Aesthetics and the Psychology of Control in John Hawkes's Triad

Abstract

The formal elements, the structures and patterns, of John Hawkes's novels have been from the first a salient and identifying component of his He has said, My novels are highly plotted, but certainly they're elaborately structured .... Structure-verbal and psychological coherence-is . . . my largest concern as a writer. Related or corresponding event, recurring image and recurring action, these constitute the essential substance or meaningful density of my writing. 1 If anything, Hawkes's interest in structure and pattern has intensified since he so defined his literary character in 1965. The formal organization of his triad of novels-The Blood Oranges (1971), Death, Sleep & the Traveler (1974), and Travesty (1976)-attests to the manner in which such interests have become more absolute and self-referential than ever before. In part because of the greater economy and simplicity of composition (Albert Guerard has called his prose in these novels classical),2 the patterns are more striking and unmistakable than in his earlier fiction. Moreover, the novels themselves self-consciously call attention to their intricate and exact design in a manner and to a degree unpracticed before by Hawkes. This movement toward a highly self-conscious art, studying itself, has been observed by various critics and is something of which Hawkes is clearly aware. For instance, in his analysis of Death, Sleep & the Traveler, Frederick Busch has noted that Hawkes seems engaged in the most profound examination of his own writings as if he were intently . . . studying himself as an artist,3 while Marcus Klein, writing about Travesty, has more centrally noted that novel's thematic concern with the imposition of form and composition on the rough materials of life.4 Indeed, as its title suggests, Travesty is in some manner a parody of the earlier two novels, making more explicit the concern with form which the two earlier novels also embodied. Hawkes suggests this function of self-analysis to the novel in his statement that Travesty is not just a completion of the triad . .. [but] a comment on ... . my entire writing life so far. 5