Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2018, English

This dissertation reveals how cognitive disability's formal and rhetorical potential developed in the U.S. from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, detailing the ways in which writers determined the reader's engagement with cognitive others. Scientific pathology inspired literary authors to experiment with narrative mechanics. Conversely, literature and popular nonfiction revealed to psychologists unrecognized features of cognitive identity as well as narrative's methodological and political potential. Cognitive disability, never fully assimilable, emerges as a force that can reorganize narrative events and aestheticize their telling. My work challenges theories of disability that prefigure difference as fixed or known in narrative. Great authors redefine disability as a force that is always coming to be known. I introduce a heuristic to help scholars understand this process, specifically how stories introduce tenuous ways of representing and narrating disability, put forth conflicting ontological claims about the mind, and withhold what can be known about disability at key moments. As readers struggle to pin down what exactly disability is, narrative places them in a space where they can reflect not only on the abilities of the disabled subject, but their own.

Committee: William Marling Dr. (Advisor); Athena Vrettos Dr. (Committee Member); Kimberly Emmons Dr. (Committee Member); Jonathan Sadowsky Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Literature; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1986, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1981, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1960, English

Committee: Lowell P. Leland (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1960, English

Committee: Lowell P. Leland (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, French and Italian

Comparable to a matrix, the Medan group incarnates a system for the production of naturalist literature with Emile Zola serving as the model for a select handful of writers. Nourished by the scientific developments of the nineteenth century, Zola's theories and successful practice of naturalism drew Joris-Karl Huysmans and Guy de Maupassant, among others, to the movement. Yet, they soon diverged from Zola's model of naturalism, as did Zola himself at times. The first chapter of this dissertation seeks to reveal the inherent discrepancies within the theory of naturalism that prevent a true fusion of science and art in the novel. Les Soirees de Medan, a collection of stories about the Franco-Prussian War, united the writers in a show of adherence to the naturalist movement. While the work garnered the reputation of a manifesto, the stories belie the deviations from naturalism that were present and growing in Huysmans, Maupassant, and even Zola. Chapter two approaches the Medan group from its foundation in support of an aesthetic ideal to the contradictory display of naturalist and non-naturalist features in Les Soirees de Medan. The untenability of the Medan group is confirmed by the members' attraction to various literary styles. Chapters three and four examine Huysmans's A rebours and Maupassant's “Le Horla,” hailed as exemplars of the decadent and fantastic genres. Themes of artifice in A rebours and the supernatural in “Le Horla” overturn the conventional subject matter of naturalism. It is a mistake, however, to distance these works entirely from the naturalist theories that ground them. Even so, both writers choose to depict some of the most unnatural aspects of human existence. Overall, the interplay of naturalist and non-naturalist elements in Huysmans and Maupassant blurs the lines of classification to affirm that the writers possess unique talents independent of their initial allegiance to Zola's campaign of naturalism. Indeed, Zola recognized the individual (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Charles Minahen (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, Romance