Roots in Fiction and Philology: George Eliot, Ernest Renan, and Willed Ethnonationalism.
Scholarship on George Eliot's 1860s Condition-of-England novel Felix Holt has been divided on whether it signals the racist nativism of its decade or advocates for inclusive, willed national belonging. This paper proposes that it accomplishes both, promoting what I call "willed ethnonationalism." A...
| Published in: | Victorian Studies Vol. 65; no. 4; pp. 594 - 618 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Indiana University Press
Summer2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=177246356&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 177246356 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00425222 VCS jtl: Victorian Studies issn: 00425222 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Summer2023 vid: 65 iid: 4 pid: 211 pub: Indiana University Press artinfo: ui: 177246356 10.2979/vic.00043 ppf: 594 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 199KB tig: atl: Roots in Fiction and Philology: George Eliot, Ernest Renan, and Willed Ethnonationalism. aug: au: Talbott, Tyler affil: Northwestern University su: Ethnonationalism Eliot, George, 1819-1880 Fiction Race Nativism Nationalism Philology sug: subj: Ethnonationalism Eliot, George, 1819-1880 Fiction Race Nativism Nationalism Philology ab: Scholarship on George Eliot's 1860s Condition-of-England novel Felix Holt has been divided on whether it signals the racist nativism of its decade or advocates for inclusive, willed national belonging. This paper proposes that it accomplishes both, promoting what I call "willed ethnonationalism." A counterintuitive phrase, willed ethnonationalism captures how Eliot's novel both defines the nation-form against race belonging and encourages modern nationals to perform racial self-identification. I argue that this stance emerged from Eliot's engagement with Ernest Renan's philological career. Recalling how theories of racial-linguistic inheritance influenced a zeitgeist of thinking around constructed nations (epitomized by Renan's 1882 essay on nationalism), I show how mythic ideas about racial roots informed the ostensibly rational form of the nation-state as expressed in late nineteenth-century fiction and essayistic prose. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Victorian Studies is the property of Indiana University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Victorian Studies holder: Indiana University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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