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Shooting Folly as it Flies: A dialogic approach to four novels by Charlotte Smith
Abstract
In this dissertation I argue that Charlotte Smith's novels offer evidence of Mikhail M. Bakhtin's "process of unfolding" in the development of the comic tradition in the British novel. The constructive significance of Smith's texts lies in the fact that through her presentation of comic characters she reveals contemporary eighteenth-century social, political, and economic inequities. With parodic and ironic dialogue that frequently borders on satire, Smith weaves the "corrective of laughter" into her novels and exposes what is dull, conventional, false, and unjust. Exploring the Bakhtinian idea of language being inherently dialogic and graspable only in terms of its inevitable orientation toward another, this critical study examines four of Smith's novels (Desmond, 1792, The Old Manor House, 1793; The Banished Man, 1794: The Young Philosopher, 1798) to show the complexity and fullness of her characterizations as well as the sociological implications of her dialogue. The study begins with an introduction explicating Bakhtin's sociolinguistic critical theory and its general application to Smith's novels. The four succeeding chapters focus on the language of one novel, exploring the diversity of speech types, character zones, comic literary devices (parodic stylization, concealed forms, hybrid constructions, pseudo-objective motivations, authorial stripping of pretence), the dialogized background, and the presence or absence of authorial and narrative voice. Throughout the dissertation I interrogate Smith's novels in order to prove that she is not only an accomplished social critic, but just as much to the point that Charlotte Smith fundamentally contributes to the development of the comic tradition in the British novel.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature|Womens studies
Recommended Citation
Imig, Barbara Linnerson, "Shooting Folly as it Flies: A dialogic approach to four novels by Charlotte Smith" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9118455.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9118455