Patterns of estrangement in the twentieth century fiction

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KRYSTYNA STAMIROWSKA Instytut Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Jagielloński

PATTERNS OF ESTRANGEMENT IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FICTION

Julia Kristeva, referringto her own efforts to locate personal experience within a universal context of loss, says: “If we didnot ceaselessly expose the strange

ness of ourinner life - by transposing it ceaselessly into other signs, wouldthere be a lifeof the psyche, would we be living beings?” (Kristeva 27 [trans. K.S.]).

Seeing oneself as a strangeris a result of seeing our own reflection in a social mirror, and denotes a sense ofalienation due to a loss or destruction of links between anindividualand others.

Incontemporary criticaldiscourse,estrangement usually refers to a deficit or lack of social or cultural interaction, and denotes a situation of exclusion. One may feel estranged through a loss of language, family, friends, familiar space, which results in withdrawaland alienation. In the age of globalization, as a re sult of the increaseof mobility on the one hand, and enforced displacement due to violent conflicts on the other, migration occurs on an unprecedented scale, and one of the striking consequences of exchanging one location for another, often against one’s desires, is more or lesspermanent displacement which en

tails an ensuing sense of estrangement. A paradox inherent in the condition of exileis a coexistence of two opposing impulses - a desire for detachmentand what Andrew Gurr describesas a‘yearning for home’(Gurr145).

The post-war and contemporary novel is particularly sensitive to this issue, whether itactualizes as a part orresult of a politicalconflict, a counter-cultural orsocial process, oris anoutcome of personalcrisisexperienced by an individ ual. A great deal of criticalattention isgiven to politically engage novels perme

ated bya strong sense of disturbing realities, which focus on estrangement re sultingfrom colonial and post-colonial processes.

In this paper, however, I would like to trace a different strand, namely, the connections between modernist perceptions of estrangementand their contem porary variations,where protagonists (who oftenreflect the author’s experience) start to resist and turn againstaccepted life-styleand theso called civilized val ues shared by their communities, and, as a result, go through a crisis usually

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148 KRYSTYNA STAMIROWSKA

endingin a form of confrontation with their individual “heart ofdarkness”. The autobiographical component which can be seen as a common denominator isan encounterwith the unknown/unfamiliar, experienced, throughout the twentieth century,by different authors as sufficientlyimportant to be firmly incorporated into their writing. A transformation of this experiencefeatures asa leitmotifin a number of canonical twentieth centuryworks, including Thomas Mann’s fa mous novella Death in Venice (1912), as well as Lawrence’s The Woman Who Rode Away (1924), and, much closer to our own time, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhysand Altered States (1996) by Anita Brookner.

For these authors, the encounter with the unfamiliar and the sustainedexpe rience of estrangement, although assuminga different shape in each case, can be seen as a dominant framing their perception of human reality. Thomas Mann, together withhis family, left Germany in 1933, and, after a few years in Swit

zerland, made hishome in theUS, thus becoming alienated from hishomeland whose politicalrealityhe no longer accepted; themuchyounger AnitaBrookner, although bom in London, was a daughterof Polish-Jewish émigréparents. As sherepeatedlypointed out, her sense of estrangement when a child, was acute, and she never managed to overcome it completely. D.H. Lawrence is an out

standing example of a compulsive rebel, self-exiled from his country, class, and language, who spent practically all his adult life living abroad and frequently expressed his resentment of England, without ever becoming severed from it.

Jean Rhys, bom in Dominica in 1890, moved to England at the age of17, and aftera periodof exceptionally difficult transition took upresidenceinParis, to return toEnglandaslate as 1928 (incidentally, the year inwhichAnita Brookner was bom). Thus the awareness of the condition known as estrangement, often intensified by first-hand experience, is a strong component of modernist Weltan schauung. Additionally, the new perception of an individual as an isolated fig ure, unconnected with community, preoccupied with himself, and generally uninterested in otherpeople, was, especially in England, a part of the general anti-Victorian stance founded on rejection of the Victorian ideology, the per

ceptionwhichwas oftenshared by the writersof thenextgeneration.

In Mann’s Death in Venice (1912) this shift of emphasis from man-in-society to man alone is depicted in theform of a transformationexperiencedby a pres

tigious writer whoextolled the bourgeois virtues of hard work, duty and disci

pline, and who practiced them in his own life. The crisis comes suddenly, sparked off by exhaustion and a desire to travel, and for once, he contemplates a differentdestination:

His imagination (...) shaped for itself a paradigm of all the wonders and terrors of the manifold earth (...) He saw it, saw a landscape, a tropical swampland under a cloud- swollen sky, moist and lush and monstrous, a kind of primeval wilderness of islands, mo

rasses and muddy alluvial channels; far and wide around him he saw hairy palm-trunks thrusting upwards from rank jungles of fem, from among thick fleshy plants in exuberant flower, saw strangely misshapen trees with roots that arched through the air before sink

ing into the ground or into stagnant, shadowy-green, glossy waters (...). He saw between the knotted stems of the bamboo thicket the glinting eyes of a crouching tiger (Mann 200).

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Yetwith the vision fading,he makes a more suitable choice of destination, and the tigers ofhis vision are replaced by civilizedmilieu andby the respect

able clientele of a hotel in Lido. Thecrisis comes unexpectedly, brought about by a confrontation with the unknown and exotic in the shape of the beautiful boy, Tadzio, and the violence ofhis fascinated response renders Aschenbach incapable of self-control,unableto continue his work, and, ultimately, destroys him. Aschenbach, on a simple level, could be taken toexemplify the dangers of self- delusion and relativism, but the story is complex, ambiguous and deeply ironic.Inhiscase, the reversalof conventionalperceptions and moralityturn out to be linkedto his ‘secret sharer’, the suppressed Other, tamed and silenced by social norms and respectability.

Aschenbach epitomizes thedangerous journey away from his well-regulated life, through a release from conventions and obligations, towards authentic es

trangement which, in his case, results in self-destruction. By rejectingwhat he has respected and lived for so far, he consignshimself to a stateof alienation, self-exclusion from his community and his admiring readers; except that the nature ofhis inner conflict and its consequencesremain his secret and are never revealed. Death comes more quickly than possible discoveries about his new identity, epitomizedearlier by the memorable imageof his reflection in the mir ror when hisappearance is being transformed by ahotel barber. Looking athim self,“hesaw his lips that had been sopallidnowburgeoning cherry-red; saw the furrows on his cheeks,round his mouth, thewrinkles by his eyes, all vanishing under facecreamand an aura of youth - with abeating heart he sawhimself as a young man in earliest bloom” (Mann 262).

A later analysis ofessentially the same mechanism, based on opposition between familiar and acceptable/approved, and the potentially destructive Other, can befound in D.H. Lawrence’s well-known story The Woman Who Rode Away (1924), and, closer to our own time, in Jean Rhys’s WideSargasso Sea (1966), as well as in a contemporary novel by Anita Brookner Altered States (1996). Although different in terms of theme and technique, they all explore the same paradigm, namely, an escape from ordinary, conventional lifeto the realm of the Unknown, both attractive and dangerous, evoking fas cination and revulsion (Conrad uses, in a more extreme and more universal context, the phrase ‘fascination of abomination’ which is not merelyarhetori caldevice).

Lawrence’sshortstoryreflects hisown fascination with the primitive andthe unconscious and his respectforinstincts, suppressed by social codeand by the demands of what he considers to be the “dead” mechanical and dehumanized civilizationof his industrial age. Theprotagonist (never referred to by name) is an American woman, living in Mexico and married to a Dutch-bom mine owner. Since the‘adventure’ sheexpected fromher marriage never materialized, shefeelsphysicallyand emotionally confined, locked “within the great wooden doors of the patio, looking at the outsideworld” (Lawrence 548). On impulse, she decides to leave home andfamilybehind, mountsher horse and rides away inpursuit of freedom.

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Byrefusing to name hisprotagonist, Lawrence indicates that heis notcon

cerned with character, but with ideas.The title “TheWoman Who RodeAway” focuses on thesignificant choice through whichshe intuitivelyattemptedtogive meaning toher life. Throughout the story theprotagonist is referredto as ‘she’ (often in relation to her equallynamelesshusband); orconversely, on occasion, the husband becomes a ‘he’, and then the woman is called ‘his wife’; and the couple are yet another example of Lawrence’s notion of a sterile relationship.

Depending on thecontext-defined pointof view, later onthe womanis also ‘the girl from Berkeley’ (herhusband’s and the author’sperceptionof her), and then

‘the white woman’, which indicates the perspective from which the Indians among whom sheelects to liveseeher.

The dangerous Other she encounters is, in her case, embodied by theprimi tivetribeof Chilchui Indians, who practise the ancient Aztec rituals. Received without enthusiasm, she is allowed to stay, and, in the course of the twelve months, undergoes a profound transformation. Simultaneously attracted and frightened,she feels:

she had lost the power over herself. She was not in her own power, she was under the spell of some other control. And at times she had moments of terror and horror. But then these Indians would come and sit with her, casting their insidious spell over her by their very silent presence (Lawrence 568).

Cut off from the Western milieuand from rational thought she becomes en tirelypassive, “a victim to herown indifference”,which makes her, potentially, a suitableofferingtothegod of the sun. Whentheritualpreceding her sacrificial death isabout to begin, she accepts her fate, both fascinated and frightened. She is watchingthescene:

(...) spellbound as if drugged. And in all the terrible persistence of the drumming and the primeval, rushing deep singing, and the endless stamping of the dance, she seemed at last to feel her own death, her own obliteration (...). The sharpness and the quivering nervous consciousness of the highly-bred white woman was to be destroyed again, womanhood was to be cast once more into the great stream of impersonal sex and impersonal passion.

Strangely, as if clairvoyant, she saw the immense sacrifice prepared (Lawrence 569).

Lawrence foregrounds here thepeculiar state of paralysis of will when,despite correct recognition of impending doom, the protagonist fails to preventher own destruction, confirming the paradigm of the value of experience over life itself.

A release from the narrowness of herlife comes through death. In a similar way, Aschenbach recognizes the danger, acts on this recognition by deciding to leave Venice, only to return after having reached no farther thanthe railway station.

The white woman’s state of mind as described by Lawrence is reminiscent of Aschenbach’s complicated responses to Tadzio: no words are everexchanged, the growing fascinationneeds no language; ifthereis apremonition it is quickly suppressed; each renewed glimpse Aschenbach gets of the boy suppresses his unease and reduces his will-powerand control over himself. Finding self denial to be impossible,he disregards hissafety and refuseseithertoleave Lidoor to warnTadzio’smother.

The whitewoman’s death is not of herchoice, yetit is theresult of the im

pulsive choice she originally makes. There is no ambivalence in the conclu

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sion Lawrence offers: the lifeshe rejected wasnot worth living, although the dubious nature of the“salvation” through a destruction by the primitive ritual need notnecessarily convince the reader. The story, written as illustration of Lawrence’s views of destructive powerofWestern civilization, lacks psycho logical finesse; yet itis interestingas a variationof the topos of the confronta

tion with the seductive and dangerous Other. Lawrencewas too much blinded by hisideological commitmentto considerless welcome effects ofthe demo

litionofthiscivilization.

In thenovel by Rhys, Rochester (nevernamed as such, though immediately identifiable through the Bronte hypotext) goes to the West Indies to claim his wife procured for him throughmarriagearrangements, and is tom between natu ral resentment on the one hand,andunwilling response to thespell ofexuberant natureand the beauty of his bride, Antoinette,on theother. Yet he interpretsthe exotic beauty of the country and of Antoinette as sinister, and a threat to his cultural identity, background and habits. The gap which separates Rochester from his wifeis exacerbatedby gossip andjealousy. Jamaica,thesetting for the story, turns out to be as treacherous as Venice; its beauty and charm deceptive, its loveliness concealing corruption- or soit seems to Rochester.

Animportant component inthe growing estrangementis language, orrather, alack of common language. Although Antoinette speaks English, shecommuni cates with her nurse and servants in patois, which puts yet another barrier be

tween herandher husband, and contributes to mutualmiscomprehension.Com

bined with Rochester’s assumed insensitivity, his attitude alienates his wife to a point when no communicationorsympathy is possible. After failed attempts to reach a more balanced view and a degree of understanding, he gives up, and takes Antoinette, against her will, to England, which ultimatelyleads to a dis

solution of theirunion and to her illnessand subsequent death.

In Anita Brookner’s novel, the drama of alienation is played out in a tame domesticsetting. TheLondon lawyer Alan Sherwood is obsessed with a distant cousin of his, Sarah, a femmefatalewith whom he managed tohave abrief liai son before she left him for good. He pursues his dream of arranging one final meeting in Paris, and persuades himself Sarah has made an appointment with him. Driven by this fantasy, he liesto his pregnantwife Angelaabout an urgent business trip and flies to Paris. The imagined appointment, the product of his wishfulthinking, never materializes, and hereturnsto find that hisbrief absence has destroyed his domestic life, and themoderatedegree of comforthe enjoyed so far. In the courseof his two entirelyfutile days away, Angela was taken to hospital where she gave premature birth to a still-born baby. Her ensuing long term depression ends insuicide, and Alan, hauntedby asense of guilt on the one hand,and,on the other, unable to freehimself from his obsession with Sarah, is apparently doomedto spendthe rest ofhis life asa stranger to himself, to others, andalso,to any form of happiness.

This contemporary story of fatal infatuation repeats the familiar pattern.

When Alancontemplates his state of mind, heisquiteclearabout his delusion:

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1 felt as if the whole conduct of my life was in disarray, as if I had turned my back on those sensible and pleasant advantages with which I had grown up, and turned to criminal activities. And yet I think 1 was never meant to be a criminal (...) I was prepared to put myself beyond the pale of acceptable behaviour, perhaps never to be allowed back, be

cause there was no mistaking the strength of my wholly irrational feeling. Perhaps it was so strong because it was irrational, so very far removed from my own home life with its timid surges of feeling (Brookner 113).

WhileAschenbach at first tries torationalize his attraction to Tadziobyin

terpreting it as an aesthetic responsewhich is conducive to his creative work, Alan, whose life isinserted into a much later and far less repressive context, has no illusions about his motives and about possible consequences of his actions.

There is no desire to challenge the system of norms and the standards which madehim, nor is thereany illusion abouttheobject of his obsession: “the onrush oftears threatened to overwhelm me for a woman I now saw to benothing out of the ordinary, a lazy, careless, rather difficult woman, neitherclevernor gen

erous, a woman whosevery presence wasunsatisfactory, but whoseabsencewas worse” (Brookner 113). It is the obsession with the dissimilar Other, primitive and provoking.

Inall thesecanonical texts, the sense of estrangementis triggered off by go

ingto another, either unfamiliar, or defamiliarized location which contrasts with the securityof home. Rochester travels from England toJamaica; Aschenbach leaves Munich forfamiliar-unfamiliar Venice, the citywhich he visited before, but which, on this occasion becomes wildly transformed. For Alan in Brook- ner’s novel, a trip to Paris is an act of rebellion against his solid, predictable existence, and an impulsive rejection ofhis obligation to his pregnant wife.

Paris, whichhe knowswell,comes to epitomizethe forbidden fruit of romantic and sexual fulfillment. Being transferred from one locationto another signifies displacement and estrangement. Thefamiliar VeniceorParis both become to the tworespectivepilgrims, Aschenbach and Alan,symbols of the ideal,magical yet dangerous place which enforces rejection of the conventional and which sub

verts the ordinary codeofbehaviour. Away from the respectability of home, the protagonists becomeestrangednotonly from their formerlives, but also, from themselves, in the sense of changing their behaviour and losing self control, whichactualizes firstof all as emotional and sexual release, imagined or actual.

It is actual for Rochester, who consummates hislawful marriage, and is ashamed and frightened by the violence of his passion, and it is equally real for Alan.

Ashenbach’s obsession neverbecomesmore than mute admiration of Tadzio, to whom he never so much as speaks a word,except in imagination. Lawrence’s protagonist, who has little time or capacity for thinking (a virtue rather than vice, according to the author’shierarchybased onthe Nature/culture dichotomy) is evidently drivenby instinctsand becomes a willing victim, “to be cast once more into the great stream ofimpersonal sex and impersonal passion” (Law rence569).

Rochester’s journey to thefar-away exotic place toclaim his exoticbride, is not of his choosing.As the younger son, he is forced into marrying a rich Creole heiress so as not to be aburden to the brother to whom thefamily money goes.

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His resentment against this arrangement turns into resentment against his or

phaned child-bride, no less a victim thanhimself. Yet, contrarytohis conscious attitudes,the spell of naturetransformshisattitude intoa mixture offascination, and fear, tinged withrevulsion. Lawrence’s female rebel represents theextreme experienceof transformation: the place changes her identity to the pointwhen she is herself no longer.

In Anita Brookner’s end-of-the-twentieth centurynovel, the allureof the ex

otic land (trivialized by media advertisements and by travel agencies folders), is replaced by the almost equallycliched allure of Paris, possibly an ironic allusion to the Victorian idea ofParis as thecity of license and vice; which is, inciden tally, howFrance functions inCharlotte Bronte’s novel. However, next morning, after his failure to find Sarah, hefeels thatthecity has lostits former allure:

The murmur of traffic grew louder as I sat down and ordered coffee, the panorama of the city coming to life in the wide open space before me. Beyond the bridge lay the Paris 1 had known and loved, and perhaps should never see again with that lift of the heart that had once attended me every morning of my life (Brookner 124).

Whatis characteristic of the twentieth century literary representationsis the fact that estrangement from others is preceded bya sense of estrangement, or distance from one’s own self, usually triggered off by casual contactwith the unfamiliar, whether human being, landscape or cityscape, or manifestations of nature. This encounter provokes a reviewof one’s identity, habits andmode of life, which arenowseen as incomplete andnot quitesatisfactory. The sense of comfort gives way to discomfort, which is to be remediedby participating in anewexperience (or even, a new life). This actualizes as an escape to a remote region in the Mexicanmountains, as an unwilling, and, in Rochester’scase, only temporary submission toJamaicaand to Antoinette,orasa seeminglyuncon tro versial trip to Venice, or to Paris, transformed into a crucial momentof epiph

any. Themain effect of thesejourneys, whether voluntary, or enforced, is that they bring about a moment of revelation, like a glimpse of an unfamiliar self reflection in the mirror,which results ina sense of estrangement, a realization that one is different and estranged, both from oneself, as one was before, and from the milieu withwhich one identified so far and took for granted. This is whathappens toAschenbach (literallyseeinghimselfin the barber’s mirror), to Lawrence’s “white woman”,to Rochester, unnamed and identifiable through the intertextualreference, and to Alan Sherwood. These journeys can all beread as escapes from the narrowness of ordinary lifetowards some form of liberation.

Even Rochester, who wouldmuch rather inherit the English estate than go away, doesexperience asense of elation, however temporary.

Estrangement is, asa rule, linked to a loss of language. There is practically nodialogue, as each of theprotagonists relies on hisown discourse,unwilling or unable to adjust to someone else’s. Even though Aschenbach and the Polish family share a language: French, anycommunicationis barred by Aschenbach’s transgressionof the rules of polite society, delineated and symbolizedprecisely by the foreign tongue they share, the language of the upper classes. It is not surprisingthat Aschenbach never finds courage to speak to Tadzio, and that he

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speaks to hismotheronly inhis imagination, to warn herof the epidemic; yet this warningisneverexpressed.

Lawrence’s adventurous woman doesnot understand what theIndians mean, even though she understands the Spanish words one of them can use. Her at

temptsat communications fail badly, since the banal discourse whichbelongs to her former life of “thegirl from Berkeley” has no reference tothe new reality.

Theattempts at conversation between RochesterandAntoinette, despite occa sional good will onbothparts, are equally doomed: her background,aliento him, vitiates their discourse and contaminatesin his eyes the value of whatever shemay betrying to communicate. Earlyon,he makes up his mind about his wife:

She was a stranger to me, a stranger who did not think or feel as I did (...) She often ques

tioned me about England, but her ideas were fixed. Reality might disconcert her, hurt her, bewilder her, but it would not be reality. It would only be a mistake, a misfortune, a wrong path taken, her fixed ideas would never change (Rhys 78).

Interestingly, intheexamplesIhave considered, the breach with thepast and rejection of the socially accepted and hitherto internalized forms of behaviour turn out tobe either impossible,or bought at a veryhigh price. Lawrence’swo man who rode away ends up as a sacrificial offering to the sun, Aschenbach meets premature death,Rochester andAlan are doomed to acute misery. These mayseem to be timid or ironic conclusions to challenge-posing andprovocative narratives; adventures go wrong, rebellion does not pay, social norms are not onlypowerful, but also, protective and,paradoxically, beneficial inthe long run.

Yet the matter is much morecomplex, and thereis a subtext to all these read

ings, makingthem open to counter-readings.

The stories are structured by a dichotomy between opposing forces which are,in fact, irreconcilable. All the charactersare membersof theupperorupper- -middle class, who live comfortable and regulated lives. Even the self-pitying Rochester, who envieshis elder brother and feels a victim, stands to gain from the arrangedmarriage. Their respective modes of estrangement, linked to self- -discoveries (whether asacause, effect,or parallelprocess) are defined by con crete material circumstances of their existence, and their place in the social structure.They all enjoy a greater-than-average degreeof comfort, prestigeand power. Underdifferent circumstances, their acts of rebellion would have been less significant, or even non-significant. What they lose in the material sense theyperhaps can be seento gain in terms of self-knowledge, experience of the otherness of the Other, including theknowledge of their ownformof the heart of darkness. This istrue of Aschenbach; and yethe dieswith his eyesfocused on thedistant figure of Tadzio.

In the case of the La wrentian ‘woman who rode away’,there is a clear sug

gestion ofa door opening to entirely new perceptions and new experience of inherentvalue.

Alan’s and Rochester’s experiences areessentiallynegative, astheir versions of a “true relationship” turn out falseand destructive; Sarah is a false coin, and Rochester’s rejection of Antoinette, based onmisrecognition and the fear of the unknown, results in thedestruction of his ownhappiness, not merelyhers.

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The four texts, written at different points of the twentiethcentury offer dif ferent perspectives onestrangement, and by exploring different dimensions of the cultural, social and ethical contexts, they reveal the complex and ultimately ambiguous nature of thecondition.Bydecliningto offer conclusions, they imply that estrangement, although it brings anxiety and suffering, cannot be seen as entirely negative. In somecases at least it can be conducive to achievinggreater authenticity of existence, based on acknowledginga newdimension of selfin an encounter with discoveredorre-discovered latent strangenesswithin one’s own self; ortheirreducible strangenessof theOther.

Bibliography

Brookner A., Altered States, Penguin, London 1998.

Gurr A., Writers in Exile, Harvester, Brightonl981.

KristevaJ., ‘L'autre langue ou traduire lesensible’, “L’Infini” 57, Spring 1997, s. 15-28.

Lawrence D.H., The Complete Short Stories, vol. 2, Viking, New York 1966, 546-586.

Mann T., Death in Venice and Other Stories, Vintage, London 1998.

Rhys J., Wide Sargasso Sea, Penguin, Harmondsworth 1970.

Streszczenie

Konfiguracje doświadczenia obcości w prozie XX wieku

Artykuł porównuje sposoby prezentowania jednego z kluczowych motywów literackich prozy XX wieku, mianowicie sytuacji wyalienowania i poczucia obcości.

Cztery reprezentatywne utwory prozatorskie poddane analizie, to Śmierć w Wenecji Man

na (1912), The Woman Who Rode Away (Kobieta, która odjechała) D.H. Lawrence’a (1924), Szerokie Morze Sargassowe Jean Rhys (1966) i Altered States (Odmienne stany świadomości) Anity Brookner (1996). Napisane w różnych okresach poprzedniego stulecia, utwory te wy

raźnie pokazują, jak różni pisarze w XX wieku pojmowali doświadczenie wyobcowania.

Ogląd w perspektywie synchronicznej pozwala na uchwycenie podobieństw, ilustrujących literackie strategie przekazywania doświadczenia wspólnego dla kilku generacji. Charaktery

styczna dla tych narracji jest również zamierzona ambiwalencja i zawieszenie oceny. Wyob

cowanie, jakkolwiek stanowi źródło cierpienia, nie jest pozbawione wartości polegającej na doświadczeniu przez bohatera literackiego immanentnej obecności „innego” i „obcego”

w nim samym i w drugim człowieku.

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