Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you: an investigation into metafiction, self- consciousness and morality AND ‘A diamond geeza is a girl’s best friend’ a collection of short stories, vignettes and snapshots

Hartless, Harry (2022). Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you: an investigation into metafiction, self- consciousness and morality AND ‘A diamond geeza is a girl’s best friend’ a collection of short stories, vignettes and snapshots. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

A Diamond Geeza is a Girl’s Best Friend is a collection of short stories and vignettes that demonstrates predominantly working-class men, trapped within a toxic, patriarchal sphere and explores themes such as power, reclamation of honour and the changing cultural landscape of Great Britain. The main story from the creative folder, ‘Author of His Own Doom’ chronicles, through the first-person narrative, how the protagonist attempts to rise above his surroundings and baser instincts and works towards discovering his identity and self-respect.

The accompanying critical study contributes to the knowledge of metafictional writing. The creative process contributes by acknowledging the existence of a limiting and often degrading space for working class men and the ways in which they may seek a redress.

This study refutes the assumption that metafiction is elitist or passé and is instead a powerful social tool to understand both cultural perimeters and the self, demonstrating the value of building a narrative for men who may feel that they have little or no voice. The sources that support this research include creative and critical texts, as follows: Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust, Martin Amis’s Money, and Davis Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews With Hideous Men; David Lodge’s The Art of Metafiction, Robert Scholes’ Fabulation and Metafiction, Patricia Waugh’s Metafiction The Theory and Practice of Self- Conscious Fiction, William H. Gass’s Fiction and the Figures of Life, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Dan Ariely ’s Predictably Irrational, Mary K. Holland’s A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies and Jonathon Greenberg’s Was Anyone Hurt: The End of Satire in A Handful of Dust.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):