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G. K. Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday": Merging detective fiction with the fantastic

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Date Issued:
2002
Summary:
G. K. Chesterton is known for writing detective fiction, his Father Brown crime stories being his most popular works. Chesterton, however, wrote more than a hundred books. The Man Who Was Thursday is Chesterton's fictional masterpiece. The novel reveals the author as a creative genius, at least equal to now-better-known writers of his time, such as Conrad and Kafka. Chesterton tells detective Gabriel Syme's tale in the novel, which also exudes an autobiographical flavor, giving fragments of Chesterton's own story of his escape from fin-de-siecle pessimism. As literary art, the novel merges the detective genre with the genre of the fantastic. The result is a wild tale of fun and romance, with more than a little philosophical argument in the mix. Using Tzvetan Todorov's theory of structuralism, I unveil the many masks of Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. The outcome is a better understanding of G. K. Chesterton's rebellion into orthodoxy.
Title: G. K. Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday": Merging detective fiction with the fantastic.
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Name(s): Knapp, Steven L.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Buckton, Oliver, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2002
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 78 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: G. K. Chesterton is known for writing detective fiction, his Father Brown crime stories being his most popular works. Chesterton, however, wrote more than a hundred books. The Man Who Was Thursday is Chesterton's fictional masterpiece. The novel reveals the author as a creative genius, at least equal to now-better-known writers of his time, such as Conrad and Kafka. Chesterton tells detective Gabriel Syme's tale in the novel, which also exudes an autobiographical flavor, giving fragments of Chesterton's own story of his escape from fin-de-siecle pessimism. As literary art, the novel merges the detective genre with the genre of the fantastic. The result is a wild tale of fun and romance, with more than a little philosophical argument in the mix. Using Tzvetan Todorov's theory of structuralism, I unveil the many masks of Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. The outcome is a better understanding of G. K. Chesterton's rebellion into orthodoxy.
Identifier: 9780493722054 (isbn), 12913 (digitool), FADT12913 (IID), fau:9787 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2002.
Subject(s): Chesterton, G K--(Gilbert Keith),--1874-1936
Detective and mystery stories, English
Fantastic fiction, English
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12913
Sublocation: Digital Library
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.