Narcissus and Hermes: The intersection of psychoanalysis and myth in the fiction of Saul Bellow.

摘要

This study identifies two recurrent character types in early and middle Bellow. The protagonist, or "Narcissus," is viewed from the perspective of Heinz Kohut's psychology of the self. "Hermes" refers to a mythological trickster who complicates as well as advances the hero's progress. The complementarity of the two characters and the intersection of the psychoanalytic and the mythological materials are explored.; The psychoanalytic principles are outlined and the main characters explained as suffering from Kohutian self-disorder. The mercurial figure's intervention is then traced, along with his impact on the hero's career and on the outcome of the novels. The study tries to show the endings as strongly affected by the mercurial agent.; The trickster is represented in minor form in Bellow's first novel Dangling Man wherein the hero does not transcend his stasis and spatial limitation. Although these limitations do not detract from this existentialist book's achievement, Bellow would have had difficulty recreating the isolated hero in successive works. As Dangling Man reveals, the trickster appealed to him early on, and he subsequently developed it fully and remained faithful to the device throughout his works.; The Kohutian analysis shows us a hero in a state of acute anxiety, who yearns to merge with the archaic omnipotent figure as represented by the psychological trickster. Although the latter offers him insights, he is too self-seeking and unempathic to heal the enfeebled protagonist. As the narcissistic heroes tend to be self-referential and alienated from work and society, the interaction with the mythological trickster helps to overcome a possible stalemate, leading to a more dynamic conclusion of the narrative.; The Bellovian trickster as surrogate father, brother, or friend is expected to compensate for the selfobject failure. Like the mythological Hermes, he appears as spellbinder, magician, hypnotist, crafty rhetorician, or psychopomp, embodying both good and evil. Although his prototype appears most dramatically in Seize the Day, he is also prominent in the role of the beast in Henderson the Rain King, the swindler in Herzog, the giver of gifts in Humboldt's Gift, the shapeshifter in Augie March, and the doppelganger or shadow in The Victim.