Discourse of Myth and Demythification in Gore Vidal's Julian
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JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 DISCOURSE OF MYTH AND DEMYTHIFICATION IN GORE VIDAL’S JULIAN Dr.G.Dhanavel, Assistant professor, Sri Balaji Arts and Science College, Chennai. Abstract Gore Vidal is one of the greatest twentieth century American novelists. He wrote almost every genre except poetry. He wrote short-stories and novels, and he was also considered as a master essayist. His powerful satire of the religious, mythological, historical, sexual, literary and academic ideologies of America in the characteristic method of textual play of conflictive discourses which engenders a decenterd worldview thus proves beyond doubt that he is a deconstructive satirist. This paper deals with Gore Vidal’s parody on the myths perpetuated by religious ideologies as perceived in Vidal’s Julian. It shows how Vidal uncovers the fraudulency of the religions, especially Christianity and the various cults that emanate from them. He also deconstructs Christ by exploiting the volatility of these signifiers which do not have any objective signified, and by a reversal of the Christ/Antichrist opposition in John Cave. The deconstruction of these figures also effects the subversion of the doctrines of Christianity and mocks at those who believe in them. The affectation, hypocrisy and superstition found m historical Christianity and bred by the religions and cults are also delineated. It also elucidates the effects of the commercialization of religion, its power and hegemony over the masses that could result in a totalitarian religious order or unleash a potent destructive force that can destroy the world, through the machinizations of a crazy cult leader. Vidal’s uncovering of the evils within the ideology of the system of organized religions ruptures any blind adherence to them. Keywords: Christianity, Myth, Religion, Demythification Volume XIII Issue III MARCH 2020 Page No: 1490 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 Gore Vidal is one of the greatest twentieth century American novelists. He wrote almost every genre except poetry. He wrote short-stories and novels, and he was also considered as a master essayist. His powerful satire of the religious, mythological, historical, sexual, literary and academic ideologies of America in the characteristic method of textual play of conflictive discourses which engenders a decenterd worldview thus proves beyond doubt that he is a deconstructive satirist. But this has so far been lost on critics, clouded by his reputation as a popular writer. This is further compounded by the fact of his versatility as writer. The ease with which he succeeds in every field he enters has baffled many critics. More than either of these factors, however, the radical indeterminacy of his works has made it difficult for critics to categorize him. It is the decentered view of the world combined with the radical indeterminacy in his novels and essays which makes it difficult for critics to categorize Vidal. The indeterminacy of his novels is further evidenced in the dual nature of his works which also defies a critic’s attempt at any final say on Vidal’s art. Having been persistently anti-American, anti-institutional, anti-Christian and anti-traditional, His purported allegiance to the eighteenth century aesthetic of the novel has puzzled many critics. One would have expected a person so anti-traditional to have accepted the vanguard of experimental art. Yet Vidal with his iconoclastic outlook of life and his ridicule of all that is traditional only mocks at experimental art/postmodern theory. This is rather difficult for critics to reconcile with. The popularity, moreover, of Vidal’s writings is a sore in the eyes of the academicians. For years, his books have been on the list of bestsellers. But, he has also proved to his critics and readers alike that his books are not mere slapstick entertainers without substance. The painstaking research of the historical novels and scholarship of all the works in general, as well as the parody of the academic/experimental novels show that even Vidal is academic to an extent and can play with the academic as the academic plays with Volume XIII Issue III MARCH 2020 Page No: 1491 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 words. Again, his mobile skills defy unambiguous labeling. Religion is a very common subject of satire. The serious demands religion imposes on man and affectation and hypocrisy that it engenders has always been the butt of ridicule. Both clergy and laymen are thus favourite targets of attack. Yet not many have attacked, mocked or ridiculed Godhead itself. Traditionally, it is a forbidden subject and is considered an act of hubris. But the sense of ennui, meaninglessness of life, and the consequent declaration of the “death of god” by the existentialist, during the post-war period, saw the myth of godhead exploded and made possible a satirical attack of godhead itself. In Julian (1964) Vidal deconstructs the myths of Christ and attacks the religious ideologies of Christianity. Through a subversive portrayal of the deity in the protagonist of the novel, Vidal undoes the deityship of Christ, contests their doctrinal claims, and simultaneously ridicules the adherents of these faiths. In the process Vidal uncovers the superstition, hypocrisy, affectation, and destructive force of the religious cults that prosper on the gullibility of masses. Vidal’s process of ‘demythification’ in his novels strikes at the very heart of godhead and the spuriousness of religion itself, thereby positing a re-examination of religious beliefs that man so blindly adheres to. Religion has played a major role in shaping the character, society, and culture of America. As the Pilgrim Fathers flew from persecution into the New World, they also created myths that assured them of God’s special protection and care. America was, to them, the Promised Land, and they saw themselves as the covenant people. While the country evolved through the centuries, religion too evolved into h plurality, but the essence of the Christian beliefs was never lost. America still visualised itself as the nation “under God” and religion directed the social, political, and even economic considerations of the country, indeed of life itself. The decades of the 1950s were no exception either. When Vidal wrote Julian, America was revelling in the optimism of its post-war materialistic boom. Having emerged Volume XIII Issue III MARCH 2020 Page No: 1492 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 unscathed from the war and establishing itself as a world power economically, militarily and scientifically, America, proved itself, as it were, to be a nation “under God.” As dollars after dollars rolled out from the mint with the legend “In God We Trust,” America experienced a religious revival. Simultaneously there occurred a media explosion making the world a “global village.” Revivalists were quick to grab this opportunity and turned the television into a pulpit, where sinners could be saved by the “blood of the Lamb.” Consequently, religious organizations on the lines of industries and enterprises cropped up their influence as ever permeating the culture of the States. Each of them proclaimed a saviour, knowledge of afterlife, a second coming, and the end of the world with different yet appealing flavours. In spite of the seeping materialism and scientific spirit America accommodated various mystic theologies propounding life after death that was, in Vidal’s view more often than not, ridden with deep-seated superstitious beliefs. Julian is written in this background but it is primarily products of Vidal’s reading of the life of Christ in the Gospels, and Ecclesiastical history. The life of Christ exists as extant myths in the national consciousness of the nation, America. This enabled Vidal to accomplish with the participation of the reader, the deconstruction of the myths. Vidal’s strategy follows the method explained in the last chapter. As he converts his reading into writing, that is, the history of Christianity and the myths of Christ into the novel, Vidal retain the original significance or the formal structure of the history/myth while introducing an opposing signification, thereby rupturing the original mythical/historical text. Julian supplements Messiah in its questioning of Christianity. Its method is that of direct denunciation and the traditional ironic differences of ideal and practice/appearance and reality. But the story emerges through the separate discourses of three narrators, which question, relativize each other and render the text problematic. In the context of Christianity, however, Vidal brings such binaries as Old Testament/New Testament, Volume XIII Issue III MARCH 2020 Page No: 1493 JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 Christianity/Hellenism into play to rupture the deityship of Christ and the doctrines of Christianity. In the process he also works on the image of Julian, redeems him to that of a secularist while simultaneously undercutting it by a contradictory ironic discourse of his belief in Mithraism. He thus renders the figure of Julian problematic by juxtaposing his opposition to Christianity with secularism which is in turn undermined by Julian’s faith in Mithraism. The mythical/historical content of all the three novels traverses, crosses and informs each other. But Vidal uses this mythical/historical content in the postmodernist manner. Traditionally mythology and literature were indistinguishable. The primal literature of many nations is thus totally mythological. For example, Greek and Indian literatures cannot be differentiated from their mythology. They are the same. In their use of such a mythology, great masters drew heavily from it in the allusive and archetypal mode. Myths in literature were a matter of common usage that more often than not provided the plot-structure and story element of many works. It became a wholesome part of the content of these works thus lending to them universality.