University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 2016 Exquisite Clutter: Material Culture and the Scottish Reinvention of the Adventure Narrative Rebekah C. Greene University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Greene, Rebekah C., "Exquisite Clutter: Material Culture and the Scottish Reinvention of the Adventure Narrative" (2016). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 438. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/438 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EXQUISITE CLUTTER: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE SCOTTISH REINVENTION OF THE ADVENTURE NARRATIVE BY REBEKAH C. GREENE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2016 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION OF REBEKAH C. GREENE APPROVED: Dissertation Committee: Major Professor Carolyn Betensky Ryan Trimm William Krieger Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2016 ABSTRACT EXQUISITE CLUTTER: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE SCOTTISH REINVENTION OF THE ADVENTURE NARRATIVE BY REBEKAH C. GREENE Exquisite Clutter examines the depiction of material culture in adventures written by Scottish authors Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Buchan. Throughout, these three authors use depictions of material culture in the adventure novel to begin formulating a critique about the danger of becoming overly comfortable in a culture where commodities are widely available. In these works, objects are a way to examine the complexities of character and to more closely scrutinize a host of personal anxieties about contact with others, changing societal roles, and one’s own place in the world. Considering two of the most important contributions of Calvinism, Calvinistic materialism and interiority, to the formation of Scottish identity in the nineteenth century traces connections between the object, the individual, and the community. Calvinistic materialism highlights the fact that objects can provide comfort and show one’s position in society but can also distract the individual from adequately fulfilling their role in a greater community. Developing the skills of introspective thought, or what I refer to as interiority, becomes crucial for these adventurous heroes as they grapple with the object, what it signifies, and the many anxieties that the object reflects that emerge during this process. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Professor Carolyn Betensky is due my deepest thanks for her continual support throughout my doctoral program. Her encouragement and her advice helped this project blossom while her continued guidance and friendship helped me personally to grow and flourish. It has been a true privilege to work with her during this adventure. My dissertation committee members Professors Ryan Trimm, William Krieger, Stephen Barber, and Catherine Sama have all aided me through their feedback and goodwill. URI Department of English administrator Michelle Carraccia has been a bulwark of strength, aiding me in overcoming many hurdles with kindness and generosity of spirit. Sarah Maitland has heard many of these ideas with great patience and unflagging energy during many hours of long conversations about the nineteenth century. Her friendship and support has been critical during this process. Sarah Schneider, Rosaleen Greene-Smith, Anna Brecke, Valerie Johnson, Jessica Gray, and Muldair Moore have all followed this project from its earliest stages with unflagging interest, all while providing encouragement, critique, many cups of tea and hours of good companionship. I’d have long ago foundered without them cheering me on. Many other good friends, colleagues, and family members offered support, advice, and kindness during this process. Thanks to Allen W. Wright, Barbara Dick, Beazley Kanost, Ben Keefe, Benjamin Hagen, Beth Eyres, Bob Welch, Brittney Hirth, Chuck Morgan, Darcy Mullen, Don Rodrigues, Daniel Greene, iii Dori Green, Eric Wilson, Erin Vachon and Matthew Marco, Eva Jones, Fredericka Connor, Gabriel Romaguera, Gavin Hurley, Holly Schneider, Jason and Stacey Shrontz, Jenn Brandt, Jen Churchill, J. Jennifer Jones, Jennifer Lee, Joe Johnson, Kara McShane, Karen Patton-McShane, Kate Norako, Kim Evelyn, Kristi Castleberry, Laurie Carlson, Michael Becker, Michael Pennell, Nancy Caronia, Pauline Burnes, Rachel Schneider and James Bailey, Rachel May, Sara Murphy, Sarah Kruse, Shannon Cole, Shirley Bright-Neeper, Stefanie Head, Stephen Marchand, Suzen and Christopher Bubnis, Thomas Barkman, Timothy Amidon, Vicki Vallone, Wendy Grosskopf, Zakia R. Khwaja, and the good friends made as part of both the Thelion Society and the URI Graduate Student Association. Ann C. Colley, Neil Hultgren, Katherine Malone, Paula M. Krebs, John Plotz, Mary Wilson Carpenter, and Martha Vicinus provided useful insights on my work at various conferences. Their feedback has made me stronger as a thinker and has led me to take delight in the ways that interdisciplinary scholarship can work in Victorian Studies. The staff at the Beinecke Library at Yale University and the curators of the Stevenson Cottage at Saranac Lake graciously provided access to archival materials and answered many enthusiastic questions. I also would like to thank my colleagues at Wheaton College (especially Clare Buck and Michael Drout), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Kristin Boudreau), Providence College (Bruce Graver, Janet Masso, Anne Porter, and Elliott Stevens), and Bryant University (Mary Prescott, Elizabeth Walden, Janet Dean, Terri Hasseler, Maura Crowley, Laura Kohl, and the Creativity Fellows team) for their care and support. Their help in finding materials, poking holes in iv arguments, and thinking more broadly about this project helped it expand significantly. I’m also grateful to my students at these institutions, as well as at the University of Rhode Island, for their patience and for asking me what I like to read and why. The URI Department of English provided much needed financial and office support during this process. Other support came from the URI Graduate School, Dean Winnie Brownell, the Beaupré Hope and Heritage fund, the URI Graduate Student Association, the URI Graduate Assistants United, the URI Center for Humanities, Bryant University, and the Routledge Annotated Bibliography of English Studies under the guidance of Johanna Smith. My family has endured much during this project but my sisters Rachel and Ruth have always managed to figure out ways to overcome. They are remarkable, as is my mother, Catherine. None of this would have been possible without them. v DEDICATION For those who taught me from the beginning that reading was an adventure My grandparents Evelyn Greene (1920-2009) Thomas Greene (1918-2002) Bertha Wilhelmina Kleindt Troicke (1924-1989) My uncle Donald L. Greene (1961-2012) and My father Robert T. Greene (1947-2011) who held this opinion more strongly than all of the others put together vi PREFACE TO EXQUISITE CLUTTER: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE SCOTTISH REINVENTION OF THE ADVENTURE NARRATIVE Exquisite Clutter: Material Culture and the Scottish Reinvention of the Adventure Narrative positions adventure literature as an able but oft overlooked contributor in the continuing scholarly discussion of the Victorians and their preoccupation with material culture. With their introduction of introspection and concerns about material culture and its many implications, Scottish authors revitalized the adventure genre. This dissertation surveys the way that Scottish authors drew upon the rich religio-political history of their nation to draw attention to the object as a repository of personal and cultural signifiers, rather than instead using the adventure to celebrate material culture and its acquisition. Looking at texts by Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Buchan that range from the canonical (Treasure Island and The Thirty-Nine Steps) to the lesser-known (“That Little Wrong Box”), I argue that the object as presented in these works can be read as a distraction from the vital work of self-assessment, the development of interiority, and learning how to negotiate the interstice between individuality and community. My dissertation more closely examines the descriptive use of objects in adventure literature. Adventure was an exceptionally popular genre among readers and was readily available in both inexpensive periodical and single volume form. vii Adventure also had the ability to cut across age, gender, and class boundaries1. The well-described object in the adventure can be seductive to narrator and reader alike but is dangerously distracting from the important tasks of getting to know more about the self and others. In sum, the adventure is complex, offering glimpses of insight into cultural anxieties about objects and their potential use and/or abuse. The works that I examine are but a small indicator of some of the evolving ways that the Scottish authors working within this field attempted to use ideas closely associated with Calvinism to come to terms with a rapidly expanding material culture2 and the anxieties within that objects bring to the surface. Previous scholars of adventure have not yet scrutinized the important role that Scottish