Modern mobilities

: mobility technologies in twentieth century British and Irish narratives

Abstract

Drawing on the modernist phenomenological tradition of embodied cognition and recent studies of prosthetic modernity, this thesis explores the ways in which technological prostheses which enhance mobility produce what Michael Warner calls ‘counterpublics’: discourse communities which resist the homogenising forces of social, governmental, and capitalistic power structures. Through four case studies — walking in the prose of Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys; sailing in the works of James Hanley; cycling throughout Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre; driving in Norman Collins, Elizabeth Bowen, and Nevil Shute — this thesis elucidates the ways in which self-conception and self-identity is shaped through one’s interaction with the mobility technologies which enhance their physical capabilities. While existing studies of mobility often emphasise movement en masse, from military formations to refugee migrations, this thesis, following Tim Creswell’s geographical focus on smaller scale mobilities, attempts to recentre mobility on the individual mover. As such, this thesis expands our current understanding of how mobility itself can be radical or radicalising as the technology we use to move allows us to reimagine the limits of our minds and bodies, mediating our relationships to both, to generate an intentionally radical and liberatory notion of prosthetic modernity.

Date of Award	2 Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	James Purdon (Supervisor)