Abstract
This paper crystallizes how and why Bellow’s intellectual heroes in his later novels are men of ideas, dissenters and revolutionists of the age, though marginalized, victimized, degraded, disregarded, and forgotten in spite of their celebrity and contributions to American culture. The reason behind this partly exists in their being idealists, men of imagination and letters and partly because of the spoilt capitalistic American culture. Herzog satirizes the norms of the masses, and ironically and sympathetically is mocked by Bellow himself for his being too utopian. Henderson, Sammler and Humboldt sketch the decline of humanism and the agony of the intellectual. Corde illustrates this humanistic fall through the crisis of the communist system in Romania. Because of this cultural backdrop, American intellectuals are destined to suffer, feel agony and alienation. Here Bellow suggests subversion and deconstruction to the norms of his society. More strikingly, he adopts the strategy of being ‘forever en route,’ forever re-evaluating one’s beliefs and ideals. The madness of his heroes is only a moment wisdom and over consciousness about the necessity of replacing the culture of masses and capitalism. Deeply behind this, Bellow maintains that the promises of the Enlightenment morality—freedom, faith, happiness, altruism, reason, wisdom, humanism, self-autonomy and harmony—have surprisingly turned into their opposites, and have been supplanted by new terms of utilitarian, nihilist, ‘irrational’ discipline characterized by amorality, illusion, risk and the crisis of knowledge.
Highlights
This paper argues for the way over consciousness engenders the wisdom of Bellow’s heroes and their attempts to deconstruct the norms of mass people and low culture
Since deconstruction has been effectively related to modernity and postmodernity; since Bellow’s intellectual heroes have been defined in line with madness, subversion, wisdom, deconstruction and alienation in mass society, one investigates, first, the way the heroes are trained in a European intellectual tradition, and how and why they are alienated, marginalized in a society which is dominated by low culture
In what way does Bellow redefine the concept madness? Admitting that he exalts madness, contrary to the Foucauldian fashion, and elevates it to a state of peace and gift, wisdom and high culture, how does it intensify the over consciousness and the wisdom of his heroes? How and why does it help deconstruct the norms of mass society and low culture? To answer these questions, one should first acknowledge that Bellow belongs to a Western cultural paradigm that acquaints madness with intellectuals, wisdom and Man’s moral worth
Summary
This paper argues for the way over consciousness engenders the wisdom of Bellow’s heroes and their attempts to deconstruct the norms of mass people and low culture. Deep affinities are sketched between different types of discourses namely literary and philosophical, subversive and deconstructive which the researcher assumes as a fundamental condition for entering Bellow’s fictional world. At this level, the researcher analyzes how and why over consciousness engenders what Bellow calls madness as wisdom, deconstruction as subversion and chaos as life, achievement and humanism. The researcher analyzes how and why over consciousness engenders what Bellow calls madness as wisdom, deconstruction as subversion and chaos as life, achievement and humanism Bellow often coins this with the conflicting poles of high culture and low culture, intellectuals and mass society
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