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The Use of Introspection in Robert Browning’s Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession

Cilt: 38 Sayı: 1 30 Haziran 2021
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The Use of Introspection in Robert Browning’s Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession

Abstract

This study argues that Robert Browning uses the method of “introspection,” the psychological method of self-examination or first-person observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes, used by the Victorian psychologists, to represent various psychological states of the speaker in Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833). Accordingly, this study analyses it pursuing the different methods Browning used in the portrayal of the human soul to obtain an insight into the changes in the inner world of humans and to achieve a realistic representation of it. The endeavour of the speaker to achieve self-knowledge through self-analysis and how he is represented as an introspective individual are scrutinised. Furthermore, Browning’s use of the matters of self-consciousness, the first and/or third-person speech, and subjectivity and objectivity—that were discussed and used in the discourse of introspection—to examine the images of the self and subjective experience are studied and illustrated in the analysis of the work. In this analysis, scientific studies conducted by the leading figures in Victorian psychology, and definitions used and discussed by them are used in the discussion.

Keywords

Robert Browning , Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession , Introspection , Victorian Psychology , Dramatic Monologue.

Kaynakça

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  3. Browning, R. (1969). Pauline. In R. A. King, Jr., et al (Eds.), The complete works of Robert Browning with variant readings & annotations, vol. 1 (pp. 3-52). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. (Original work published 1833)
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  7. DeVane, W. C. (1955). A Browning handbook (2nd ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. (Original work published 1935)
  8. Dunlap, K. (1912). The case against introspection. Psychologiccal review, 19, 404-413. Retrieved from https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Dunlap/introspection.htm
  9. Faas, E. (1988). Retreat into the mind: Victorian poetry and the rise of psychiatry. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  10. Fox, W. J. (1833). Pauline. [Review of the poem Pauline, by R. Browning]. The monthly repository, vii, 252-62. Retrieved from https://www.browningscorrespondence.com/reviews/363/?rsId=46417&returnPage=1

Kaynak Göster

APA
Kut Belenli, P. (2021). The Use of Introspection in Robert Browning’s Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 38(1), 207-221. https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.798983