Economic Downturn, Danger, and Disillusionment in Late Victorian Literature: The novels of George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, and Margaret Oliphant

It is unique within both New Economic Criticism and Victorian Studies.

It broadens the fields by examining a mutation in the realist literary aesthetic which shifted its outlook on economic structural reform from High Victorian optimism towards Late Victorian cynicism.

Moreover, Victorian economic critical research has predominantly focused on the mid-nineteenth century rather than the late-nineteenth century.

Late Victorian literature has barely been analysed against its distinctive context which included: prolonged economic downturn, financial panics, bank runs, a slowdown of industrial and agricultural growth, and a decline in international trade.

My thesis examines how such contextual economic factors influenced Late Victorian literature, and conversely, how literature voiced critical perspectives on such economic instability.

Furthermore, my research addresses critical neglect on the underlying conceptual economic frameworks of Late Victorian authors Thomas Hardy, George Gissing, and Margaret Oliphant.

Research approaches on these authors' treatment of finance has been near-exclusively Cultural Materialist or Marxist, and critical discussions on their economic preoccupations are scarce.

However, the authors share a narrative disillusionment towards financial systems which could be tinctured by late-Victorian contextual circumstances.

Financial failures are ubiquitous throughout these authors' narratives, and these failures tend to emphasise impersonal structural economic factors.

Moreover, my thesis examines the authors' criticisms of financial collapse, economic structural fragilities, and the psychological factors of speculative risk.

My thesis investigates the interrelationship between art and economic downturn and attempts to extract ideas from Late Victorian literature which could enlighten present-day considerations for risk mitigation, investment speculation and dealing with financial crises.