Normative Disruptions: The Diegetic Reading of Anachronism in Twentieth-Century American Novels

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dc.contributor.advisorGonzalez, Maria C.
dc.contributor.advisorHogue, W. Lawrence
dc.contributor.committeeMemberStock, Lorraine K.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberTolliver, Cedric R.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberZebroski, James Thomas
dc.contributor.committeeMemberDeyle, Steven
dc.creatorVillines, Jeffrey
dc.date.accessioned2018-06-22T21:54:00Z
dc.date.available2018-06-22T21:54:00Z
dc.date.createdMay 2018
dc.date.issued2018-05
dc.date.submittedMay 2018
dc.date.updated2018-06-22T21:54:00Z
dc.description.abstractMuch of the discourse on literary anachronism remains fixated on questions of error and intent: Anachronisms are assumed to be flawed attempts to recreate the historic real, and scholars who deal with them tend to insist an anachronism can only be meaningful if it was placed intentionally by an author for a specific purpose. This is not only a reductive understanding of what anachronisms are, it limits the range of critical and theoretical approaches by which an anachronism can be discussed. This dissertation addresses this problem by asserting a new way of approaching anachronism that bypasses the question of authorial intent entirely. This dissertation contends that anachronisms should be read, not as errors in history, but as wholly accurate depictions of a different history which, instead of being subordinated to the historic real, can be compared to it as a distinct reality. The first chapter demonstrates the process of reading an anachronism diegetically by applying it to William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! Subsequent chapters complicate the same process by exploring anachronisms that deviate from our understanding of anachronism in key ways. Chapter Two uses Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake to examine the potentials for an anachronism that does not depend on historicism to reveal its divergence. In Chapter Three, anachronistic racial attitudes in Harry Turtledove’s The Guns of the South allow us to consider how the discussion of anachronism is complicated by an absence of agreed-upon historic facts. Finally, Chapter Four reads Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind as the narrative of an attempt to construct an anachronism, and consequently analyzes the effects of an anachronism that is attempted by the characters, within the diegesis of a work. This dissertation represents the beginning of a larger project, considering new articulations and applications of a misunderstood temporal paradox.
dc.description.departmentEnglish, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10657/3138
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectAnachronism
dc.subjectTime
dc.subjectTemporality
dc.subjectFaulkner, William
dc.subjectVonnegut, Kurt
dc.subjectKurt
dc.subjectTurtledove, Harry
dc.subjectMitchell, Margaret
dc.subjectAbsalom, Absalom!
dc.subjectTimequake
dc.subjectThe Guns of the South
dc.subjectGone with the Wind
dc.subjectLost Cause
dc.subjectCivil wars
dc.subjectTime Travel
dc.subjectDiegesis
dc.titleNormative Disruptions: The Diegetic Reading of Anachronism in Twentieth-Century American Novels
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentEnglish, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplineBritish and American Literature
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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