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Abstract As specimens of neo-Victorian novels, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent, Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures and John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman are set in the nineteenth century, and they provide crucial insights into the events and discourses that shaped the Victorian era. They document discussions pertaining to Victorian social traditions, economics, science and religion. Furthermore, they explore the relationship between past and present in broader and more complex terms, and look at Victorian thoughts and cultural shifts from a contemporary perspective. They also examine the representation of science and religion in neo-Victorian literature, as science made leaps forward during this time and challenged traditional christianity in a society whose moral. Chapter One of this thesis will be devoted to discussing postmodern fiction and neo-Victorian fiction as its subgenre. It will tackle the characteristics of both postmodern and neo- Victorian fiction. The Victorian era undoubtedly was a pivotal period in British history, with massive changes and advancements in all sectors of life, including literary production. It is not a coincidence that the majority of the literary works written during Queen Victoria’s reign have remained very popular and are repeatedly referred to as classics. Nowadays, neo-Victorian fiction provides a revision of nineteenth-century fiction. - The core of Chapter Two is a discussion and analysis of Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent. It is a novel that is written along the lines of historiographic metafiction. It centers on a contentious meeting between an amateur fossil hunter and a local vicar, both of whom adopt different theories regarding the mysterious sightings and disappearances of an ancient monster in the Essex area. Throughout the novel, Perry evokes a period in which paleontology is in vogue, as women wear jewelry formed from fossilized teeth set in silver and collect ammonites. -Chapter Four of this thesis will discuss John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman. It will attempt to explore elements of neo-Victorian fiction in the novel, as it displays topics of nineteenth-century novels and characters tackling controversial issues like Darwin, evolution, the fossil record, Marxism and existentialism. |