{"title":"梦回曼陀丽:个人主义、老龄化与小说","authors":"Laura Schrock Crawford","doi":"10.1353/sdn.2024.a935472","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This essay examines how Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel <i>Rebecca</i> maps the <i>bildungsroman</i> journey of self-development in youth onto the process of self-decline in age, creating an uncanny structure that forfeits the climactic achievement of an ultimate self as bodied forth by the traditional novel. This ultimate self is a fantasy of Western individualism that reflects its historical devaluation of the limitations of the body and the associated necessity of human interdependence and care. The limited selfhood achieved by the narrator undercuts the individualist ideal of perpetual self-expansion and leaves her haunted by its fantasy of aristocratic power, represented by the Manderley estate and its former mistress, the titular first Mrs. de Winter. The concrete losses attributable to the aging process thus double in <i>Rebecca</i> as the subversion of individualism's ideal.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54138,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN THE NOVEL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Dreaming of Manderley: Individualism, Aging, and the Novel\",\"authors\":\"Laura Schrock Crawford\",\"doi\":\"10.1353/sdn.2024.a935472\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This essay examines how Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel <i>Rebecca</i> maps the <i>bildungsroman</i> journey of self-development in youth onto the process of self-decline in age, creating an uncanny structure that forfeits the climactic achievement of an ultimate self as bodied forth by the traditional novel. This ultimate self is a fantasy of Western individualism that reflects its historical devaluation of the limitations of the body and the associated necessity of human interdependence and care. The limited selfhood achieved by the narrator undercuts the individualist ideal of perpetual self-expansion and leaves her haunted by its fantasy of aristocratic power, represented by the Manderley estate and its former mistress, the titular first Mrs. de Winter. The concrete losses attributable to the aging process thus double in <i>Rebecca</i> as the subversion of individualism's ideal.</p></p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":54138,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"STUDIES IN THE NOVEL\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-08-27\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"STUDIES IN THE NOVEL\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1353/sdn.2024.a935472\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LITERATURE\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"STUDIES IN THE NOVEL","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sdn.2024.a935472","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
Dreaming of Manderley: Individualism, Aging, and the Novel
Abstract:
This essay examines how Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca maps the bildungsroman journey of self-development in youth onto the process of self-decline in age, creating an uncanny structure that forfeits the climactic achievement of an ultimate self as bodied forth by the traditional novel. This ultimate self is a fantasy of Western individualism that reflects its historical devaluation of the limitations of the body and the associated necessity of human interdependence and care. The limited selfhood achieved by the narrator undercuts the individualist ideal of perpetual self-expansion and leaves her haunted by its fantasy of aristocratic power, represented by the Manderley estate and its former mistress, the titular first Mrs. de Winter. The concrete losses attributable to the aging process thus double in Rebecca as the subversion of individualism's ideal.
期刊介绍:
From its inception, Studies in the Novel has been dedicated to building a scholarly community around the world-making potentialities of the novel. Studies in the Novel started as an idea among several members of the English Department of the University of North Texas during the summer of 1965. They determined that there was a need for a journal “devoted to publishing critical and scholarly articles on the novel with no restrictions on either chronology or nationality of the novelists studied.” The founding editor, University of North Texas professor of contemporary literature James W. Lee, envisioned a journal of international scope and influence. Since then, Studies in the Novel has staked its reputation upon publishing incisive scholarship on the canon-forming and cutting-edge novelists that have shaped the genre’s rich history. The journal continues to break new ground by promoting new theoretical approaches, a broader international scope, and an engagement with the contemporary novel as a form of social critique.