Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure'

This thesis is about Thomas Hardy's presentation of marriage and divorce in his last novel Jude the Obscure. It presents how Hardy as a representative of his time reflected important ideologies such as marriage, free union, and divorce.

Victorian literary criticism has within it a longstanding tradition of inquiring about the degree to which literature of the period reflects the realities of nineteenthcentury Christian faith. Many of these studies are admirable in the way that they demonstrate the challenges confronting religion in this period of dynamic social, cultural, economic, political, and scientific change and growth. Similarly, this study will examine the critical intersections between nineteenth-century Christianity and literature. However, this project is unique by virtue of the methodology used in order to access both the expressed and latent perspectives on Victorian faith at play within a given text. I propose that that a spatial, place-based reading has heretofore been largely ignored in critical explorations of nineteenth-century faith and literature. While, literary criticism utilising concepts related to spatiality, geography, topography, and place have increased within recent decades, these critical works are largely silent on the issue of the narrative representations of “place” and the expression and understanding of Victorian Christianity. This project suggests a model for just such a reading of nineteenth-century texts. More specifically, this thesis proposes that by reading for sacred place in the Victorian novel one is able to explore the issue of Christianity and literature from a unique and neglected point of narrative and critical reference. Using Charles Dickens's Bleak House and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure as primary texts, this study demonstrates that a careful exploration of sacred place within a particular narrative reflects an author's and, more broadly, a culture's perceptions of a faith. Reading Victorian religion from the vantage point of place acknowledges that place is itself an inescapable and fundamental medium through which individuals and cultures mediate the most mundane and the most exhilarating of their personal and collective experiences and beliefs. Similarly, faith, especially in nineteenth-century England, is a dominant and pervasive metaphysical ideology that is connected to and possesses repercussions for virtually all aspects of individual and social life. A critical reading that unites place and faith – these two fundamental paradigms of human experience and understanding – will inevitably provide fertile soil for a productive reading of the texts under consideration.

Inwiefern, so konnte man sich zu Beginn dieses renditeorientierten, hoch kapitalistischen und allzeit praxisbezogenen 21. Jahrhunderts durchaus zu Recht fragen, gehört Kunst überhaupt zum Leben, inwiefern gehört Literatur zur Lebenskunst, und inwiefern trifft dies im Besonderen auch auf den Akt der Lektüre selbst zu? [...] Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse steht deshalb Jude the Obscure als 'medialer', fast schon medientheoretischer Roman, in dem es primär um den gelungenen oder gescheiterten Lektüreprozess von Zeichen geht, wobei gezeigt werden soll, dass Hardys letzter Roman gleich auf mehreren Textebenen sehr dezidiert verdeutlicht, wie Literatur gelesen werden und welche Kriterien eine adäquate Lektüre erfüllen sollte.

This research takes a cultural disability studies approach to the history of intellectual disability and examines its ramifications for modern discourses of autism Specifically, J investigate how and why concepts of intellectual disability shift over time in response to social, political, medical, and educational motivations. The nineteenth century was a time of tremendous change in the categorisation of people according to perceptions of intelligence, the consequences of which continue to resonate in the current era and structure how we regard intellectual disability and difference. We now have labels of learning disability and autism spectrum disorder: classifications that previously did not exist. J explore how autistic identity is constructed in the competing discourses of the medical and social models, the poststructuralist approach, and the neurodiversity and autism advocacy approach, and I question the implications of the shifting discourses of autism on the subjectivity of the person with an autism diagnosis.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Education and Professsional Studies
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text

Thomas Hardy est le plus souvent considéré comme un auteur victorien. Cependant, son dernier roman intitulé Jude the Obscure annonce la modernité qui éclot à l'aube du vingtième siècle, lorsque l'auteur se tourne vers la poésie et qu'un autre écrivain, nommé Joseph Conrad, rédige ce roman aux mille voix qu'est Lord Jim. Derrière leurs œuvres se profile la réécriture de la tragédie qui renaît sous les espèces du tragique. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, à la tonalité pastorale parfois, rappelle les tragédies familiales des grands auteurs grecs. Avec Jude the Obscure, la ville a remplacé la campagne, la société a inéluctablement pris la place des dieux. Cette chute du divin s'affirme dans Lord Jim où le romantisme côtoie l'éclatement de la représentation dans une écriture moderne, puis plus nettement encore au travers des paysages blancs et froids de Under Western Eyes. Ces œuvres, tant par leurs différences que par leurs ressemblances, mettent en lumière le renouvellement qu'opère la modernité sur les genres et les formes du passé. Le style tragique utilise la lettre pour mieux la faire voler en éclat et s'oriente sur le pan de la voix : celle de l'écrivain qui se fait poète, celle de Jude qui se laisse bercer par son imaginaire, ou encore celle de l'indicible vérité qui borde l'horreur et surprend le lecteur occidental du texte conradien
Thomas Hardy is usually considered a Victorian writer. Nonetheless, his last novel entitled Jude the Obscure announced the era of modernity which started with the twentieth century, just before he abandoned fiction to become a poet, while Joseph Conrad was writing that deep-resounding novel entitled Lord Jim. With rising modernity in the background, it appears that their works allowed for the rewriting of tragedy, now revived as the tragic. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, whose tone may sound pastoral, recalls traditional Greek tragedies. In Jude the Obscure, urban settings have replaced the countryside, and society has definitely been substituted for the gods. Such a defeat of the divine is brought even further with Conrad : in Lord Jim, the romantic undertones are incessantly balanced by the explosion of the conventions of representation; the modern age is clearly perceptible in the white and cold landscapes of Under Western Eyes. These four novels, through their similarities and differences, show how modernity operates on genres and old forms of writing by regenerating them. The tragic as a style uses the letter the better to shatter it : so it does when the voice of the poet can be heard through the murmurs of Jude's imagination, or when unspeakable truth comes close to the horror and startles the Western reader of the Conradian text

This thesis traces the shift from liberal to neoliberal education from the nineteenth century to the present day, in order to provide a rich and previously underdeveloped narrative of value in higher education in England. Rather than attempting to justify the value of the humanities within the presiding economic frameworks, or writing a defence against market rationalism, this thesis offers an original contribution through an immersion in historical, financial, and critical debates concerning educational policy. Drawing upon close reading and discursive analysis, this thesis constructs a nuanced map of the intersections of value in the humanities. The discussion encompasses an exploration of policymaking practices, scientific discourse, mediated representations, and public cultural life. The structure of the thesis is as follows. The introductory chapter outlines the overarching methodology by defining the contemporary period of this project (2008-14), establishing relevant scholarship, and drawing out the correspondences between the nineteenth century and the present day. Chapter one establishes a history of the Payment by Results approach in policymaking, first established in the Revised Code of Education (1862) and recently re-introduced in the reforms of the Browne Report (2010). Understanding the predominance of such short-term and quantitative policy is essential for detailing how value is articulated. Chapter two reconsiders the two cultures debate. In contrast to the misrepresentative, yet pervasive, perception that the sciences and the humanities are fundamentally in opposition, I propose a more nuanced history of these disciplines. Chapter three addresses fictional representations of the humanities within literature in order to establish a vantage point from which to assess alternative routes for valuation beyond economic narratives. The final chapter scrutinises the rise of the impact criterion within research assessment and places it within a wider context of market-led cultural policy (1980-90s). This thesis argues that reflecting on Victorian legacies of economism and public accountability enables us to reconsider contemporary valuation culture in higher education. This analytical framework is of benefit to future academic studies interested in the marketisation and valuation of culture, alongside literary studies that focus on the relationship between higher education, the individual, and the state.

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
88
Abstract Nowadays, with the rapid changes in the economy, politics and education, the structure of social organization and its membership have exerted a strong impact on its development. Among the factors responsible for the current social atmosphere, many critics lay stress on different points of view. Traditionally, it is said that the development of social customs is derived from the accumulation of our national heritage throughout the ages as well as the established culture handed-down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that any individual’s impact on the variety of modern social circumstances has become so instrumental that everyone has to be responsible for how society develops. Since society is a combination of human beings, certainly, both marriage customs and family organization do have a strong influence on the continuity of society. That is, its problems can be traced back to the relationship between the individual and the family and then the interaction between the individual and society. Recently, in the relationship between the two genders, we can see domestic tragedies happening every day. Clearly, we also see the occurrence of violence, an increasing rate of divorce, and cruel abuse within families. No doubt, these events have only a negative effect upon the next generation. Therefore, I am deeply convinced that the relationship between the individual and society and the interaction between men and women are both worthy of our study. After a careful reading, I find that the novel-- Jude the Obscure, written by Thomas Hardy, is closely related to those issues I have mentioned above. With the significant twists and turns seen in its concern with social progress, the interrelationship between its male and female characters is a reflection of our modern society. We modern people are like Jude, facing the same problems in pursuing knowledge, trying to realize ourselves, getting along with the opposite sex, and getting confused about the fact if we are to be responsible for ourselves or not. Furthermore, via a Foucauldian reading, I will analyze how we human beings are tied to social power. And I shall discuss Jude’s concerns, which are those of modern men: the individual’s inner expectations, his confrontation with the world and his final maturity. Especially in Chapter Four, the individual’s will the truth is going to be clearly analyzed. By investigating its characters and literary techniques--the role of women, the use of symbols, human nature and human destiny, I will discuss will-to-truth, will-to-knowledge, and will-to-power. Furthermore, in addition to the conflicts between society and the individual, another concern is the misunderstandings of marriage. In Jude, we see Jude making the reckless decision to marry a girl whom he does not love. That is, his marriage is undertaken due to worry about public opinion rather than from inner passion. Hence, after getting married, with his eagerness to pursue knowledge out of his own self-ambition, Jude must confront nothing but cruel realities--his wife’s pregnancy, child raising, and conflicts between expectations stemming from his social beliefs and self ambition. With society limiting his life to inevitable disharmony, Jude as one of Life’s great victims, he’s compelled to build up a new discourse at last. To this extent, though the social background at that time is different from that of ours, the literary techniques Hardy adopts serve as a kind of lens for the portrayal of modern society. Therefore, this encouraged me to research the relationship between the individual and society, as well as the relationship between the two sexes, social rules and self-expectation. Related to the purpose of this study, first of all, it is to examine different attitudes towards marriage and the relationship between the two genders. Secondly, it is to look at the confrontation between the individual’s desire for self-realization and society’s desire that human beings have to conform to proscribed social rules, and then to find a balance between those two discourses. Finally, I sincerely hope that this work can offer the modern reader ideas about the current development of marriage in terms of Foucault’s theory. In its attempt to conduct a comprehensive examination of the issues mentioned above, this study analyzing Hardy’s last work will embark upon a Foucauldian Reading to analyze Jude. In line with its purpose of uncovering the truth underlying the interrelationships among body, knowledge, and power, this thesis is divided into five chapters. In Chapter One I will give a brief introduction to the historical background of Victorian society after the 1870’s in preparation for my discussion of Hardy’s representation of contradictory consciousness in Jude. Moreover, I will show how a Foucauldian Reading is useful when studying Jude. Chapter Two is a brief introduction to Foucault’s theories so as to illustrate his concepts of discourse, episteme, knowledge and power. All through Jude’s life, he is compelled by so many external powers to make choices that his rejection of society and final death are an understandable result of the power imposed on individuals such as Jude. Chapter Three elaborates the inevitability of these conflicts between individual ambition and society’s fixed rules. In his relationship with his milieu, Jude, as an outcast, seems to betray the fixed concept of his society’s discourse. Hence, I will employ Foucault’s concepts of “discourse” and the individual’s “will to knowledge” to justify Jude’s decisions. Chapter Four is devoted to scrutinizing how truth defined by society deeply dominates an individual’s mind and actions when he faces the marriage problems and the relationship between the two genders. In treating Jude’s relationship with Arabella and Sue, I will analyze the impact of female characters on male ones. For his life is so strongly influenced by female characters and society that readers will immediately see the discrepancy between his hard-won truth and truth constructed by society. In other words, I will examine his reasons for seeking out his own truth. Chapter Five will present my concluding remarks on Jude’s rejection of the dominance of social discourse. By summarizing these conflicts Jude confronted through out his life and elaborating on the reasons why Hardy felt compelled to “kill” Jude, I will demonstrate that Jude can’t be simply defined as a loser because of his fight against the power generated by social discourse. Jude’s “will to knowledge” and “will to truth” continues all his life and cannot be silenced while his spirit continues in his mortal body; therefore, death, is the only way of extinguishing them.

This paper explores and interrogates late Victorian anxieties concerning the issues of masculinity and labor, taking Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure as a key text in this discourse. I argue that Hardy, drawing upon his own experiences, offers a meditation on the differing Victorian modes of masculinity outlined and embodied in the thought of John Henry Newman and Thomas Carlyle, and in doing so, constructs a dialectical tension between already outmoded, yet remarkably persistent, answers to the questions and pressures of modernity. Through the use of one of the text’s central images—that of Christminster and its accompanying Gothic architecture—Hardy creates an opposition between an idealized intellectual labor and the earthy reality of manual labor. Both forms—figured in either the heroic and organic terms of Carlyle or the reserved, tradition-bound reaction of Newman—represent the ideal that allows Jude to live, but also the force that leads to his death. Therefore, in the clash between the ideal and real, the dialectic fails to deliver a possible synthesis, and instead spirals restlessly in the darkened gaps of self-negation. At the same time, because the specter of a crude social and biological Darwinism consciously haunts the edges of the story, the dialectic never stops demanding a synthesis if Jude is to discover the grounding for a fully integrated identity or ethics. The central question for Hardy thus becomes one of form: For a modern masculine subjectivity to take hold, external social forms must have a connective vitality with interior dispositions, a proposition that Hardy views as a near impossibility.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English.
"December 2005." Title from PDF title page (viewed on April 20, 2007). Thesis adviser: Peter Zoller. UMI Number: AAT 1436549 Includes bibliographic references (leaves 30-32).

碩士
國立中興大學
外國語文學系所
97
This thesis aims to explore the idea of carnival in Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure by adopting Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s theory of carnival to elaborate how Hardy criticizes the social inequality and mocks the official constraints and rules in the Victorian Age. In Chapter One, first of all, I will make a brief introduction of the life of Bakhtin. Then, I will respectively introduce his three influential theories of heteroglossia, the novel, and carnival and point out their common trait, that is, the power of mockery and the celebration of liberty, freedom, and equality. In Chapter Two, I will employ Bakhtin’s theory of carnival to reinterpret Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge and to analyze various carnival images and notions, such as the concept of the public sphere, the image and meaning of Dionysus and wine, the image of the banquet, the role of the rogue, and so on, in this novel. In Chapter Three, I will study Hardy’s another novel, Jude the Obscure, based on the theory of carnival once again to expound how he uses the idea of carnival to present his frank attack on the long-standing class system and tease the stern Victorian moral standards imposed on the working class and women. In conclusion, I will compare the similarity between The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure and re-demonstrate the relationships between Hardy’s novels and Bakhtin’s carnival idea. By incorporating the distinctive carnival spirit into these two-well-known novels, Hardy reveals an unrestrained unofficial life and gives his protagonist, male or female, a new perspective other than the rigid and authoritative Victorian one.

Authors Thomas Hardy and D.H. Lawrence were both influenced by the old traditions of the 19 th century and the new ideals of the early 20 th century. By comparing Hardy’s final novel, Jude the Obscure , originally published in 1895, to Lawrence’s early novel Sons and Lovers , released in 1913, one recognizes thematic similarities signifying the influence of Hardy on Lawrence’s work. This novel-to-novel approach allows for a tightly focused comparison between the two authors that reflects similarities found in their other bodies of work (including novels, poems, plays, and criticism), while the relative chronological closeness of the two novels---a mere eighteen years apart---emphasizes the authors’ function of providing a literary link between Victorian and Modernist ways of thought. By also examining the influence of psychoanalysis, and specifically Sigmund Freud, on Lawrence’s novel, one better understands the way in which this budding field of psychology enhanced the descriptive quality of writing and helped to distinguish Lawrence from Hardy. Hardy touched upon topics of sexuality and internal conflict that Lawrence later expanded upon in his own novels. Though both authors emphasized similar themes and character traits, Hardy proved unable to address them as thoroughly and lucidly as Lawrence because he lacked the critical psychological vocabulary to which Lawrence, as a Modernist, had access. At the same time, both writers addressed subject matters at odds with his society’s moral standards and gained notoriety due to the content of their novels. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English.
"December 2005."