VALUES IN LIFE AND LITERATURE. A COMPARATIVE READING OF THE DEPICTION OF DISINTEGRATION, INSECURITY AND UNCERTAINTY IN SELECTED NOVELS BY THOMAS MANN. WILLIAM FAULKNER AND THOMAS PYNCHON by MAGDALENA FRIEDERICKE WILKE submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of · DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject THEORY OF LITERATURE at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROF INA Ga~iBE JUNE 1999 THIS THESIS IS DEDICATED TO MY PROMOTER, PROFESSOR INA GR;':'.iBE Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. Langston Hughes 813.009353 WILi< llHll~~~~~l~ll!ll 0001760775 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere thanks to: Professor Ina Gribe, my promoter, to whom this thesis is de- dicated for her guidance and inspiration towards theoreti- cal concerns and for her encouragement to examine the extent to which the relevant branches of narrative studies can il­ luminate particular literary concerns. Fred Wilke, my dear husband for his unending patience, his skill and perseverance in the formatting and printing of the thesis. Rudi Himmelsbach, my dear brother in Canada, and my few re­ maining relatives and friends in Germany. My gratitude also to Dr. Manfred Eickhoelter, Kulturstiftung Senat der Hansestadt Luebeck Germany, for providing me with the photo of the Buddenbrook house. All my dear friends and former colleagues in South Africa and England. This thesis is especially dedicated to the memory of my dearly beloved parents Georg and Louise Himmelsbach. Author June 1999 SUMMARY The reading of selected literary texts in this thesis traces the changes from a divinely ordered world of stability (Thomas Mann's Bud<lenbrooks) to surroundings characterized by insecurity (William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury) to an unstable environment giving rise to largely futile at- tempts at finding answers to seemingly illogical questions (Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49). As a product of the accelerated speed of technological progression and the in­ formation revolution in the twentieth century, man is more often than not incapable of adjusting to changed circum- stances in a seemingly hostile environment. Indeed, in- stability and unpredictability are external factors deter- mining the sense of insecurity and uncertainty character­ ising the 'world' depicted in the literary texts under con- sideration. For this reason judicious use will be made of philosophical and psychoanalytical concepts, based, amongst others, on Nietzschean and Freudian theories, to explain the disintegration of families, the anguish experienced by in­ dividuals or, indeed, the shifting identities informing the portrayal of character in selected literary texts. KEY TERMS: Reflections of life in Literature; Psychological/ philosoph- ical values; Characterization techniques; Comparative read- ing; Language and the unconscious; Fin de siecle; Dis in- tegration, individual anguish; Fixation, its psychological impact; 'Inner life' portrayal; Memory monologue, selective, associative; Shifting identities; Postmodernism; Irrational quests; Characters as textual construct; Dehumanization, commodification of people. CONTENTS CHAPTER page SECTION A: THEORY 1 1 ORIENTATION 1 1.1 Preamble 1 1.2 Organization of the study 4 2 EPISTEMOLOGICAL DESPAIR EXPRESSED IN MODERN LITERATURE 38 2.1 Introduction 38 2.2 Waiting as a theatrical strategy in modern drama 43 2.3 Confusion in the detective story 51 3 SOME EXTERNAL THEORIES 54 3.1 Philosophy - Nietzsche and nihilism 54 3.1.1 The impact of Nietzsche's philosophy on 57 literature 3.1.2 Fin de si~cle - Nietzsche and Schopenhauer's 64 influence at the turn of the century 3.2 An introduction to Freud's psychoanalytical theory 70 3.2.1 Psychoanalysis and literary criticism 79 3.2.2 Jaques Lacan - language and the unsconcious 84 3.3 Sigmund Freud and Thomas Mann - psychological 93 implications in Buddenbrooks 4 REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTER IN LITERATURE 104 4.1 Introduction 104 4.2 From type to individual 106 4.2.1 'Flat' and 'round' characters 106 page 4.2.2 Criticism and refinement of Forster's 110 categories 4.2.3 Actantial roles 122 4.3 Techniques of characterization 126 4.3.1 Introduction 126 4.3.2 Dynamic elements 133 4.3.3 Static elements 138 4.3.4 Postmodern textual strategies 144 4.4 Portrayal of the 'inner life' of literary characters 151 4.4.1 Psycho-narration 155 4.4.2 Quoted/autonomous interior monologue 157 4.4.3 Narrated monologue 161 4.5 The reader's construction of character 166 SECTION B. ANALYSIS 171 ORIENTATION 171 5 DECLINE OF A FAMILY IN THE TRANSITION FROM STABILITY TO 184 UNCERTAINTY IN THOMAS MANN'S BUDDENBROOKS 5.1 Introduction 184 5.2 Manifestations of disintegration: Deaths in the family 193 5.3 Towards inner deterioration - Thomas Buddenbrook and 213 the desire for death 5.4 Final demise of the Buddenbrooks - Christian's 231 psychosomatic condition and Hanna's untimely death 6 DISINTEGRATION OF A FAMILY COMMUNICATED AS INDIVIDUAL 251 ANGUISH IN WILLIAM FAULKNER'S THE SOUND AND THE FURY 6.1 Introduction 251 page 6.2 Selective and associative remembrance in the memory 254 monologues of characters in The Sound and the Fury 6.2.1 April 7, 1928: Benjamin Compson 257 6.2.2 June 2, 1910 : Quentin Compson 270 6.3 Fixation on sexual problems and its psychological 290 impact on the Compson children 6.4 Concluding observations - collective disintegration 299 of a family 7 SHIFTING IDENTITIES AND IRRATIONAL QUESTS IN 302 THOMAS PYNCHON'S THE CRYING OF LOT 49 7.1 Introduction 302 7.2 Trends in postmodernist writing 303 7.2.1 Thomas Pynchon's writing strategy 309 7.3 Character as textual construct 311 7.3.1 Naming and role-playing 317 7.3.2 Dehumanization and commodification of 323 'people' 7.4 Psychological problems and sexual aberrations 326 7.5 Irrational quests 330 7.6 Concluding observations - ultimate sense of 336 disintegration 8 CONCLUSION 340 BIBLIOGRAPHY 347 1 SECTION A: THEORY CHAPTER 1 1. ORIENTATION 1.1 PREAMBLE In dealing with the ever-changing political and economic problems, such psychologically informed questions as how to cope with or adapt to the evolutionary stream of accelerated change that influences our sense of time have become in- creasingly relevant. The seventeenth century has been named the age of enlight- enment. The eighteenth, the age of reason; the nineteenth, the age of progress; and the twentieth, the age of anxiety. Man has always struggled to attain a path to a meaningful and satisfying way of life. As a result of injuring expe- riences, such as wars, racial prejudice, hatred, to both the individual and the community, finding a satisfying way of life has however become increasingly difficult. Life, de- struction and social unrest, economic fluctuations and in- flations have taken their toll in unemployment, desolation and poverty for millions of people. The high mobility in urban society causes disrupted friendships and the loss of extended family bonds place increasing stress on the home. Homes broken up by divorce cause hurt and disillusion- ment. All these stress related incidents leave emotional scars on parents and children. The ever increasing competi­ tion with its excessive and impersonal bureaucracy tends to 2 'dehumanize' the individual. The population explosion in- cessantly increases widespread hunger and starvation, crea- ting social problems and tensions. Poverty and discrimina- tion lead to social pressures and often erupt in violence. The waste of natural resources, the pollution of air, water, and soil, as well as the ever present threat of global atom­ ic war threaten the life-support system of our planet earth. The additional accelerated tremendous growth of knowledge leaves in its wake rapid social change. In the past fifty years more scientific and technological advances have been made than in all previously recorded time. Long accep- ted assumptions about religion, education, sex, marriage, social and political absolutes are not only questioned, but often ridiculed. Man's changed attitude has established a shift from stability to instability which has also manifes­ ted itself in fictional writing. To understand what this means and what is happening to man­ kind as we are in the process of moving into the age of ac- celerated super industrialization altering .our life-style, bringing with it the necessity of adaptation, authors and critics alike found that it was once again necessary to re- introduce individual psychology, as this science deals with the human mind and thus human behaviour. To reach a more ac- ceptable evaluation of the change in life and literature which reflects our adapted life-style, one finds that the psychoanalytic model has once more emerged in literature. By changing our relationship to the resources that surround us, by almost violently expanding the scope of change, and, 3 most of all, by accelerating its pace, man has ultimately broken with the past. The stage for a new post-modern space related society has been set. This calls into question man's capacity for adaptation. Innovations in transportation and communication have under- gone new, hitherto unknown dimensions and have conse- quently broadened our horizons. The landing of men on the moon, the erection of space labs and the venturing farther into the universe have inevitably placed man in a new per- spective. Such questions as those concerning the meaning of human existence, traditional values and beliefs no longer seem self-evident. The security-providing religious and social positives seem to be lacking as they are increasingly and justly questioned. Thus, despite all technical achieve- ments, this leaves anxious, bewildered people as they cannot find satisfactory answers to hitherto unknown problems. The stress of postmodern time is indicated by the enormous quantity of drugs used, such as tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and alcoholic beverages and by the increase of heart attacks which is the cardinal cause of death in our society.