TWILIGHT OF THE TOFFS: FALL OF A CASTE, RISE OF A MYTH

Dissertation ABSTRACT: This dissertation deals with the representation of the interwar upper classes (above all, the aristocracy) in the contemporary English novel. I have chosen three novels for my study: Ian McEwan‟s Atonement (2001), Kazuo Ishiguro‟s The Remains of the Day (1989) and Evelyn Waugh‟s Brideshead Revisited (1945). My main critical perspective is a structuralist one, namely that of Roland Barthes in his Mythologies (1956). I show how, notwithstanding the period in which they were written, their aesthetic orientation, or their authors‟ personal stand concerning their society, the chosen novels, spanning six decades, can be analyzed by applying the same „figures of myth‟, according to Barthes‟s terminology. To facilitate a better understanding of this literature, I have also connected it with a common historical and ideological background, that of the interwar period. Moreover, as Barthes‟s ideological stand is a Marxist one, if heterodoxically so, I will be relating the novels to a number of Marxist concepts, such as hegemony, dominant and residual cultures, or false consciousness. Concepts from other fields of contemporary intellectual history, such as psychoanalysis, will also be featured for the same purpose. Finally, I have also given a prominent role to social history in my analysis. My main conclusion will be that myth has superseded factual representation of the traditional landed aristocracy, turning it into a category that is still operative in the domain of fiction, informing the international reading public‟s views of British society and culture, even after the historical demise of that social class.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of East Anglia

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Sanchez Fernandez, Carlos

Language dc:language

en