Robert Louis Stevenson and the art of telling: british society and culture in the late 19th century

Author(s)

Ana Carolina Silva

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2018-03-28

Examining board members

Maria Stella Martins Bresciani; Izabel Andrade Marson; Júlio César Pimentel Pinto Filho

• Advisor: Maria Stella Martins Bresciani

Abstract

The main aim of this research is to investigate the literary techniques and structures manipulated by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894); and besides that, to track his assimilations and adaptations of elements and principles typical of an aesthetic of narrative, subsequently called Urban Gothic. His fictional production- specially, two of his oeuvres, The Suicide Club (1882) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)- and some of his essays about literary procedures provided ways to comprehend the bases of Stevenson¿s narratives conceptions; and also elements to identify the conjunctions and the convergence between Art and Science. Detecting these points was necessary and useful in analyzing the impact of these two fields on the construction and solidification of a shared imaginary of the Victorian London and the British colonies in the last quarter of the 19th century. Based on the varied of angles and perspectives of the critics¿ evaluations about the writer and his works, it was possible to situate Stevenson¿s place in the English literary world as well as prescribing the protocols and the analytical models employed to measure the significance, the achievements and the potentials of his premises and artistic compositions. In this intersection between History and Literature, procedures and strategies were found to interpret the forms and categories of thought, which emerged and were consolidated during the period of Modernity that permeated and shaped, in different levels and deepness, all the discursive literary formulations of the 19th century. Stevenson¿s fictional universe and representations of the British society, alongside with other modes and genres of exposure and register, helped to expand and make intelligible the historical experiences in course. This process describes Edward Said's concepts of "structure of attitudes and references" that produced a significant repertory to constitute and organize the identities of its distinct members and social strat (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/24780-0 - Robert Louis Stevenson and the art of telling: British society and culture in the late 19th century
• Grantee: Ana Carolina Silva
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master