The Public Nature of English Literature in Relation to the Formation of the British Nationhood

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520311
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Oita University
• Principal Investigator: SONOI Chine 大分大学, 工学部, 准教授 (70295286)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SONOI Eishu 九州大学, 人文科学研究院, 名誉教授 (00069709)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 英文学 / 西洋思想史 / 宗教 / 西洋哲学 / ヨーロッパ歴史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study aims to elucidate the interrelationship between the subject matter of literature in Britain and the formation of nationhoodof the British people from the 18th to the 20th century.
It is inaccurate to define the nature of the change in the British nationhood which occurred in the process of the modernisation in society and culture since the seventeenth century merely as historical necessity because implicit themes of cultural sciences, particularly those of humanities and literature played critical roles for British people in making them aware of their national sensibility of the British nation. This nature of literary output might be called as the“public nature”of English Literature.I intend to clarify how the public nature of literature worked to give positive influences on the people's perception in which their sense of nation was established from the 18th and the 20th century British society that involved a diverse development in social system.

Free Research Field

英文学