City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2020 The Remnants of Harmonious Bildungs: The Classical Bildungsroman as an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813–1924) Anne E. McFadden The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3579 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE REMNANTS OF HARMONIOUS BILDUNGS: THE CLASSICAL BILDUNSROMAN AS AN ONTOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF THE NOVEL OF COUNTER-DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND FROM JANE AUSTEN TO FORD MADOX FORD (1813-1924) By ANNE E. MCFADDEN A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2020 ©2020 Anne E. McFadden iii The Remnants of Harmonious Bildungs: The Classical Bildungsroman as an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813-1924) By Anne E. McFadden This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirements for the degree in English ____________________ ___________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee ____________________ ____________________________________ Date Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Richard Kaye Alan Vardy Tanya Agathocleous The City University of New York iv ABSTRACT The Remnants of Harmonious Bildungs: The Classical Bildungsroman as an Ontological Dimension of the Novel of Counter-Development in England from Jane Austen to Ford Madox Ford (1813-1924) By Anne E. McFadden Advisor Richard Kaye This dissertation examines the English Bildungsroman as it exemplifies a generic contradiction, as I propose that the Bildungsroman, the novel of education, is a genre in conflict with two different versions of itself, that is, the Classical Bildungsroman, with its harmonious endings, and the novel of regression, which follows the genre’s counter-veiling tendencies. This dissertation examines a wide-ranging group of British writers all of whom adapt the Bildungsroman according to prevailing aesthetic trends, such as British Romanticism and late- century aestheticism to modernism. The dissertation begins with an examination of the work of Jane Austen, whose novel Pride and Prejudice is the rare specimen that fulfills the Classical Bildungsroman’s steep generic expectations; however, in my first chapter, I contrast Austen’s masterpiece to a later work like Persuasion, in which the protagonist, Anne Elliot is endanger of losing her chance at marriage and happiness to the passing of time. The novel succeeds in producing the comedic ending, but in doing so, Austen appears to have taken liberties with the Bildungsroman form, especially its strict adherence to realism. Chapter two introduces a juxtaposition of subject matter as I contrast the canonical Austen to Thomas De Quincey, who as far as studies of the Bildungsroman are concerned could be construed as non-canonical, as his autobiographical prose are rarely included in genre studies, but whose writing, nevertheless, can be read as an overturning of the Bildungsroman’s established set of expectations, a detail which also suggests that the Bildungsroman, as a generic formulation, underwrites many narrative v forms, even literary works that bear no resemblance to the Bildungsromane of Austen or Charles Dickens. De Quincey represents the emergence of what I am calling the Counter-Bildungsroman, a deviation of the Bildungsroman in which the protagonist regresses rather than matures, shrinks from social life rather than matures into marriage and community life, for De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater dramatizes maturity as a decline into opium addiction and the hallucinogenic solipsism of his opium dreams, which marks a complete reversal from the prosperous normality that typically awaits the protagonist of a Classical Bildungsroman. In Chapter three, I examine the counter-veiling effects late-nineteenth century aestheticism has on Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, two novels that refuse to satisfy the Classical Bildungsroman’s comedic conventions. In their exposure to aestheticism, both Isabel Archer and Dorian Gray develop aesthetic interests that prove incompatible with the normalcy that the genre demands. Lastly, in the fourth chapter, I consider how the Bildungsroman, a genre usually associated with the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries survives into the twentieth-century and the advent of modernism, by examining Ford Madox Ford’s multi-volume Parade’s End as an anti-Bildungsroman, a literary work, not unlike De Quincey’s, in which the Bildungsroman is employed antagonistically or ironically, that is, Parade’s End is a novel about regressive or traumatized development, where the protagonist, Christopher Tietjens, once a member of the landed aristocracy and a well-established statistician with the British Army, but after succumbing to shellshock, Tietjens is sentenced to a life of material poverty and cognitive impairment. In the end, the dissertation grapples with the idea that while writers such as De Quincey, James, Wilde, or Ford do not attempt the type of totalizing resolution that we encounter in Austen, they, even as their writing subverts the Bildungsroman form to its generic limits, also attempt to retrieve remnants of harmoniousness vi from the Classical Bildungsroman. The dissertation suggests that the Bildungsroman, even those novels that appear to belong to a counter tradition, is a genre that is always moving between two different generic paradigms: one that strives for synthesis and resolution and one that dissipates into counter-veiling movements. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of three family members, all of whom I lost during the writing of it. My father John J. McFadden, who, while he was alive, was my biggest champion. I can still hear him say, “Can I get you anything, kid?” To my godfather and cousin, Ted Ferrara, who tragically passed away the day of my defense, whose impact on my life is incalculable, and who always taught me that the authentic life had to be sought far outside the status quo. To my Aunt Pat, whose sheer fabulousness I dearly miss. God Bless You, and until we meet again, may you rest in eternal delight. To my Mother, my best friend, my soul mate, and always a light in the darkness. To my brother John, whose wit and even temperament can make all-nighters in emergency rooms fun. To Anne Marie and Mary, whose love, generosity, and grace echoes that of my Mother and Grandmother. To Gaby, my best friend. To Doctor Hutner, to whom I owe my life. To my dear friends Charles and Gail Persky, whose love and wisdom has kept me a float for many years. To Tanya Agathocleous, whose kindness, brilliance, and extensive understanding of the Bildungsroman added some much-needed clarity and conceptual precision to this project. To Alan Vardy, who besides being one of my favorite people on earth, also changed my life by introducing me to Frederick Burwick. Lastly, my gratitude towards my advisor, Richard Kaye is beyond words. From aestheticism and decadence to Ford Madox Ford and modernism to the whole notion of a Counter-Bildungsroman tradition, this dissertation came together over a decade of taking your seminars. It has been the honor of my life. viii ix Contents Page Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 11 Chapter 1 ……………………………………………………………………………35 Chapter 2…………………………………………………………………………….89 Chapter 3…………………………………………………………………………….139 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………………….189 x McFadden1 Introduction This dissertation will look at the creative energies that are generated when the terms Counter- Bildungsroman and Classical-Bildungsroman are applied to nineteenth-century British literature. The Bildungsroman, a compound German word for the novel of formation, has proven nearly impossible to define; and as James Hardin argued in Reflection and Action (1991), the word is one for which “there is no consensus of meaning” either in German or English (x). Nevertheless, generations of critics unanimously agree that its indeterminacy is its central allure. To Marc Redfield (1996) and Jeffery Sammons (1981), the Bildungsroman is a “phantom formation,” an unattainable aesthetic ideal that haunts the periphery of novel history. In the Way of the World (1987), Franco Moretti is only slightly more expansive, as he claims in the history of European literature, there have only been two authentic Bildungsromane: first, there was Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s The Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister (1795) and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1913). Moretti contends that even by the time of Persuasion (1818), Austen had begun to parody the literary genre that her masterpiece helped to define. Ultimately, this dissertation analyzes how the Classical Bildungsroman exerts an unspoken influence over what I am calling the Counter—Bildungsroman, a name for novels of education that undermine their own generic requirements. A key aspect of this dissertation will be my focus not only on the “Classic” Bildungsroman but on