Diplomarbeit
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DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit “Protagonists and worldview in the work of Tom Waits“ Verfasser Emanuel Riedmann angestrebter akademischer Grad Magister der Philosophie (Mag.phil.) Wien, 2013 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 343 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Diplomstudium der Anglistik Betreuerin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Mag. Eva Zettelmann 2 Acknowledgements Special thanks to Alba, my family and friends (you know who you are). F and the gang. M and S for lending me their netbook when my own computer went down only a few weeks before deadline. The Alter Rhein Crew. El Equipo del CNB. Thanks to L, for introducing me to French existentialism while getting lost on a Spanish highway. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Eva Zettelmann from the University of Vienna, and Dr. Jordi Coral from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona for their much appreciated help and support. Last but not least, many thanks to St. After reading one of my short stories about ten years ago, your comment, “This kind of reminds me of Tom Waits... Do you know that guy?” sent me off on quite a ride. 3 Table of contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.Outline of theoretical framework ..................................................................................... 8 2. Tom Waits ..................................................................................................................... 15 2.1. A short biography of Thomas Alan Waits ............................................................. 15 2.2. A brief introduction to his work ............................................................................. 18 2.3. Presentation of albums to be considered ................................................................ 21 3. Discourse: selected elements ........................................................................................ 24 3.1. Organized chaos ..................................................................................................... 24 3.2. Catching songs ....................................................................................................... 28 4.Space .............................................................................................................................. 31 4.1. The creation of literary space ................................................................................. 31 4.2. Change of space ..................................................................................................... 36 4.3. The semantics of space .......................................................................................... 39 5. Themes .......................................................................................................................... 46 5.1. Permanent transience as both a goal and a curse ................................................... 46 5.2. A different kind of love .......................................................................................... 49 5.3. Hope ....................................................................................................................... 52 5.4. Humour .................................................................................................................. 56 5.5. Moral code ............................................................................................................. 61 6. Protagonists ................................................................................................................... 65 6.1. Doomed wanderers ................................................................................................ 65 6.2. A different kind of princess ................................................................................... 69 6.3. Hopers and dreamers .............................................................................................. 75 6.4. Humorous characters ............................................................................................. 80 6.5. Characters that convey a moral message ............................................................... 84 7. Worldviews ................................................................................................................... 88 7.1. Between religion and nihilism ............................................................................... 88 7.2. Between fatalism and responsibility ...................................................................... 94 7.3. Existentialism ....................................................................................................... 101 8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 108 4 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 118 Index ............................................................................................................................... 127 Abstract (Englisch) ........................................................................................................ 129 Abstrakt (deutsch) ........................................................................................................... 130 Curriculum Vitae ............................................................................................................ 131 5 Introduction In his 40-year-long career, Tom Waits has gained a fine reputation as a musician, songwriter, poet and actor. His music has been nominated for an Oscar, three Grammys, of which he has been awarded two so far, and he was finally inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Waits’ trademarks are his raspy growl of a voice, unorthodox musical arrangements and a concern for America’s outcasts. Moreover, as several sources concur, he is a prolific storyteller (cf. Kessel 3; Jacobs 17, among others). Since this is apparently the case, it is surprising that narratological approaches to his work are almost non-existent. In its vast majority, literature on Tom Waits is still biographical. There are several biographies, for example, Wild Years – The Myth and Music of Tom Waits (2006) by Jacobs, Humphries’ Small Change – A life of Tom Waits (1989), and Hoskyns’ Lowside of the road – A life of Tom Waits (2009). To this we might add Montandon’s collection of interviews, Innocent when you dream – Tom Waits: The Collected Interviews (2005), as well as Maher’s Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters (2011). A few journal articles are obtainable, too. However, these analyses are either restricted to a single album, for example, Pesses’ What’s he building in there? The existential geography of Tom Waits (2011), which examines the album Mule Variations (1999). Or they examine very specific aspects but do not provide analyses of narratological elements. Solis’ interesting article Workin’ hard, hardly workin’ / Hey man, you know me: Tom Waits, Sound and the theatre of masculinity (2007) certainly deserves to be mentioned here. Therefore, Kessel’s The Words and Music of Tom Waits (2009) is the only analytical work which approaches Waits from a narratological angle. In Kessel’s analysis, “[the author’s] goal is to demonstrate how Tom Waits’[...] music and evocative lyrics chronicle the daily lives and unravel the tangled memories of the lowlifes, misfits, and outcasts of society” (Kessel XIIV). Her work is certainly ambitious and comprehensive, as she includes every album Waits has released in his forty-year career until the date of her publication in 2009. However, because of the wide range of material, much of the narratological part of her analysis remains rather superficial. Furthermore, one searches in vain 6 for narratological works in her bibliography. Since Waits is renowned as a storyteller, a more profound analysis in terms of narratology seems appropriate. Moreover, literature on Waits seems to focus too readily on his lowlife and vagabond image, which ultimately stems from his work in the seventies. Santoro’s (2004) description of Waits echoes the same image again, calling him “[a] sort of Romantic barbarian seer who [...] sympathizes with the pregnant women and Vietnam vets begging on the freeways, steps into the cool and still graveyard for a nap, and then hunkers down with an old stray dog in front of the furniture store window to catch a little TV” (239). The reference to the “cool and still graveyard” rephrases a line from “Cold Water” (Mule Variations), released in 1999. That is, Waits’ old image is imposed on his more recent work, without giving sufficient credit to developments and novelties. This highlights the profound interest in Waits’ on-stage persona and his image, which is also reflected in the large number of Waits biographies. However, such ready-made categorizations hardly do justice to the versatility and depth of his work. The same themes and characters may still appear on his albums, but for about twenty years now, Tom Waits has been dealing with a variety of new ones. With Bone Machine (1992) he started to ask “bigger questions” about life, as Kessel correctly points out, but then fails to elaborate on in more detail. My goal is to provide a narratological analysis of character and space, and to examine the underlying worldviews in Waits’ oeuvre. I will analyze aspects of his work which have been widely neglected so far, and also offer new