Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence

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dc.contributor.advisorBertelsen, Eveen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorKerbel, Sorrelen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-25T16:22:39Z
dc.date.available2016-09-25T16:22:39Z
dc.date.issued1987en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: pages 211-226.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation explores aspects of the German Bildungsroman, several nineteenth century English versions, and Lawrence's revitalisation of a genre which had become unfashionable and almost moribund. It examines Jude the Obscure (1896) and three of Lawrence's novels in the light of a distinction between a Bildungsroman and an Entwicklungsroman, showing where Hardy and Lawrence merge generic tradition and individual predilection to modify the forms. Hardy is chosen for comparison and contrast with Lawrence, partly because of Lawrence's own critical interest as evidenced in "The Study of Thomas Hardy" (written concurrently with the Brangwen saga), and because Jude the Obscure represents the state of the Bildungsroman at the turn of the century. Chapter One describes specific narrative features of the Bildungsroman to arrive at a "schema" of Bildung, and differentiates between Bildung and Entwicklung. Though its scope is necessarily restricted, its aim is an awareness of the grid of conventions upon which and against which the individual work operates. Chapter Two offers Jude the Obscure as Bildungsroman. It argues that Hardy, with his "radical", "Meliorist" approach, deliberately questions and frustrates the tradition. Hardy refuses the socially acceptable reconciliation of the paradigm, and has lost the Romantic vision of Nature as recourse, a vision Lawrence abundantly retains. The metaphor of organic growth, a legacy of the English Romantics, is central to Lawrence's modification of the paradigm in Sons and Lovers, The .Rainbow and Women in Love. His fidelity to a sequential chronology is justified in terms of Entwicklung, a pattern of continuous growth, so that "form is content". Lawrentian questers belong to a Romantic elite of unique individuals who grow to fulfilment naturally, breaking out of their enclosures. Entwicklung is socially subversive, rejecting conventional social integration, questioning its assumption of the individual's helpless passivity, and transcending the limitations of class and birth. Though the phases of Bildung and choice of imagery are traditional, Lawrence's metamorphosis is highly original and Modernist in terms of sheer narrative experimentation and sensibility. And the traditionally "closed" ending of the paradigm is exchanged for open-ended ambivalence, not only a reflection of Lawrence's philosophy that art should never be contained, but itself echoing the instability and insecurity of the new age.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationKerbel, S. (1987). <i>Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21880en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationKerbel, Sorrel. <i>"Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21880en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationKerbel, S. 1987. Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Kerbel, Sorrel AB - This dissertation explores aspects of the German Bildungsroman, several nineteenth century English versions, and Lawrence's revitalisation of a genre which had become unfashionable and almost moribund. It examines Jude the Obscure (1896) and three of Lawrence's novels in the light of a distinction between a Bildungsroman and an Entwicklungsroman, showing where Hardy and Lawrence merge generic tradition and individual predilection to modify the forms. Hardy is chosen for comparison and contrast with Lawrence, partly because of Lawrence's own critical interest as evidenced in "The Study of Thomas Hardy" (written concurrently with the Brangwen saga), and because Jude the Obscure represents the state of the Bildungsroman at the turn of the century. Chapter One describes specific narrative features of the Bildungsroman to arrive at a "schema" of Bildung, and differentiates between Bildung and Entwicklung. Though its scope is necessarily restricted, its aim is an awareness of the grid of conventions upon which and against which the individual work operates. Chapter Two offers Jude the Obscure as Bildungsroman. It argues that Hardy, with his "radical", "Meliorist" approach, deliberately questions and frustrates the tradition. Hardy refuses the socially acceptable reconciliation of the paradigm, and has lost the Romantic vision of Nature as recourse, a vision Lawrence abundantly retains. The metaphor of organic growth, a legacy of the English Romantics, is central to Lawrence's modification of the paradigm in Sons and Lovers, The .Rainbow and Women in Love. His fidelity to a sequential chronology is justified in terms of Entwicklung, a pattern of continuous growth, so that "form is content". Lawrentian questers belong to a Romantic elite of unique individuals who grow to fulfilment naturally, breaking out of their enclosures. Entwicklung is socially subversive, rejecting conventional social integration, questioning its assumption of the individual's helpless passivity, and transcending the limitations of class and birth. Though the phases of Bildung and choice of imagery are traditional, Lawrence's metamorphosis is highly original and Modernist in terms of sheer narrative experimentation and sensibility. And the traditionally "closed" ending of the paradigm is exchanged for open-ended ambivalence, not only a reflection of Lawrence's philosophy that art should never be contained, but itself echoing the instability and insecurity of the new age. DA - 1987 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1987 T1 - Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence TI - Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21880 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/21880
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationKerbel S. Bildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrence. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1987 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21880en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnglish Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.titleBildung and the metaphor of growth in the novels of T. Hardy and D.H. Lawrenceen_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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