Time in person: History, the sun and the ages of life in Hegel's 'Philosophy of History' and George Eliot's 'Daniel Deronda'

This dissertation compares the narratives of history in G. W. F. Hegel's Philosophy of History and George Eliot's DanielDeronda. At first glance, these two works seem to represent very different visions of history. For Hegel, history begins in the ancient orient and reaches its culmination in modern Europe. Eliot, by contrast, elaborates a Zionist vision of history's rebirth in the east, in the establishment of a Jewish homeland. While Hegel claims to describe the whole of history, Eliot specifically treats Jewish history, which, Hegel claimed, belonged to the ancient orient and no longer played an active role in world history.;The introduction shows how these two narratives represent related aspects of an orientalist fantasy, which Edward Said details in Orientalism . On the one hand, Asia is seen as a dead culture, which modern Europe must revitalize. On the other hand, Europe is considered old and decadent and must seek its rebirth in Asia. The first two chapters show how both sides of this orientalist fantasy are legible in Hegel's Philosophy of History . Although Hegel claims that history begins in the east and ends in the west, his text also tells a story of history's rebirth in Asia. This figure of history's rebirth in Asia emerges as Hegel compares history to the cycle of the sun and the ages of life. As the second chapter demonstrates, Hegel's narrative of history is in fact predicated on metempsychosis, the "oriental doctrine" which Hegel tries to exclude from western philosophy.;In DanielDeronda, Eliot seems to tell a more explicit version of this rebirth of history in the east. She compares the waning spirit of Jewish nationalism to Mordecai, an obscure Jewish prophet, dying in the west. Yet, the novel also holds out the possibility of a rebirth of Jewish nationalism: Mordecai envisions both his own rebirth---and the rebirth of history in the east---through a messianic figure who will restore the Jewish homeland. Eliot's narrative, like Hegel's, pivots upon the comparisons of history to the sun and the ages of life. Chapter three of the dissertation examines how the novel seeks to transcend the stereotypes of the Jews in Victorian political economy, but fails to do so through the Zionist vision it proposes.;This dissertation contributes to the frequently neglected study of Hegel's impact on Eliot. It offers a way of understanding the Zionism of Eliot's later works in light of Hegel's Philosophy of History and the Hegelian philosophies of Jewish history which Eliot was reading. More generally, it establishes the ground for a dialogue on the differences between theories of history, as they are elaborated in philosophical and literary works---in German idealism and in the Victorian novel. Finally, by examining the comparisons of history to the cycle of the sun and to metempsychosis, this dissertation opens a dialogue on the figure of history's rebirth and the pivotal role this figure plays in both narratives of history and orientalist fantasy.