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English Literature | Vol. 6 | December 2019

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Research Article

George Gissing: A Story of English Realism

Rebecca Hutcheon    Lancaster University, UK    

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abstract

George Gissing’s novels sit on the permeable boundary between the diegetic tendencies of 19th-century realism and the mimesis-dominated narratives of modernism. In his early novels, characters deliver barely disguised narratorial comments directly to the reader. But this form of realism is already strained. The self-awareness of Gissing’s art, manifesting in satire and irony, butts up against his research-led approach to writing. This article shows that what emerges in Gissing is a conflict between narrative intrusion, and the desire to displace authority and represent subjectivity at its broadest. This conflict is a synecdoche for proto-modernism.

Published
March 9, 2020
Accepted
Dec. 10, 2019
Submitted
Nov. 20, 2019
Language
EN

Keywords: Proto-modernism • Artistic Gaze • Gissing • Mimesis

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2019/01/004

Copyright: © 2019 Rebecca Hutcheon. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.