Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

5-8-2018

Keywords

Language, Literature and Linguistics, Byron George Gordon, Lord Byron, Milton John, Shelley Percy Bysshe

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English, General Literature, and Rhetoric

Subject Heading(s)

Language; Literature and Linguistics; Byron George Gordon; Lord Byron; Milton John; Shelley Percy Bysshe; English Language and Literature

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the contemporary discourse and conceptions of exile as it is presented by Milton, Shelley and Byron. Utilizing biopolitical theory as a lens, it posits that the Satanic iteration or narrative of exile embodies the reality of worldly exile. As such the dissertation explores the complex framing and subsequent deconstruction of Satanic and human subjectivities found in Paradise Lost, Prometheus Unbound, Manfred and Don Juan. The dissertation examines Paradise Lost for its competing narratives of exile, Adam and Satan, and explores notions of home, transgression, the purification rituals which are the origin of sovereign Power and the parody that Satan's exilic body presents. The dissertation examines Prometheus Unbound against the grain of many traditional reading, focusing on the agonistic-audial subjectivity it produces for its exilic subject and its stance in rehabilitating the exile as an integral member of society for their very apartness. Finally, the dissertation examines Manfred and Don Juan for its Ironic, decentered representation of exile as a fundamentally human, transgressive condition.

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