University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/73387 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Encountering the Foreign: The Educative Effect of the Foreign in George Eliot's Novels of English Life Armagan Erdogan Ph.D. in English Literature University of Warwick Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies March 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Abstract INTRODUCTION 1 George Eliot's Experience of the Foreign 7 Critical and Theoretical Panaroma: The Invisible Power of Culture 13 I. GLIMPSES OF THE FOREIGN IN SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE 26 Introduction 26 'The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton' 27 'Mr GHfil's Love Story' 32 Conclusion 42 II. SYMPATHY IN ADAM BEDE 43 Introduction 43 The Diversity of Rural Life 50 'From the Familiar to the Strange' 57 Conclusion 61 III. DODSONNESS IN THE MILL ON THE FLOSS 65 Introduction 65 The Contolling Gaze in the St Ogg's 69 Tom, the 'Dodson' 72 Maggie, the 'Other' 75 Problematic Integration: Maggie and the Gypsies 79 Conclusion 88 IV. THE ALIEN VERSUS THE FAMILIAR IN SILAS MARNER 91 Introduction 91 Silas Marner: The Weaver ofRave/oe 92 Silas, the Alien 95 'The Lifted Veil' lOS 'Brother Jacob' 108 Conclusion 111 V. HOME AND THE FOREIGN IN FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL 112 Introduction 112 Travel to Variety 114 The Conflicting Home-coming 119 Ambiguous Encounters 129 Harold 129 Esther 134 Images of the East 139 Conclusion 143 VI- IJIERE NOW IN ENGLAND': MIDDLEMARCH 147 Introduction 147 The Patterns of Provincial Life 151 Problematic Contact with the Foreign 157 Dorothea's Encounter with Rome 162 Mixed-blood in the Provinces 171 Conclusion 177 VII. MULTI-ENCOUNTERS IN DANIEL DERONDA 180 Introduction 180 European Sights 184 Gwendolen's Encounter with Foreignness 187 The Doubleness of Deronda's Encounters 198 Re-union with the Self 201 Deronda's Encounter with Otherness 206 Conclusion 210 CONCLUSION 214 BIBLIG9RAPHY 223 ACKNOWLEDGMENT My own encounter with foreignness has been complicated, but an enlarging experience. Now it is time to give thanks to some people who have witnessed this process and shared some of the burden with me. This thesis is done by a grant from YOK (Higher Education Council) in Turkey. My acknowledgment also goes to Dr. Mehmet Yazgan, the Head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Kirikkale University, whose positive approach during the final stages of my thesis in Turkey allowed me to concentrate on my work rather than on unnecessary details. I would like to thank all members of the Department of English at the University of Warwick for their teaching attitude. I must also acknowledge Carolyn and Oliver Howarth who welcomed me in their wider horizons, and Herr Lutz, whose philosophy in tolerance has influenced my approach to this thesis and to life in general. Most ofall, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor Dr. John Rignall, for his constructive approach, continuous encouragement, patience and help at every stage of this thesis. I was fortunate to benefit from his extensive knowledge and experience. For the manner in which I have used his advice, failure is mine. My friends, my family, my parents, my brothers and my sister continued their unquestioning support of all kinds. Without my husband's encouragement, loving support and positive energy, I would not even have thought of starting my postgraduate study. Finally, I thank my little daughter Rftya Aysu, from whom I have stolen a great deal of time when she needed me most, and dedicate this thesis to her. ABBREVIATIONS SCL. Scenes ofClerical Life AB. Adam Bede MF The Mill on the Floss SM Silas Marner FH. Felix Holt MM. Middlemarch DD. Daniel Deronda 'LV' 'The Lifted Veil' 'BJ' 'Brother Jacob' TS. Impressions ofTheophrastus Such Essays: Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writings, ed. by A. S. Byatt and Nicholas Warren (London: Penguin, 1990). Letters: The George Eliot Letters, ed. by Gordon S. Haight, 9 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1955). Life: Cross, J. W., George Eliot's Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals, 3 vols, (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1885). GEJ: Journals ofGeorge Eliot, ed. by Margaret Harris and J. Johnston, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). GEFR: The George Eliot Fellowship Review GE-GHLS: George Eliot-George Henry Lewes Studies PMLA: Publications ofthe Modern Language Association ofAmerica ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the ways in which the encounter of the self with the other enlarges both individual characters and English life in George Eliot's fiction. The role of the foreign in her novels of English life gradually increases in general from novel to novel, and hence the chapters of my thesis are chronologically structured, and each chapter is devoted to one particular novel. The Introduction consists of a brief history of George Eliot's own awakening through her foreign experiences, as her letters and journals reveal. In addition, critical and theoretical background material, particularly Foucault and Habermas, is briefly introduced. Chapter One is devoted to the first indications of the foreign in Scenes of Clerical Life. Chapter Two considers the foreign in terms of sympathy in the rural world of Adam Bede. The next chapter examines the attitudes of the dominant culture towards the foreign in The Mill on the Floss. Chapter Four centres on different forms of the alien inserted into English life in Silas Marner, 'Lifted Veil' and 'Brother Jacob'. Chapter Five focuses on the ambiguous representation of Harold Transome's anglo-oriental identity, and English attitudes towards the Orient in Felix Holt. The last two chapters study Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, in which the encounter with the foreign is experienced beyond the borders of England. Chapter Six introduces the conflict between the conditions obtaining 'here-now in England' and those in the metropolitan city of Rome. In the last chapter, a synthesis of various encounters, which connects England to Europe and the Orient, is examined. My thesis concludes by appreciating the complexity of" identity, and the broader horizons achieved by the encounter with the foreign in George Eliot's novels of English life. 1 INTRODUCTION [ ... ] The only effect I ardently long to produce by my writings is that those who read them should be better able to imagine and to feel the pains and joys of those who diffor from themselves in everything but the broad fact of being struggling erring human creatures. I George Eliot's main objective in her fiction is to enlarge the vision of her readers, particularly to make them understand those 'who differ from themselves.' That process of enlargement is one that is also enacted in the experience of her principal characters as they are shown defining their identities both as individuals and as representatives of their culture. This thesis, in general, seeks to investigate the ways in which cultural identity is represented in Eliot's novels of English life.2 My argument will explore how the individual comes to an accommodation with the dominant values of society through a long process of education. In particular, I will argue that one of the most significant stages in this process is the encounter with the foreign, defined in either a literal sense as that which comes from abroad, or in the figurative sense of that which is unfamiliar to the local culture of provincial England. The meeting of the self with the 'other' is generally presented as a progressive step which has the effect of awakening and enlarging both individual and cultural identities. This process of enlargement is greatly valued by Eliot, and is presented in all its complexity in her novels of English life. It is not only individual lives that are enriched by the encounter with the foreign, since these novels suggest that there is a beneficial effect on the general culture of provincial England. The juxtaposition of the familiar and the foreign is both a characteristic mark I The George Eliot Letters ed. by Gordon S. Haight, 9 vols (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1955), III, p. 111. Further references to Letters will be given within the text in ~arenthesis. (My Italics). For the concept of identity see Stuart Hall 'Who Needs Identity' in Questions o/Cultural Identity ed. by Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay (London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1996), pp. 1-18. 2 of George Eliot's cosmopolitan mind and a recurrent indication of her persistent attempt 'to widen the English vision a little' (Letters, VI, p. 304). The individual's development in Eliot's fiction is reached through a socialising process more than through fonnal education, and the latter is, indeed, frequently the object of criticism. The kind of education her novels enact is one that values difference above sameness, diversity and breadth above shallowness and narrowness. The individual is awakened by an encounter with what lies beyond the self, and this has the effect of bringing down the barriers between conflicting worlds: between old and new, home and abroad, self and other, familiar and foreign. 3 The 'other', defined in individual, cultural, or geographical tenns, represents a potential means of progress, stimulating wider connections and leading to a synthesis of conflicting elements in the long term. The main concerns of this thesis can be summed up under two points: firstly, I shall examine the ways in which the self and the 'other' are extended as a cultural metaphor of the English and the foreign.