CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Keogh, Calvin W. |
|---|---|
| Title | A Singular Nomad: The Minor Transnationalism of Christopher Isherwood |
| Summary | This project brings a transnational perspective to the work of Christopher Isherwood (1904-86), a writer who began his career in the UK in the 1920s, established his reputation in mainland Europe in the 1930s, and published most of his writing in the US from the 1940s-80s. Transnationalism in literary studies is presented as a critical methodology of selection and analysis, which calls attention to the work of migrant writers and involves a sophisticated approach to related issues of identity, selfhood, and subject positioning. A selection of novels and novellas from the three main periods of Isherwood’s career is made according to his concept of 'Wanderjahren', or years of wandering, which refers to a time from before he left London in the 1920s to when he felt settled in the US in the 1960s. For the purposes of analysis, ‘minor transnationalism’ is presented as a theoretical framework on the basis of the philosophy of nomadism and the related concept of minor literature as devised by Gilles Deleuze (1925-95) and Félix Guattari (1930-92). This project has a general aim of advancing research in transnational literary studies by providing a worthy case study and applying a theoretical framework which is suited to a focus on migration. The project also aims to contribute to a growing body of scholarship on Isherwood. Refocusing on the novels and novellas which were his life’s work from the 1920s-60s, it contends that it is important both to recognize and to account for his development as a transnational writer across each of the three main periods of his career. |
| Supervisor | Lukić, Jasmina |
| Department | Gender Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/keogh_calvin.pdf |
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