Intertextuality and mimesis in 'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy

Rabikowska, Marta (2004) Intertextuality and mimesis in 'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy. MLitt(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of quotation in Jude the Obscure. Quotation will be defined not only as literary quotation, allusion, or motto, but also as any structural citation (such as literary conventions or narrative paradigms) that represents both material and non-material references. I will analyse the poetical role of quotation in the novel's representation, observed as the work of intertextual relationships producing mimetic effects. This heterogeneous approach requires an investigation of the text's poetics through its external referents co-ordinated by the dominant discourses. Thus quotation will be investigated in two ways: stylistic, directed at the dialogue between the semantic fields in the text (Kristeva's vertical intertextuality), and textual, focused on the figurative meaning of the relationship of the text with other texts (Kristeva's horizontal intertextuality). The main objective is to understand the allegorical sense of references as they represent the world in Jude the Obscure, and to deduce Hardy's attitude towards the mimesis underpinning the Realistic convention. This thesis argues that quotation is not only evidence of the intertextual affiliations of the novel, but also an engine of Hardy's self-referential poetics. This will be concluded from the interplay between the signs in the text which, on the one hand, form material and non-material quotations and, on the other, elicit a metatextual discourse of symbolic figures that trigger their mutual contextual references. From this interplay emerges the anti-mimetic and self-consciously critical attitude Hardy manifests towards the realistic representation that, ironically, encompasses his own novel.

• Item Type: Thesis (MLitt(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: English literature.
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Supervisor's Name: Chapman, Dr. Alison
• Date of Award: 2004
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2004-70991
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 May 2019 14:28
• Last Modified: 14 Jun 2021 13:57
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/70991