Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)

We know the terms in which Virginia Woolf dismissed Edwardian writers for relying exclusively on materialism. However, another take on Arnold Bennett’s specific approach to objects and interior spaces is made possible by a reappraisal of his naturalistic method. This type of Edwardian fiction reveal...

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Main Author: Laurent Mellet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2023-03-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/13106
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author Laurent Mellet
author_facet Laurent Mellet
author_sort Laurent Mellet
collection DOAJ
description We know the terms in which Virginia Woolf dismissed Edwardian writers for relying exclusively on materialism. However, another take on Arnold Bennett’s specific approach to objects and interior spaces is made possible by a reappraisal of his naturalistic method. This type of Edwardian fiction reveals a political agenda buoyed up by an empirical narrative praxis. Drawing on Bennett’s The Old Wives’ Tale (1908), we show that Edwardian literary interiors turn into literary tools from which considering oneself, the others and the world out there, differently. Interiors in this novel should be read in spatial, physical, and narrative terms, since Bennett invents new modes of dwelling in order to endow his characters with new ways of narrating themselves. The Baines sisters literally and literarily are the place they inhabit, to the point of being unaware of any distinction between inside and outside. The main narrative strategy of the book is inflected by a centripetal movement that makes us move down and within various forms of interior places and narratives, in which interiority leads to unexpected intimate moments. Seeing, understanding and taming interior places so as to assert oneself narratively and intimately: such is the gist of Bennett’s democratic literary proposition. This is how his naturalism based on an empirical art of the narrative and a surprising use of interior monologue gestures towards a democratic opening of literature in which doorframes, windows and thresholds help us reconsider the aesthetic and political meanings of interiority.
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spelling doaj-art-f8ee9e93c2744684963f954ba8cbc2872025-01-30T10:22:39ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492023-03-019710.4000/cve.13106Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)Laurent MelletWe know the terms in which Virginia Woolf dismissed Edwardian writers for relying exclusively on materialism. However, another take on Arnold Bennett’s specific approach to objects and interior spaces is made possible by a reappraisal of his naturalistic method. This type of Edwardian fiction reveals a political agenda buoyed up by an empirical narrative praxis. Drawing on Bennett’s The Old Wives’ Tale (1908), we show that Edwardian literary interiors turn into literary tools from which considering oneself, the others and the world out there, differently. Interiors in this novel should be read in spatial, physical, and narrative terms, since Bennett invents new modes of dwelling in order to endow his characters with new ways of narrating themselves. The Baines sisters literally and literarily are the place they inhabit, to the point of being unaware of any distinction between inside and outside. The main narrative strategy of the book is inflected by a centripetal movement that makes us move down and within various forms of interior places and narratives, in which interiority leads to unexpected intimate moments. Seeing, understanding and taming interior places so as to assert oneself narratively and intimately: such is the gist of Bennett’s democratic literary proposition. This is how his naturalism based on an empirical art of the narrative and a surprising use of interior monologue gestures towards a democratic opening of literature in which doorframes, windows and thresholds help us reconsider the aesthetic and political meanings of interiority.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/13106democracyBennett (Arnold)materialismnaturalismpolitics
spellingShingle Laurent Mellet
Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
democracy
Bennett (Arnold)
materialism
naturalism
politics
title Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
title_full Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
title_fullStr Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
title_full_unstemmed Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
title_short Arnold Bennett’s Naturalistic and Democratic Interiors in The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
title_sort arnold bennett s naturalistic and democratic interiors in the old wives tale 1908
topic democracy
Bennett (Arnold)
materialism
naturalism
politics
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/13106
work_keys_str_mv AT laurentmellet arnoldbennettsnaturalisticanddemocraticinteriorsintheoldwivestale1908