Irish innovations: George Moore, Decadence and Modernism in Irish literature

本项目将考察爱尔兰作家乔治·摩尔(1852-1933)的作品，以批判性地重新评价在爱尔兰背景下忽视唯美主义、颓废和现代主义之间的关系。通过将摩尔参与那个时期的历史和政治辩论的背景放在一起，并建立在历史、美学、形式、生活写作和民族主义研究的基础上，它将把爱尔兰和摩尔对这些运动的贡献带入批判性对话。在发展一种历史决定论方法论，为阅读摩尔提供新的语境时，它将挑战摩尔和爱尔兰写作在从颓废向现代主义过渡的研究中代表性不足的问题。研究背景由于受到审美、民族和社会的限制，乔治·摩尔不断地进行自我改造，并对英国和爱尔兰的文学文化产生了离散但重要的影响。尽管在我们如何看待唯美主义、颓废和现代主义(马奥尼；雪莉；韦尔)之间的关系方面，最近有了学术上的发展，但摩尔的关键作用被忽视了。同样，对这一时期(1880-1920)爱尔兰文化史的研究相对忽视了唯美主义和颓废的批判功能，而是专注于现代主义和爱尔兰复兴(Castle；Kiberd)。这个项目对这两个问题都提供了一个重要的纠正方法。在过去的二十年里，摩尔的研究有了长足的发展(弗雷泽；皮尔斯；海尔曼和卢埃林)，然而，他在颓废写作和现代主义美学出现之间的联系中所扮演的角色还没有得到解决。借助历史材料，我将挑战颓废与爱尔兰民族主义文学运动格格不入的假设，认为它比人们通常理解的更具政治性。这篇论文将考察摩尔的美学创新和政治承诺如何为现代爱尔兰的文化史做出贡献，以及从唯美主义和颓废到现代主义的鲜明的爱尔兰转型。研究问题为什么摩尔作为这一时期英国和爱尔兰文学文化叙事中的一股决定性力量，相对地被忽视了？一项深入的、高度地方主义的历史研究对改变爱尔兰历史的传统观念有什么作用？为什么某些事件(《自治》，1916年)优先于其他文化和政治历史？对摩尔作品的形式主义研究如何帮助我们理解他对现代主义和现代爱尔兰文学崛起的影响？摩尔与爱尔兰殿下的复杂联系如何使爱尔兰复兴和爱尔兰地区认同形成的传统观念受到质疑？研究方法以前对文学中从颓废到现代主义的过渡的批评集中在酷儿美学和政治(马奥尼)，形式主义的方法是现代性是否可以被认为是时间进步的过渡(雪莉)，还是跨国研究(波托尔斯基)。相反，这篇论文将发展一个主要的历史主义者(既关注作家的历史背景，也关注批评家和政治人物)对摩尔做出有针对性贡献的辩论的审查，使用跨学科的调查模式，结合历史学、文学史和视觉文化来确立摩尔在爱尔兰背景下从唯美主义和颓废向现代主义转变的影响。我的批评方法旨在为我们如何理解提供新的批判性见解；摩尔的作品，爱尔兰的地方、民族和美学史，从唯美主义和颓废到现代主义的过渡。这反过来又将为以下领域的研究增加原创性贡献：唯美主义、颓废主义、现代主义、美学和历史决定主义文论，以及文化文学史。

Summary of Proposed ResearchThis project will examine the work of Irish writer George Moore (1852-1933) to provide a critical reappraisal of the neglect of the relationship between aestheticism, decadence, and modernism in an Irish context. By contextualising Moore's involvement in historical and political debates of the period, and building on studies of history, aesthetics, form, life-writing and nationalism, it will bring Ireland and Moore's contribution to these movements into critical conversation. In developing an historicist methodology that offers new contexts in which to read Moore, it will challenge the underrepresentation of Moore and Irish writing in studies of the transition from decadence to modernism. Research ContextRefusing to be grounded by aesthetic, national and social limitation, George Moore consistently reinvented himself and exerted a discrete but important influence on British and Irish literary culture. Although there have been recent scholarly developments in how we view the relationship between aestheticism, decadence and modernism (Mahoney; Sherry; Weir), Moore's crucial role has been neglected. Analogously, the study of Irish cultural history in this period (1880-1920) has comparatively disregarded the critical function of aestheticism and decadence, instead focusing on modernism and the Irish Revival (Castle; Kiberd). This project offers an important corrective to both problems. Moore studies have seen substantial growth over the last twenty years (Frazier; Pierse; Heilmann and Llewellyn), however, his role in the connection between decadent writing and the emergence of a modernist aesthetic has yet to be addressed. Drawing on historical materials, I will challenge the assumption that decadence does not fit into the Irish nationalist literary movement by arguing that it is more political than commonly understood. This thesis will examine how Moore's aesthetic innovations and political commitments contributed to the cultural history of modern Ireland, and the distinctly 'Irish' transition from aestheticism and decadence to modernism. Research QuestionsWhy has Moore been relatively neglected as a defining force in narratives of British and Irish literary culture of this period? What does an in depth and highly localist historical study do to change traditional conceptions of Irish history? And why are certain events (Home Rule, 1916) privileged over other cultural and political histories?How can a formalist study of Moore's work help us to grasp the weight of his influence on the rise of modernism and a modern Irish literature? How does Moore's complicated association with 'Irishness' call into question traditional conceptions of the Irish Revival and regional identity formation in Ireland? Research MethodologyWhile previous critiques of the transition from decadence to modernism in literature have focused on queer aesthetics and politics (Mahoney), formalist approaches to whether modernity can be considered a temporally progressive 'transition' (Sherry), or a transnational study (Potolsky). By contrast, this thesis will develop a primarily historicist (concerned with both the historical context of the writer as well as critics and political figures) examination of the debates to which Moore was making pointed contributions, using interdisciplinary modes of enquiry, incorporating historiography, literary history, and visual cultures to establish Moore's influence on the transition from aestheticism and decadence to modernism in an Irish context. My critical approaches aim to provide new critical insight into how we understand; Moore's work, local, national, and aesthetic histories of Ireland, the transition from aestheticism and decadence to modernism. This in turn will add original contributions to the following fields of study; aestheticism, decadence, modernism, aesthetics, and historicist literary theory, and cultural and literary history.