| Currently in the field of nineteenth century British literature there are calls to further examine
spiritual beliefs of the period, having recently determined that the rising secularization of the era
did not in fact lead to a loss of religion but opened an active reevaluation of faith. This thesis
compares John Keats, Emily Brontë, and Oscar Wilde’s literary proposals and evaluations of
spirituality that have a focus on literature as a means for self-development of identity. Connected
by themes of the soul and suffering, I argue that these three authors value literature for its ability
to provide transformative insights parallel to religion, but through an individualistic approach
escaping the potentially limiting nature of orthodoxy and organized beliefs’ boundaries. For
them, poetry and fiction not only offer the agency to consider spirituality more broadly and
individually, but even have the ability to create experiences for author and reader that develop
identity. |