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DEGENERATIVE DECADENCE AND REGENERATIVE MILITARISM IN THE INVASION NARRATIVES OF ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND ERSKINE CHILDERS

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Date Issued:
2020
Abstract/Description:
This thesis explores fin de siècle theories of decadence, degeneration, criminology, and evolutionary biology, and their contemporary application to invasion literature written between 1871 and 1915. While there is significant criticism on early invasion narratives, there is little extant on Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow (1895) and Erskine Childers’s The Riddle of the Sands (1903), especially in discussing the importance of their militaristic “calls to action” to convert weak, aesthetically-inclined men into hard-working patriotic soldiers and public servants. Through this conversion, the characters of Chambers and Childers serve as important role models that exemplify Max Nordau’s ideal “all-American boy” and “right-living Englishman,” convincing decadent, unprepared governments to properly prepare for an imminent Great War. However, as much of Anglo-European society ignores these signs, the warnings outlined by Chambers and Childers predict the destructive consequences of World War I and the psychological disassociation of the Modernist period.
Title: DEGENERATIVE DECADENCE AND REGENERATIVE MILITARISM IN THE INVASION NARRATIVES OF ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND ERSKINE CHILDERS.
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Name(s): Townsend, Lucas C. , author
Buckton, Oliver, Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Department of English
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2020
Date Issued: 2020
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 87 p.
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores fin de siècle theories of decadence, degeneration, criminology, and evolutionary biology, and their contemporary application to invasion literature written between 1871 and 1915. While there is significant criticism on early invasion narratives, there is little extant on Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow (1895) and Erskine Childers’s The Riddle of the Sands (1903), especially in discussing the importance of their militaristic “calls to action” to convert weak, aesthetically-inclined men into hard-working patriotic soldiers and public servants. Through this conversion, the characters of Chambers and Childers serve as important role models that exemplify Max Nordau’s ideal “all-American boy” and “right-living Englishman,” convincing decadent, unprepared governments to properly prepare for an imminent Great War. However, as much of Anglo-European society ignores these signs, the warnings outlined by Chambers and Childers predict the destructive consequences of World War I and the psychological disassociation of the Modernist period.
Identifier: FA00013457 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Fin de siècle
Chambers, Robert W (Robert William), 1865-1933 King in yellow
Childers, Erskine, 1870-1922 Riddle of the sands
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00013457
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.