SYNOPSIS: ALLEN GLASGOW

SOCIO-POLITICAL CONFLICT IN THE MAJOR NOVELS OF ELLEN GLASGOW: A  SEARCH  FOR HAPPINESS

A Synopsis submitted to A.P.S. University Rewa for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English

BY: ABC

SUPERVISOR : XYZ

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. T.R.S. COLLEGE REW [M. P.]

SYNOPSIS

[01] Title of Thesis : Socio-Political Conflict in the major Novels of      

                                        Ellen  Glasgow : A Search for Happiness.

[02] Introduction : Giving

purpose of Research [ In about 200 words ] :

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow , born in Richmond, Virginia, on 22 nd April 1873, published her first novel,‘The Descendant’, in 1897, when she was 24 years old. With this novel Glasgow began a literary career encompassing 19 novels, a collection of poems, one of stories, and a book of  literary criticism. A popular writer , Glasgow was on the best seller lists five times. In 1942 she received the Pulitzer Prize for her last published novel, ‘In This Our Life’. She established herself as one of the America’s most talented and influential writers. On the day after Glasgow died an editorial tribute in the Richmond Times Dispatch opened by stating, “The greatest woman Virginia has produced is dead.”

                          Ellen  Glasgow produced ten major novels of enduring literary merit- ‘The Voice of the People’ [ 1900 ], ‘The Deliverance’

[ 1904 ], ‘Virginia’ [ 1913 ], ‘Life and Gabriella’ [ 1916 ], ‘Barren Ground’ [ 1925 ], ‘The Romantic Comedians’ [ 1926 ], ‘They Stooped to Folly’[1929],‘The Sheltered Life’[1932] , ‘The Vein of Iron’[ 1935], and ‘In This Our Life’ [ 1941 ].

                          With ‘The Voice of the People’ [ 1900 ], Glasgow began a series of novels depicting the social and political history of Virginia since 1850. The series continued to the ‘Battle Ground’ [ 1902 ], ‘The Deliverance’ [ 1904 ], ‘The Romance of a Plain Man’ [ 1909 ], ‘The Miller Of Old Church’ [ 1911 ], ‘ Virginia’ [ 1913 ], ‘Life and Gabriella’ [ 1916 ], and ‘One Man in His Time’ [ 1922 ]. ‘The Voice Of the People’, the first of this series, deals with the conflict of the social classes in Virginia. ‘The Deliverance’, one of the best of her early novels, offers a naturalistic treatment  of the class conflict emerging after the civil war. ‘Virginia’ is considered to be the best novel in this series. Here the novelist gives a portrait of a young woman growing up in a mindless, dying society.

                 In her women’s trilogy-‘Virginia’, ‘Life and Gabriella’ and ‘Barren Ground’-Glasgow assigns each of her Virginia heroines a fate determined by her response to the patriarchal code of feminine behaviour that had formed her , a code that, as Glasgow shows so well in ‘Barren Ground’, always pitted woman against their own biological natures.

              After ‘Barren Ground’, which marked her arrival at artistic maturity, Glasgow produced three sparkling ironic comedies of manners-‘The Romantic Comedians’, ‘They Stooped to Folly’, and ‘The Sheltered Life’. With a brilliant and increasingly ironic treatment, Glasgow examined the decay of southern aristocracy and the trauma of the encroachment of modern industrial civilization in these three novels. In these novels of urban Virginian life depicting the clash of generations, she again shows her women characters reacting to patriarchal stereotypes limiting their individuality and growth, while at the same time exposing either with comic or with satiric irony the limitations these views of women place on the male character who hold them.

               The novel ‘Vein of Iron’ is a story of epic scope. The theme of this book is the search for happiness and how it is looked for in the wrong places through materialism, superficiality, and the quest for popular approval. Her last novel ‘In This Our Life’ is about the decay of an aristocratic family.

[ 03 ]   A brief review of the work

already done in the field :

               Ellen Glasgow, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has been studied by many scholars but the proposed topic has not been touched at all.

[ 04 ]   Noteworthy contributions in

the field of proposed work : No significant research has been done in the field of this proposed work.

[ 05 ]   Proposed methodology during the

tenure of the research work :

                I would concentrate on the proposed topic to bring out a serious and critical study of Glasgow’s major novels and a proper assessment of her literary writings.

[ 06 ]   Expected Outcome of the

proposed work  :

               I am going to find out the socio-political significance due to the conflict in her major novels. It would be the first research in the field of the proposed work.

[ 07 ]   Bibliography in standard format :

            [ A ] Primary Sources : The following ten major novels written by Ellen Glasgow and published by University of Virginia press-

[01] The Voice of the People [1900]

[02] The Deliverance [1904]

[03]  Virginia [1913]

[04]  Life and Gabriella [1916]

[05]  Barren Ground [1925]

[06]  The Romantic Comedians [1926]

[07]  They Stooped to Folly [1929]

[08]  The Sheltered Life [1932]

[09]  The Vein of Iron [1935]

[10]  In This Our Life  [1941]

[ B ] Secondary  Sources :

            [ i ] Books :–

Auchincloss, Louis. Ellen Glasgow. Minneapolis: U of 

             Minnesota P, 1964.

Geismar, Maxwell. Ellen Glasgow: The Armour of the Legend.

             Houghton Mifflin Company,1985.

Glasgow, Ellen. The Woman Within. New York: Harcourt, Brace,   

             1954.

Godbold, E. Stanly, Jr. Ellen Glasgow and the Woman Within.

          Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP,1972.

Holman, C. Hugh. The Modes of Modern Southern Fiction: Ellen

          Glasgow, William Faulkner, Thomas wolf. Athens: U of

          Georgia P, 1966.

Inge, M. Thomas, and Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Ellen Glasgow:

          Centennial Essays. Charlottesville:UP of Virginia, 1976.

McDowell, Frederic P.W.Ellen Glasgow and the  ironic art of 

          Fiction. Madison:U of Wisconsin P ,1960.                       

Myer ,Elizabeth G. The  Social Situation of Women in the novels

          of Ellen Glasgow. Hicksville, NY Exposition, 1978.

Raper, Julius R. From the Sunken Garden: The Fiction of Ellen

          Glasgow,1916-1945. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State

          UP,1980.

Rouse, Blair. Ellen Glasgow. NY: Twayne Publishers, 1962.

Scura, Dorothy M.ed. Ellen Glasgow: New Perspectives.

          Knoxville:U of Tennessee P,1995.

Thiebaux, Marcelle. Ellen Glasgow. NY : Ungar, 1982.

Wagner, Lindaw. Ellen Glasgow: Beyond Convention. Austin: U

          of Texas P,1982

           [ ii ] Articles :-

Atteberry, Phillip D. “Ellen Glasgow and the Sentimental novel of

         Virginia .”  Southern Quarterly 23.4 ( Sumr 1985 ) : 5-14.

Godbold, E.Stanly. ed. “Special Issue : Ellen Glasgow.”

         Mississippi Quarterly 49.2 ( Sprg. 1996 ).

Kish, Dorothy. “Toward a Perfect Place : Setting in the Early

         Novels of Ellen Glasgow .”Mississippi Quarterly 31

         ( 1977-78 ) : 33-44.

Rainwater, Catherine. “That Abused Word, Modern and Ellen

         Glasgow’s Literature of Revolt.” Mississippi Quarterly, 49

         (Spring 1996,Special Issue on Glasgow, ed. E. Stanly

         Godbold), 345-360.

8. List of published papers of the candidate ---           NIL

9. The Outline of the proposed work :

                The proposed work would be divided into following chapters :

01.  Introduction          :     Making of an Artist.

02.  Early Phase           :     From 1897-1911.

03.  Virginian Novels  :          A Trilogy

04.  Middle Phas         :          Artistic Maturity

05.  Final Phase              :       Literary Retirement

06.  Conclusion.

[  Signature of the Supervisor ]                    [ Signature of the Candidate ]

 [ Signature of the Principal ]