UNIVERSIDAD DE COSTA RICA SISTEMA DE ESTUDIOS DE POSGRADO GALWAY KINNELL'S JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY IN THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES Tesis sometida a la consideración de la Comisión del Programa de Estudios de Posgrado en Literatura para optar por el grado y título de Maestría Académica en Literatura Inglesa ELIZABETH QUIRÓS GARCÍA Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio 2019 Dedication I dedicate this thesis to Juan Pablo, Mari, José, my mother and my departed father. ii Acknowledgements I thank my family for being with me, believing in me and always loving me. Thanks to Ph.D. Norman Marín Calderón for all his support, advice, patience, and work and to Dra. Sandra Arguello Borbón for her unconditional collaboration. To Máster Martín Arguedas Núñez for his encouragement and to Sra. Lilliana Retana Campos for listening to me. iii iv TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1. Justification ........................................................................................................................ 1 2. Statement of the problem ................................................................................................. 2 3. Scope of topic ................................................................................................................... 6 4. Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 9 A. General objective .............................................................................................................. 9 B. Specific objectives ............................................................................................................ 9 D. Methodological framework ............................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER I .............................................................................................................................. 13 ANTECEDENTS TO THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES ........................................................ 13 A. Review of literature ...................................................................................................... 13 1. The poet: His life and work ........................................................................................ 15 2. Simplicity in the natural world and the primitive ...................................................... 19 3. Parenthood and marriage ........................................................................................... 25 4. Politics and society ...................................................................................................... 27 5. Ephemerality and eternity of life: Mortality and/in The book of nightmares ......... 33 B. Theoretical and referential framework ...................................................................... 38 1. Jung’s analytical theory of symbols, archetypes, and images ............................... 41 The individuation process ............................................................................................... 42 Archetypes........................................................................................................................ 47 2. Joseph Campbell and his theory of the monomyth ................................................. 51 Defining myth and mythology......................................................................................... 54 Myth as ideology .............................................................................................................. 57 3. Northrop Frye’s mythical criticism ............................................................................. 59 Mythoi theory .................................................................................................................... 60 4. Structuralism, deconstruction and main theorists: Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida and Jonathan Culler .............................................................................................. 64 Literary structuralism ....................................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................................. 74 UNDERSTANDING THE FUNCTIONS OF MYTH THROUGHOUT ................................ 74 v THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES ............................................................................................. 74 A. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 76 B. The functions of myth ..................................................................................................... 78 1. The mystical function .................................................................................................. 79 2. The cosmological function ......................................................................................... 91 3. The sociological function .......................................................................................... 101 4. The pedagogical function ......................................................................................... 119 CHAPTER III .......................................................................................................................... 132 STEPPING INTO THE JOURNEY: THE HERO IN THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES ... 132 A. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 132 B. The archetype of the hero’s journey........................................................................... 135 A. Separation or departure ........................................................................................... 138 2. Trials and victories of initiation ................................................................................ 147 3. Return or reintegration with (to) society ................................................................. 177 CHAPTER IV ......................................................................................................................... 193 THE USE OF NATURAL IMAGERY IN THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES ....................... 193 TO UNDERSTAND THE LIFE-DEATH BINARY OPPOSITION ..................................... 193 A. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 193 B. Symbols and their context in The book of nightmares ......................................... 194 C. Natural imagery and the resolution of binary oppositions ....................................... 197 1. The stones ................................................................................................................. 198 2. The trees .................................................................................................................... 204 3. Insects and other animals ........................................................................................ 211 The bear ......................................................................................................................... 214 The hen ........................................................................................................................... 220 The fly and the flea ........................................................................................................ 225 Classical elements of nature and the resolution of binary oppositions ...................... 228 Fire .................................................................................................................................. 231 Water ............................................................................................................................... 233 Air .................................................................................................................................... 237 Earth ................................................................................................................................ 239 vi CONCLUSION(S) .................................................................................................................. 247 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 252 vii RESUMEN Este trabajo de investigación se basa en un análisis del poemario The book of nightmares de Galway Kinnell utilizando como base teórica el enfoque mítico. Con este fin, se utilizará el aporte de Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell y Octavio Paz principalmente; así también, se discutirá el trabajo de Claude Levi- Strauss, Jacques Derrida y Jonathan Culler para estudiar el concepto de estructuralismo y el de opuestos binarios. Esto con el objetivo de analizar el viaje que el yo lírico realiza para comprender que la vida y la muerte son una unidad indisoluble. Es así como, el yo lírico inicia un viaje de auto-descubrimiento durante el cual comprende las diferentes funciones del mito en la vida de los individuos, su necesidad de completar ciclos que permitan su desarrollo dentro de una sociedad y, finalmente, comprender que hay elementos concretos que proporcionan al ser humano la oportunidad de descubrirse en la naturaleza. viii ABSTRACT This thesis presents the analysis, from a mythical and archetypical stance,