Ideological tension in four novels by Saul Bellow
Master Thesis
1987
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
This study examines and evaluates critically four novels by Saul Bellow: Dangling Man, The Victim, Herzog and Mr Sammler's Planet. The emphasis is on the tension between certain aspects of modernity to which many of the characters are attracted, and the latent Jewishness of their creator. Bellow's Jewish heritage suggests alternate ways of being to those advocated by the enlightened thought of liberal Humanism, for example, or by one of its offshoots, Existentialism, or by "wasteland" ideologies. Bellow propounds certain ideas about the purpose of the novel in various articles, and these are discussed briefly in the introduction. His dismissal of the prophets of doom, those thinkers and writers who are pessimistic about the fate of humankind and the continued existence of the novel, is emphatic and certain. His alternative to apocalyptic thinking and writing presents a view both of life and of the role of the novelist in the twentieth century.
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Bibliography: pages 212-230.
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Sacks, J. 1987. Ideological tension in four novels by Saul Bellow. University of Cape Town.