THE DUAL VISION: REALITY AND TRANSCENDENCE IN SAUL BELLOW'S FICTION.

摘要

Saul Bellow' novels, from The Adventures of Augie March on, can best be approached by examining the ambiguities or ambivalences that form an intrinsic and extrinsic part of the narrative. Having declared himself against the modernist trend of total internalization in literature, against the "novel of sensibility", Bellow offers his readers a careful and detailed analysis of the social reality in which the novels are set. Now in the fourth decade of his writing, he has given us a broad picture of the urban American scene. Yet the emphasis in his work falls not on the social picture itself but on the internal battle that each of his protagonists has to fight in order to come to accept both himself and the reality in which he is placed. The opposition self/society results in another dichotomy: a celebration of engagement, action, reason, strife on the one hand, running parallel with a valuation of individuality, contemplation, acceptance, mysticism and faith. These two lines do influence each other, and establish a dialogue which often gives rise to the ambiguities and contradictions confronting the major characters. In the best moments in his fiction Bellow has these two lines come together: external reality becomes the reflection or projection of the character's inner consciousness, who has also, however, received the influence of the environment and internalized it. This attempted harmony in terms of style or technique finds its thematic equivalent in the varying degrees in which different protagonists of the novels understand and accept the ambivalences or contradictions that result from the dual perspective Bellow creates. Bellow's use of several philosophical, religious, or psychological movements (Hasidism, American Transcendentalism, Reichianism, Anthropsophy) is related to this doublesness: each of these also deals with dualities. Though widely apart in terms of origin, outlook, and emphasis, these movements do share many points in common. They are all positive in their outlook, and base their optimism on the capacity of man to transcend immediate reality, to go beyond his own individual self. For Bellow, however, the paradox remains: transcendence can only be achieved as a result of submission to reality; selflessness is attained only through communion with other human beings. The question of death, which has attracted Bellow from the beginning of his career, is also intimately related to the issues mentioned above, which are pursued in five novels: The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog, Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift.