The Rhetorical Importance of Monstrosity: Genre Criticism and "Wuthering Heights"

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Fussell, T. (2019). The Rhetorical Importance of Monstrosity: Genre Criticism and "Wuthering Heights". Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

In Emily Bronte’s foundational narrative Wuthering Heights (1847), monstrosity is representative of repressed societal fears in response to growing industrialization, shifting socioeconomic status, and changing gender norms of the Victorian era. The rhetorical importance of monstrosity lies in its ability to frame an understanding of the cultures that produce it. As a construction of genre, monstrosity also recurs in representative accounts on ideological discourses based on a given historical, societal, or cultural context. Monstrosity is characterized among contemporary rhetoricians as a manifestation of reading practices, popular representations, and ideological problems. I argue that Wuthering Heights is part of the original well that constructed the trope of monstrosity and its manifestation of societal fears, especially surrounding gender and romance, that are still relevant and adapted to contemporary audiences. Contemporary reproductions of Wuthering Heights provide evidence that the text is still part of relevant generic reading practices and the evolution of the romance novel. My treatment of monstrosity will focus on its representational qualities and its public importance. As such, this research project is about monstrosity and its rhetorical importance, with genre criticism serving as a lens into its construction via a reading of Wuthering Heights and Gothic literature.

Details
Author

Fussell, Taylor

Title

The Rhetorical Importance of Monstrosity: Genre Criticism and "Wuthering Heights"

Physical Description

1 online resource (70 pages) : PDF

Date

2019

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

In Emily Bronte’s foundational narrative Wuthering Heights (1847), monstrosity is representative of repressed societal fears in response to growing industrialization, shifting socioeconomic status, and changing gender norms of the Victorian era. The rhetorical importance of monstrosity lies in its ability to frame an understanding of the cultures that produce it. As a construction of genre, monstrosity also recurs in representative accounts on ideological discourses based on a given historical, societal, or cultural context. Monstrosity is characterized among contemporary rhetoricians as a manifestation of reading practices, popular representations, and ideological problems. I argue that Wuthering Heights is part of the original well that constructed the trope of monstrosity and its manifestation of societal fears, especially surrounding gender and romance, that are still relevant and adapted to contemporary audiences. Contemporary reproductions of Wuthering Heights provide evidence that the text is still part of relevant generic reading practices and the evolution of the romance novel. My treatment of monstrosity will focus on its representational qualities and its public importance. As such, this research project is about monstrosity and its rhetorical importance, with genre criticism serving as a lens into its construction via a reading of Wuthering Heights and Gothic literature.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Rhetoric

Degree

M.A.

Subject Area

Communication Studies

Advisor(s)

Grano, Daniel

Committee Members

Black, Jason
Crane, Jonathan

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019.

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Rights Holder Information

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Identifier

Fussell_uncc_0694N_12115

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2278