Date of Award
Spring 2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
Boly, John
Second Advisor
Su, John
Third Advisor
Flack, Leah
Abstract
This dissertation re-situates the grotesque in a critical tradition that emphasizes its function as a liberating force, rather than its traditional role as an arouser of terror and amusement. I then apply the grotesque liberation to the High Modern literary environment of Britain in order to reveal the grotesque dimensions of this period. To accomplish these goals of re-situating the grotesque, and applying the grotesque to High Modernism, I create a so-called "Grotesque System of Liberation." This system consists of three stages (the Symbolic, Real, and Non-Symbolic Symbolic) that trace a specific text's progress from a state of illusory stability and security, to a state of grotesque destabilization, to a final state of grotesque freedom and liberation. I analyze the grotesque system in High Modern texts by T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land), D.H. Lawrence (esp. "The Ship of Death"), and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), and aid this analysis with the application of a series of textual markers and linguistic features to these works. Such textual markers and linguistic features help reveal the specific stages of the grotesque system at work in a text. My dissertation ultimately accomplishes two important tasks. It posits a new understanding of the grotesque as a force for liberation from illusory sources of control and power. By examining this new understanding of the grotesque in British High Modernism, it also reveals the grotesqueness of this literary period, or its use of the grotesque as a device for sustaining a state of liberating division and incompleteness.