2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A study of domestic crama of the Renaissance as the origin of the English novel
| Project/Area Number |
14510500
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
英語・英米文学
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
HARA Eiichi Tohoku University, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, English Literature, Professor, 大学院・文学研究科, 教授 (40106745)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
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| Keywords | domestic drama / London / crime / capitalism / Defoe / Richardson / civilization / English Renaissance |
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| Research Abstract |
The English novel as produced by Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson in the first half of the eighteenth century has been considered to have its origin in the prose romances and criminal biographies of the late seventeenth century. Its actual beginning, however, can be traced far back into the English Renaissance when modern commercial capitalism begins to emerge. During this period human beings, uprooted from the soil, are transformed into modern citizens living inside a walled city. This transformation is most typically observable in the influx of rural population into London and the subsequent expansion and development of the urban communities and their systems. Repression of desires and conformity to civic rules are the fundamental requirements for the modern citizen. In order to succeed in the modern world, it is imperative to conform to the increasingly rigid rules of conduct and citizenship. However, the repressed energies, as they are indispensably human qualities, sometimes have its inevitable eruptions causing clashes with civilization. The crimes represented in the Domestic plays of the Renaissance are expressions of this clash between the often dehumanizing system of modern society and the primordial passions deeply rooted in the human psyche. This study takes up as its subject some of the representative examples of the Renaissance domestic plays such as Patient Grissil, Arden of Faversham, and Two Lamentable Tragedies and tries to show how the fundamental cultural framework and themes of the English novel has already been present in these plays produced a century ago. By probing into the conflicts depicted in them, the deepest concern of the English novel as a genre can be described as a cultural expression of primary dilemma of the modern man.
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