Date of Award

Spring 5-2014

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Charles Sumner

Advisor Department

English

Abstract

In the early 20th century many ideas existed about the figure of the artist, and what the artist should do. There arose the idea that the artist should be removed from society so that he may more effectively critique and effect it in his art—that the artist should be an escapist figure. The development of the idea of escapism can be seen in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, and Wyndham Lewis’s Enemy of the Stars. These texts show the development of the artist as escapism, the limits of escapism as an artist, and how the artist might appropriately utilitze escapism for his art.

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