literatura-amerykanska-wyklad2

Carson McCullers and the Southern Gothic Tradition

Carson McCullers is a central figure in the Southern Gothic tradition, noted for her depiction of physically freakish characters including giants, dwarfs, mutes, and androgynes. Her work consistently explores the central theme of loneliness and the human struggle for connection. In her $1940$ novel, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", the protagonist Mick Kelly is portrayed as a young, intelligent, and sensitive character who is passionate about music. She feels trapped and strives to overpower her profound alienation. The story also features John Singer, a local deaf-mute who lives in Mick's house. His deafness inspires people to talk to him and confess secrets he does not wish to know. Following the suicide of his lover, Singer takes his own life.

In "The Member of the Wedding" ($1946$), McCullers focuses on Frankie Addams, a protagonist who desperately wants to be a member of something larger than herself. The novel posits that isolation is a universal human condition. "The Ballad of a Sad Café" continues these themes with a protagonist, Amilia Evans, who dresses like a man and competes with men until she falls in love, which changes her completely. The story involves Marvin Macy, described as the most handsome and meanest guy in town who seeks revenge on Amilia despite his love for her, and Cousin Lymon, who claims to be her cousin and becomes the object of Amilia's affection. This work combines Southern Gothic elements—characterized by freakish outsiders in barren landscapes dealing with miscegenation, sexual deviance, and violence—with a distinct poetic sensibility.

Flannery O'Connor: The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South

Flannery O'Connor was a Catholic novelist writing within the predominantly Protestant American South, a duality that gave a specific character and a unique tragic-comic atmosphere to her fiction. Her work often explores the conflict between the sacred and the profane within rural Southern settings. She utilized grotesqueness and violence as tools to shock the reader and make her moral or spiritual points more vivid. Her characters often engage in violent struggles with themselves and one another.

Her first novel, "Wise Blood" ($1952$), follows Hazel Motes, a young veteran who decides to become a preacher. He founds his own religion called "the church without Christ," declaring that nothing matters except the idea that Jesus was a liar. In "The Violent Bear It Away" ($1960$), she details the physical and spiritual journey of $14$-year-old Francis Marion Tarwater. Francis disagrees with his uncle regarding his future, eventually setting fire to the cottage where he was raised to kill his uncle before embarking on a journey to fulfill his own desires. Her $1965$ collection, "Everything That Rises Must Converge", was inspired by Teilhard de Chardin, a paleontologist, Jesuit, and mystic, specifically his work "The Phenomenon of Man".

Eudora Welty: Local Colour and Mythic Narratives

Eudora Welty used local colour as an instrument rather than an end in itself, creating fiction that was less violent and more comedic and poetic than her contemporaries, often incorporating fairy-tale motifs and myths. Her first novel, "The Robber Bridegroom" ($1942$), is set in Spanish Mississippi in $1798$. In "The Golden Apples" ($1949$), she presents a collection of interconnected short stories set in the fictional town of Morgana, Mississippi. The character Virgie Rainey, a talented pianist and sexual rebel, serves as the tie between these stories. The title was inspired by William Butler Yeats' poem "Song of Wandering Aengus", distinguishing between those seeking the "silver apples" of the moon and the "golden apples" of the sun.

Welty's "Delta Wedding" ($1946$) is set in $1923$ on a cotton plantation owned by the Fairchild family as they prepare for the wedding of their second daughter. The title refers to the Mississippi Delta's fertile soil caused by the flooding of the Mississippi River. The story provides an ironic portrayal of a society on the verge of historical change from a feminist perspective. Collectively, these Southern female writers used the Gothic and the grotesque to illustrate human alienation, postwar Southern experiences, and a disturbing moral vision described as the "tragic sense of life."

Jewish American Fiction and the Age of Anxiety

The post-war era in Jewish American fiction is often referred to as the "Age of Anxiety," shaped by the horrors of the Holocaust, the use of atomic bombs in Japan, and the onset of the Cold War. This fiction often features "shaken survivors" and utilizes realism with strong existentialist and absurdist overtones. Saul Bellow stands as the most important novelist of this era. His $1944$ existentialist novel, "Dangling Man", introduces the Kafkaesque hero Joseph, who is waiting to be taken into the army. Joseph struggles with the burden of freedom and the purposelessness of life, eventually finding a strange relief and purpose in the structure of the army.

Bellow's "The Victim" ($1947$) examines the difficult relationship between a Jewish hero, Leventhal, and a Gentile in New York, highlighting themes of alienation and the lack of belonging. Bellow also wrote picaresque adventures featuring energetic first-person narrators known as "Picaros" (rogues) who are unconventional and always on the move, such as in "The Adventures of Augie March" ($1953$) and "Henderson the Rain King" ($1959$). In the latter, the eccentric millionaire Henderson travels to Africa seeking deeper meaning in life, eventually realizing his values through comic encounters involving violin playing and pig-raising. Bellow's masterpiece, "Herzog" ($1964$), focuses on an intellectual undergoing an emotional crisis who writes letters to God and philosophers like Heidegger and Nietzsche, ultimately finding satisfaction and acceptance of God's will. Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in $1976$.

J.D. Salinger, Bernard Malamud, and the Growth of the Jewish Novel

J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" ($1951$) is a seminal work concerning the loss of innocence. The protagonist, $16$-year-old Holden Caulfield, is a sensitive and unhappy adolescent disillusioned by the "phony" adult world. He escapes to New York, suffers a mental breakdown, and eventually moves to California to recover. The novel is famous for its use of slang and offensive language. Holden dreams of being the "catcher in the rye," a protector of childhood innocence. The book follows the picaresque tradition, with Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" as its great American predecessor.

Bernard Malamud's work blends realism with the fable, often incorporating Jewish humor and culture. "The Assistant" ($1957$) tells the story of Morris Bober, a Jewish grocery store owner, and Frankie, a young Italian gangster who robs the store. Feeling guilty, Frankie returns to become Bober's assistant and eventually adopts a Jewish identity, which Malamud uses as a metaphor for suffering and taking moral responsibility for others. "The Fixer" ($1966$) is set in pre-World War I Russia and follows Yakov Bok, who is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. "The Tenants" ($1971$) explores the artistic rivalry between a Jewish writer living alone in a tenement and an African-American writer who moves in, touching on racial prejudice and the nature of art. Malamud's "The Magic Barrel" ($1958$) is a collection of stories mixing facts with legends and gentle irony. Additionally, Isaac Bashevis Singer, a writer with Polish roots, won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to this literary tradition.

Psychological Drama: Tennessee Williams

Drama in the $1940s$ and $1950s$ shifted from the collective social focus of the $1930s$ Great Depression era toward a psychological focus on the individual and themes of alienation. Tennessee Williams, born in rural Mississippi, focused on marginalized outsiders and alienated figures who struggled with social shyness or physical disabilities. His style, "poetic realism," explored the psychological forces driving extraordinary characters in ordinary lives.

"The Glass Menagerie" ($1944$) is a "memory play" using a narrator, Tom Wingfield, who recalls his life with his sister Laura. Laura has a disability with her foot and lives in a private world centered on her collection of glass animals. A noteworthy production of this play involved director Elia Kazan and designer Jo Mielziner, using a divided set and a "scrim"—a theater drop that is opaque when lit from the front and transparent when lit from behind. "A Streetcar Named Desire" ($1947$) contrasts the crass materialism of modern America (represented by Stanley Kowalski) with the faded glory of the aristocratic South (represented by Blanche DuBois). Blanche, whose name signifies purity, is haunted by the loss of her family plantation, "Belle Reve" (Beautiful Dream), and her past indiscretions. Her sister Stella (meaning "star") is caught between them. The play is famous for its symbolic props like the meat pack and the lampshade.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" ($1955$) examines family tensions and repressions. Big Daddy is the archetypal patriarch who is dying of cancer while his family schemes for his wealth. His son Brick, a former football hero, is struggling with potential homosexuality and the suicide of his friend Skipper, which has led to his emotional withdrawal from his wife, Maggie "the Cat." Williams' work challenged the moral certainties of the Eisenhower era and the political climate of McCarthyism.

Social Structure and Responsibility: Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller, born in the urban North of New York, wrote about ordinary people placed under immense pressure by social structures. "All My Sons" ($1947$) deals with the theme of guilt and the meaning of the past. The character Joe Keller sold defective cylinder heads to the military during the war, causing $21$ planes to crash. He allowed his business partner to take the blame and go to jail, leading to his own son's suicide.

"Death of a Salesman" ($1949$) is considered a cornerstone of "new drama," focusing on the destructive side of the American Dream. The protagonist, Willy Loman, is an unsuccessful salesman who measures his worth by societal values he cannot achieve. He eventually kills himself in a car accident so his son Biff can use the insurance money to start a business. The play