The researched novel : definition, explication of five examples, and theoretical discussion of research in fiction.
This dissertation examines the role of research in the novel. The "researched novel" is defined as a work of fiction founded upon a particular area of information that illuminates or explores a particular "truth" that is usually unrecognized or misunderstood. Thomas More's H...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1982.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to ProQuest Copy Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Summary: | This dissertation examines the role of research in the novel. The "researched novel" is defined as a work of fiction founded upon a particular area of information that illuminates or explores a particular "truth" that is usually unrecognized or misunderstood. Thomas More's History of Richard III is posited as the first novel and the first researched novel in English. Other historically influential authors are Daniel Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, and James Joyce. Five researched novels deemed to have literary merit were examined: (a) Thomas More's History is an extended ironic narrative fiction and would be considered a novel if written today. Many of More's ironies depend on the common knowledge of readers of his day. Much of the irony can be elucidated with only a rudimentary knowledge of Tudor England. (b) Michael Crichton's Great Train Robbery is a "thriller." Crichton integrates a large number of facts from the Victorian Era with the behavior of his characters to illustrate several fallacious beliefs about the nature of crime and criminals. (c) George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman is a "feigned memoir" borrowing the famous bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays to examine the character and behavior of many people who actually lived during Victoria's reign. Fraser's readers must continually judge whether he has fairly illustrated the effects of character upon behavior. (d) William Golding's Inheritors is a form of science fiction using the known facts about Neanderthal Man to pursue an extended comparison and contrast. He creates many puzzles that require readers to examine basic philsophical, theological, and scientific reasoning. (e) Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time is a detective novel in which Tey examines the guilt or innocence of Richard III and the nature of historiography. The dissertation concludes with relation of the models for reading of John Henry Newman, Hans Vaihinger, David Hackett Fischer, Wayne C. Booth, and C. S. Lewis to the five explicated texts. It is concluded that an active, questioning reader both learns more and enjoys reading more than the reader who attempts to passively and totally absorb a text in a single reading. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | "Major subject: English." Typescript (photocopy). Vita. |
| Physical Description: | viii, 221 leaves ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-220). |