Thomas Hardy, monism and the carnival tradition : the one and the many in The dynasts / G. Glen Wickens.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Relocating The Dynasts -- 1. Hardy's Longest Novel and the Monistic Theory of the Universe -- 2. The Will's Official Spirit -- 3. Unconscious or Superconscious? -- 4. Poetry and Prose -- 5. A Carnivalesque Picture of Carnival -- 6. Heroism, Speech Zones, and Genres -- 7. The Crowds of War -- 8. Chronotopes and the Death-Birth of a World -- Conclusion: Hardy and Bakhtin.

"In this book, G. Glen Wickens offers a new reading of a work which is often ignored by critics and students of Victorian literature, Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts. Wickens explores the monistic viewpoint of The Dynasts through reference to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century philosophical writings which have never before been applied to Hardy's writing.

Using insights derived from the critical theory of Mikhail Bakhtin - in particular his concept of carnival - Wickens also counters the usual view of The Dynasts as failed epic or tragedy, and instead situates the work as a novel within the serio-comical genres. In doing so, he brings out new, violent implications to Bakhtin's theory of laughter and carnival.".

"Thomas Hardy, Monism, and the Carnival Tradition is the first book-length study of Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts since 1977. It will be of interest to Hardy scholars, critics of Bakhtin, and readers interested in monist philosophy or nineteenth-century history."--BOOK JACKET.