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English Literature | Vol. 7 | December 2020

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Research Article

Beyond the Boundaries of Realism

Monstrous Islands and Literary Hybrids at the Fin de Siècle in Conan Doyle’s, R. L. Stevenson’s and H. G. Wells’s Fiction

Julie Gay    Université de Poitiers, France    

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abstract

This article explores the way in which at the fin de siècle, Doyle, Stevenson and Wells chose to set their works on marginal islands in order to spatially escape not only from the bleak reality of the modern world, but also from the constraints of realism, and to reconnect with more imaginative forms of writing. It thus aims to shed new light on the relationship between geographical space and literary aesthetics, and to demonstrate that the island space is especially conducive to generic excursions out of realism and towards the fantastic, the marvellous and even the monstrous, leading to the creation of eminently hybrid literary texts.

Published
Dec. 21, 2020
Accepted
Dec. 12, 2020
Submitted
Nov. 6, 2020
Language
EN

Keywords: Fantastic • Fin de siècle • Hybridity • Wells • Doyle • Space • Aesthetics • Form • Romance • Genre • Escapism • Stevenson • Narrative Annexe • Victorian Era • Islands • Realism • Geopoetics • Gothic • Uncanny • Monsters • Border-crossing • Marvellous

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2020/01/005

Copyright: © 2020 Julie Gay. 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.