Files in this item
Files | Description | Format |
---|---|---|
application/pdf ![]() | (no description provided) |
Description
Title: | Irish modernism and the machine |
Author(s): | Weng, Julie McCormick |
Director of Research: | Mahaffey, Vicki |
Doctoral Committee Chair(s): | Mahaffey, Vicki |
Doctoral Committee Member(s): | Hansen, Jim; Gaedtke, Andrew; Conrad, Kathryn |
Department / Program: | English |
Discipline: | English |
Degree Granting Institution: | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
Degree: | Ph.D. |
Genre: | Dissertation |
Subject(s): | Modernism
Machine Literature Ireland Enlightenment Electrification Electricity Technology Industrialization History of Science History of Technology Cosmopolitanism Nationalism Irish Literary Revival Bicycle Train Tram Railways Dynamo Power Generator Body Masculinity Femininity Sexuality Gender Gender Roles Irish Literature Irish Modernism James Joyce W. B. Yeats John Eglinton William Kirkpatrick Magee Samuel Beckett Elizabeth Bowen E. M. Forster H. G. Wells Henry Adams Eugene O'Neill Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti Ulysses Finnegans Wake Molloy Dublin Ireland Futurism Epic Materialism |
Abstract: | This dissertation argues that John Eglinton, James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, W.B. Yeats, and Samuel Beckett depict machines in texts in order to interrogate the status of Ireland's modernity. Are trains, dynamos (power generators), and bicycles signs of Ireland’s progress? Instead of an affirmation, I posit that Irish modernists issue a qualification, suggesting that Ireland’s technological development must be accompanied by ideological advancement. Irish modernists thus cast machines as vehicles that operate beyond the bounds of their mechanistic functions. These machines serve also as engines from which to lobby for Ireland’s social, cultural, and ideological progress. With this premise in mind, these writers use images of machines to: 1) envision a cosmopolitan national literary revival movement; 2) redress negative stereotypes of Ireland and Irish people as being "backwards"; 3) reject the post-enlightenment belief in a disenchanted, merely rational world; and 4) counter traditional gender and sexual roles. In all of these instances, Irish modernists endorse outlooks that go against traditional social and cultural grains. Rather, they insist that modernization is a process that necessitates ideological, and not just technological, advancement. Moreover, Irish modernists show that it is only by pushing the boundaries of popular beliefs and practices—and not just the limits of scientific knowledge—that Ireland will embrace a modern identity that engages meaningfully with the complexities of the age. |
Issue Date: | 2016-04-18 |
Type: | Text |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90906 |
Rights Information: | Copyright 2016 Julie McCormick Weng |
Date Available in IDEALS: | 2016-07-07 2020-05-10 |
Date Deposited: | 2016-05 |
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
-
Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois