strongly differentiated from each other and from their
literary tradition.
In fictional texts in particular, images of London highlight the
particular difficulty of redeploying a tradition of realism to
accommodate radical ideas and the consequent formal challenges. The
presentation of London in a diverse body of literature can therefore
be seen to offer a variety of perspectives on the process of change in
both language and form.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	London (England) -- Social conditions -- 19th century, London (England) -- In literature, Social problems in literature
Official Date:	April 1990
Dates:	Date Event April 1990 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	351 leaves
Language:	eng

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