A QUEST FOR HAPPINESS WILLIAM MORRIS’S NEWS FROM NOWHERE AND WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS’S A TRAVELER FROM ALTRURIA AND THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

Abstract

This research work entitled A Quest for Happiness is a comparative study of the utopian romances of the English writer, William Morris (News from Nowhere), and his American counterpart, William Dean Howells (A Traveler from Altruria with its sequel Through the Eye of the Needle). Both writers, in reaction to their 19th century competitive and ugly societies tried to imagine a fairer and more beautiful world. This work is a comparison of the two writers' respective representations of what an ideal society is or should be, with a view to exploring and pinpointing the similarities and differences between the two on the basis of three major ideas which are: Egalitarianism, Agrarianism, and Art. This constitutes our thematic concern in this research. This comparative study will also examine the aesthetic side of the romances as a specific literary genre. The similarities and differences in the romances are explored in the light of the Cultural Materialist theory (essentially as developed in Raymond Williams's seminal work Culture and Society). This approach will enable us to link the romances to their 19th century context, on the one hand, and to open new venues of interpretation more relevant to the 21st century social, economic and even ecological issues, on the other hand. This study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter entitled "The Egalitarian Land" discusses the egalitarian doctrines, and then moves to a close study of the text showing the two writers' egalitarian views.

The second chapter entitled "The Agrarian Garden" looks at agrarianism in the contexts of 19th century England and America, a doctrine which helps in the establishment of a more egalitarian society to replace the unfair 19th century social system. A study of the text follows to show the agrarian stance of the two utopias as tackled through the dramatization of incidents and situations in the two romances. The third chapter entitled "Of Beauty and Soul" highlights the artistic side of Morris and his influence by the social and art critic Ruskin. Morris advocated "popular art", an art performed by, and accessible to the common man. This idea he shared with Howells. This part, on the other hand, insists on Howells's more markedly religious stance. The fourth and last chapter deals with the aesthetic study of the two romances. It looks at some major literary devices such as setting and atmosphere, characterization, plot and point of view. It shows how far both Morris's and Howells's romances conform to the genre and prove adequate to the presentation of their ideal society.