Date of Award
5-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts - History
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. Robert Allen
Second Advisor
Dr. Lydia Towns
Third Advisor
Dr. Hunter Hampton
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Mark Sander
Abstract
This thesis aims to elucidate the intersections between the portrayal of tuberculosis in the Romantic era and the Enlightenment, evangelism, and the Industrial Revolution. This study aims to do so by locating and analyzing depictions in the primary source representations of the disease, then considering the effects of the three factors mentioned above on its representation. The Enlightenment, evangelism, and the Industrial Revolution interacted in a variety of ways, and the influence of all three factors was found within the representations of tuberculosis, albeit in often indirect ways. In the novels of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë, tuberculosis was used as a vehicle to criticize the working conditions that arose under the Industrial Revolution and the hypocrisy of clergy members, respectively. The poets Keats and Shelley studied the Enlightenment, and though the movement did not necessarily affect their representation of tuberculosis, it did most certainly inform the way Shelley and Keats viewed life.
Repository Citation
Sudano, Sara M., "Angelic Wasting: The Impacts of the Enlightenment, Evangelicalism, and the Industrial Revolution on Romanticization of Tuberculosis in England, 1800-1850" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 596.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/596
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Cultural History Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, European History Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons
Tell us how this article helped you.
