Literary depictions of immortality in modernist literature

Abstract

In this dissertation, I aim to unravel the complexity of immortality by referring to two canonical novels, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Orlando. I also wish to demonstrate how the theme of immortality remains relevant across literary movements, evolving and persisting across centuries. In doing so, I wish for this dissertation to not only shed light on the literary treatment of immortality, but to also contribute to broader conversations about identity, legacy, and the human desire to transcend time. Each chapter of this dissertation aims to uncover new layers of meaning within the representations of immortality in literature, whether through queerness and gender fluidity, aestheticism and moral decay, or the tension between self-preservation and self-destruction. Ultimately, this dissertation suggests that both Wilde and Woolf present immortality as a double-edged condition, a seductive escape from mortality, yet one that carries profound ethical, existential, and emotional consequences.