Repression and Realism in Postwar American Literature 1945-1955
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Repression and Realism in Postwar American Literature 1945-1955 By Erin Mercer A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Victoria University of Wellington 2010 i Abstract This thesis focuses on the uncanny in literature produced in America during the first decade following World War II. The period between 1945 and 1955 was marked by repressive socio-political forces such as McCarthyism and cultural conformity which complicated the representation of what Philip Roth refers to as “demonic reality.” I explore the ways in which the avoidance and minimisation of the unpleasant created a highly circumscribed version of postwar American life while also generating a sense of objectless anxiety. According to the theories of Sigmund Freud, repression inevitably stages a return registered as the “uncanny.” Animism, magic, the omnipotence of thoughts, the castration complex, death, the double, madness, involuntary repetition compulsion, live burial and haunting are all deemed capable of provoking a particular anxiety connected to what lies beneath the surface of accepted reality. Although it is common to argue that fantasy genres such as science fiction and gothic represent the return of what is repressed, this thesis explores several realist novels displaying uncanny characteristics. The realist novels included here are uncanny not only because they depict weird automaton-like characters, haunting, and castration anxieties, thus exhibiting a conscious use of Freudian theory, but because the texts themselves act as the return of the repressed. Norman Mailer referred to this unsettling phenomenon when he described writing as the “spooky” art; spooky because although a writer might sit down to consciously write a particular story, another unwilled story might very well appear. ii Acknowledgements My most heartfelt thanks go to my supervisors Charles Ferrall and Anna Jackson whose tireless efforts in reading innumerable drafts, offering suggestions and editing manuscripts was only matched by their generous willingness to provide letters of support for financial assistance and job opportunities. Over the four years it has taken to complete my MA and PhD, they have never once failed to make time for me, regardless of the significant demands posed to them by teaching, research and family. Their expertise and intelligence has been invaluable; so too has their encouragement and humour - I doubt that other postgraduate students enjoy such lively supervisor meetings! The best parts of this study must be attributed to their insight and support, while any deficiencies are entirely my own. I would also like to thank the staff in the School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, particularly Harry Ricketts, who took time from his busy schedule to share his expertise in the poetry of World War I, and Mark Williams, whose advice was eagerly sought and generously given. His cheery “Good Morning” at the start of each day was much appreciated. Thanks to Helen O‟Sullivan, who patiently guided me through various administrative duties and never once laughed at my inability to work the fax machine. Special thanks go to Peter Whiteford, who kindly took the time to advise me on writing a curriculum vitae and who was nothing but encouraging during the fraught process of looking for employment. My studies were generous funded by Victoria University of Wellington, both through a PhD Scholarship and faculty funding enabling me to conduct research in Auckland, Sydney and New York. The New Zealand Education Postgraduate Study Abroad Award enabled me to deliver a paper based on my research at the 2008 iii Australian and New Zealand Association of American Studies, which was an invaluable experience. I am extremely grateful to the J.L. and Kathleen Stewart Postgraduate Research Experience Travel Award, which allowed me to conduct research at New York Public Library‟s Berg Collection. This award enabled me to access manuscripts and unpublished letters, primary resources I would not have been able to utilise without financial support. There are of course innumerable other people who assist in various ways over the period it takes to complete a PhD thesis. I am particularly indebted to Eluned Summers-Bremner at the University of Auckland, who generously allowed a perfect stranger to attend one of her graduate workshops on post-World War II British fiction. Her class provided me with valuable insight as to what was occurring in Britain during the period I was focusing on in American literature and her continuing mentorship has been invaluable. Thanks also to Richard Nicholson at the University of Auckland who organised the opportunity for me to deliver a seminar to the Faculty of Arts based on my research. I am particularly grateful to Anne Garner at the New York Public Library‟s Berg Collection whose suggestions as to what papers to look at during my period of research at the collection proved very fruitful. Lastly, thanks always to my mother Pamela Mercer, whose care packages and unwavering support are the foundation of everything I do, and to Zhenya, whose name is always last on the list and first in my heart. Your love and light make forays into darkness possible, so this is for you. iv Contents Introduction Missing in Action: Repression, Return, and the Postwar Uncanny 1 - 49 Chapter One Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead 50 - 82 Chapter Two Haunting and Race: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man 83 - 120 Chapter Three The Sacred Other: Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood 121 - 155 Chapter Four The Dubious Double: Saul Bellow’s The Victim 156 - 194 Chapter Five The Familiar Made Strange: Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky 195 - 226 Chapter Six Repression and Confession: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road 227 - 246 Conclusion The Concealment that Fails to Conceal 247 - 259 Works Cited 260 - 292 - 1 - Missing in Action: Repression, Return, and the Postwar Uncanny Repression: c. Psychol. The action, process, or result of suppressing into the unconscious or keeping out of the conscious mind unacceptable memories or desires. During the first decade following 1945, America was dealing with the effects of a war with a casualty toll of an estimated fifty million people, as well as grappling with a new Cold War reality that threatened complete annihilation, yet even the most cursory glance over literature produced between 1945 and 1955 reveals a widespread avoidance of what Philip Roth terms “demonic reality” (Reading Myself 90). While there is little reason to expect Americans to write novels about the actual war, given that conflict occurred at a distance and that information regarding the personal impact of the Holocaust and the bomb was so difficult to obtain, it is reasonable to expect writers of realism to engage with a postwar reality quite different than that of previous decades. The end of World War II might have been the start of an invigorated literary tradition, such as occurred following the First World War, but this was not to be the case. Early war novels such as James Gould Cozzens‟ Guard of Honor (1948) and Herman Wouk‟s The Caine Mutiny (1950) studiously avoid both the Holocaust and the atomic bomb, even managing in many cases to completely avoid depictions of combat, and popular novels such as The Hucksters (1946) and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955) purport to deal with the new difficulties facing the postwar American, but imply that the most pressing threat to existence is conformity and corporatisation. One critic disappointedly observed that “Since 1945, when all signs - 1 - - 2 - pointed to a literary revival comparable to that after World War I, our literature has actually been in a state of decline” (Geismar 53). Although some critics were vocal in registering their discontent with a literature that seemed banal and lifeless when compared with that of recent decades, this banality was not linked to the exclusion of disturbing subject matter. In fact, critics frequently expressed gratitude at the avoidance of disturbing material. In a 1952 review of Ralph Ellison‟s Invisible Man, Irving Howe describes the famous battle royal scene and then reassures the reader that “Nothing, fortunately, in the rest of the novel is quite so harrowing” (454). As Richard Bessel and Dirk Schumann point out that “there can be little doubt that the social and cultural effects of the mass experience of violence and death during the 1940s were profound and colored all aspects of life during the postwar decades, even when this was not necessarily articulated explicitly”, but what these effects actually were and what constitutes the connections between the violence of the 1940s and the normality of the 1950s remains “extremely speculative” (7). The first four decades of the twentieth century saw American culture far more willing to acknowledge the more disquieting aspects of modern life. Literature from the 1890s was marked by social protest, particularly in the works of naturalist writers such as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser, and later writers such as Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos. Lewis‟ novel Main Street (1920), Steinbeck‟s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Clifford Odets‟s play Waiting for Lefty (1935) are all examples of early twentieth century American literature engaged with social inequality, economic disparity and the need for reform. Difficult economic conditions following the First World War and intellectual currents such as Freudian psychology and Marxism contributed to the breakdown of traditional values and young Americans - 2 - - 3 - of the 1920s were deemed “the lost generation.” One result of the turbulence of these years was a rich literary movement spearheaded by writers such as William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, F.