Arrested Development and the British Bildungsroman, 1805-1891

ACCOUNTING FOR FAILURE: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT AND THE BRITISH BILDUNGSROMAN, 1805-1891 By Stephen Grandchamp A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of English – Doctor of Philosophy 2016 ABSTRACT ACCOUNTING FOR FAILURE: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT AND THE BRITISH BILDUNGSROMAN, 1805-1891 By Stephen Grandchamp This dissertation argues that nineteenth-century British literature responded in a variety of critical ways to the limits of individual success and thereby constituted failure as a defining aspect of the modern subject. While scholarship typically acknowledges how nineteenth-century British developmental narratives reflected a causal link between hard work and success, this dissertation traces an alternate history of texts in the period that strongly called this association into question. These texts portray hard work that does not necessarily lead to success while also depicting failure as a generative educative process. In the process, these works beg the question: what happens if a citizen works hard and acts according to social directives but nevertheless fails in business, personal relations, or expected individual maturation? This dissertation contends that these texts, through the portrayal of failed development, express a deep skepticism of exclusionary narrative models of individual development. Moreover, these texts hypothesize preventative adaptive behaviors that enable their readerships to avert developmental failure in the context of nineteenth-century political and social structures. This dissertation traces this reconceptualization of failure as a generative process through a lineage of texts spanning several genres. Chapter One analyzes Robert Southey’s Madoc (1805) through the lens of the title character’s failed development. It argues that Madoc, which proposes a scenario of personal improvement but ultimately only offers momentary glimpses of maturation, depicts the developmental limits of colonial settings while also exposing the manner by which Romantic individualism masks failure as personal genius. Next, Chapter Two argues that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) critiques the related social models of sensibility and Bildung by demonstrating the exclusionary boundaries of these superficially inclusive ideologies. Later, Chapter Three examines the history of revision in George Meredith’s The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1860-61). It contends that the author’s revisions to the original versions represent a crucial cultural moment in the adjudication between uncompromising cause-and-effect models of development and more complicated portrayals of the effects of individual effort. Finally, Chapter Four argues that George du Maurier’s Peter Ibbetson (1891) reflects on the dangers of nineteenth-century models of individual development by offering a sustained engagement with the ramifications of novelistic prototypes of building the self, thereby highlighting the exclusionary politics of this process. Broadly conceived, this dissertation intervenes in literary critical works about Romantic individualism, the history of the novel, and the Bildungsroman by scholars such as Nancy Armstrong and Jed Esty. Additionally, this project extends the usual literary archive of this type of study, examining texts of literary failure beyond the novel, including Romantic poetry, scientific works, and self-help treatises. Overall, the deployment of individual failure portrayed in this project’s genealogy demonstrates an unexamined foundation for contemporary conceptions of failure as generative. These texts deployed stark instances of individual failure to suggest new models of subjectivity and establish a cultural framework in which failure generates criticism, resistance, and a new definition of success. Copyright by STEPHEN GRANDCHAMP 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful for the assistance of so many wonderful people—without whom I never would have completed this project. First, I would like to thank Judith Stoddart for taking an interest in my work before I even enrolled in the doctoral program at Michigan State University. Her subsequent support—through frequent one-on-one discussions, guidance, and critical readings—was invaluable in finishing this project. Also, I am forever indebted to A.C. Goodson for his encouragement, mentorship, and friendship. Our weekly meetings helped provide me with the intellectual and emotional fuel to see this project through. Additionally, I am enormously appreciative of the unwavering professionalism and critical guidance of Zarena Aslami, whose suggestions pushed me to reconceptualize and revise this project in ways that always improved it. Furthermore, Natalie Phillips’ attentive readings and recommendations—in addition to her consistent enthusiasm and positivity—always lifted the project to new levels. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Ellen Pollak, who provided foundational contributions to this project before her retirement, and Scott Juengel, whose support and encouragement during my early years at MSU were crucial to my intellectual development. Moreover, I would like to thank my mentors and teachers at institutions I previously attended. At Western Michigan University, Chris Nagle’s instruction and guidance helped solidify my interest in nineteenth-century studies. Also at WMU, Joyce Walker helped me to take important risks in the classroom at a moment when I was just starting to formulate my approach to teaching. At Northern Michigan University, Russell Prather inspired me to embark on a career path of literary studies through his enthusiasm for teaching and personal guidance. v Still earlier, Tim Clancy’s encouragement of my literary interests was formative in undertaking this career path. Likewise, I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues who offered steadfast support throughout the dissertation writing process. First, I am monumentally grateful for the friendship and support of Matt Schneider. Matt’s encouragement and critical readings proved instrumental at all stages of this project. Second, I am thankful for my colleagues in the Victorian writing group, Shannon Sears and Erin Beard, who helped in the development of my ideas and chapters. Next, I am indebted to Sara Lappan for her consistent help and kindness. Finally, I am appreciative of Geneviève Risner for her support throughout this process, as well as her mentorship in effectively communicating my ideas. Lastly, I would like to offer my deepest and most sincere recognition of my family. Thank you to my mother, Robbie McBride, who sparked my interest in literature through encouraging my reading, introducing me to many great novels, and being my longest-serving critical reader. Also, thank you to my father, Fred Grandchamp, who encouraged me to forge my own path, be resilient, and chase my dream of completing a doctorate. I additionally would like to acknowledge my late grandparents—Fritz and Rose Grandchamp—for their love and attention. Finally, I am inexpressibly thankful for my partner, Kirst Grandchamp, who provided unconditional support and comfort throughout this process. Her aid was unswerving and absolute, and I will never cease to be grateful to her. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES viii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE “Toiling in infinity”: Rethinking Madoc’s Romantic Movement 24 CHAPTER TWO “the prey of feelings unsatisfied”: Frankenstein, Bildung, and the Limit of Sensibility 56 CHAPTER THREE The “machinery of Wisdom”: Negotiating Failure By Revision in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel and Great Expectations 93 CHAPTER FOUR Evolutionary Discourse and the Bildungsroman: Formulating Self and Species in du Maurier’s Peter Ibbetson 131 CODA 167 WORKS CITED 170 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Illustration from Goodrich’s Natural History depicting extinct species. 150 Figure 2: Illustration of simple physical position necessary for dreaming true. 156 Figure 3: Illustration of Peter Ibbetson sketching mammoth while ancestors hunt. 161 viii INTRODUCTION James Burgh’s The Dignity of Human Nature (1754) describes how, within the context of education, failures of a child are developmental dead-ends that disallow any chance of future change or improvement. He explains how meddling parents often prohibit the effective education of children by “ungratefully imputing to the master’s want of care the failure of their children’s improvement in what nature has denied them capacities for” (225). Furthermore, Burgh contrasts this “failure of…improvement” with other children who “have made proper improvements under the same care” (225). Burgh’s critique of parents demonstrates a crucial assumption that underwrites the emerging discourse of individual development in the eighteenth century: roadblocks on the path of education are insurmountable. For Burgh, the failings of the child present no generative possibilities for learning but rather only reflect the inherent flaws of the child as bequeathed by “nature.” Far from being an outlier, this particular passage, in fact, maintained its cultural currency for decades, with Vicesimus Knox quoting it in the fifth edition of his Liberal Education: Or, a Practical Treatise on the Methods of Acquiring Useful and Polite Learning (1783) as “not theory; but experienced and notorious fact” (312). Indeed, this perception of instances of failure as reflective of the inherently flawed “nature” of self—rather than, as in our contemporary

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