Wlens’s Self-fashioning In Tono-Bungay

H.G. Well’s social novels capture the great changes occurring in Britain and show his social concerns. Tono-Bungay, widely acknowledged as Wells’s most outstanding social novel, carries profound historical connotations. However, this novel has seldom been interpreted from the perspective of New Historicism. Consequently, in the thesis, this novel is studied in the light of New Historicism.With the exploration of the historical context of the novel, the living conditions of the lower middle class and the power discourses in Victorian age, Tono-Bungay is analyzed in-depth from the protagonist’s quest for identity and his challenge to the dominant ideology.On the basis of the above analysis, a conclusion is drawn that Tono-Bungay clearly demonstrates New Historical assumption that social forces exert considerable impact on the construction of self-consciousness. Through this interpretation, a better understanding could be achieved that literary and social identities are formed in culture.