Politics and Philosophy in the Writings of Robert Penn Warren. Billy Berryhill Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 2000 Politics and Philosophy in the Writings of Robert Penn Warren. Billy Berryhill Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Berryhill, Billy, "Politics and Philosophy in the Writings of Robert Penn Warren." (2000). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7338. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/7338 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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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 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT PENN WARREN A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment o f the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Billy Berryhill B.A., University of Mississippi, 1993 JD ., University of Mississippi School of Law, 2000 December 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9998657 UMI___ ® UMI Microform 9998657 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. T a b le o f C on tents ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................. iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION..................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: PHILOSOPHY AND POETRY ..........................................................18 Literature as Knowledge .........................................................................................18 The Story of All the King’s Men ...........................................................................35 The Philosophical Novelist at Work: How All the King’s Men Was W ritten .................................................................. 51 CHAPTER THREE: THE IMAGE OF M A N .................................................................. 66 Brother to Dragons and the Rejection o f‘Rousseauism” ................................... 66 John Brown and the Rejection o f Ideology ........................................................... 79 The Metaphysical Basis of Original Sin ................................................................85 CHAPTER FOUR: NATURALISM AND VIRTUE .......................................................96 “The Passionate Emptiness of Men” .......................................................................96 “A Highly Documented Picture of the Modem World”: The Role of Jack Burden in All the King’s M e n .................................................I l l The “True Lie” ........................................................................................................ 117 R.P.W. and the Necessity of Virtue .....................................................................120 The Education of Jack Burden ..............................................................................132 CHAPTER FIVE: THE OLD DRAMA OF POWER AND ETHICS...........................147 The Fable of the Night Rider ................................................................................147 All the King’s Men as Tragedy..............................................................................158 The Role and Use of Tradition ..............................................................................170 CHAPTER SIX: WARREN’S AMERICAN VISION REVISITED.............................178 Jefferson and America...........................................................................................178 The South, Legalism, and the Problem of Race ................................................... 183 The North, “Higher Law,” and Moralistic Politics ............................................ 197 The Use of the P a s t ...............................................................................................205 CHAPTER SEVEN: “LIVING ON THE SPIRITUAL CAPITAL OF HISTORY’ . 212 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................. 225 Primary Sources......................................................................................................225 Secondary Sources................................................................................................. 232 VITA .................................................................................................................................. 249 ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A b str a c t Robert Penn Warren is generally regarded as one of America’s preeminent men of letters in the twentieth century. In his poetry and novels-as well as his historical essays, literary and social criticism, biographies, and other non-fiction-Warren often addressed political themes. This study of the role of political ideas in Warren’s writings begins with his concept o f the “philosophical novelist” who consciously incorporates ideas into fiction. An examination of Warren’s own essays about his novel All the King’s Men provides a useful illustration of the concept and introduces the reader to two key themes that pervade all of his writings: first, modem man’s response to philosophical naturalism; and, second, the tme meaning of pragmatism, which, in Warren’s view, does not degenerate into mere expediency. Despite his use of religious language, Warren accepted the premise that there is no transcendent or divine source of order. Faced with this disconcerting truth, man is responsible for creating and articulating the values that will give his life meaning. Such ideals may not be created uncritically, however; ideals must be tested against experience and, especially, against the knowledge of man’s flawed nature, a subject which Warren addressed at length in his book-length poem Brother to Dragons and in other works. Following William James, Warren argued that the justification of a belief comes from its effect. Warren also insisted that Jamesian pragmatism (unlike the unphilosophical pragmatism espoused by his fictional politician Willie Stark) was a principled approach to ethics and politics. Ideals are often in conflict, Warren argued, and pursuit of one value may put higher values at risk. And in iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. All the King’s Men. Willie Stark’s Machiavellian pursuit o f his political program put at risk the equally important values of legality and political legitimacy and jeopardized his long-term success. After considering Warren’s vision of human nature and his examination of the problems surrounding naturalism and pragmatism, we conclude with Warren’s treatment of these ideas in relation to American political thought and practice. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C h a pt e r On e Introduction In his book-length study of Theodore Dreiser, Robert Penn Warren observed that the first question that any critic must address is “what kind of material the author has thought worth his treating, what kind of world stimulates his imagination.”1 A critic examining Warren’s poetry and fiction would find, after just a cursory review, that the