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Victorian Fiction and the Psychology of Self-Control, 1855-1885

Ryan, Anne E.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1307669988

Abstract Details

2011, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, English.
The fact that Victorians in general were keenly interested in the practices of self-control—from emotional restraint to diligent work habits—and in the relationships between self-control, self-culture, and economic self-determination—is a critical commonplace well supported by popular nineteenth-century advice literature. However, literary scholars have also noted that advances in the study of psychology in the period tended to emphasize the physiological basis of the mind, which increasingly undermined confidence in a rational, controlling ego. Through analysis of novels by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Samuel Butler, in tandem with psychological literature by Alexander Bain, William James, George Henry Lewes, and Samuel Butler, this dissertation considers the parallel efforts of novelists and psychologists to reconcile this tension between highly valuing self-control and recognizing the physical and psychological obstacles to cultivating this control. Novelists and physiological psychologists alike responded to growing concerns about the scientific validity of traditional notions of self-control by creatively exploring alternative models of control enabled by energy, attention, emotion, and unconscious memory. This dissertation uncovers a dialogue between the realist novel and the emerging scientific field of psychology about the necessity of physiological energy for self-control and its potential to warp the mind, the power of attention to mediate the stream of consciousness and the mind-body relationship, the cognitive aspects of emotion and their role in psychological development, and the promise of unconscious memories to drive the evolution of both individuals and the species.  
Athena Vrettos, PhD (Advisor)
William Siebenschuh, PhD (Committee Member)
Christopher Flint, PhD (Committee Member)
Jonathan Sadowsky, PhD (Committee Member)
229 p.
British and Irish Literature
Victorian; fiction; psychology; self-control; Bain, Alexander; Lewes, George Henry; James, William; Dickens, Charles; Hardy, Thomas; Eliot, George; Butler, Samuel; Little Dorrit; Far From the Madding Crowd; Daniel Deronda; The Way of All Flesh

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Citations

  • Ryan, A. E. (2011). Victorian Fiction and the Psychology of Self-Control, 1855-1885 [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1307669988

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ryan, Anne. Victorian Fiction and the Psychology of Self-Control, 1855-1885. 2011. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1307669988.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ryan, Anne. "Victorian Fiction and the Psychology of Self-Control, 1855-1885." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1307669988

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1307669988
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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.