Saul Bellow's bildungsroman in four novels of the intellectual protagonist: an inchoate search for the self and for reality

SAUL BELLOW’S BILDUNGSROMAN IN FOUR NOVELS OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROTAGONIST:

AN INCHOATE SEARCH FOR THE SELF AND FOR REALITY

by

ALKARAKESH

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree of D O C TO R OF P H ILO S O PH Y

to the

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Certificate

This is to certify that the thesis entitled "Saul Bellow's Bildunasroman in Four Novels of the Intellectual Protagonist: An Inchoate Search for the Self and for Reality" being submitted by Ms. Alka Rakesh, for the award of the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy, to the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, is a record of bonafide research work carried out by her. She has worked under my guidance and supervision and has fulfilled the requirements for the submission of this thesis which to my knowledge has reached the requisite standard. The results

contained in this thesis have not been submitted in part or full to any other University or Institute for the award of any degree or diploma.

✓

(Dr. SJN. MEHRA)

Asstt. Professor of English Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,

IIT, New Delhi- 110016 Professor of English

Clarifications

I have used British spellings in this dissertation and retained the original spellings in the quotations.

Likewise, I have retained the spellings, as cited in the quotations, of the following proper nouns which in the

dissertation I spell as Dostoyevsky, Eckhart, Tolstoy and Rudolf.

I have followed the conventions of the MLA Style Sheet (1984 edition).

I have underlined the book titles. I have also underlined foreign words.

Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful to all those who, in their various ways, made this dissertation possible.

To Professor V. N. Arora, my first supervisor, who

introduced me to the world of twentieth century American fiction and then gave me the freedom to explore on my own, who taught me to look at fiction through a telescope but still encouraged me to use the microscope to which I was accustomed.

To Dr. S. N. Mehra, my next supervisor, who took over on Professor Arora's retirement and gave me whatever help I needed with my work.

To the Fulbright Foundation for granting me a pre-doctoral scholarship to work on my thesis for eight months at the

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA.

To Professor John J. Clayton, my academic advisor in the U.S., who helped me to articulate my ideas and who taught me the art of writing as only one who has himself mastered the skill can.

To Rakesh, my husband, who saw the dissertation through at every stage and in so many ways without expecting even a "thank you" in return; I am specially grateful as everything he did was not because he wanted a wife with a Ph.D. degree but because he sensed how much the work meant to me.

To Chitra, my daughter, and Shikhar, my son, whose smiles and loving ways lit up my most difficult days.

To my parents, Malti and Dr. Bindra Ban, for their love, advice and encouragement.

To my mother-in-law, Yashwanti, for her rare understanding in leaving me alone during the phases when I was deeply "into" a novel.

To Manjit, my friend, for always believing in me.

To my colleagues, Mrs. Bhatt, for always giving me a listening ear, and to Dr. Raina, for his encouragement.

To Rajesh Arora, for his efficient word processing of my dissertation.

To Hari Shankar, for his willing assistance.

To Rita and Shanti, my maids, for their loyalty in these difficult times.

And to the hours of sleep which "awakened" my unconscious mind to find a pattern in the chaotic research of my waking hours.

Alka Rakesh

Abbreviations

AM The Adventures of Augie March DD The Dean's December

DM Dangling Man HG Humboldt's Gift

HRK Henderson the Rain King

HFM Him with His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories LA The Last Analysis

MDHB More Die of Heartbreak

M

SD Seize the Day

TJAB To Jerusalem and Back

Abstract

♦

This doctoral dissertation, Saul Bellow's Bildunqsroman in Four Novels of the Intellectual Protagonist, is a close study of the multi-layered consciousness of Bellow's intellectual

protagonist and of the subtle transformation he undergoes in the course of the novel. The dissertation focuses on the strange compulsion which involves the protagonist throughout the novel in a vague, undefined quest for his lost self and for buried

reality. Hence, it is subtitled An Inchoate Search for the Self and for Reality. The novels I have selected for detailed study are Dangling Man. Herzog. Mr. Sammler's Planet and Humboldt's Gift but for purposes of comparison I refer to the entire canon of Bellow's work.

While I see these novels as intellectually challenging, I argue that the protagonist discovers truth through a process unknown to him. He finds not through seeking but when he does not seek; Valery's words, nTrouve avant de Chercher" (HG 110), are a concise description of the intellectual protagonist's quest. He converts as wide a range of experience as possible—

his own personal past and various metaphysical problems— into conscious thought but the truly fundamental experiences are

inchoately perceived by him: through his perceptions of external reality and through his strange response to present events,

wherein, unawares, he re-enacts his traumatic past. The Bildunqsroman. one might say, works on two levels; the first concerns the hero's conscious quest for meaning, the second his inchoate search, his subtle transformation. Through each

chapter, I deal with the the hero's conscious quest in the

sections entitled "Intellection" and "Recollection." But it is on the protagonist's deeper level of experience, that my

dissertation focuses; this is discussed in the sections I call

"Action" and "Perception of External Reality." This is not to say that I consider the protagonist's intellectualizing as insignificant or a hurdle to his growth— rather, it makes him more intensely aware— my point is that the intellect alone fails to foster insight. The protagonist changes not through

abandoning a life of thought but because his ideas are tested through lived experience.

The dissertation is divided into six chapters. Chapter I is the "Introduction" to the thesis. The chapter, (a) places Saul Bellow in the context of his age, (b) explains his rendering of the Bildunqsroman in an era where the latter has fallen into obsolescence, (c) gives a definition of Bellow's intellectual protagonist, and distinguishes him from his non-intellectual heroes and from some other intellectual protagonists in

literature, (d) surveys Bellow criticism relevant to the area that I have chosen for detailed analysis, and (e) explains my project and mentions the critical approaches evident in the dissertation. Chapters II to V are full-length studies of the

four novels. Chapter II is called "Dangling Man: The subliminal unlocking of Joseph's 'imprisoning self.'" Chapter III is

■entitled "Herzog in Herzog: 'But if I am out of my mind, it's all right with me.'" Chapter IV I call "Artur Sammler of Mr.

Sammler's Planet: A Lazarus back from the dead" and Chapter V,

"Humboldt's Gift: The awakening of Charlie Citrine." The titles

are self-explanatory; they point in their various ways to the main theme which runs through all the chapters: the liberation of the protagonist's consciousness resulting in a regeneration of sorts. Chapter VI is the "Conclusion". It is a comparative study of the four novels treated so far as more or less self­

contained units; it analyzes the evolution of the intellectual protagonist from one novel to the next. While it reveals the

immense distance that the intellectual has travelled since DM, it also emphasizes that preceding novels hold the germs of the

novels which follow and that through the four novels an unmistakable continuity is discernible.

This dissertation reveals that Saul Bellow's fiction is a remarkable departure from the avant-garde novel which disdains the notion of either a search or a discovery and gives us

instead, solipsistic, fractured versions of reality, and projects through its pages the loss of the self. At the same time, I show that Bellow's Bildunqsroman is a far cry from its traditional, conventional genre: unlike the latter, it is inconclusive and open-ended, non-linear and nebulous and one which reflects existential unrest and post-war despair even as it tries to reckon with these forces. Bellow's intellectual protagonist is crushed by experience and utterly broken by his own probing,

relentless cerebration but— somewhat like the phoenix which rises from its ashes— he is "mysteriously," inchoately reborn from the ashes of his disintegrated self.

vi

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abbreviations iii

Abstract iv

I Introduction ₁

II Danqlincr Man: The subliminal unliking

of Joseph's "imprisoning self" ⁴⁶ III Herzog in Herzog: "But if I am out of my

mind, it's all right with me" ⁸⁸ IV Artur Sammler of Mr. Sammler's Planet:

A Lazarus back from the dead ¹³⁶

V Humboldt's Gift: Thfi a u a V p n i n g rsf f’hfirlic

Citrine ¹⁷⁵

VI Conclusion

262

Notes

283

Selected Bibliography

332