Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1996 Walker Percy's Return to the Feminine. John Patrick Zmirak Jr Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Zmirak, John Patrick Jr, "Walker Percy's Return to the Feminine." (1996). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6226. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6226 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. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. Hie quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. 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. A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 WALKER PERCY’S RETURN TO THE FEMININE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana Stale University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor o f Philosophy in The Department of English by John Patrick Zmirak, Jr. B.A., Yale College, 1986 M.F.A., Louisiana Stale University, 1990 M ay 1996 UMI Number: 9637814 UMI Microform 9637814 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Dedication This work is dedicated to the memory of Sheryl Hoffer. In other times, her spirit would have bound those feet to shamble cobbled convent walks, retracing the steps of habit, anonymous as one black bead on a chaplet; the Rule — that shrouds a gold-green life in lead and blights a proud name, a womb’s hope, a hearty will — have spread for her its stony shelter wings and schooled her adventuring soul for flight Then thorns and scourges, blood-drinks and barren fasts — these Gothic novel props, Sadist trinkets— made literal, and twisted purposely, might salve the mind that bums to die with Christ and reconcile her to life, at last Alas, for darker, more hopeful agesl May He Who knows what suffering is worth count hers, and reckon it as if she spent herself on stony floors by Teresa, or stood with Joan and mocked the flames that paled before such incendiary spirits. And my less fervent soul— dry clod of earth that strains to shove some ragged skeins of grass into the sun — may I compose myself to prayer, and force a single blade to yield at last, one dew-drop as pure as her tears. — Good Friday, 1996. Eternal rest grant unto her, 0 Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and all the souls o f the faithful departed, through the mercy o f God, rest in peace. ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my director, Dr. John May, for his ongoing help, advice, encouragement and virtually paternal concern during my long sojourn in this department, over which he ruled so benignly for many years. Also, to the members of my committee: Dr. James Babin and Dr. Edward Henderson, and especially Dr. Louis Simpson who interrupted his retirement to serve, I offer thanks for their patience, per­ sistence and generosity. Other teachers whom I have special cause to thank include (but are not limited to) Dr. Fred Hobson, Dr. Robert McMahon, Dr. Lawrence Sasek, Prof. Rick Blackwood, Dr. Charles Bigger, Dr. Andrew Horton, Dr. John Lowe and Dr. Robert Edgeworth. In an age of helots, I have fallen among gentlemen. For their love and loyal friendship, I thank: Ellen Chauvin, Paul Connell, Denise Matychowiak, Wilfiedo Cornelias, Charles Richard, Allen Kirkpatrick, Chris Zentner, Duncan Anderson, Lisa Shreve, Margaret Hart, Charles Coulombe and Lawrence Auster. For the greatest gift, the gift of Faith, I first thank my mother, Theresa Marie Zmirak; then Miss Gertrude Best, Father John Hardon, S.J. and Father Dermot Mulloney, C.S.Sp. For the financial support that made my work possible, I thank the LSU Alumni Federation, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the taxpayers of this state, and all those who have employed me during these ten years, particularly Roy Fletcher and Rolfe McCollister. For all that I am, for showing me all I could ever hope to become, I thank my father, John Patrick Zmirak, Sr. His industry, decency, honor, intelligence, piety, and his kindness shine always for me as a beacon of what a man should be, and a glimmer of the Fatherly love of God. May I someday live up to his example, and bring honor to his name. iii Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... iii Abbreviations ................................................................................................. v Abstract .............................................................................................................. vi Chapter One: Sex and Metaphysics..................................................................... 1 Chapter Two: The Moviegoer — Exodus from the Wintry Kingdom....................50 Chapter Three: The Last Gentleman — And the Flight from W oman................. 105 Chapter Four Lancelot — A Blood Wedding with the Feminine...................... 145 Chapter Five: The Second Coming — The Ecstasy in the Garden.................... 183 Works Cited .............................................................................................. 222 Vita...................................................................................................................... 227 iv Abbreviations Works By Walker Percy: M The Moviegoer. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960). LG The Last Gentleman. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1966). LR Love in the Ruins. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1971). MB The Message in the Bottle. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1975). L Lancelot. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1977). SC The Second Coming. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1980). LC Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1983). ^ TS The Thanatos Syndrome. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1987). SSL Signposts in a Strange Land. Ed. Patrick J. Samway, S.J. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1991). By William Alexander Percy: LoL Lanterns on the Levee. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941). These works will be referred to in the text of this dissertation by these abbrevia­ tions, followed by page number. All other works will appear in footnotes at the bot­ tom of the page. v A bstract What has been lacking in the corpus of interpretation of Walker Percy's work is a synthesis of approaches, a reading of the novels that unites the philosophical, psycho­ logical, theological, and linguistic insights that have accrued over three decades of criticism, and applies them to the vexing question of sexuality within his novels. In the present work, Percy’s four central, non-satiric novels,The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, Lancelot and The Second Coming, arc analyzed in the light of the Christian allegorical tradition, which employs sexual categories to explicate the meta­ physical order, and to inform sexuality with meaning. In each of Percy's novels, the center of consciousness is a male protagonist who has experienced a radical alienation from the feminine— as traditionally conceived in the Christian tradition, to entail both the lower reaches of Dionysian emotion and the highest capacity of the human soul for supernatural faith. This alienation recapitulates the “flight from woman'' described by Catholic psychoanalytic writer Karl Stem. Such an alienation is endemic in the post-Cartesian West, subject to ideologies that denigrate the feminine even as they purport to liberate women. The Cartesiancogito severed the mind from the senses, effecting a split in human consciousness whose ramifications are still being felt Post-Cartesian philosophy has encouraged the rejection, denigra­ tion, and denial of the feminine