Deconstructing Post-Industrial American Ethos: Decline of Civility and Agony of Artists in Bellow’s Later Novels

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the way Saul Bellow’s (1915-2005) intellectual protagonists
 deconstruct post industrial American ethos which are dominated by the hegemony
 of capitalism and the values of democracy. These heroes are deeply immersed in
 European liberal education, the ‘Western Canon’ to recall Harold Bloom; however, they
 are marginalized, alienated, degraded and eventually rejected by the masses, junk
 culture, the dictatorship of the commonplace, and the unqualified individual. Bellow’s
 heroes predict that American culture will be overwhelmed by mass culture after the
 1950s characterized by liberal democracy, [ultra capitalism], scientific experimentation,
 and industrialization, inspite of the high rate of higher education. Deploring a Derridean
 method of deconstructionism and a Foucauldian epistemic design, they archeologically
 question the roots of American cultural backdrop, that is, the massive industrialization
 in the late age of capitalism. They centralize art, humanities, classical books, morality,
 and religion; and marginalize science, commodity, consumerism, technology, and
 psychiatry. They deconstruct all makers of culture industry based on analysis,
 systemization, standardization, and not imagination and creativity. To achieve human
 and noble norms, they admit a noble life away from the vulgarity and barbarism of
 the age to cite Zygmunt Bauman. Special focus is on Herzog (1964), Mr. Sammler’s
 Planet (1970), Humboldt’s Gift (1975) and The Dean’s December (1982) for their common
 concern with this issue.