Saul Bellow's Creation of Ambiguity and Deception in Herzog and the Dean's December
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Ideological Tension in Four Novels by Saul Bellow
Ideological Tension in Four Novels by Saul Bellow June Jocelyn Sacks Dissertation submitted in fulfilmentTown of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts atCape the Universityof of Cape Town Univesity Department of English April 1987 Supervisor: Dr Ian Glenn The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University Contents Page. Abstract i Acknowledgements vi Introduction Chapter One Dangling Man 15 Chapter Two The Victim 56 Chapter Three Herzog 99 Chapter Four Mr Sammler's Planet 153 Notes 190 Bibliography 212 Abstract This study examines and evaluates critically four novels by Saul Bellow: Dangling Man, The Victim, Herzog and Mr Sammler's Planet. The emphasis is on the tension between certain aspects of modernity to which many of the characters are attracted, and the latent Jewishness of their creator. Bellow's Jewish heritage suggests alternate ways of being to those advocated by the enlightened thought of liberal Humanism, for example, or by one of its offshoots, Existenti'alism, or by "wasteland" ideologies. Bellow propounds certain ideas about the purpose of the novel in various articles, and these are discussed briefly in the introduction. His dismissal of the prophets of doom, those thinkers and writers who are pessimistic about the fate of humankind and the continued existence of the novel, is emphatic and certain. -
Henderson the Rain King and the Spiritual Quest
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume3, Number1. February 2019 Pp. 87 -99 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol3no1.7 “Imaginary Homelands”: Henderson the Rain King and the Spiritual Quest Ramzi B. Mohamed MARROUCHI Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Communication Sultan ZinalAbidin University Terengganu, Malaysia Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Communication Sultan ZinalAbidin University Terengganu, Malaysia Abstract: This paper investigates how and why the spiritual quest of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King (1959) enigmatically results in madness. The identity of the American subject should be investigated in the light of his/her restless search of “Other modes of freedom” and imaginary homelands. -Pondering upon this, the researcher realizes that three fundamental questions need to be addressed: What are the aspects of Henderson's spiritual quest? -As a Jewish hero, how could Henderson be associated with quest, victimization and madness? Can one think about identity or identities? To unmask these blind spots, the theme of the quest will be investigated, first. The researcher shall trace Henderson's movement from a material world – New York – to a spiritual and romantic one, Africa. Second, Henderson's failure to cope with the new world and therefore his failure to (re) – construct the identity of the American character will be examined in details. This safely allows us to argue for the madness of the hero. The conclusion is that there is no ‘absolute identity’ to the American subject. Henderson's attempts to re-construct a “new identity” shall be seen in line with poststructuralist premises regarding “difference, multiplicity, other, cultural diversity.” Key Words: Alienation, Henderson the Rain King, Hegel, identity, Saul Bellow Cites as: MARROUCHI, R. -
By 2007 a Dissertation Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements of The
THE PROVOCATION OF SAUL BELLOW: PERFECTIONISM AND TRAVEL IN THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH AND HERZOG by ADAM ATKINSON 2007 A dissertation presented in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in English University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy School of Humanities and Social Sciences ii * I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgment is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. ____________________________________ Adam Atkinson 30 June 2007 iii iv Abstract A consistent feature of Saul Bellow’s fiction is the protagonist’s encounter with one or more teaching figures. Dialogue with such individuals prompts the Bellovian protagonist to reject his current state of selfhood as inadequate and provokes him to re-form as a new person. The teacher figure offers a better self to which the protagonist is attracted; or, more frequently in Bellow, the protagonist is repelled by both his teacher and his own current state to form a new, previously unrepresented self. -
The Tourism of Titillation in Tijuana and Niagara Falls: Cross-Border Tourism and Hollywood Films Between 1896 and 1960"
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Érudit Article "The Tourism of Titillation in Tijuana and Niagara Falls: Cross-Border Tourism and Hollywood Films between 1896 and 1960" Dominique Brégent-Heald Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada, vol. 17, n° 1, 2006, p. 179-203. Pour citer cet article, utiliser l'information suivante : URI: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/016107ar DOI: 10.7202/016107ar Note : les règles d'écriture des références bibliographiques peuvent varier selon les différents domaines du savoir. Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter à l'URI https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. Érudit offre des services d'édition numérique de documents scientifiques depuis 1998. Pour communiquer avec les responsables d'Érudit : [email protected] Document téléchargé le 9 février 2017 10:21 The Tourism of Titillation in Tijuana and Niagara Falls: Cross-Border Tourism and Hollywood Films between 1896 and 1960 DOMINIQUE BRÉGENT-HEALD Abstract In the popular imaginary, Tijuana, Mexico is notorious for its liberal laws concerning prostitution, gambling, and narcotics. Conversely, Niagara Falls, Canada apparently offers visitors only wholesome attractions. Yet this sweep- ing generalization belies the historic parallels that exist between these iconic border towns. -
Frankl in Fiction: Logotherapy in Selected Works of Saul Bellow
FRANKL IN FICTION: LOGOTHERAPY IN SELECTED WORKS OF SAUL BELLOW A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of California State University Dominguez Hills In Pa1tial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Humanities by Aaron Lowers Fall 2016 Copyright by AARON LOWERS 2016 All Rights Reserved In loving memory of my mother, Diana, without whom this work would not have been possible . 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to acknowledge my mentor and thesis committee chair, Patricia Cherin, for her constant encouragement and insightful advice . I want to thank Reality Thornewood whose research assistance made this work possible. I want to aclmowledge Cory Dauer and Sharon Dias for adjusting my work schedule to allow me to pursue my studies. I also want to thank Emiliano Lopez , M. Medonis and B. Cruz for their technical assistance. Finally, I want to thank my family for their understanding and patience throughout this process. l V TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE COPYRIGHT·PAGE ............................................................. .................................. ............ ii DEDICATION ................... .......................... ................................................................. ..... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................. ........ .......................... ................ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................ ..................................................... v ABSTRACT ...................... .................................. ....................... -
The Search to Be Human in Dangling Man
[Expositions 6.1 (2012) 52–58] Expositions (online) ISSN: 1747–5376 The Search to Be Human in Dangling Man LEE TREPANIER Saginaw Valley State University Bellow’s first novel, Dangling Man (1944), is about a man named Joseph who does not know how to integrate himself in American life without losing the spiritual value of his isolation from society. Influenced by the current milieu of the time of modernism and existentialism, Bellow presents an alienated hero who seeks to find meaning in a hostile environment.1 Written as a diary, the novel’s principal audience is himself as he details the life of a young man who believes that spiritual enlightenment can be obtained by isolating himself from society in order to study the thinkers of the Enlightenment. As the months pass, Joseph erupts into anti-social behavior, quarrels with his friends and relatives, and succumbs to outbursts of paranoia and violent behavior. At the end of the novel he admits that his experiment has been a failure and that his search for meaning cannot be conducted in this manner. Reduced to the same common physical, social, and historical denominator as everyone else, Joseph joins the Army to live a life of regular hours and regimentation. Initial reviews of the novel were positive and focused on the theme of Joseph’s alienation from society: a “dangling hero” who faces the disillusionment of his age.2 Subsequent criticisms have explored Joseph representing an alternate set of values for the modern age with his attempts to subvert the idea of an objective reality subscribed -
Human Quest in Saul Bellow's Novels Henderson the Rain King and The
Eger Journal of English Studies V (2005) 111–119 Human Quest in Saul Bellow’s Novels Henderson the Rain King and The Adventures of Augie March Daina Miniotaite American fiction (…) in one of its large, vivid strains, opted for the territory ahead; for a verbal world elsewhere; for a perpetual reconstitution of romance within the novel; for pursuit of the true IT… the self in its wholeness. Whatever else the Great American Novel may be, it has been, throughout its history, a fiction zestfully committed to motion and to the free transcendent individual. (Janis Stout quoted in Hassan 26) Great American writers have always been disposed to different forms of quest in their works as one of their main preoccupations is with the nature and the creation of the Self. Quests recover essential things to human life in encounters between cultures, with alien surroundings, people, animals, nature, or the Other; namely, the waking of individual in the knowledge of himself, knowledge about others, the world, and the meaning of life. American novels of quest lay emphasis on the nature of human freedom as the heroes of quest novels more often than not balance between their fear of being entrapped into some fixed forms of existence and that of having an amorphous identity or no identity at all. The present article focuses on Saul Bellow’s (1915-2005) novels Henderson the Rain King (1959) and The Adventures of Augie March (1953) in an attempt to trace the development of Bellow’s characters,- their efforts to understand themselves, establish their true identity and achieve spiritual maturity. -
The Jewish Motif of Intellectualism and Saul Bellow‟S Heroes
ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 600-604, April 2013 © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.3.4.600-604 The Jewish Motif of Intellectualism and Saul Bellow‟s Heroes Wensheng Deng Dept. of Foreign Languages, Beijing Institute of Petrol-chemical Technology, China Yan Wu Dept. of Foreign Languages, Beijing Institute of Petrol-chemical Technology, China Danli Su Dept. of Foreign Languages & Literatures, Tsinghua University, China Abstract—Based on the ‘intelligence motif’ in Jewish culture, this paper explores the heroes depicted in the novels by Saul Bellow. The authors hold that Saul Bellow repeatedly delineates his heroes as intellectuals embodied in the Jewish intelligence motif and associated with the Jewish tradition of intellectualism. The authors propose that Saul Bellow’s writings about the heroes are shadowed by the collective unconsciousness of the Jewish people. Index Terms—motif, Saul Bellow, Jewish literature, intellectualism I. INTRODUCTION The rise and fall of national literature are closely associated with its history. It is true whenever it refers to the Oriental literature or the Occidental ones. There are always some people and events occurring in some stage of the national history that offer vivid images of literary prototypes. The people or events are repeatedly portrayed, mentioned or sung, as they embody the national spirits, which echo to George Brandes (1842-1927), a Danish critic who thought literary history is a representation of its national spirit. The people or events still have some things in common, though they are often changed or adapted in writings by authors. -
Fiction Award Winners 2019
1989: Spartina by John Casey 2016: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen National Book 1988: Paris Trout by Pete Dexter 2015: All the Light We Cannot See by A. Doerr 1987: Paco’s Story by Larry Heinemann 2014: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Award 1986: World’s Fair by E. L. Doctorow 2013: Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 1985: White Noise by Don DeLillo 2012: No prize awarded 2011: A Visit from the Goon Squad “Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an 1984: Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist by Jennifer Egan American literary prize administered by the National 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker 2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization.” 1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike 2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - from the National Book Foundation website. 1980: Sophie’s Choice by William Styron 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 1979: Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien by Junot Diaz 2018: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez 1978: Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle 2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2017: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward 1977: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner 2006: March by Geraldine Brooks 2016: The Underground Railroad by Colson 1976: J.R. by William Gaddis 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Whitehead 1975: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone 2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones 2015: Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson The Hair of Harold Roux 2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2014: Redeployment by Phil Klay by Thomas Williams 2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo 2013: Good Lord Bird by James McBride 1974: Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 2001: The Amazing Adventures of 2012: Round House by Louise Erdrich 1973: Chimera by John Barth Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon 2011: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 1972: The Complete Stories 2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 2010: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon by Flannery O’Connor 1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham 2009: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann 1971: Mr. -
Henderson the Rain King in Light of Emerson‟S Theories of Transcendentalism
ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 831-835, May 2013 © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.3.5.831-835 Interpretation of Henderson the Rain King in Light of Emerson‟s Theories of Transcendentalism Dingming Wang English Department, Literature and Law School of Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya‟an, Sichuan Province, China Dini Zhang English Department, Literature and Law School of Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya‟an, Sichuan Province, China Abstract—Related to the basic features of Emerson’s theories of Transcendentalism, the exploration of the novel in this thesis goes on three aspects. First, Bellow’s concept of nature adopted in this novel is an expression of transcendental notion of nature. Secondly, in Henderson the Rain King Bellow also inherits the legacy of American transcendentalism as the emphasis of spirit or the oversoul. Thirdly, Bellow values individuality as highly as his literary predecessor Emerson did, however, in this novel he discards individualism. As Bellow’s first mature novel, Henderson the Rain King reflects Bellow’s attitude toward the tradition of American Transcendentalism: acceptance and surpass. Index Terms—Henderson the Rain King, Emerson transcendentalism I. INTRODUCTION Saul Bellow (1915—2005), the famous Jewish-American novelist, is considered as the greatest writer after William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway in the history of American literature. His first novel, Dangling Man, appeared in 1944, and his second, The Victim, was published in1947. Based on the strength of these two novels, Bellow was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1948. The prize allowed him to travel in Europe for two years. -
Fiction Winners
1984: Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson National Book Award 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker 2004: The Known World 1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike by Edward P. Jones 1980: Sophie’s Choice by William Styron 2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2015: Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson 2014: Redeployment by Phil Klay 1979: Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien 2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo 2013: Good Lord Bird by James McBride 1978: Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle 2001: The Amazing Adventures of 1977: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner 2012: Round House by Louise Erdrich Kavalier and Clay 2011: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 1976: J.R. by William Gaddis by Michael Chabon 1975: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone 2000: Interpreter of Maladies 2010: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 2009: Let the Great World Spin The Hair of Harold Roux by Jhumpa Lahiri by Colum McCann by Thomas Williams 1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham 1974: Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth 2008: Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen 1973: Chimera by John Barth 1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an 1972: The Complete Stories 2007: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson American Dreamer 2006: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers by Flannery O’Connor by Steven Millhauser 1971: Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow 1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford 2005: Europe Central by William T. Volmann 1970: Them by Joyce Carol Oates 1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields 2004: The News from Paraguay 1969: Steps -
The Subangelic Vision of Saul Bellow: a Study of His First Six Novels, 1944-1964
University of the Pacific Scholarly Commons University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 1966 The Subangelic Vision Of Saul Bellow: A Study Of His First Six Novels, 1944-1964 Robert Roy Dutton University of the Pacific Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds Recommended Citation Dutton, Robert Roy. (1966). The Subangelic Vision Of Saul Bellow: A Study Of His First Six Novels, 1944-1964. University of the Pacific, Dissertation. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2816 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SUBANGELIC VISION OP SAUL BELLOWI A STUDY OP HIS FIRST SIX NOVELS, 194^ - 196^ / A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School The University of the Paclflo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Robert Roy Dutton February 1966 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation, written and submitted by / W , ; f Hy-turzu is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council, University of the Pacific, Department Chairman or Dean: ('■ ftU„,________________ Dissertation Committee: r"7 ( > a 0. C XT ■ _3^'' ~ Dated Jlj, < /. K, X H - , i 9 c & Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 I. "FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN OF ANGELS" (Dangling Man) ...........