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The Concept of Space in John Updike's Rabbit Tetralogy And “Location Is Everything”: The Concept of Space in John Updike’s Rabbit Tetralogy and Richard Ford’s Bascombe Trilogy Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie der Philosophischen Fakultäten der Universität des Saarlandes vorgelegt von Katja Kohler­Golly aus Ottweiler Saarbrücken, 2014 Der Dekan: Herr Univ.‐Prof. Dr. P. Riemer Berichterstatter/in: Frau Univ.‐Prof. Dr. A. Fellner, Herr Univ.‐Prof. Dr. P. Morris Tag der letzten Prüfungsleistung: 11.06.2014 To Jörg and Max Table of Contents List of Titles and Their Abbreviations..........................................................................................vi Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................................vii 1. Introduction...........................................................................................................1 1.1. “Location Is Everything”..................................................................................................................1 1.2. Critical Reception ..............................................................................................................................7 1.2.1. Updike ...............................................................................................................................................................7 1.2.2. Ford ....................................................................................................................................................................9 1.3. Updike, Ford, and Place(s) .......................................................................................................... 10 1.4. Socio­Spatial Approach................................................................................................................. 13 1.5. State of Research: The Role of Space in Both Authors’ Fictions...................................... 14 1.6. Overview of Chapters.................................................................................................................... 18 2. Space .................................................................................................................... 20 2.1. The Pertinence of Space and Place ........................................................................................... 20 2.1.1. The American Landscape as a Mythical Garden........................................................................... 21 2.1.2. Space in Twentieth‐Century Literature........................................................................................... 24 2.2. Approaching a Fictional Spatial Terminology ...................................................................... 26 2.3. Methodology..................................................................................................................................... 33 3. (Sub)Urban Space ............................................................................................. 36 3.1. Suburban Sprawl ............................................................................................................................ 36 3.2. Suburbia in Updike’s and Ford’s Fiction................................................................................. 41 3.3. The Role of Place in Updike’s Own Life ................................................................................... 43 3.4. Brewer and Its Suburbs in the Rabbit Tetralogy ................................................................. 47 3.4.1. Landscapes of Contrast........................................................................................................................... 49 3.4.2. Rabbit Redux: Caught between Locus Amoenus and Locus Terribilis................................... 55 3.4.3. Toward a Postindustrial Landscape.................................................................................................. 59 3.4.4. A Landscape of Decrepitude and Death........................................................................................... 67 3.5. Richard Ford’s Idea of Place ....................................................................................................... 72 3.5.1. The Influence of Thoreau and Emerson .......................................................................................... 72 3.5.2. Ford’s Southern Provenance ................................................................................................................ 78 3.6. The Suburban Landscape in the Bascombe Trilogy............................................................ 80 3.6.1. The Semiotic Landscape of The Sportswriter and The Lay of the Land............................... 82 3.6.2. The Intertextual Landscape of The Sportswriter and Independence Day........................... 86 3.6.3. The Degradation of the Suburban Dreamscape ........................................................................... 97 3.7. Rethinking the Pastoral Mode..................................................................................................105 3.8. Summary .........................................................................................................................................109 4. Renegotiating Social Space ..........................................................................111 4.1. What Is Social Space?...................................................................................................................111 4.2. Individualism.................................................................................................................................113 4.3. The Changing Face of Community...........................................................................................119 4.4. Public Places: Third Places and Heterotopian Places ......................................................123 4.4.1. The Club.......................................................................................................................................................124 4.4.1.1. The Flying Eagle.................................................................................................................................................125 4.4.1.2. Social Life in the Bascombe Trilogy ..........................................................................................................129 4.4.2. The Bar.........................................................................................................................................................135 4.4.2.1. Rabbit Redux: Segregated Local Venues..................................................................................................135 4.4.2.2. Ford’s Trilogy: The Lost Spirit of Johnny Appleseed.........................................................................137 4.4.3. The Cemetery in Updike’s Rabbit, Run and Ford’s Trilogy....................................................142 4.5. Neighborhood ................................................................................................................................147 4.5.1. Racial Bias on Vista Crescent in Rabbit Redux ............................................................................147 4.5.2. Rabbit’s “White” Neighbors: A Cross Section of Society.........................................................154 4.5.3. Mixed‐Race Community Life in the Bascombe Trilogy ...........................................................158 4.5.4. Frank’s Monoracial Vicinity ................................................................................................................164 4.6. Social Gatherings ..........................................................................................................................167 4.6.1. The Fourth of July....................................................................................................................................167 4.6.1.1. Surrounded by “Human Melt” .....................................................................................................................167 4.6.1.2. Community and Contingency in Independence Day ...........................................................................169 4.6.2. Thanksgiving .............................................................................................................................................176 4.6.2.1. “The Thanksgiving Blow‐Up”.......................................................................................................................176 4.6.2.2. “I’d Gladly Forget Thanksgiving”................................................................................................................179 4.7. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................182 5. Domestic Space................................................................................................184 5.1. The “Generation of the Lost Dream” ......................................................................................186 5.2. Real Estate.......................................................................................................................................188 5.2.1. Updike’s Working Girl............................................................................................................................189 5.2.2. “Someone Should Draw the Line Somewhere”...........................................................................193
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