Dissertation
The View from Nowhen: Time and the Metaphysical Self in Twentieth-Century Literature
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/117010
Abstract
THE VIEW FROM NOWHEN: TIME AND THE METAPHYSICAL SELF
IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE
Abstract
by Denise G. Stripes, Ph.D.
Washington State University
May 2016
Chair: Donna L. Potts
The shift of faith from what was once a fundamental belief in God and an afterlife to faith in science and in humanity itself after the Second World War left human beings wondering if we are nothing more than the temporary bodies we inhabit and while some seem able to accept the idea that we cease to exist after death, others search for an existence beyond the physical realm. In a very real sense, after the Great War, time became our enemy—not only in that it causes us to age, but also in the more frightening sense that it can completely annihilate our very being. The fear of such annihilation has spurred in literature depictions of a search for a metaphysical component in our being even without belief in a god. In this dissertation I will explore twentieth-century treatments of time and how these non-traditional views demonstrate in many works a reaching for transcendence of time and the physical world, even if that transcendence is purely secular. I will begin with some nineteenth-century origins of non-traditional time treatments. I will also briefly mention how Realist and Naturalist works differ from Transcendentalist works and how these works lead to other views on time. Then I will demonstrate different twentieth-century treatments of time in the works of Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Gertrude Stein, Charles Simic, Italo Calvino, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Jorge Luis Borges. I will demonstrate how these authors and poets demonstrate the human desire for eternity in different ways through their portrayals of time.
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Details
- Title
- The View from Nowhen: Time and the Metaphysical Self in Twentieth-Century Literature
- Creators
- Denise G. Stripes
- Contributors
- Donna L Potts (Advisor)Donna M Campbell (Committee Member)Carol Siegel (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of English
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 188
- Identifiers
- 99900581834501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation