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Preservation and Progress in Cranford

Anderson, Katherine Leigh (2009) ENGK01 20091
English Studies
Abstract
The threat of change and the loss it can incur creates the need to preserve a detailed version of the past. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford can be interpreted as a piece looking backwards as a means of looking forward; acknowledging and commemorating the existence of a rich and detailed past allows for the closing of its chapters, and thus eventual movement into a new future. In this paper I will be investigating Cranford as a piece that addresses the consequences of widescale cultural change. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford offers insight to the author's pervading ideology regarding different kinds of change and the role that literature takes in its wake. I have divided my work into three main sections; the first centers on the rejection of... (More)
The threat of change and the loss it can incur creates the need to preserve a detailed version of the past. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford can be interpreted as a piece looking backwards as a means of looking forward; acknowledging and commemorating the existence of a rich and detailed past allows for the closing of its chapters, and thus eventual movement into a new future. In this paper I will be investigating Cranford as a piece that addresses the consequences of widescale cultural change. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford offers insight to the author's pervading ideology regarding different kinds of change and the role that literature takes in its wake. I have divided my work into three main sections; the first centers on the rejection of radical change in Cranford on the level of plot, the second focuses on Gaskell's skepticism of traditional progress in Cranford and Wives and Daughters, and lastly, the third section addresses how Gaskell uses literature as a kind of historical transmission that helps to cope with change. I intend to prove that Cranford is a representative element of the past, and as such, Cranford does not change, but it is a response to change that cements a memory of old-fashioned English countrylife in the minds of readers as an act of historical preservation. Gaskell's creation of this static tableau of the past can be seen as a direct response to encroaching social change. In the creation of such a tableau, Gaskell actively offers a new opportunity of transmitting the essence of the past through literature. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Anderson, Katherine Leigh
supervisor
organization
course
ENGK01 20091
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
preservation, Elizabeth Gaskell, progress, change, historical transmission, role of literature, Cranford
language
English
id
1414914
date added to LUP
2009-07-01 14:37:11
date last changed
2009-07-01 14:37:11
@misc{1414914,
  abstract     = {{The threat of change and the loss it can incur creates the need to preserve a detailed version of the past. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford can be interpreted as a piece looking backwards as a means of looking forward; acknowledging and commemorating the existence of a rich and detailed past allows for the closing of its chapters, and thus eventual movement into a new future. In this paper I will be investigating Cranford as a piece that addresses the consequences of widescale cultural change. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford offers insight to the author's pervading ideology regarding different kinds of change and the role that literature takes in its wake. I have divided my work into three main sections; the first centers on the rejection of radical change in Cranford on the level of plot, the second focuses on Gaskell's skepticism of traditional progress in Cranford and Wives and Daughters, and lastly, the third section addresses how Gaskell uses literature as a kind of historical transmission that helps to cope with change. I intend to prove that Cranford is a representative element of the past, and as such, Cranford  does not change, but it is a response to change that cements a memory of old-fashioned English countrylife in the minds of readers as an act of historical preservation. Gaskell's creation of this static tableau of the past can be seen as a direct response to encroaching social change. In the creation of such a tableau, Gaskell actively offers a new opportunity of transmitting the essence of the past through literature.}},
  author       = {{Anderson, Katherine Leigh}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Preservation and Progress in Cranford}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}