Concepts of Space in Victorian Novels

The dissertation focuses on two general categories of defining space: on space expression according to the expressive approach to aesthetics and, secondly, on space representation based on the mimetic aesthetics. The exploration of the surface structure of space employs the philosophical categories of smooth and striated space, formulated by Deleuze and Guattari in their Treatise on Nomadology, while the depths of the inner spaces, including the spaces of the human mind, are treated within the framework of Gaston Bachelard's phenomenology, stressing the importance of the symbolic meanings hidden in the unconscious. The primary texts in which the concept of space is explored range from the Brontë sisters' novels (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre) to Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels, and further on to the last novel of George Eliot, Daniel Deronda. Attention is given to the role of natural elements constituting space, with emphasis on the element of water