Modernismo y suicidiola muerte voluntaria en la literatura modernista en lengua inglesa

Résumé

In this thesis we will study six modernist literary works in which one of the main characters commits suicide: The Awakening, by Kate Chopin (1899), The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (1905), Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (1925), Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (1932), The Big Money, by John Dos Passos (1936) and The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath (1963). We will analyze the environment and personal circumstances of each character, delving into each particular case. Objectives One of the main intentions of this dissertation is to shed light on the changing reality of suicide through the analysis of the six works mentioned above, showing how modernist literature reflects the subjective character that suicide acquires in the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Likewise, an individualized investigation of cases of suicide in works belonging to Anglophone modernism is offered, since, to date, no studies with these characteristics have been carried out. It is true that there are works on literary suicide in other periods, in other languages or, if they belong to English-speaking modernism, they focus on suicide in general in the work of some author, but they do not closely examine each case. Methodology Because of the complex nature of voluntary death, we have approached its study primarily from three perspectives: psychiatric, philosophical, and sociological. For this reason, the first chapter of this thesis offers a contextualization of these three disciplines, highlighting the most prominent thinkers and researchers in these fields, especially from the period in which the works studied were published. This will allow us to carry out a neohistoricist methodology, verifying how these works are not isolated creations, but can be considered the product of a specific time and circumstances. The remaining six chapters will be devoted to each of the novels, beginning with a brief biography of each author and a general bibliographical review of the studies carried out on each work. This will be followed by an analysis of the cases of suicide, studying the personal circumstances of each character, linking them with reviews of psychiatry, philosophy and sociology. Conclusion It is concluded that these literary works reflect the subjective character that suicide acquires during the turn of the century, showing it, in addition, as the result of a disarticulated, individualistic and alienated society, a situation that is generated especially after the two world wars and the emergence of capitalism. These themes are frequent in literary modernism, whose interest in the workings of the human psyche is evident through its use of introspection, making use of narrative techniques such as the interior monologue or the free indirect style.