Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992)
In Ever After, Graham Swift’s fifth novel, Matthew Pearce, the main narrator’s ancestor, is a Victorian surveyor who chronicles in his Notebooks how his reading of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (1830-1833) and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) shattered his vision of the world...
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Język: | Anglais |
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Études britanniques contemporaines
2023
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| Dostęp online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_13321 https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.13321 urn:doi:10.4000/ebc.13321 en https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/13321 2023-05-30T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fed7 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) Études britanniques contemporaines Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2271-5444 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1168-4917 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc Roblin, Isabelle intertextualité Graham Swift Ever After roman néo-victorien paléontologie ichthyosaure géologie Lyell crise religieuse Darwin intertextuality Graham Swift Ever After neo-Victorian novel palaeontology ichthyosaurus geology Lyell crisis of faith Darwin In Ever After, Graham Swift’s fifth novel, Matthew Pearce, the main narrator’s ancestor, is a Victorian surveyor who chronicles in his Notebooks how his reading of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (1830-1833) and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) shattered his vision of the world, opening up “epistemological fault lines” and “yawning fractures” in his “teleological understanding” of human life: “If Lyell is right”, he exclaims, “if the world existed so long without Man upon it, why should we suppose . . . that we occupy any special and permanent place in Creation?” (Ever After, 135). This of course echoes the seismic debates between “creationists” and “evolutionists” that bisected Victorian society and which are often represented in neo-Victorian fiction. However, this is not the only fault line in the novel. The text itself of the Notebooks is fragmented, presented achronologically, used by the main late twentieth-century narrator, Bill Unwin, for his own ends, creating a feeling of unease and uncertainty in the reader, who feels the fictional ground beneath his/her feet moving and his/her reading comfort zone shaken. Geology and fault lines are thus very much an essential component of Swift’s novel, both literally and metaphorically. Dans Ever After, le cinquième roman de Graham Swift, Matthew Pearce, l’ancêtre victorien du narrateur principal, est géologue. Dans ses Carnets, il relate comment la lecture des Principles of Geology de Lyell (1830-1833) et de On the Origin of Species de Charles Darwin (1859) a complètement bouleversé sa vision du monde, révélant des «“lignes de failles épistémologiques” et des “fractures béantes” dans sa “compréhension téléologique” de la vie humaine. : “Si Lyell a raison”, s’exclame-t-il, “et que le monde a existé si longtemps sans que l’être humain ne l’habite, pourquoi devrions-nous supposer que nous occupons un place spéciale et permanente au sein de la Création ?” (Ever After 135). Cela fait bien sûr écho aux débats sismiques entre “créationnistes” et partisans de la théorie de l’évolution qui ont secoué la société victorienne et sont souvent représentés dans la fiction néo-victorienne. Cependant, ce n’est pas la seule ligne de failles du roman. Le texte même des Carnets est fragmenté, présenté de manière achronologique, et utilisé par Bill Unwin, le narrateur de la fin du xxe siècle, pour servir ses propres fins. Cela créée un sentiment de malaise et d’incertitude chez le lecteur, qui sent le socle de la fiction bouger sous ses pieds et ébranle sa zone de confort de lecture. La géologie et les lignes de failles sont donc une partie tout à fait essentielle du roman de Swift, aussi bien littéralement que métaphoriquement. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
intertextualité Graham Swift Ever After roman néo-victorien paléontologie ichthyosaure géologie Lyell crise religieuse Darwin intertextuality Graham Swift Ever After neo-Victorian novel palaeontology ichthyosaurus geology Lyell crisis of faith Darwin |
| spellingShingle |
intertextualité Graham Swift Ever After roman néo-victorien paléontologie ichthyosaure géologie Lyell crise religieuse Darwin intertextuality Graham Swift Ever After neo-Victorian novel palaeontology ichthyosaurus geology Lyell crisis of faith Darwin Roblin, Isabelle Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) |
| description |
In Ever After, Graham Swift’s fifth novel, Matthew Pearce, the main narrator’s ancestor, is a Victorian surveyor who chronicles in his Notebooks how his reading of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (1830-1833) and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) shattered his vision of the world, opening up “epistemological fault lines” and “yawning fractures” in his “teleological understanding” of human life: “If Lyell is right”, he exclaims, “if the world existed so long without Man upon it, why should we suppose . . . that we occupy any special and permanent place in Creation?” (Ever After, 135). This of course echoes the seismic debates between “creationists” and “evolutionists” that bisected Victorian society and which are often represented in neo-Victorian fiction. However, this is not the only fault line in the novel. The text itself of the Notebooks is fragmented, presented achronologically, used by the main late twentieth-century narrator, Bill Unwin, for his own ends, creating a feeling of unease and uncertainty in the reader, who feels the fictional ground beneath his/her feet moving and his/her reading comfort zone shaken. Geology and fault lines are thus very much an essential component of Swift’s novel, both literally and metaphorically. |
| author |
Roblin, Isabelle |
| author_facet |
Roblin, Isabelle |
| author_sort |
Roblin, Isabelle |
| title |
Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) |
| title_short |
Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) |
| title_full |
Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) |
| title_fullStr |
Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Geology as a Metaphor in Graham Swift’s Ever After (1992) |
| title_sort |
geology as a metaphor in graham swift’s ever after (1992) |
| publisher |
Études britanniques contemporaines |
| publishDate |
2023 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.13321 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/13321 |
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