Victorian love and sentimentality in postmodern fiction: Fowles, Byatt and Waters.

Abstract

This dissertation aims at portraying the Victorian themes of love and sentimentality in the postmodernist framework. Better explained, it will state the way in which these Victorian themes are reported in postmodern fiction; by analysing three major postmodern works: the French Lieutenant’s Woman, Possession and Fingersmith. The first chapter, will focus on the explanation of the postmodern fiction in detail. By highlighting examples from John Fowles’ 1969 novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the major features of postmodern fiction will be analysed, especially metaliterature, the intruding narrator and the three endings of the novel. Moreover, a special focus will be on the historical themes regarding Darwinism, existentialism and Victorian Duty, and how they are portrayed in the postmodern fictional world created by Fowles. The second chapter will deal with the analysis of The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Firstly, the plot will be explained, by granting particular importance to the difference between Charles-Ernestina conventional relationship and Charles-Sarah unconventional affaire. To do so, the Victorian background constituting the setting is paramount, so as the fictional framework constructed by the author. Secondly, the history of Sarah will be analysed, especially focusing on the way in which sympathy, which is the background sentiment starting the whole story, will transform as the novel progresses, in love. Thirdly, the three endings of the novel will be explained, granting attention on how the lack of a reliable and certain epilogue adhere to the postmodern uncertainty readers are left with. Finally, a comparison between Fowles postmodern piece of work and a real Victorian novel will be made, especially by focusing on how love is portrayed in a postmodern historical fiction as The French Lieutenant’s Woman and how love was actually considered and portrayed in the nineteenth century society of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. The third chapter aims at analysing the 1990 novel Possession by Antonia Susan Byatt. This novel has been written in response to The French Lieutenant’s Woman, as a matter of fact the plot is different but involves the same themes: Victorian love, sentimentality and adultery. For this reason by passing through a careful analysis of the plot and the structure of the novel according to postmodern conventions, this chapter will portray the two parallel relationships, the Victorian one between the poets Ash and La Motte, and the contemporary one between the scholars Roland and Maud. Finally, a comparison between Possession and The French Lieutenant’s Woman will be provided, focusing on the similarities and differences in terms of love and relationships. The last chapter, deals with another postmodern piece of work, the contemporary novel Fingersmith, written by Sarah Waters in 2002. Although it is set in the nineteenth century Victorian society, it deals with another kind of love and sentimental relationship, that is to say, the homosexual love driven by sexual attraction. Starting by a comparison with the love portrayed by Fowles, as sentimental involvement, the plot and the major themes will be analysed, especially as regards the gender issue, present also in Possession in the person of the poetess Christabel La Motte. Finally, a study of the way in which the homosexual love is presented through 19th century lenses will be provided. As a result, the conclusion, will grant an overview of the themes discussed in this dissertation, especially by claiming Victorian love and sentimentality importance in the postmodern historical fiction.