THE INTERACTION BETWEEN LANDSCAPE and MYTH in the NOVELS of JOHN COWPER POWYS by GWYNETH F. MILES MA Bryn Mawr College, 196?
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c . \ THE INTERACTION BETWEEN LANDSCAPE AND MYTH IN THE NOVELS OF JOHN COWPER POWYS by GWYNETH F. MILES M.A. Bryn Mawr College, 196? A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1973 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada i Abstract Powys' novels are deeply rooted in a sense of place; much of their conflict develops through the effect of a particular locality upon the characters who live there or come there. This thesis demonstrates how Powys' sense of place is com• pounded of both a feeling for the physical landscape, and an awareness of the historical and mythical traditions which form its human past. Powys finds correspondences between the scenery and legends of a locality and the psychological states of his personae, and thus uses landscape and myth for symbolic purposes. The interaction of myth and landscape largely creates the characteristic atmosphere of the five novels studied here. These novels illustrate Powys' development over a period of thirty-six years, and include both his first novel and his last major novel. The term "romance," as it is found to recur in their titles, is related to Powys' description of the romantic atmosphere, in his essay on Emily Bronte, as com• pounded of scenery and traditions of the human past. Wood and Stone is taken as representative of the early novels ; A Glastonbury Romance, Maiden Castle, Owen Glendower and Porius are the four major novels in which the two "romantic" elements of landscape and myth are seen most fully developed and work• ing together. Although this thesis does not attempt a thorough study of sources and influences, some of the more important ones are indicated — Hardy, the Kabinogion, Sir John Rhys — and il suggestions made as to how Powys* imagination operated on the material he derived from them. Similarly, brief comparisons are made with the use of myth and landscape by some of Powys' literary contemporaries, Including the regional novelists, Joyce, Yeats and Eliot. The second and third chapters consider Powys' use of landscape and myth, respectively, by a survey of all of Powys' novels in chronological orders recurrent patterns and themes are noted and it becomes apparent that there is a shift in emphasis from landscape in the early novels to myth in the late ones. In the major novels, it is argued, Powys' use of landscape helps to give actuality and coherence to his work, while his use of history and myth provides a certain basic structure for some, and confers richness on all by relating present characters' experience to a larger human past. Even in Wood and Stone the use of landscape for symbolic purposes is overt and quite complex» opposition is set up between two hills, and between the substances wood and stone, and both are related to psychological and philosophical conflicts between the characters. The historical and legen• dary associations of a local topography are richly exploited in A Glastonbury Romance, although no key to the novel's meaning is found in its mythological allusions. Different attitudes towards the past are assumed by the characters of Maiden Castle and are all ultimately tried against the myster• ious presence of the prehistoric earthwork; Powys' own historical and mythological obsessions are defensively ill satirized through the central characters. Owen Glendower utilizes a new and diversified Welsh landscape in studying the myth-making process through its semi-legendary national hero and his romantic young kinsman who sees his world in terms of its legendary past. Cronos, Taliessin, Nineue, Merlin, Arthur and other mythic figures who remained in the background of the previous novels are the dramatis personae of Foriusi large mythological themes are overtly the novel's concern, rather than being sublimated into the personal struggles of the characters, and are reinforced by the sym• bolic landscape descriptions. The general direction of Powys* fiction is away from realism, and towards the fantastic embodiment in actual people and places of what were ideas or figures of speech in the earlier works. In the novels studied here, however, landscape and myth, realism and fantasy are held in a fine balance, where the suggestions of deep mythic significance are held in relation to the visible world through the rich and detailed evocation of landscape. iv Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction p. 1 Chapter Two "Penetrated through and through by the scenery": The Impact of Landscape on Powys p. 11 Chapter Three "Traditions, old and dark and superstitious and malign"t The Mythic Background of Powys' Fiction p. Chapter Four "Occult Harmonies"! Wood and Stone .. p. 76 Chapter Five A Glastonbury Romance p. 101 Chapter Six "A Monstrous Grotesqueness": Maiden Castle p. 151 Chapter Seven "The Past is the Eternal": Owen Glendower p. 191 Chapter Eight "This huge, composite earth-creature": pP"^ us P. 21? Chapter Nine Conclusion p. 267 A Selected Bibliography p. 275 V Note t Textual References to Primary Sources Page references to the five novels studied are to the following editions i Wood and Stonei A Romance. New York: G. Arnold Shaw, 1915. A Glastonbury Romance. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1932. Maiden Castle. 1936; rpt. London: Macdonald, 1966. Owen Glendower: An Historical Novel. 2 vols. New York* Simon and Schuster, 19^0. Porius1 A Romance of the Dark Ages. London* Macdonald, 1951. Page references to other works of Powys cited are to the following editions : Atlantis. London i Macdonald, 195^. Autobiography. New York 1 Simon and Schuster, 193^-. Ducdame. New Yorki Doubleday, Page and Co., 1925. The Inmates. London 1 Macdonald, 1952. Morwyn; Or The Vengeance of God. London 1 Cassell, 1937. Obstinate Cymric> Essays 1935-^7. Carmarthen 1 Druid Press, 1947. Suspended Judgements! Essays on Books and Sensations. New York: G. Arnold Shaw, 1916. Visions and Revisions: A Book of Literary Devotions. 1915; rpt. London: Macdonald, 1955. Weymouth Sands: A Novel. 193^-; rpt. London: Macdonald, 1963. ~ Wolf Solent: A Novel. ' 2 vols. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1929. Chapter One t Introduction What Is romance? I think it is the instinctive recognition of a certain poetic glamour which an especial kind of grouping of persons and things — of persons and things seen under a particular light — is able to produce .... I think this quality of romance can only be evoked when the background of the story Is heavily laden with old, rich, dim, pathetic, human associations . The characters must be penetrated through and through by the scenery which surrounds them and by the traditions, old and dark and superstitious and malign, of some particular spot upon earth's surface. The scenery which is the background of a tale which has the true romantic quality must gather itself together and concentrate itself in some kind of symbolic unity; and this symbolic unity — wherein the various elements of grandeur and mystery are merged must present Itself as something almost personal and as a dynamic 'motif in the development of plot. ("Emily Bronte," Suspended Judgements. 322-23) ' In this definition of romance taken from his essay on Emily Bronte, John Cowper Powys gives a valuable explication of two major elements in his own fiction — landscape and myth. He indicates that landscape and myth may be seen as working together to create a particular atmosphere, "the true romantic quality" which is, although in a somewhat different sense, a characteristic of his work as much as of that of Emily Bronte. This dissertation is concerned with the functions of landscape and mythological allusions in Powys' fiction, first in general terms and then specifically as they work together in five significant novels. As much as those of Hardy, the novels of Powys are deeply rooted in a sense of place, and much of their conflict develops 2 through the effect of a particular locality upon the characters who live there or come there. In finding correspondences between the scenery and legends of a locality and the psycho• logical states of his personae, Powys places himself within the romantic tradition which, while it abounds in detailed, realistic depiction of nature, basically views nature in a mystical, symbolic way. Writing of Emily Bronte, Powys defines the "poetic glamour" that is Instinct in the romance as the product of an atmosphere created by the topography and past associations of "some particular spot upon earth's surface." The two elements essential to romance, then, are landscape and a sense of the past — both the legendary and the historical past. Landscape and the past work together to form the atmos• phere of a place which has "the true romantic quality;" this atmosphere is taken in intuitively, and has its psychological effect on Powys' characters whether they feel ln harmony with it (Geard, Uryen), deliberately fight it (John Crow, Rhisiart) or remain unaware of it (Farmer Goring). Although reasons of space preclude a detailed study of all Powys* fiction, it is fair to say that the five novels examined here are more fully "romances" in Powys' sense of the term than any of his other books.