Proquest Dissertations
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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA UNO800-521-0600 A DISEASE OF THE SPIRIT: THE IDENTIFICATION AND EXAMINATION OF SHAME IN SELECTED WORKS OF MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Cray Little, BA., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1999 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Anthony Libby, Advisor Professor Walter A. Davis Advisor Professor Jeredith Merrin Department o£/English UMI Number: 9951689 Copyright 2000 by Little, Cray All rights reserved (S> UMI Microform 9951689 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Diformatlon and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition Is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Belt & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ABSTRACT Using the concepts of affect theory and, more particularly, shame psychology, this dissertation analyzes a number of well-known literary characters whose behavior has been influenced in significant ways by an affect to which they cannot put a name. The five authors (William Faulkner, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Nathanael West, and Tennessee Williams) whose writings are explored in this dissertation illuminate the analytic landscape o f shame theory by providing critical insights into the psychodynamics of this affect. Although shame was neglected in the realm o f human psychology until recently, these writers demonstrate through their characterizations that shame affect possesses the power to produce substantial psychological turmoil. In this way, literature gave us examples of shame-based characters before psychology fully understood the importance of the affect. As this dissertation demonstrates, through our understanding of shame dynamics we can now achieve an important new perspective from which to view characters complicated by their interactions with a complex modem industrial culture that redefined a number of paradigms. Through detailed discussions of character behavior and, when available, familial history, the argument is made in this dissertation that, while many cogent analyses of these complex characters have been conducted by literary critics, a new interpretive methodology is required to uncover both the origins and the responses to unidentified Ü affect. Shame theory adds to previous interpretations by providing fuller and, in many cases, more accurate accounts o f the motivations underlying the behavior o f characters confronted by an entirely new set o f expectations and other demands that expose them to additional pressures. The dissertation includes a summary o f shame psychology, including shame's primary origins and symptoms, a discussion of shame's long neglect by the field of psychology and the role Freud played in this neglect, and shame's virtual disappearance from American consciousness during the modem period. m Dedicated to Heidi Little Oglesbee IV ACKNDWLEDOVENrS I wish to thank my advisor, Tony Libby, whose countless reviews and patient guidance helped me immeasurably. I also wish to thank the other members of my dissertation committee. Mac Davis and Jeredith Merrin, for their encouragement and their helpful suggestions. I am grateful to Judy Alvarez, whose capable and patient word processing assistance I could not do without. Finally, I thank my family members, Rachel, Chuck, and Kathryn, for their unwavering support and patient understanding throughout my doctoral studies. VITA February 2, 1946 .............................. ....... Bom —Camden, N. J. 1980 .........................................................JM. A., The Ohio State University 1992 - 1997 ...............................................Graduate Administrative, Research and Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 1997 — present .........................................Xecturer, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ü Dedication.................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ..................................................................................... v V ita............................ vi Chapters: Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 1. Fundamentals of Shame Theory: A Portal to a New Understanding of Character Motivation........................................................................................................................ 12 I. What Shame Is and How It Is Distinguished from Guilt.................................... 13 H. Shame and Human Experience ............................................................................. 22 m. Meta-shame and the Diminution of Self............................................................ 27 IV. Freud and the Neglect of Shame ........................................................................ 29 V. The Importance o f Studying Shame in Modem American Literature............... 36 VI. Hidden Shame and Its Identification ................................... ................................ 40 Vn. The Symptoms of Shame..................................................................................... 42 2. Tomkins, Foucault, and Contemporary Theorists: Shame Dynamics and the Process of Internalization.............................................................................. 57 I. The Phenomenology of Shame........................................................................... 57 n. Affect Theory....................................................................................................... 61 m. Shame and Merpersonal Relationships ................................................... 63 IV. Cultural Origins o f Sham e.................................................................................. 70 V. Internalization o f Sham e..................................................................................... 75 VI. Foucault and the fritemalization of Shame....................................................... 82 vu 3. The Generational Nature of Shame: The Lomans and the Tyrones......................... 91 4. Master of Shame: William Faulkner and the Humiliated S e lf................................... 150 5. Culminating Responses of a Shame-based Psyche: Flight, Rage, and Violence In Works by Tennessee Williams and Nathanael W est ..............................................219 6. The Meaning Behind the Masquerade: Narcissism and Illusion in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Dav of the Locust................................................................ 261 Conclusion................................ 295 Bibliography.................................................... 298 vm INTRODUCTION There are a number of major characters in modem American literature whose behavior can be better understood through an examination of their internalized shame.^ For the last twenty years or so, shame has become the focus o f study of a relatively small group o f psychoanalysts and sociologists who believe that shame plays a far more significant role in the formation o f personality and behavior than has been acknowledged heretofore (except by a few psychologists and sociologists, including Helen Lewis and Helen Lynd, who conducted clinical observations based on shame affect in a number of patients beginning in the 1950s)/ The importance of shame was popularized in 1988 with the publication of John Bradshaw's Healing the Shame That Binds YoUy the third ' The psychodynamic process of the intemalization ofsham e is discussed in Chapter Two, along with affect theory. (Affect is defined by Kaufman as the "primary, innate biological motivating mechanism" [Psychology o f Shame viii]. While sham e is generally tfaou^t of as an emotion—indeed, Kaufman refers to affect as "an emotion or feeling—not a thought, drive, or interpersonal phenomenon per[Shame se" xi]—the