Revolutionary romance: on the incompatibility of realism and socialism in the nineteenth century novel

George Paul Stain

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

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Abstract

The English novelist and socialist George Orwell asked why major realist writers such as Dickens did not support socialism. Indeed, realists and socialists rather than being allies against injustice, as may be expected, remained hostile toward each other. This study looks at the period from the 1848 revolutions until the end of the nineteenth century and seeks to explain the reasons for the animosity between literary realists and socialists. The study concentrates on the socialist adoption of the romance as its literary form of choice as opposed to the realist novel. It is proposed that the romance contains the idea that a moral end can be achieved by immoral means. Radical socialists associated utopian thought, which provided the vision of a better future, with the romance, which stressed the role of the heroic ethic to destroy injustice. The romance generated the doctrine of the redeemed hero by which a revolutionary hero may transgress traditional morality, even to the extent of murder, provided the hero offered themselves up as atonement. This idea established itself in non-democratic socialism and found its expression in writers such as Eugène Sue, Richard Wagner, William Morris and Jack London. In contrast, realist novels defend traditional values and decry the consequences of the utopian intervention in society. Dostoyevsky’s debates with major socialist theorists forms the major realist figure to challenge the assumptions in the socialist romance in this study. He could not accept the morally dubious position put forward by the socialist romance. This moral conflict rendered co-operation between realism and socialism improbable.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Publication statusUnpublished - 2009

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