| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The aim of this study is to clarify how the themes and techniques of the Country-House poem, a popular literary genre in the Seventeenth-Century England, were taken over by a newly rising literary genre, the novel, and how, in the long course of its development, they have taken a variety of forms to contribute to the formation of its sub-genres. First, I made a bibliography of the reference material regarding the issue, and by reading the related books, tried to grasp the history of the English Country-House as well as the mode of living and sense of value shared by the people living there. Then I investigated into the representations of country-houses in the English novel from the Eighteenth-Century to the Twelfth-Century, giving due consideration to their relation to those in the Country-House poem. The detailed descriptions of the houses lend realism to the novel, while they are symbolic of the nature and psychology of their inhabitants. Such a function is already seen in the Country-House poem, but in the Gothic novel, the labyrinthine houses and castles give us a key to the destructive impulse lurking in the depths of man's consciousness. On the other hand, such novels as Mansfield Park Bleak House Howards and The Remains of the Day in which the country house symbolizes England itself emphasize its public aspect. As we go forward in time, the novelists tend to relinquish the detailed depiction of the country house, which corresponds with the decline of English landed society as well as England itself I must go on with the research for a few more years to complete it, as I have already indicated in the research plan, but I believe I could have a proper idea on the representations and significance of country houses in the English novel in these three years.
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