Sarah Waters: The Discourse of Genre and Intertextuality in "Tipping the Velvet", "Fingersmith" and "The Little Stranger"

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2018-08-30

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en

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The aim of this master’s thesis is to contribute to research on Sarah Waters’ novels, by examining how Sarah Waters engages with traditional genres through the reinvention and reinterpretation of elements that are characteristic of the genre, as well as through referencing to classic texts that are part of the same genre. For this research, a close reading and analysis of three novels by Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet (1998), Fingersmith (2002), and The Little Stranger (2009), will be conducted in terms of what genre, or genres, each is part of. By analysing the use of literary references and traditional genres, it will become clear to what extend Waters reinvents, as well as maintains their traditional forms. An intersectional model of analysis will be used for the research, which will consist of K.S. Whetter’s and Amy Devitt’s approach to genre as ‘maker of meaning’, the theories on (meta)historical fiction by Jerome de Groot, Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn and the notion of intentionality by Michael Baxandall. This thesis will argue that Waters’ novels are each interplays between genres that aim at creating counter-histories from new perspectives, by placing the texts among classic works of fiction within a genre tradition.

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