Language, Power, and

Ideology in Political
Writing:
Emerging Research and
Opportunities

Önder Çakırtaş
Bingöl University, Turkey
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Title: Language, power, and ideology in political writing: emerging
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Identifiers: LCCN 2019001871| ISBN 9781522594444 (hardcover) | ISBN
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Subjects: LCSH: Politics and literature. | Politics in literature. | Power
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 Table of Contents

Preface.................................................................................................................. vii

Acknowledgment.................................................................................................. xi

Chapter 1
Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing.................................1
Nicole Anae, Central Queensland University, Australia

Chapter 2
“Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”: Art, Power, and Ideology in Julian
Barnes’s The Noise of Time...................................................................................31
Maria Antonietta Struzziero, Independent Researcher, Italy

Chapter 3
A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for
Children: Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.....................................................55
Nilay Erdem Ayyıldız, Fırat University, Turkey

Chapter 4
Refection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing: America and Russia in
Each Other’s Mirror, 1930s-1940s........................................................................80
Xenia Liashuk, Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia

Chapter 5
Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë..................105
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Michail Theodosiadis, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

Chapter 6
Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature..........................................124
Marisa Kerbizi, Alexander Moisiu University, Albania
Edlira Tonuzi Macaj, Tirana University, Albania
 

Chapter 7
Intertextuality in Political Discourse..................................................................143
Elena Kitaeva, St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Olga Ozerova, St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Chapter 8
Narratives of Erasure: Caste in R. K. Narayan’s The English Teacher...............171
Lucky Issar, Berlin Freie University, Germany

Related Readings............................................................................................... 188

About the Contributors.................................................................................... 202

Index................................................................................................................... 205
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 vii

Preface

Power, whether physical or psychological, has been an important factor

since human existence. Power, as a part of politics, is an element that human
nature wants to have. The fact that man holds power also necessitates various
behavioural manoeuvres or manipulations. Although Aristotle relates politics
to the word ‘interest’, many of the authors state that almost all human
behaviour is kind of political expression. For this reason, Augusto Boal claims
that every literary work compels politics. While real-life natural examples
are presented on the stage, it is impossible to not to examine the political
attitude in the real life of man. Each piece of art, and, therefore, each of the
literary works, conveys sections from the political aspects of the period.
Bully administrations, liberalisms, libertarianism, democracies, theocracies,
dictatorships, left and right lines, communist, socialist, Marxist or feminist
ideologies become part of human life and offer traces of literature. These
political attitudes or ideologies also lead to the formation of (in)visible classes
in societies: slaves, masters, oppressed, oppressors, the poor, the rich, the
working classes, the nobility, the owners, the exploiters and the exploited,
and so on. Political literature, which forefronts that every part of each unique
society has socio-political and politico-cultural agenda, conveys such various
representations of these communal stratifications within a group of subgenres.
Therefore, differing cases from each society are presented in different political
reflections by means of linguistic and literary materials. Political transfers are
either incorporated into the work in connection with a direct political name,
group or community, or have been implied in an indirect manner. Therefore,
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realpolitik and metapolitical implications have been revealed.

While Aristotle pointed to the orientation of individuals’ personal or social
will with the catchphrase ‘man is a political animal’ in his Politics years ago,
he did not ignore the linguistic and literary activities of humans that went
through some phases from the most primitive to the most modern period;
on the contrary, he proved that literature, as one of the most energetic ways
 Preface

of articulating human life, was a political expression. As a matter of fact, by

dint of the term mimesis – the imitation of nature and human act in art and
literature – in his Poetics, he meanderingly described the most experiential and
most imitative nature of human existence. Imitation reflects the spontaneous
spirit of literature, often bringing together dramatic images, and is reflected
in the literary works by narrativization, dialoguing, versing and theatricality.
Political and symbolic messages provided by the expressions of language,
thus, become a living carrier of interpersonal communication. Therefore,
imitation is often the most obvious reflection of latent politics in interpersonal
relations. In its simplest sense, defined as ‘the art of governance’, politics
can be described as a pragmatic reflection of ontological or epistemological
value judgments of human behaviourism – this is what Aristotle emphasizes
by the word ‘interest’.
From social sciences and humanities, natural sciences, space sciences to
art and music, and from the ancient age – where polis city-states were the
dominating power arenas – to this current period in which the nation-states
are the governing bodies, the concept of politics has been a fundamental
concern. Naturally, this makes it implausible to not to perceive any political and
ideological propensities in literature and discourse studies. As Paul A. Cantor
points out in his work, ‘Literature and Politics: Understanding the Regime’,
“[i]n the classical view, literature will tend to reflect the spirit of the regime
under which it is written, the dominant opinions and constitutive political
principles. Living under a tyrant, poets will sing the praises of tyranny and
above all the specific despot in power. Even under a democracy, poets will
cater to and reinforce the democratic prejudices of their audience.” Indeed,
such a status quo is observed in any of literary genre. Authors reflect the past,
present and even post- period(s) by way of various writings revealing political
contradictions, radical references and ideological discourses. Therefore, ideas
create political and ideological contradictions and the contradictions of human
nature are represented by linguistic and literary discourse.
The intention of this edited collection is, to a large extent, to examine how
politics and ideology, which are theoretical as well as thematic material of
both classical and modern literature, affect writing constructing important
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literary subgenres and the sources that prepare this ground. Within each
individual chapter, writers focus on differing images of political philosophies,
bringing unique interpretations vis-à-vis literary discourse. In this study, the
reflections of political philosophies in the historical existence of nations, in
addition to the political and ideological messages in literary writing, have
been interpreted by qualified authors. In a hermeneutic context, the related

viii
 Preface

works have been studied carefully and the relation of political origin with
literature has been examined by covering the works of different countries.
In the first chapter of this collection, Nicole Anae examines the figure of
the Indigenous Aboriginal detective created by Indigenous writers as an
underrepresented character and speaking subject within Australian detective
fiction which both traverses and disrupts conventional elements of literary style.
In the second chapter, Maria Antonietta Struzziero analyses Julian Barnes’s
The Noise of Time (2016), the fictional biography of the Russian composer
Dmitri Shostakovich and his three traumatic ‘Conversations with Power’.
Barnes’s narrative explores themes that are not only central to the composer’s
biography but of more general concern: the function of ideology and politics
in culture and social life; the role of censorship in a ruthless regime and its
traumatic effects on the psyche of an artist whose conscience must confront
the insupportable demands of totalitarianism. The analysis of the novel aims
first, to investigate how the dominant political apparatuses of Stalinist Power
and their repressive ideological discourses affected the composer’s personal
and artistic life. Second, to discuss the complex portrait of Shostakovich that
comes to life in Barnes’s representation. Nilay Erdem Ayyıldız, in the next
chapter, explores the gendered imperial politics in short fiction for children
through analysing “The Mowgli Stories” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” selected
from nineteenth-century colonialist author Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book
(1894). In her study, Ayyıldız puts attention to the concept of political ideology
in lens of gendered perspective ascribed to Indian masculinities under the
British hegemonic power relations.
Xenia Liashuk focuses on the ways in which politics and ideology are
incorporated into travel writing. The analysis of two travel books involving
the U.S. American and the Soviet Russian cultures, namely Little Golden
America (One-Storied America, 1937) by Soviet humorists Ilf and Petrov, and
A Russian Journal (1948) by American novelist John Steinbeck, reveals the
two factors of importance influencing the depiction of politics and ideology
in travel writing, namely the authors’ identity including their personal
ideologies, and the polarity of bilateral political and ideological relations
between the nations concerned. Michail Theodosiadis, in the fifth chapter,
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takes Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and brings into the discussion the
works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt. It
emphasizes Heathcliff’s personality, as an expression of the will to power, a
theme that has been developed both by Arendt and Nietzsche. His text argues
that the will to power is the outcome of uproodetness, a notion developed
and thoroughly examined by Simone Weil. He also elaborates on Christopher

ix
 Preface

Lasch and Carl Jung simultaneously, and seeks solution to a problem that
also characterizes the contemporary western societies, the liquidation of
norms and values (cultural updootedness, in other words), the destruction of
the past, of a world within which human beings develop their own sense of
personality and identity, a world that, simultaneously, functions as a positive
simulator in order to avoid resentment and destruction.
Marisa Kerbizi and Edlira Tonuzi Macaj focus on the negative image of
ideology in Albanian literature, in which, as they put, Albania is realized
as one of the East Bloc countries where communism was installed as a
political system after the Second World War, severely suffered the ideology
consequences in art. The hypothesis sustains the idea that the political ideology
of the Albanian dictatorial system has found many ways to damage the most
representative authors and their artistic works of Albanian literature. They stress
that the ideology in Albania claimed ‘the compulsory educational system’ by
interfering in the school textbooks; by excluding several authors from those
textbooks, by denying their inclusion or the right for publication or even by
eliminating them physically. Elena Kitaeva and Olga Ozerova, interestingly,
present the discussion on intertextuality role in political discourse, namely
in key-leaders’ political speeches. In their lens, intertextuality appears to
highlight the uncontested dialogicity of political discourse and takes it to the
next level of decoding the speaker’s message to the audience. By means of
intertextuality, as the two scholars put forth, political leaders establish links
with their audience outlining common values with the support of history,
cultural traditions and religion. In their approach, research into the speeches
by key politicians allows to reveal trends of intertext usage in European
and American political discourse. Lucky Issar, in the forthcoming chapter,
examines R.K Narayan’s novel The English Teacher as a narrative of caste
erasure. Issar notes that, as the novelist goes on to construct his ‘authentic,’
‘Brahmanical’ India, he effectively erases caste-others by creating an exclusive,
selective imaginary of Indian nation as upper-caste. This construction requires
caste erasure, and suppression of ‘queerness’ that constantly poses a threat
to caste-based ideological formulations of Indian society as Brahmanical,
Hindu, and hetero-normative. Through the close reading of the text, Issar
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shows that caste not only damages Dalits but it makes a deleterious impact
on the upper castes and by extension on the whole Indian society.

Önder Çakırtaş
Bingöl University, Turkey

x
 xi

Acknowledgment

My utmost debt is to my contributors whose comeback to an uncommon notion

was both original and co-operative. There are others, less noticeable, who
have made this book promising. I would like to express my warm thanks to
the IGI Global Publishing team who made it possible to include photographs
in the book. Maria Rohde, my editor at IGI Global, was immensely helpful
and patient in tracking down the editorial steps—her clear-sighted guidance
always detailed and welcome.
And my greatest thanks go to my family – my wife, Kubra; my daughter,
Zeynep Erva; and my son, Omer Asaf. Without their support and patience,
this collection would never be as targeted.
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 1

Chapter 1
Indigenous Australian
Detective Fiction as
Political Writing
Nicole Anae
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8441-2771
Central Queensland University, Australia

ABSTRACT
Indigenous voices emerged within Australian detective fction with the greatest
clarity in the 1990s. This chapter examines the fgure of the Indigenous
Aboriginal detective created by Indigenous writers as an underrepresented
character and speaking subject within Australian detective fction that both
traverses and disrupts conventional elements of literary style. Certainly,
the conventional characteristic elements of crime genre are present within
detective fction written by Indigenous writers, but this literary post-colonialist
analysis explores how Indigenous writers such as Mudrooroo (“The
Westralian,” “The Healer,” and “Home on the Range”), Philip McLaren
(Scream Black Murder), and Sally Morgan (My Place) juxtaposed elements
of style to both highlight constructs of reality in Australian detective fction
while simultaneously providing fresh perspectives on both the Indigenous
detective as a fgure of political interest and Australian Indigenous detective
fction as political writing.
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DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch001

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

INTRODUCTION

A clearly articulated definition of “political writing” in the context of

literature is notoriously difficult to identify. Paola Toninato’s usage of the
phrase “writing for political purposes” (2017) provides a useful framework
in which to explore not only what “political writing” is in the context of
literature, but how writers themselves utilise the language of fiction for
political agency and purpose as a matter of style. George Orwell’s “Politics
and the English Language” (1946) is conventionally regarded as his seminal
essay on style. For Orwell, however, style was never purely concerned with
the question of aesthetics, but rather, a question of performance inextricably
linked to semantics: “dying metaphors” (p. 159), “pretentious diction” (p.
160), “meaningless words” (p. 161), “orthodoxy,” and politics. However,
nowhere in “Politics and the English Language” does Orwell define “political
writing”. While this concept emerges as curiously vague—used only twice,
with Orwell claiming that in his time, “political writing is bad writing” (1970,
p. 165)—a writing “expressing his [the writer’s] private opinions and not ‘the
party line’,” (1970, p. 166) proved the exception to the rule. In these cases,
orthodoxy gave political writing its signature: “Orthodoxy, of whatever color,
seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style” (1970, p. 166).
Perhaps true to form, Orwell does not define “orthodoxy” either, but
one of the better non-doctrinal definitions in relation to Indigenous writing
and orthodoxy is that posited by Tom Flanagan in First Nations? Second
Thoughts (2008). Flanagan asserts the idea that “aboriginal orthodoxy is
an international phenomenon” (p. 8) with one of the most powerful themes
of Aboriginal orthodoxy being “that special rights flow from having been
here first” (p. 11). It is the contention here that this kind of orthodoxy finds
strong significance in the work of Australian Indigenous writers such as
Mudrooroo (“The Westralian,” “The Healer,” and “Home on the Range”),
Philip McLaren (Scream Black Murder) and Sally Morgan (My Place),
and by extension, characterises a form of political writing. Downie argues
that while all political writing “cannot avoid being topical … the problem
of bringing the details of a forgotten issue to life remains” (p. 552). These
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writers bring to life topical issues by blending personal yet highly political
orthodoxies with literary techniques challenging conventions of traditional
detective fiction, and in so doing, create innovative, dissenting, and highly
proactive Indigenous literary figures of political action and interest.1

2
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

THE INDIGENOUS ABORIGINAL DETECTIVE:

A LITERARY OVERVIEW

A number of unique voices effectively co-opted the genre of contemporary

Australian crime fiction for Indigenous title during the 1990s. Works by
Philip McLaren, Mudrooroo, and Sally Morgan, among others, contributed
to the liberation of the formerly displaced Indigenous voice in the realisation
of Indigenous detectives as strong protagonists of a particular literary type.
These writers, then as now, occupy unique positions as Indigenous Australians
and as internationally published authors of fiction. Their works remain the
focus of robust and extensive critical review and literary enquiry because
their perspectives effectively explore postcolonialism from the inside-out.
The novels and short stories under examination here bear out both a patriotic
obligation to Aboriginal Australians and an ongoing engagement with the
complexities of Aboriginal cultures while simultaneously moving the genre
of crime fiction forward by situating Aboriginal protagonists at the forefront
of crime detection. Importantly, these literary protagonists—Gary and Lisa in
Scream Black Murder (1995), Sally Morgan in My Place (1989) and Detective
Watson Holmes Jackamara in “Westralian Lead” (1990), “The Healer” (1991)
and “Home on the Range” (1993)—also offer original counterpoints to the
“black-tracker” construction in Anglo-Celtic crime fiction; those stories
feature real-life individuals and actual investigations.
“Black-trackers” were reified in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century
Australian fiction and non-fiction as the “unerring sleuth-hound of the waste—
the invaluable attaché of a police contingent” (“The Black Tracker”). The
tradition of featuring the black-tracker in Australian detective fiction may be
seen as early as the late 1850s in William Howitt’s Tallangetta, the Squatter’s
Home (1857) and thereafter in novels such as Louis Becke’s Tom Gerrard
(1904) and Edward S. Sorenson’s The Squatter’s Ward (1916). However, this
tradition is also realised in the many short stories and serialisations in Australian
newspapers, particularly in the 1930s. These include Bruce Ferguson’s The
Coroner’s Dilemma: A Complete Australian Detective Story (1930), and
Arthur Gask’s The Hidden Door (1934), among many others. Rarely in these
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serialisations, however, are the trackers’ given names or their Aboriginal

kinship group identified. The nameless tracker alluded to, in Charles Taylor’s
The Girl Who Helped Ned Kelly (1929), an “Australian outback romance”
serialised in Melbourne’s Table Talk from February 14 to May 16, 1929,
was likely inspired by “Spider,” the real-life black-tracker who led police to

3
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

one of the hideouts of the Kelly Gang outlaws in 1880 (“The Kelly Gang”).2
While this anonymity contrasts the work of Becke and Sorenson, who at least
conferred names to their trackers as protagonists (“Moses” and “Mumby”
respectively), these literary figures remain the invention of non-Indigenous
writers. Similarly, while real-life Indigenous trackers were instrumental to
investigations necessitating experience with reading the land as a process of
reading clues in the pursuit of the investigation, their construction in detective
serialisations and stories is mediated almost exclusively by the value of their
service to white-settlers.3
Just as the lead Aboriginal characters created by Mudrooroo, McLaren and
Morgan—whose loyalties lie with service to Indigenous communities—also
offer counterpoints to the black-tracker tradition in “colonial and postcolonial
writing”, so too do they represent compelling counterpoints to Arthur Upfield’s
Bony series. Upfield’s protagonist—the blue-eyed, part-Aboriginal detective
named Napoleon Bonaparte—may only ever represent the appropriation by
Upfield of an Indigenous speaker’s voice. Similarly, his police black-trackers,

Figure 1. Illustration of the black-tracker named “Spider” with Martin Ready (alias
“Patterson”), the prime suspect in the murder of John Welford Neale in September
1906 (“A Maniacal Murderer”)
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4
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

Abie (in “The Widows of Broome”)4 or “Narrawarra alias One Shirt Dan”
(in “Breakaway House”),5 emerge as white approximations of the Indigenous
speaker. Furthermore, while the first female Aboriginal detective was probably
Sergeant Tathra in Debra Adelaide and Laurie Bookluck’s Headlines (1993),
she also communicates via annexation of the Aboriginal speaker’s voice.
In literary terms, while Mudrooroo has successfully created in Jackamara a
male “serial character” (Little, 1992, p. 148)—featuring in Wildcat Screaming
(1992), the third volume of his Wildcat trilogy, as well as a number of quite
allegorical short stories such as “The Kwinkan” (1991)—there remains to
this day a relative dearth of Aboriginal detective fiction written by Indigenous
writers since the 1990s. Only one author, Nicole Watson, has made a more
recent contribution to the genre. Watson is a member of the Birri-Gubba
People and the Yugambeh language group, and claims “Crime fiction is an
appealing genre because it gives me the chance to give Aboriginal people
agency” (Dapin). In The Boundary (2011), Aboriginal detective Jason

Figure 2. Photographic illustration of Arthur Upfield as he appeared in 1932

(“Murchison Mystery”)
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5
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

Matthews investigates the kidnapping of the Premier of Queensland and the

murders of a judge and lawyers fighting a native title claim by the Corrowa
people. The literary figure of the male Aboriginal detective has also found
a cinematic presence in Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road (2013) which features a
highly accomplished yet infamous Aboriginal detective called Jay Swan.
Additionally, a number of non-Indigenous writers have kept the figure
of the Aboriginal detective alive in Australian crime fiction. Crime novels
such as Jon Cleary’s Pride’s Harvest (1991) and Kel Robertson’s Rip Off
(2011) also include Aboriginal police officers (Constables Mungle and Glenn
respectively). The figure of the Aboriginal detective also has international
currency, as seen in Jo Nesbø’s The Bat (1997), which was published in English
in 2013. Nesbø’s protagonist Harry Hole travels to Australia to investigate
the murder of Norwegian national and is met at the airport by his Australian
contact, the Aboriginal detective Andrew Kensington.
That the examples of Aboriginal detective fiction under examination
within this chapter—Scream Black Murder, “Westralian Lead,” “The Healer”
and “Home on the Range”—appeared within the 1990s with relatively little
development since seems to suggest the existence of a particular historic-
cultural milieu conducive to the genre. It is possible to argue that these works,
as well as My Place, were inspired in the wake of a number of significant
movements in Aboriginal/Australian history occurring in the 1980s. The
Australian government had held a Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths
in custody—the only Western (Anglophone) country to have established such
an inquiry at the highest level (Dawes & Grant, 2002, p. 102). The Royal
Commission, ordered under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert (“Bob”)
Hawke, on August 10, 1987, “provided a blueprint for building on the strengths
and working to overcome disadvantage with the principle of Aboriginal self-
determination underpinning its recommendations” (McDonald, 1996). Such
developments contributed to the 1980s as representing, to coin Headon (1988),
the “turning point in the fortunes of black literature” in Australia (p. 13).
The works of detective fiction examined here “will always speak as
hybrid texts—works by a person of color—about decolonization politics …
for all their misogynistic, judgmental and angry reflections, [they] speak
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more pointedly about the violence of colonization than virtually any other
contemporary Australian text” (Turcotte, 2005, p. 115). These narratives
explore Aboriginal experience in the context of colonialism, and through
the genre of detective fiction, bring culturally and politically marginalised
agents from its social peripheries. Here, social realism is a significant literary
quality within the Aboriginal detective story given the authors, like many

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

of their characters, personify “fringe dwellers who live in a landscape of

unbelonging” (Knudsen, 2004, p. 5).
The figure of the Indigenous Aboriginal detective created by Indigenous
writers is an underrepresented character and speaking subject within Australian
detective fiction precisely because very few writers are equipped to both
traverse and disrupt conventional elements of literary style while also staking
a claim on the Indigenous voice. Certainly, the characteristic elements of
detective fiction are present within detective stories written by Indigenous
writers—crime, contexts of crime, the methods of detection applied by a
methodical detective—but Indigenous writers such as Sally Morgan (My Place),
Mudrooroo (“The Westralian,” “The Healer” and “Home on the Range”),
and Paul McLaren (Scream Black Murder) dislocate conventions of style to
both realise a unique code of social realism in Australian detective fiction
and interpose activist readings of the Indigenous detective as a protagonist
of postcolonial and political concern.

MY PLACE AS POLITICAL WRITING

Lauded as the “finest example of the reconnecting of the broken tissue of

Aboriginal identity to date” (Healy, 1988, p. 81), My Place (1987) is as
much a detective story as a quest narrative tracing the author’s matrilineal
Aboriginal heredity; an ancestry silenced and obfuscated in the course of her
up-bringing. The central protagonist of Morgan’s My Place (1987), Sally,
scrutinises history, including the anecdotal histories of her grandmother and
her mother, for evidence of a crime. Sally’s belief for most of her teens that
she was of partially Indian descent creates a double-mystery: discovering
the part-Aboriginal ancestry of her mother and her grandmother, and by
extension, herself and her children. Morgan uses the structure of the detective
story to organise the narrative but also deploys the genre of autobiography
to tell a story of discovering and recovering Aboriginal identity. According
to West (2003):6
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… if Sally as “detective” fulfils the role of mediator that Todorov ascribes to

the sleuth, she as an Aboriginal person also constitutes one of the victims of
crimes—and the public with whom she communicates must find itself on the
side of the perpetrators. The task of mediation is thus complicated by the fact
that the text’s principal readers, white Australians, including myself, inevitably
read their own indictment in the revelation of a history of injustice. (p. 290)

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

In Genres in Discourse (1990), the French-Belgian critic Tzvetan Todorov

asserts that the search for knowledge dominates the detective story. Todorov
theorises on the “problematic relation” of the two stories constituting the
detective genre plotline: “the story of the crime, which is missing, and the
story of the investigation, which is present, and whose only justification is
to acquaint us with the other story [that is, determining the ‘real agents or
motives’ of the crime]” (p. 33). This duality between story and narrative is
an important observation for West (2003) in relation to the mediator function
attributed to Sally as a detective in My Place. Sally as sleuth mediates between
two stories: the story of the crime, and she as an Aboriginal person constituting
“one of the victims of crimes”, and the story of the investigation, that is, one
in which “the text’s principal readers, white Australians” constitute the “real
agents or motives” of the crime itself.
Interwoven in this novel are three stories of three generations of the
“Corunna” family—Arthur Corunna (Sally’s great-uncle), Gladys Corunna
(Sally’s mother: her “Mum”) and Daisy Corunna (Sally’s grandmother: her
“Nan”)—together with the narrative of Sally herself binding them together.
Whitlock (2000) claims that “Morgan’s My Place uses the resources of
autobiographical narrative brilliantly to present the making of Aboriginality,
specifically of an Aboriginal identity which is available to urban Aboriginal
Australians of mixed descent, and grounded in cultural and spiritual
identification” (p. 157). The detective story as a central structural element
is also crucial in situating the novel as what Donaldson (1991) identifies as
“a significant act of intercultural brokerage” (p. 350). It is in this way that
the novel may be read as a political commentary responding to the former
government’s policy of the forced removal of children of mixed Anglo-
Aboriginal heredity from their parents. This policy was in effect until the
mid-1970s and thereafter termed “Stolen Generation” to refer to its many
victims. “In coming to claim and to articulate both her Aboriginal flesh and
her Aboriginal spirit,” claims Zonana (1996), “the well-mothered daughter
reunites them, healing the wound administered by a white Australia policy
of genocide” (p. 60).
Indeed, it is Sally’s methods of investigation which cast her in many ways
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as a prototypical detective. Her investigatory approaches are unorthodox; she

relies on gut-feeling and intuition. “Oh Sally,” says her mother, “you and your
gut feelings, you’re like a bloody detective” (p. 301). She is quite dogged in
her interviews with witnesses. For instance, she decides to “tackle” (p. 219)
her mother about being brought up at a children’s home. Although her mother
is “shocked” at the question, Sally charges that she “deliberately misled us”

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

(p. 219) even before her mother has time to respond. Little stands in Sally’s
way in her quest for answers. She is often adversely confronted by her own
and others’ reactions to discovery, but she is not dissuaded by this: “You’re
lucky I didn’t ring you up and abuse you over the phone. You’re supposed
to be helping me” she says to her mother, “and here you are, hoarding your
own little secrets” (p. 220). She is intent on solving the puzzle of her heretical
line. While her grandmother is resistant to Sally’s quest of discovery, she is
eager to hear of her progress. Here, rather than initiating the conversation
with Nan, her grandmother, Sally “decided to let her sweat it out and bring
up the topic herself” (p. 204). After conducting interviews with her extended
family and acquaintances and then returning from “Corunna Downs,” the
home of her Aboriginal descendants, Sally wants “more than anything” for
her grandmother, Nan “to change, to be proud of what she was.” “‘We’d
seen so much of her and ourselves in the people we’d met’ says Sally, ‘We
belonged now. We wanted her to belong too’” (p. 296).
It is this kind of conflict between culture and identity which problematise
staking a claim on one’s own ancestral belonging, which wholly defines
Sally’s quest in recovering her Aboriginality. It is also this very quest
which highlights the politics of identification when one claims belonging
to a particular community, family and place that critics such as Huggins
(1993) argue casts My Place as a narrative orated by a self-involved and
self-absorbed “I”. Sally reflects on her past and translates the clues of her
heredity through black/white cultural entanglements. “Precisely what irks
me about My Place,” claims Huggins “is its proposition that Aboriginality
can be understood by all non-Aboriginals. To me that is My Place’s greatest
weakness—requiring little translation (to a white audience) …” (as cited in
Cain, 2001, p. 4; Grossman, 2003, p. 61).
For Brady (1996), the strength of My Place “lies in the way it involves
the reader, beginning on familiar ground but gradually drawing us into what
is unfamiliar, holding our attention by building up the suspense, turning the
search for identity into a kind of detective story” (p. 123). The emphasis on
engaging the reader via a continuum of familiarity and unfamiliarity, however,
is given greater importance when reading this work as a trans-historical
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detective story. Beyond merely holding reader attention and building suspense,
reading My Place as trans-historical detective story assists in apprehending the
concept of identity itself as a process of deduction as much as translating the
meaning of clues. For Murphy (2001), the trans-historical (p. 247) detective
story tracks a narrative in which the protagonist investigates an incident
from the remote past. While My Place includes incidents occurring in the

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

near-recent past, the novel is characteristic of the present-to-past transitions

found in trans-historical detective fiction.

MUDROOROO’S “WESTRALIAN LEAD,” “THE

HEALER” AND “HOME ON THE RANGE”

Mudrooroo deals with present-to-past transitions and trans-historical

crimes of a different variety in his short stories “Westralian Lead” (1990),
“The Healer” (1991) and “Home on the Range” (1993). Mudrooroo adopts
Arthur Upfield’s Napoleon Bonaparte’s styling as “a cross between Sherlock
Holmes and a black tracker” (Morris, 1984, p. 8) one step further in his
character, Jackamara, aka Detective Watson Holmes Jackamara. It is via the
moniker—Detective Watson Holmes Jackamara—that Mudrooroo, “mocks
Holmesian attitudinising, not the native: Jackamara is not a figure of fun but
a sombre investigator” (Knight, 2006, pp. 21–22). Although, in most respects,
Bonaparte and Jackamara are worlds apart, these two fictitious Aboriginal
detectives share common points to compare. Like Bonaparte, Jackamara is
also a “punisher of white men’s crime in the modern world” (Knight, 2006,
pp. 21–22). In fact, while we discover in “Home on the Range” that Jackamara
“has established a reputation of always getting his man, black or white” (p.
4) we also learn in “Westralian Lead” that “[i]n his [Jackamara’s] experience
Aborigines could only be petty criminals. They just didn’t have it in them to
aim for the big stakes” (p. 35).
While Mudrooroo’s “Home on the Range” begins by configuring the
narrative of an “outback” western to deal with an episode of “cattle spearing,”
this sets up the friendship between Jackamara and the culprit of the crime,
“Riley,” an Aboriginal, who with the help of Jackamara enjoys a short career
serving as a police black-tracker before becoming an important figure in
his Aboriginal community. It is within Riley’s community that Jackamara
investigates the murder of a young, educated Aboriginal man. Mudrooroo’s
two short stories, “Westralian Lead” and “The Healer”, deal exclusively with
drug importation as a central trope, but murder by white men is also involved
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together with drugs (heroine) and its distribution by whites. Horton claims
“Westralian Lead” as “a masterpiece of characterisation and introduces Watson
Holmes Jackamara, Australia’s newest detective” (1994, p. 988). Set in the
urban suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, a corrupt police officer, Detective-
Inspector Bernie Collins imports heroine and fatally contaminates a supply

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

given to two female victims who can identify him as the distributor. In “The
Healer”, the culprits are two French tourists—Céleste and Maurice—who
traffic in drugs using a boat running along the New South Wales coastline
from the seaside anchorage of Byron Bay to Queensland.
Both stories feature a small ensemble of characters, each pitting Jackamara
against white antagonists who invariably underestimate Jackamara as he is
variously disguised. This is another commonality between Bonaparte and
Jackmara; deception and the Aboriginal detective’s disguises within the society
dominated by white people. While Upfield’s Bonaparte appears as a tramp
in “The Sands of Windee” (1932) and a labourer on the rabbit-proof fence in
“Mr. Jelly’s Business” (1933), Mudrooroo’s Jackamara also disguises himself;
as a stockman in “Westralian Lead” and as a healer named “Manyaninniya”
in “The Healer”. “The result of long experience” according to Jackamara,
“was that Aborigines were never perceived as distinct individuals, and that
if the stereotype was altered a little, the black person was seen as a different
person” (p. 33). Thus, the lone Aboriginal detective becomes the master of
disguise with reasonably little effort—a kind of racial chameleon—as whites
largely fail to recognise him as a detective at all. Jackamara discovers early
in his career that “in the [Northern] Territory racism is even worse than in
Queensland, and so Police Constable Watson Holmes Jackamara becomes
simply Jacky, or Wot’s Up Jacky and is treated as a black tracker” (p. 3).
It is only in “Home on the Range,” set in an Aboriginal community, that
Jackamara is seen by the residents for who he is; “You get everyone you
after” says Riley, his long-time friend (p. 12), and it is in Riley’s community
that Jackamara feels somehow safeguarded; “happy to be away from all that
harms his Aboriginality” (p. 5).

“SCREAM BLACK MURDER:” THE ABORIGINAL

DETECTIVE IN THE MAINSTREAM

Less able to exploit the racial biases of white society to assume disguises in
the pursuit of white crime are the two protagonists, Lisa Fuller and Gary Leslie
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in Philip McLaren’s Scream Black Murder (1995). The novel was shortlisted
for a Ned Kelly Crime Writers’ Award and confronts sexual and racial conflict
within the context of an overtly bureaucratic post-colonial setting: the New
South Wales police force. However, McLaren engages murder and grievous
sexual assault as criminal acts in Scream Black Murder. Gelder and Salzman

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

(2009) identify the novel more as a serial-killer narrative than detective fiction
(p. 58) while Ryan-Fazilleau (2004) claims it to be a police procedural within
the genre of crime fiction more broadly. The crime narrative is told through
the voices of Lisa Fuller and Gary Leslie as well as the murderer himself.
This narrative also shifts temporal perspectives to take the reader back in time
to recount the institutional racism influencing the histories of both Gary and
Lisa as well as their respective trajectories leading up to their recruitment into
the police force. The narrative centres on the pursuit of a white Australian
male raping and murdering Aboriginal victims, and this voice is dark and
maniacal: “I only wanted to talk to her. I didn’t want anything else. Evelyn
should have opened the door. She’s really starting to make me fucking angry”
(p. 73). The narrative also deals with the resistance toward Gary and Lisa
expressed by members of the Aboriginal community itself; “we’re fucking
Aboriginal!”, says Gary to a Redfern resident, “We know what you are,”
comes the response, “Piss off!” According to Knight (2006):

A winner for a prize for indigenous fiction, he [McLaren] reclaimed the

urban police procedural by making his police detectives a man from Sydney’s
urban ghetto of Redfern and a woman who had been a mission school child
separated from her parents. Realising both institutional racism and the ease
with which kooris—the native name for natives in that part of Australia—can
slip toward white culture and corruption, the novel makes it seem natural, as
well as proper, to have competent black professionals supervising the problems
of their world, and so moves a long way from the subservient, semi-mystical
black trackers of the past. (p. 22)7

Yet the positions of authority adopted by these Aboriginal protagonists—

Lisa Fuller and Gary Leslie—are not without their complications. Ben-
Messahel (2008) reads Scream Black Murder through the lens of racial ethnicity
and socio-cultural alienation. From this perspective, the central narrative of
a police investigation involving Leslie and Fuller “becomes an instrument
for sociological knowledge and the depiction of a malaise in the urban and
multicultural world” (p.86–87).8 Here speaks the voice of a Kamilaroi man
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(Althans, 2013, p. 148), an author himself born in Redfern, speaking as much

about Aboriginal culture and history as about cultural processes historicising
Indigeneity within the detective fiction genre;

Aboriginal people claim they’ve always occupied this land and never migrated
here, as some academics theorise. They reverse the logic of the popular

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

concept: if people could walk south over the so-called land bridge which
joined Australia to Asia, then surely they could also have walked north. After
all, the most ancient evidence of human habitation has been found on this
continent. (p. 113)

Scream Black Murder also raises questions about violence and the female
detective in crime fiction. While she is often exposed to horrific crimes of
violence against female victims, in the real world, the woman detective is
also vulnerable to those very forms of violence. However, representations
of graphic violence against the female investigator are infrequently seen in
Australian detective crime fiction and Aboriginal detective fiction specifically.
McLaren confronts the challenges of representing violence against the female
detective in Scream Black Murder. Detective Lisa Fuller is the victim of a
sadistic sexual assault as a climax to this novel. She is forced to strip naked
and is then orally raped by the murder suspect, Peter Simpson as he holds
a loaded gun to her head. However, although the dénouement to the scene
is that this violence facilities Lisa overpowering Simpson when he is most
vulnerable, his penis in her mouth and his eyes closed to the sensation of
oral sex, the incident itself is an anomaly within the genre of Australian
detective fiction more broadly, particularly during the 1990s. In this sense,
McLaren implicates the gender politics of writing about violence against
the woman detective in the Australian crime writing tradition. For instance,
McLaren sexualises Lisa—as he does most of the female characters in this
novel—while also asserting the power to express sexual violence against
the female detective in his own terms, as much as to personify the reality
of sexual violence against Aboriginal women as a broader social concern.
Lisa’s reaction to her husband, Alby’s, infidelity is therefore particularly
significant. Her husband’s adultery and penchant for pornography (pp. 202
& 204) is the catalyst for her termination of the relationship. A striking
significance of this event is how much Alby’s figuring as an Aboriginal man
juxtaposes Lisa’s professional partner, Gary Leslie. While when they first
met Lisa described Alby as being confident, strong, “city-born, a streetwise
Koori” (p. 204), by the end of their marriage his incursions into white vices
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had taken their toll, an effective contrast to Gary, who is more “balanced”
than “most Aboriginal men she knew” (p. 198) and had successfully
“manufactured a space in modern society for himself” (p. 198). Gender and
sex then come to represent more than sexualities and carnality but rather
signify the oppositional and binary structures mediating gender and racial
politics which draw the attention of the external structures of power within

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

which the Aboriginal novelist operates. The graphic representation of sexual

violence and the sub-narratives of sexual infidelity and pornography in
Aboriginal detective fiction, therefore, respond to the felonious acts white
colonisers have introduced into Aboriginal society.
This reading of Lisa as exemplifying a history of violence against Aboriginal
women stresses the issue of the colonial subjugation of Aboriginal women
as a postcolonial legacy. To some degree then, McLaren reconciles this very
graphic representation of sexual violence against the female protagonist with
an ideological aim to subject the question of such brutality to political and
social scrutiny.

COLONIAL AFTERMATHS AND AUSTRALIAN

INDIGENOUS DETECTIVE FICTION

What makes the novels and stories examined here particularly unique is that
their authors confront the ideological challenges that the Aboriginal detective
must, at some point, face: the cultural protocols and taboos surrounding
investigating crimes against Indigenous victims. These challenges include
naming taboos and viewing of a deceased Indigenous person. This act is
incredibly sensitive within Indigenous concepts of death and the spiritual
afterlife, but when the individual is the subject of an autopsy, witnessing
itself becomes even more problematised as an act of violation. McLaren
dramatises this conflict in the case of Gary;

He [Gary] looked once more at the body. The massive incisions made in the
corpse were now being stitched closed. He was overwhelmed with feelings
of reverence at the sight of the deceased female form in front of him; as if
he ought not be there at all. He allowed himself a few more seconds then
diverted his eyes. (p. 38)

Gary, on the one hand, appears compelled as an Aboriginal man to respect

Aboriginal avoidance practises, such as respecting spiritual significances
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attached to a deceased Aboriginal person’s clothing and hair as well as their

possessions. However, as a detective, he must not only transgress a set of
avoidance practices but must actively do so in the process of crime investigation.
Such incursions into violating avoidance practices include not looking past
the deceased person but rather making direct eye contact with the body.

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

Moreover, it must be noted that there is one avoidance practice which

both Lisa and Gary cannot strictly observe, that is, evoking the names of the
deceased in public utterances. While the practice is not applied in all Aboriginal
deaths, nor common to all Aboriginal groups, not speaking the name of the
deceased is generally considered, depending on the Aboriginal community, to
preserve the journey of the dead and ensures that the spirit of the deceased is
not called back to the real world as a mischievous spectre. While, in Scream
Black Murder, the name of the male victim found with the woman in the
first murders is spoken (p. 59), when Gary makes reference to the name of
the male victim (p. 79) and Lisa makes reference to the female victim (p. 79)
the naming appears to have occurred with the family’s permission. Thus, it
is conceivable that shortening the length of the “naming taboo” embargo to
within a week of the murders was sanctioned—that is, of course, assuming
that McLaren is specifically evoking this avoidance practice. If so, this is
in and of itself quite a unique literary anomaly. That the names of the dead
are openly articulated at all could also point as much to the gradual erosion
of traditional Aboriginal taboos as to changing attitudes toward traditional
observance practices and taboo violations.
Although, even if McLaren is not specifically evoking the naming taboo in
the above episode in Scream Black Murder, he does allude to an iteration of
the practice elsewhere in the novel. Gary and Lisa travel by plane to a town
called Weipa to interview a victim who survived an attack by the murder-
rapist suspect, Peter Simpson:

As Lisa and Gary retrieve their luggage from the plane, a young black man
came up to them and introduced himself in a mumbled voice. He started by
calling himself Marcus, then changed it to Michael, then quickly to Mitchell.
Lisa and Gary were a little bemused, but found out later that the man had
relatives named Marcus and Michael who had recently died, so tradition
dictated, out of respect, he assume another name for a reasonable period of
mourning. (p. 169)

The death of an Indigenous person is also dramatised in Sally Morgan’s

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My Place. The concluding chapter of the book deals with Nan’s death and
identifies the “weird sound” (p. 442) of a bird’s call—a sound and a bird
prefiguring the death knell. “[I]t was the Aboriginal bird, Sally,” says Nan,
“God sent him to tell me I’m going home soon. Home to my own land
and my own people. I got a good spot up there, they all waitin’ for me” (p.
443). However, while Nan insists on taking an ambulance (presumably to a

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

hospital) as a final gesture— “she wanted our old home free of death”—the
representation of death itself has been read as a transgression against ancient
Aboriginal lore. Indeed, “Nan” is spoken by Sally immediately following
the discovery that her grandmother has died; a transgression some claim
dishonours elemental non-naming taboos. Critics such as Huggins (1993, p.
62) argue that by representing “acts of passing”—generational departures,
identity, death, spiritual transitions—Morgan herself transgresses against
Aboriginal custom and ways of knowing.
We also see an iteration of the naming taboo in Mudrooroo’s “Home on
the Range.” Jackamara must investigate the murder of a young, educated
Aboriginal man “whose name is not allowed to be mentioned” (p. 6) as the
naming taboo is in effect and respected within that particular Aboriginal
community. Thus, in terms of detective fiction, that the non-naming practices
of the Aboriginal deceased may thus be respected by living relatives according
to traditional practices presents a particularly unique challenge for the
Aboriginal detective investigating the murder of Aboriginal victims. Not
all Aboriginal witnesses are whom they claim to be. Nor can some victims
be verbally identified. Additionally, the informed Aboriginal detective must
not only know the difference between the two non-naming practices but also
understand different ancestral belongings, how and when the naming taboo
is thus applied.
The politics of representing Indigenous identity as a bureaucratic issue
and the subjective and discursive implications of adopting the position of
the Aboriginal speaking subject is also one emerging in discussions about
Sally Morgan’s My Place (1987), ironically, or perhaps contradictorily,
by Mudrooroo himself. While the novel achieved the literary status of a
landmark publication as the first best-seller written by an Aboriginal author,
Mudrooroo considered that the work fell short as merely a “sanitised version
of Aboriginality” because it “did not shout” at its largely white Anglo-Celtic
readership, but rather “mirrored their concerns as to their place in Australia”
(Mudrooroo, 1997, p. 195). Mudrooroo contended that Morgan’s was “an
individualised story and the concerns of the Aboriginal community are of
secondary importance” (1990, p. 149). According to Guilliatt (1997, p. 13),
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Morgan too had her claims to speak as an Aboriginal person challenged

(as cited in Nolan, 2007, p. 134). That it was Mudrooroo who was perhaps
the most strident in his attacks of Morgan’s right to speak and the form her
utterances took both problematises and highlights the historicity of the extent
to which state-sanctioned controls and scrutiny have arbitrated those excluded
from, and those accepted within, definitions of Aboriginality (Nolan, 2007,

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

p. 134). This requisite to establish authenticity is driven by an essentialist

view of identity. As Van Toorn (2000) explains; “[k]nowing the particulars
of their Aboriginal descent, identifying as Aboriginal, and being accepted
as such by an Aboriginal community, [means that] most authors have little
trouble satisfying the three criteria of Aboriginality defined by the federal
government” (p. 41).
Yet, any critical engagement with Mudrooroo’s works of detective fiction
must situate his work within a corpus of Aboriginal writing by acknowledging
the contested nature of his own identity as an Indigenous author. As Fischer
(2000) argues, “it is essential to remember that the question of [Mudrooroo,
aka Colin Johnson’s] identity is intimately linked to the construction of a
literary identity: it is part of the biography of an author of fiction” (p. 101).
The complexities of the speaking subject become particularly germane
in discussions about this author’s work. As D’Cruz (2001) contends,
“complexities are always at work when speaking positions are reduced to the
definition of an identity, regardless of whether the bearer of that identity can
be authenticated” (p. 8). It is important to note, however, that the so-called
“controversy” surrounding Mudrooroo’s ancestry only emerged in 1996 and
that the works under examination here— “Westralian Lead” (1990), “The
Healer” (1991) and “Home on the Range” (1993)—were for all intents and
purposes accepted by the literary world as the work of an Aboriginal author.9
Concerns about the legitimacy of Mudrooroo’s voice as Aboriginal does
tell us something very important about the reading of Aboriginal detective
fiction as political discourse. Reading this genre requires mediating between
fiction and contemporary issues of racialism. Aboriginal detective fiction
offers instructive reading when exploring the underrepresentation of the
Aboriginal detective as both postcolonial subjectivity and postcolonial motif.
While Outlaw (1999) defines racialism as diverse combinations of various
characteristics taken together to determine the attributes of particular race
(p. 50), the concept of representation itself is central to identity construction
and, in the words of Stuart Hall, “identity is always in part a narrative”
(1997, p. 49). By this concept, it is possible to accept Mudrooroo’s voice
as the racial identity it is claimed to be. Just as the influential author Mary
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Durack’s narrative acts reportedly contributed to determining Colin Johnson’s

Aboriginal identity—“mak[ing] him what he was to become, an Aboriginal
writer” (Fischer, 2000, p. 100)—Mudrooroo himself has maintained that his
identity has always been textually created by others (Docker, 1998, p. 18).
In fact, Mudrooroo’s fictional protagonist, Dr. Watson Holmes Jackamara,
plays on the complexities of identity and racial ambivalence by assuming

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

stock racial stereotypes recognised by white society. In “The Healer”, he

disguises himself as an Aboriginal “elder of his people and must look the part
for them [the white antagonists]” (p. 157). In “Westralian Lead”, Jackamara
wearing a wide-brimmed hat sits on a bench in the cemetery beside a brown
paper bag leading the corrupt Detective Collins to immediately decide the
bag “obviously contain[ed] a bottle” (p. 32). Moments later, sans the brown
paper bag, Jackamara “took off his hat and was transformed into a fatherly
Aboriginal man who was visiting the cemetery to pray over his grandchild
who had just died” (p. 33). In these literary instances, Jackamara’s identity
is choreographed. His is a performance of Indigenous identity “where visual
markers like skin color intersect with processes of identification and (self-)
recognition” (Nolan, 2007, p. 134). While Jackamara dons various guises
for the purposes of deception in the course of his criminal investigations, he
never actually loses contact with a true appreciation of his own Aboriginal
selfhood.
Importantly, the very conditions of colonialism’s aftermath dramatised in
each of these works makes the distinctive investigatory styles deployed by
these protagonists all the more pronounced. For instance, each work includes
“Aboriginal dreaming” as a component part of the procedural process.
Aboriginal “Dreaming celebrates the joy and plenitude of the living world.
At the heart of Dreaming is life – its emergence, its growth and nurturance,
its interactions and organization, it connections and continuities” (Bird Rose,
2008, p. 5). Further, “in Aboriginal cosmologies, ancestral Dreaming beings
created animals, costal systems, deserts, forests, Alpine ranges, etc., [and]
ancestral power inheres in the natural environment, and is indeed actualized
in the daily lives of Aboriginal people” (St. John, 2008, p. 134). For Lisa and
Gary, Aboriginal dreaming is actualised as “criminal dreaming” (p. 196), but
Lisa herself has a specific form of sprit-dreaming in which a female figure,
the mother she does not know and is yet to meet, materialises as a naked
apparition entreating caution; “Lisa.’ The same soft voice called her. It was
the naked black woman. ‘Be careful’” (p. 194, pp. 91–92 & pp. 214–215). For
Sally in My Place, the sensation is also unique and expressly matrilineal. It is a
kind of generational spirit-dreaming featuring “a group of Aboriginal women
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standing together. They were all looking at me” (p. 287). In “Westralian Lead”,
the concept of dreaming is configured another way. Here, the melding of two
worlds— “black” and “white”—is seen through Jackamara’s eyes as “Black
Cockatoo Dreaming”. Jackamara talks to a trembling white girl at a party at
the home of a “madam” in the opening of the story. Her quivering reminds
him of “the heart of a chick he had once reached out for and caught. It had

18
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

been a Ngoolar,10 a child of his dreaming ancestor, and so could be fondled,

but this one was a white cockatoo and of a different family and dreaming.
Still, the dreamings were related” (p. 26). Later, outside the house where the
party is held, Jackamara waits for the madam—Sheila Fine—and uses “what
he called the Aboriginal method of surveillance. He slumped down on the
sidewalk and waited” (p. 28). Jackamara also identifies Sheila as “belong[ing]
to the opal dreaming and was thus a complete foreigner to him” (p. 30). “Black
Cockatoo Dreaming” according to King, “helps us to take control of life by
insisting that we grow at our own pace and learn what we need to know in our
own time … Black Cockatoo encourages us to confront our fears, to go with
the flow and to embrace all new opportunities as they present themselves,
thus paving the way for the Sulphur-crested [white] Cockatoo’s Dreaming
to established itself properly” (2007, p. 135).
Another distinctive motif deployed by Morgan, Mudrooroo and McLaren for
political purpose is the reconfiguring of the crime novel ending as a function
of style. Here, the master-motif of the detective narrative lies in the final
reveal. A definition of “the reveal” may be identified as a reversal of reader
expectation at a critical or climactic point in the detective novel (McCaw,
2014, p. 21). For instance, in the case of My Place, we see that by the novel’s
conclusion the reader, like Sally, cannot be in a position to fully identify with
either the key characters, the replete implications of the puzzle of ancestry or
the full scope of her family’s experience of exploitation until the story itself
is finished. It is only then that the reader, again like Sally, has come into the
custody of all the “facts”. Sally’s quest for identity is revealed to readers of
My Place as a political statement. In fact, that Sally in My Place and Lisa in
Scream Black Murder are both casualties of the “Stolen Generation” policy—
what McLaren has described as “This Orwellian behavioural modification
practice” (1995, p. 252)—exposes a clearly political point in the narrative
of their Indigenous identity.
In the case of Scream Black Murder, the reveal as a function of style
emerges with the appearance of the murderer in Lisa’s home. Caught in the
killer’s grip and assaulted with his gun, Lisa remembers fragments of her
training—the pointlessness of attempting to reason with a psychopath (p.
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246). She overcomes the killer with a combination of surprise attack and sheer
brute force. We see that by the novel’s conclusion, the reader, like Lisa and
Gary, cannot be in a position to fully identify with either the key characters or
the replete implications of the puzzle until the story itself finishes. It is only
then that the reader, again like the central protagonists, comes into custody
of all the “facts”: the rapist-murderer’s violence is fully and directly revealed.

19
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

In the case of “Westralian Lead” and “The Healer”, the climax of the
conclusion is also “the reveal”, but configured another way. This structuring
of the reveal is actually two-fold. On the one hand, Jackamara is revealed to
be something altogether different to that understood by the white antagonists.
It is in the dénouement of “Westralian Lead” that Jackamara becomes fully
visible to the corrupt Detective-Inspector Collins as both Aboriginal man
and agent of the police force; “But, but he’s a—” is all the disgraced crook
can mutter (p. 47). In “The Healer”, Jackamara disabuses the French drug
traffickers of their familiarity with him as “Manyaninnya,” an “original
inhabitant of Australia” with “an unpronounceable name” (p. 157). In both
instances, the success of the reveal operates on the extent to which Jackamara
exploits white racial biases to effectively conceal, the reveal, his “true” self.
By contrast, Mudrooroo’s “Home on the Range” represents an exception
to the clear reveal. Jackamara’s capture of Riley as a “cattle spearer,” sets-up
a central friendship as well as a story of retribution, or “payback,” between
the two Aboriginal protagonists. Therefore, by the conclusion, the reader, like
Jackamara himself, cannot be fully confident that either the key characters,
the complete implications of the murder, or the “facts” of the case are truly
as they appear. This technique evokes in “the reader”, again like Jackamara,
ambiguity. This is strategic. By setting-up a back-story of “payback,” this
detective story emerges as a kind of Aboriginal moral homily—the question
of guilt on the part of Jackamara and his crime against “a skin or kinship
relationship” (p. 5). By taking Riley into custody as a criminal, Jackamara
affects not only a “strong friendship” with Riley (p. 5) but commits an act
which is of itself a transgression against him. Thus, because the “black fella
business” between the two is not yet resolved, “Home on the Range” takes
the crime narrative one step further. This story throws into question not only
the process of detection but the meaning of evidence when the quest for
“payback” is revealed:

Riley: “Payback. You caught me that time, you know.”

Jackamara: “So all that business finish now?”

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Riley: “Just a bit to finish. Bin all finish now. All that black fella business
finish now.”

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

For a long moment, Jackamara stares into the face of his old mate, Riley.
Grudges take a long time to die. They build up and up. He begins to go over
the evidence, he has quickly, perhaps too quickly found, then pushes it away.
“All that business finish now,” he says and together the old men stare out
over the settlement. Now made a more secure place. (p. 12)

The more apparent, but no less operative way of examining the position
of Aboriginal detective figures and the meaningfulness of their work is the
way in which Aboriginal detective stories emphasise duty to people and the
notion of social cultural value through investigating and solving the crime.
Specific to the world of the Aboriginal detective story is a collective agency
as a condition of social concern. For instance, Jackamara in the conclusion
to “The Healer” proclaims upon the capture of French drug traffickers; “I
am a healer—of society … And as an Aborigine, I am very concerned about
the flow of illicit drugs into society. Take them away!” (p. 165). Both Lisa
and Gary in Scream Black Murder are also compelled by duty to Indigenous
people. Gary is “furious that deaths of Aboriginal people were not investigated
properly”, that “well-documented mistreatment and abuses by authorities were
allowed to pass”, and that “[t]he loss of black lives [and Aboriginal deaths in
custody] went largely unexplained” (p. 19).11 Lisa is a reflective character,
bringing her private past always into professional view:

As an Aboriginal and a female raised in a strictly European, male-dominated

society Lisa recognised numerous obstacles placed in front of her from an
early age, but as she grew older she became more determined to overcome
these obstacles and all the prejudices against her. She clung dearly to her
Aboriginality and, because she knew nothing of her family or clan, felt robbed
of the vital cultural connection to her language and land. (p. 14)

Sally, in My Place, also expresses her quest to discover her Aboriginal

heredity as a duty to people: “If we all keep saying we’re proud to be Aboriginal,
then maybe other Australians will see that we are a people to be proud of …
All I want my children to do is pass their Aboriginal heritage on” (p. 382).
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In both instances, Lisa and Sally raise as political issues the complexities of
concealed genealogies, false or misunderstood kinship connections, distorted
or hidden family histories, and constructions of an Indigenous cultural identity.

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

CONCLUSION: THE LITERARY POLITICS

OF AUSTRALIAN INDGENOUS DETECTIVE
FICTION AS POLITICAL WRITING

Drawing together the various conceptions of the Indigenous detective is their

collective working for their people, both locally within the context of the
novel, and also more broadly. It is perhaps for this reason that the Indigenous
detective must occupy a number of positions; at times as an enforcer of the
law, albeit an unconventional one, and at times a spokesperson for both his/
her people, and in particular, the principle advocate of the Indigenous victim.
As a figure of law-enforcement, the Indigenous detective applies methods of
criminal investigation that challenge the practices of her/his more conformist,
usually Anglo-Celtic colleagues or superiors or position the Indigenous
detective as a rival, either departmentally, or inter-departmentally. However,
while the Indigenous detective must also conform, the practice of conforming
to a bureaucratic convention is somewhat idiosyncratically applied.
That these protagonists also scrutinise and live the tensions and
contradictions of their postcolonial world on a daily basis also locates them
as both within and without that very world. Combining deep respect for
Indigenous ways and loyalty to Aboriginal title with the often very harsh
realities of the contemporary social order makes negotiating both cultural
worlds in the investigation of crime possible. Put another way, the investigative
practices deployed by these protagonists—various forms of Aboriginal
dreaming—comingles investigative methods with Western traditions and
effectively structures a bridge between the Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic/
European worlds as much as the colonial past and the postcolonial present.
Much like the hard-boiled formula, the works examined here tend to
enforce gender boundaries rather than challenging them. While traditionally,
gender relations in Aboriginal culture conferred reasonably equitable status
between women and men, the impact of colonialism and its aftermath has
eroded that comparability. Indeed, Clark (2011) suggests of Mudrooroo’s
representation of white women in novels such as The Undying (1998)
and Underground (1999) that “they are replete with metaphors of British
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imperialism as bloodthirsty and barbaric … he embodies his brutish, some

might say misogynist, metaphors in an excessively violent female vampire,
thus painting woman as the ultimate cause and regenerator of all man’s ills,
past and present” (p. 1243). But if as Shoemaker (1993) suggests, not all is
as it appears to be in Mudrooroo’s fiction—“what appears to be so is not

22
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

necessarily so” (p. 135)—then the concept of gender is also controversial.

Certainly, victims in Mudrooroo’s “Westralian Lead” are exclusively female—
three murders, Sheila and her lover Billy, and Trudy, all white women and
sexually promiscuous. Similarly, in McLaren’s Scream Black Murder, female
victims outnumber males; three murders (and one near miss, Alice); one white
woman (Alison “Ally” Brompton) and two Aboriginal women. A growing
female body count in these works speaks to the politics of sex and sexual
representation. In My Place too, while sexual violence is implicit in the text,
as is the textual concern with incest, the concept of sexual violence against
women in the context of a detective story appears to represent the metaphor
of Australia’s colonisation through various forms of violent subjugation.
However, if the male Aboriginal detective is an underrepresented figure
in detective fiction, then the female Aboriginal detective is doubly so. Aside
from McLaren’s Lisa Fuller in Scream Black Murder and Sergeant Tathra in
Debra Adelaide and Laurie Bookluck’s Headlines (1993), there is only one
other female Indigenous detective in the corpus of Australian crime fiction.
Adrian Hyland’s Diamond Dove (2006) and Gunshot Road (2010) both
feature a young Aboriginal protagonist called Emily Tempest; in the former
she appears as an amateur detective, in the latter as an Aboriginal community
police officer. Yet, McLaren’s conception of Lisa Fuller in Scream Black
Murder is arguably the first and to date only female Aboriginal detective
featured in Australian crime fiction written by an Indigenous author. Thus,
we see that the double-bind of underrepresentation in terms of the female
Aboriginal detective as a central protagonist in Australian crime fiction operates
at twin levels of socio-literary exclusion: gender and race. This seems odd
given that the appearance of the Aboriginal detective figure in and of itself
illustrates the possibilities of the genre for racial and gender appropriation
by Indigenous writers.
In this sense, Aboriginal detective fiction often critiques representation,
particularly colonial and postcolonial representations of history. By extension,
Aboriginal detective fiction is fundamentally an anti-detective story which
calls into question grand historical “truths”; effectively interweaving the
looming figure of colonialism within the genre of detective fiction itself.
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This facilitates pushing the boundaries of the genre of detective fiction

to allow politically charged social and cultural commentaries implicating
the conditions of Australian criminality, violence, and its victims. This
construction has also made possible exploring through detective fiction
the multigenerational nature of the crime and its colonial aftermath within
the Aboriginal postcolonial experience. Thus, the oeuvre of the Indigenous

23
 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

writers examined here is especially unique in their resistant responses to

conventional genre structures of Australian crime fiction. In the final analysis,
their oeuvre is not necessarily understood as the fictional narratives of crime
writers, but instead a form of writing profoundly informed by the effects of
colonial racism, subjugation and violence which are continually brought to
bear on contemporary Indigenous Australian society, and for which detective
fiction allows particular expression.

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ENDNOTES
1
“When used in Australia, the words Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander are capitalised, as would be the name of any other group
of people” (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Studies, 2016). This convention is an accepted protocol in Australia.
2
“Spider,” perhaps from the Wurundjeri clan (but based at the Coranderrk
Aboriginal station) was also involved in many high-profile cases such as
the Monk Inquiry (1879), the Hamilton Murder case (1884), the Henry
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Gordon disappearance (1884), and the murder of John Welford Neale

(1907) among many others.
3
Skilled trackers endure as influential sources of expertise in contemporary
investigation practices. And when Barry Port retired after a 34-year
career as an Aboriginal tracker with Queensland’s police force in early
July 2014, he did so as the last remaining individual employed purely

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 Indigenous Australian Detective Fiction as Political Writing

as a police tracker by any law enforcement organisation in Australia

(Coolican, 2014).
4
Abie appears in the serialization of Upfield’s “The Widows of Broome.”
Western Mail [Perth], January 24, 1952, p. 24 to March 20, 1952, p. 17.
5
Upfield’s “Breakaway House” was serialized in Perth’s Daily News,
September 1, 1932, p. 15 to October 20, 1932, p. 2. Retrieved from
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/83808236.
6
West also makes reference to Rowse, 1993, Chapter 1.
7
Knight’s spelling of the author of Scream Black Murder stated as “Philip
MacClaren” does not accord with that given on the book’s jacket,
frontispiece, and back-cover, which is given as “Philip McLaren” Sydney:
HarperCollins, 1995.
8
Philip McLaren. Elimatta, Autumn 2007, p. 1. http://www.asgmwp.
net/media/elimatta/Elimatta_2007_Autumn.pdf. McLaren has written
about the topic of murder before as seen in the novel Sweet Water—
Stolen Land (1993). Yet unlike Scream Black Murder which features
two fictional Aboriginal detectives in pursuit of solving the deaths of
two indigenous victims in a contemporary setting, Sweet Water—Stolen
Land is set in the late 1800s and concentrates on the real-life massacre
of twenty-eight Aboriginal men, women and children by white stockmen
at Myall Creek, a cattle station some 373 miles north of Sydney. The
novel won the David Unaipon Award for Literature and is based on the
violent settlement of McLaren’s own clan’s ancestral lands.
9
In this respect, while I acknowledge, as does Clark (2004), that the
Elders of the Aboriginal group for which Mudrooroo claims kinship, the
Nyoongar people, have renounced his contentions, I refer to the name
Mudrooroo as the citation under which the works discussed here were
published.
10
“Ngoolar,” meaning “in-law” comes from a legend of the Bibulmun
people (Bennell & Thomas, 1981, p. 28).
11
McLaren also refers to a real-life case as Gary’s reason for joining the
police force; the shooting death by police of David Grundy on April 27,
1989 (McLaren, 1995, p. 252 – 257).
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30
 31

Chapter 2
“Art Made Tongue-
Tied by Authority”:
Art, Power, and Ideology in Julian
Barnes’s The Noise of Time

Maria Antonietta Struzziero

Independent Researcher, Italy

ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to analyze Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time (2016),
the fctional biography of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and
his three traumatic “conversations with power.” Barnes’s narrative explores
themes that are not only central to the composer’s biography but of more
general concern, the function of ideology and politics in culture and social
life: the role of censorship in a ruthless regime and its traumatic efects on
the psyche of an artist whose conscience must confront the insupportable
demands of totalitarianism. The analysis of the novel aims frst to investigate
how the dominant political apparatuses of Stalinist power and their repressive
ideological discourses afected the composer’s personal and artistic life;
second, to discuss the complex portrait of Shostakovich that comes to life in
Barnes’s representation. References will also be made to Barnes’s two main
sources: Elizabeth Wilson’s Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (1994) and
Solomon Volkov’s Testimony: The Memoirs of Shostakovich (1979).
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DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch002

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

INTRODUCTION

I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:

Life is not a walk across a field.

Boris Pasternak, Hamlet

Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time (2016) is the fictional biography of the
celebrated Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, his confrontation with the
apparatus of Stalinism, and the humiliating compromises he had to endure
under the paranoid carnivalesque of Stalin’s Russia. Barnes’s narrative deftly
explores some themes that are not only central to the composer’s biography
but of more general concern, because they strike a chord in almost any age,
and are still very topical: the function of ideology and politics in culture
and social life; the operation of power upon art; the role of censorship in a
ruthless regime and its traumatic effects on the individual psyche of an artist
whose conscience must confront the insupportable demands and pressures
of totalitarianism.
The in-depth analysis of the novel aims first, to investigate how the dominant
political apparatuses of Power1 and its repressive ideological discourses,
implemented by Stalin’s regime of terror, affected the composer’s personal and
artistic life. Second, to discuss the complex portrait of Shostakovich that comes
to life in Barnes’s representation, in the light of the artist’s often contentious
choices, assessed against the distressing experiences and circumstances he had
to bear, the prolonged perception of being entrapped and threatened, fearing
death at any moment. His portrait will be studied in constant ‘dialogue’ with
the texts that, in the Author’s note, Barnes acknowledges as his “two main
sources” (p.184):2 Elizabeth Wilson’s Shostakovich: A Life Remembered
(1994) and Solomon Volkov’s Testimony: The Memoirs of Shostakovich
(1979). This latter, however, Barnes adds in the same Author’s note, has been
highly questioned by many scholars and musicologists as to its authenticity,
originating the so-called ‘Shostakovich Wars’. So, in the references made to
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it in this chapter, Volkov’s observations will be tested against the documents

included in Wilson’s book.
The discussion and analysis of the novel will draw from two main theoretical
areas. On the one hand, trauma studies that will contribute to examine the
psychological conditions of the composer who lived “a painfully bifurcated
life … under monolithic tyranny” (Mellers, 1994), subjected to the conflicting

32
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

demands of a tyrannical, voracious Power and those of his moral self; who
experienced repeated stressful, traumatic events, as well as physical threat
and deprivation, all the time trying to protect his family and continue to
compose his beloved music.
On the other hand, and more extensively, because of the ubiquitous
troubling presence of Power in Shostakovich’s life, the study of the novel
will rely on Michel Foucault’s hugely influential views on discourse and
power, and their imbrication, with the former being an instrument of the
latter. Discourse, Foucault affirms, is a set of sanctioned statements which
have some institutionalised force, and this means that they have a profound
influence on the way that individuals act and think. Entry into discourse is
seen as inextricably linked to questions of authority and legitimacy. So, in
these conditions, certain forms of signification are excluded, and certain
signifiers are ‘fixed’ in a commanding position, from which ideologies can
exert their full force.
In order to investigate the novel’s central themes and the mechanisms
implemented by Stalin’s political apparatuses, because of its relevance to
the discussion of this aspect in the novel, specific reference is made to the
hypothesis formulated by Foucault in ‘The Order of Discourse’ (1970), that
“in every society the production of discourse is at once controlled, selected,
organized and redistributed by a certain number of procedures whose role
is to ward off its powers and dangers, and gain mastery over chance events”
(p. 52).
Among such practices of exclusion, there are “three types of prohibition
which intersect, reinforce or compensate for each other, forming a complex
grid” (Foucault, 1970, p. 52). One of these systems of exclusion is “the
opposition between true and false” (Foucault, 1970, p. 55), through which
Power surveys and controls the production of discourse and knowledge-
regulated, validated and reinforced by its apparatuses- which it accepts and
makes function as true, restricting access to it by fixing rules and imposing
an Orwellian ideological uniformity. Under these circumstances, there is a
rarefaction of the speaking subjects; none shall enter the order of discourse if
she/he is not, from the outset, qualified to do so. This opposition true / false
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permeates the whole novel and transforms Shostakovich’s conscience into a

moral battleground oscillating between “integrity and corruption” (p. 163).
A close reading of the text lays bare different types of lies, the author
maintains: first, those that Power propagates by embedding them in its
network of discursive practices, lies that circulate and are transformed into
alternative, even relative, ‘truths’ when necessary. This strategy is generally

33
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

deployed by authoritarian regimes and enforced by its system of repressive

institutions. Besides, once a lie is told, it needs more lies to make it acceptable,
a mechanism that leads to the disruption of epistemic premises. Second, the
degrading lies or doublespeak, that the composer has to resort to as protection
and survival techniques, the object of study of “those skilled in olinguistic”
(p. 75), sometimes told to recant errors that are considered pernicious ‘sins’,
a practice that in time fractures his sense of self.
Barnes’s novel, the chapter argues, broadens the narrative of the composer’s
individual life, marked by emotional and psychological trauma, and eventually
becomes an extended exploration of the nature of personal integrity and art’s
relationship with Power; of the limits of courage and endurance, as well
as a complex meditation on the subtle mechanisms that politics deploys to
affect, and even control, culture and social life. Besides these issues, Barnes
includes his familiar themes: the reliability of memory; a sympathetic interest
in human beings that are prey to weaknesses of character and fall short of
the moral challenges they have to face; the depredations of time, and man’s
tragic confrontation with the prospect of death.

AN ARTIST’S SOUL IN THE CLAWS OF POWER

The Noise of Time borrows its title from the beautiful autobiographical
prose work of the great Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam, one of Stalin’s most
outspoken critics and a victim of the Great Terror. And Mandelstam is a
silent witness, “an abiding presence in Barnes’s novel, all the more moving
for being unnamed, for being just offstage, a constant desolating memory”
(Alexis, 2016). The novel is a third-person narration, in free indirect speech,
that adopts Shostakovich’s point of view, filtering everything through his
mind and consciousness. It is a narrative choice that, Barnes argued in an
interview, is “much more flexible” and allows the writer the freedom to move
“right into someone’s mind and then pull back” (Browne, 2016) to offer the
reader outside context. With merciless self-analysis, through the working of
memory and reflection, Shostakovich looks back on his past life to understand
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how his self had been gradually transformed, diminished and split “under
the pressure of Power” (p. 155) that, with its unrelenting surveillance, “had
practiced sharpening [its] claws on his soul from the beginning” (p. 25), even
while he was still at the Conservatoire.
The composer’s flow of thoughts is interspersed with the incessant intrusion
of the past into the present, as if a dam was collapsing under the unbearable

34
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

weight of reminiscences that he needed to re-experience and re-live in order

to make sense of his most authentic self. His stream of consciousness follows
the succession of fragmented pieces of memories that, haunting him, unbidden
and in surprising ways, as if they possessed a life independent of his own
will, surface to his conscious mind. This fragmentation is mirrored both in
the protagonist’s fragmented sense of self, in the hypnotic prose that appears
to circle Shostakovich’s floating sensations and random thoughts, and in the
novel’s textual fragmentation: free-standing short paragraphs, some only a
few lines long; single sentence mini-paragraphs; repetitions of phrases and
images; an irregular page layout, at times visually marked by a blank on the
page. Besides these devices, there is the disruption of narrative linearity
and continuity due to frequent flashbacks, with the text that suddenly flits
between past memories and the present to mirror the nervous movement of
the composer’s mind. This mental flux blends familial, artistic, and political
events, to disclose a self traumatized by a succession of testing circumstances
that had slowly overwhelmed his ability to cope, and actually “crushed [him]
into a hundred pieces of rubble … that had once fitted together” (p. 155).
The novel is “elegantly structured as a concerto in three movements,
bookended by a resonant overture and followed by a coda” (McAlpin, 2016).
The two-page long overture, in italics, introduces a vignette that, at first, appears
to have no connection with the rest of the text, being even visually separated
from it. However, as the story progresses through the three central parts, it
becomes clear that the first two pages, with their echoes of war, of human
bodies blown to pieces, and the image of a crippled beggar who addresses
two unnamed men, “one who heard [and] one who remembered” (p. 3), are
a hermeneutic key to decode the whole story and a powerful metaphor to
introduce the existential condition both of the composer, who suffered from
the ‘psychological’ war that Power had waged on his soul, and of people
living in Russia at the time. Under the siege of Stalin’s oppressive regime,
constantly in danger of being arrested at night, imprisoned or executed, men
had become mere “techniques for survival” (p. 1). The function of the novel’s
overture will begin to emerge in the second section, which reverberates with
some elements introduced in the first two pages and, more clearly, in the
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coda: it is still in italics, as the introduction, but there is no separation from

the main body of the text. Besides, Shostakovich, the “one who heard” in the
ouverture, is now explicitly named, part of the episode that had been only
sketched at the beginning and left suspended, to be resumed here. Indeed, when
the reader comes to the last page, she/he realizes why Barnes has chosen to
begin and end the novel with the same episode, as if closing an ideal narrative

35
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

circle. It is because the incident briefly sketched is the moment that altered
all Shostakovich’s life, when for the first time the threatening voice of Power
unexpectedly reached him, leaving permanent wounds in his psyche, and “he
was split into two by a dividing axe” (p. 155).
The image of a modern ‘waste land’ portrayed in the initial vignette
prepares the reader psychologically and emotionally for a three-part story of
sorrow, a crescendo of misery, each worse than the last, an existential arc of
demeaning adjustments and compromises with the ever-increasing demands
and pressures of Power to which Shostakovich’s weaknesses of character
often dared not resist. The three central sections are built around the three
crucial “Conversations with Power” that he had at different moments of his
life, variations on a central theme, each frightening and subtly corrupting in
its own way, ultimately bringing him face-to-face with his own capacity for
cowardice. Each conversation corresponds to a different historical and political
period- every fourth leap year: 1936, 1948 and 1960- and also highlights how
deeply human experience intersects with history and politics. Each section
exemplifies one of the three ways in which “a soul could be destroyed: by
what others did to you; by what others made you do to yourself; and by what
you voluntarily chose to do to yourself” (p. 166). They are exemplary critical
episodes when the composer was confronted and threatened by the regime,
in critical conditions in which “it was impossible to tell the truth and live”
(p. 107), so impossible to challenge and counteract dominant discourses. He
knew that “words were dangerous” (p. 20), unless they parroted the political
dogmas and jargon of Power; that truth was a very elusive and vague concept
in Stalin’s Russia, and what was said and written could be very dangerous,
leading to immediate death. So the truth was either silenced or disguised as
irony. Shostakovich relied on irony all his life: he saw it “as a defence of the
self and the soul” that allowed him “to breathe on a day-to-day basis” (p.
173); above all, it enabled him to preserve what he valued most, “music, his
family, love” (p. 86).

THE VOICE OF A SKITTERING MIND

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Before delving into the first part of the novel, in order to fully grasp the
conditions of generalized fear evoked by Barnes from the very beginning, it
may be helpful to illustrate briefly the political climate in Russia at the time
the story starts.

36
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

Following the murder of Sergei Kirov (head of the Leningrad Communist

Party organization and a close friend of Stalin) in December 1934, a new wave
of repression broke out and terror raged across the country. The year 1936 is
remembered now as the first of the Great Purges and ‘show trials’, when Stalin’s
political enemies were forced into abject confessions and humiliation prior
to their liquidation. Stalin imposed his regime of Terror “so as to transform
all institutions- the Party, heavy industry and the armed forces- into obedient
tools” (Wilson, 1994, p. 120). The whole country “was a punishment cell”
(p. 73), under a cloak of secrecy and gloom, and Shostakovich was in some
ways broken by terror.
The first section, ‘On the landing’ begins with the composer who stands
by the lift in his apartment block, suitcase packed, and keeps night vigils
expecting the NKVD,3 the dreaded secret police, to come to arrest him and
take him to the Big House. As they “always came for you in the middle of
the night” (p. 15), he hoped that, by waiting on the landing, he could avoid
waking his wife and baby daughter sleeping inside the house.
The tense atmosphere of fear is conjured up by the opening sentence of the
section- “All he knew was that this was the worst of time” (p. 7), a sentence
that introduces also the other two sections and works as a musical refrain to
highlight how the protagonist’s psyche could not adjust in time to the constant
authoritarian presence of Power in his life and the fresh acts of persecution he
had to endure. The general mood of gloominess and tension is further enhanced
by the use of words such as “dead”, “pain”, “shot” and “fear”, scattered over
the first few pages; by the tension emanating from Shostakovich’s fidgety
movements and, even more, by his mind that, disobeying any rational control,
kept “skittering” (p. 7) backward to a precise moment of the recent past, the
28th January 1936, when “it had all begun” (p. 9). The date refers to the day of
publication of an unsigned editorial published in Pravda, the official voice of
the Communist Party, with the telling title of ‘Muddle Instead of Music’. It is
“possibly the most chilling document of philistinism in music” (Saval 2016),
an episode that was a major caesura in the composer’s personal and artistic
life, dividing time into before and after, because it hurt him profoundly and
changed his future. It marked the beginning of his persecution, the victim of
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a vicious campaign against him, when he was under the combined attacks
of both Power and the musical world.
The publication of the article found Shostakovich in Arkhangelsk on a
concert tour with the cellist Victor Kubatsky, the episode that, the reader will
discover, is the one sketched in the overture. The article savaged his opera
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1934), a composition based on a short novel by

37
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

the 19th- century Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, and declared the composer
an “enemy of the people” (p. 39), a label that, Shostakovich complained in
Volkov’s Testimony (1984), stuck with him from that moment on, both in the
press and in critical discussions about his music. The performance, despite
its two years of unparalleled and repeated success, that brought Shostakovich
fantastic and incomparable fame, both in Russia and in European and
American cities, displeased Stalin who was present at the Bolshoi in Moscow
and left the theatre after the Third Act. It was rumoured that Stalin himself
had written the editorial, but Wilson maintains that its author was probably
Zaslavsky, “a high-ranking party official and journalist who was at home in
the corridors of power” (Wilson, 1994, p. 109). In Testimony (1984), Volkov
holds that Shostakovich was convinced that the Pravda editorial “actually
expressed the opinion of Stalin”, because it had “too much of Stalin in it”(p.
85), starting from the word “muddle” in the title itself, used the day before
in another Pravda article signed by the leader himself.
The Pravda writer began by attacking the music as “coarse, primitive and
vulgar …, a confused stream of sound”, ending “in a grinding and squealing
roar”, a type of music that “tickles the perverted taste of the bourgeois”
and that “would reach only the effete “formalists” who had lost all their
wholesome taste” (“Muddle Instead of Music”, 1936). The fierce criticism
culminated with the not too covert threatening statement that, by ignoring the
demands of Soviet culture and attempting “to create originality through cheap
clowning”, the composer was playing “a game of clever ingenuity that may
end very badly” (“Muddle Instead of Music, 1936). Ten days after, a second
editorial appeared in Pravda, this time berating the music Shostakovich had
composed for the ballet The Limpid Stream (1935) produced by the Bolshoi
Theatre. Obviously, the opera was taken off the stage and his position became
precarious to a degree.
The criticism moved to Lady Macbeth set countless public debates going,
including those convoked by both the Leningrad and the Moscow Composers’
Union, that voiced further criticism in line with Party directives and almost
unanimously supported the Pravda editorial. Some critics went so far in their
blind subservience to Power as to find no merit at all in Lady Macbeth, after
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having praised it for two years; others “candidly admitted their own previous
errors” and exonerated themselves saying that “they had been duped by the
music and its composer!” (p. 39). The fear generated by the fierce criticism
tested people’s loyalty to Shostakovich at a crucial time, when terror raged
across the country and the Stalin Purges took on immense proportions. Indeed,
“a new country was growing within the country- ‘the Gulag Archipelago”

38
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

(Volkov, 1984, p. xxiv). Against this gloomy background, the Pravda editorial
was a serious, sinister warning, and Shostakovich felt clearly and directly
threatened, and increasingly hemmed in. His friends and colleagues were
under particular pressure to recant, as some did, even among his fellow-
composers. He was convinced that he would be arrested.
First, he consulted with the President of the Arts Committee who advised him
that his best tactic would be to admit his errors and “make a public apology”
(p. 28). So, what was demanded of him was to lie to save his life: to confess
that “he had been led astray by the foolish excesses of youth” (p. 28), make
an “act of contrition” for the offence and obtain “forgiveness” (p. 29) for his
‘sin’. Shostakovich did not follow the President’s advice and made no public
recantation. After that, he called on his protector, Marshal Tukhachevsky,
who offered to “write a personal letter of intercession to Comrade Stalin”
(p. 29). However, when he picked up his pen to write it, he started sweating
with “an unsoldierly apprehension”, which “was not encouraging” (p. 29)
for Shostakovich. The letter was sent but received no answer.
Then, in the spring of 1937, he was summoned to the ‘Big House’, the
headquarters of the NKVD, for his “First Conversation with Power” (p. 43),
an episode that Barnes brilliantly recreates borrowing liberally from the
composer Venyamin Basner’s account of the incident reported in Wilson’s
book. Shostakovich assumed it was still to do with the derogatory Pravda
editorial; instead the investigator, after a few polite remarks on ordinary
everyday topics, questioned him about a plot to assassinate Comrade Stalin
concocted by his friend, Marshal Tukhachevsky, of which, he supposed,
the composer was “one of the chief witnesses” (p. 46). To his denial, the
investigator advised him to “shake [his] memory” (p. 45), “think a little harder
[to] recall every detail” (p. 46), and come back after 48 hours. Shostakovich
fell silent as at that point he realized that Tukhachevsky was in disgrace
(indeed, he was arrested and shot shortly after) and feared “that his end was
nigh” (Wilson, 1994, p. 124).
He knew that for the apparatuses of Stalinism “his own innocence was
irrelevant. The truth of his answers was irrelevant” (p. 46), since his case
had already been decided. They would invent or manipulate facts as it suited
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them because, for Power, “facts were no longer facts, merely statements open
to divergent interpretations” (p. 52), or distortion. On the other hand, he also
knew that he could not bear torture and, if it came, he would be ready to
turn his true, but weak, “No” into a lie and repeat “Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes”
(p. 48), ready to confess their truth, the truth they wanted to hear. A false
confession that, however, he suspected, would be insufficient to save his

39
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

life and he would end with “a bullet to the back of the head” (p. 48), as so
many before him. What tormented him more was the thought that he could
no longer care for, and protect, his family.
However, even during the Great Terror a person could be lucky and this
time he had a narrow escape because, when he went back to the Big House,
it turned out that his investigator “had himself fallen under suspicion. His
interrogator interrogated. His arrester arrested” (p. 50). So he could go home.
Yet, convinced that they would not give up their pursuit of him, he began his
ten nights’ vigil by the lift, the episode that opens this first section, a sort of
‘ritual’ that “made him look as if he were in charge of events rather than a
victim of them” (p. 51).
The composer’s psychological and emotional state that Barnes evokes in
all the novel, starting from the initial vignette, is documented in similar terms
both in the wide, exemplary selection of different records and reminiscences
from the composer’s friends and contemporaries included in Wilson’s book,
and in a brief, but unequivocal, paragraph by Volkov in the ‘Introduction’ to
Testimony (1984). Volkov writes:

The constant anticipation of arrest affected his mind; for nearly four decades,
until his death, he would see himself as a hostage, a condemned man. The fear
might increase or decrease, but it never disappeared. The entire country had
become an enormous prison from which there was no escape. (pp. xxiv- xxv)

When the Pravda editorial appeared, Shostakovich was working on the

final movement of his Fourth Symphony amid rumours that “were circulating
in musical circles that, in defiance of criticism, he had written a work … that
was … full of Formalism” (Wilson, 1994, p. 119). At the last minute, because
the secretary of the Union of Composers had exerted pressure on the director
of the Philarmonic, he had to cancel the performance of the symphony. The
Symphony’s ending, with its scary aesthetic of catastrophe, would have been
tantamount to suicide in the words of Isaac Glikman, his lifelong friend and
one of the most reliable sources about his life. Shostakovich would never have
cancelled it, but he had no choice as “it wasn’t only Dmitri Dmitriyevich that
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was threatened; it was insinuated that all the performers would live to regret
the day if the performance of the symphony went ahead” (Wilson, 1994, p.
123). The events of 1936, according to Basner, a friend of Shostakovich, “took
a heavy toll on him” (Wilson, 1994, p. 123). They actually remained somehow
fundamental to his existence and to his unfolding conception of himself,
and also originated the adaptive coping strategies that punctuate Barnes’s

40
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

narrative of Shostakovich’s life: the self-protective strategies necessary to

shield himself from further psychic harm and risk of the dissolution of the
self, such as “hypervigilance, dissociation, avoidance” (Giller, 1999).
Yet, although Shostakovich was profoundly hurt by the Pravda unsparing
attacks and never got over the trauma of those days, he continued to draw
inner energies from composing music. It was his recipe for preserving sanity
in the face of crass criticism, as he confessed to Glikman: “Even if they chop
my hands off, I will still continue to compose music- albeit I have to hold the
pen in my teeth” (Wilson, 1994, p. 111). The young composer understood
that it was a crucial moment for him, that his future fate was at stake, and he
worked feverishly at his new composition.
So, as an answer to the Party criticism contained in the Pravda article,
in place of the Fourth, Shostakovich produced the angrily affirmative Fifth
Symphony, hailed as a masterpiece and an instant success. Its triumphant
reception vindicated the humiliating and unfair criticism that he had suffered,
and re-established his public standing. The political authorities were willing
to accept the Symphony as the composer’s “offering to the shrine of socialist-
realism” (Wilson, 1994, p. 126), so as an implicit admission of error and
repentance. The Party described it as “an optimistic tragedy” (p. 58), an
oxymoron that only people with “asses’ ears” (p. 58) could coin. A journalist
defined it “a Soviet artist’s creative reply to just criticism” (Wilson, 1994, p.
126); the definition was used as a subtitle for the Moscow première of the
Symphony, and the composer never repudiated it because he thought that,
at least, these words “protected his music” (p. 57).

WEARING THE MASK OF PROPAGANDA

The second section, ‘On the plane’, recounts Shostakovich’s second

“Conversation with Power” (p. 79), that occurred in 1949. This episode,
however, has to be read in the light of, and in connection with, what had
happened in January 1948 when the Central Committee called a meeting “to
deal with matters musical” (Wilson, 1994, p. 208), specifically the question
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of ‘formalism’ in music. The Committee issued a report condemning the

works of some contemporary composers who had deviated from the norms
established by the political bureaucrats, the chief targets being Shostakovich
and Prokofiev. Their music, it was stated, was marred by anti-democratic
tendencies, and “infiltrated and overloaded to such a degree by naturalistic
sounds that one is reminded … of a piercing road drill, or a musical gas-

41
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

chamber” (Wilson, 1994, p. 209), words quoted almost to the letter by Barnes
in the novel. This report prepared the ground for the ensuing measures taken
soon after: indeed, the State Committee responsible for Repertoire in February
of the same year published a ‘historic’ Decree that “drew up a blacklist of
compositions defined as ‘formalist’” (Wilson, 1994, p. 212), among which
those of Shostakovich and Prokofiev, whose performance and distribution
were forbidden.
So, to all appearances, history repeated itself: the whole country was once
more embarking on a mortal combat with formalist composers and terror
had returned, if it had ever disappeared. The consequence of the Decree for
Shostakovich was that he was dismissed from his professorships at both the
Moscow and Leningrad Conservatoires, and his works were no longer publicly
performed; its more general effects were to unleash a ferocious campaign
against the most prominent composers, implement a rigorous observance of
the Party’s guidelines and impose ideological uniformity.
These are the typical chilly mechanisms deployed by State apparatuses,
those that Shostakovich repeatedly addresses in his flow of thoughts as “the
engineers of human souls” (p. 40); they function by ‘ideology’ to force subjects
into acceptance of the hierarchized status quo of a totalitarian State and of
its ‘truth’, expecting from them to be “merely decorative, or merely a lapdog
of the rich and powerful” (p. 40). Actually, Stalin had perfected an apparatus
that, through various forms of pressure and repression, “secured from Soviet
creative figures an unprecedented degree of submissiveness in the service of
his continually shifting propaganda goals” (Volkov, 1984, p. xxv).
At the time the Decree was issued, Shostakovich was in a terrible state in
a Sanatorium outside Moscow; according to his first wife Nina Vasilyevna,
he was “on the verge of suicide” (Wilson, 1994, p. 211). The composer’s
psychological condition is confirmed by Volkov (1984); he maintains that,
after 1948, Shostakovich was “slit into two personae” (p. xxx): the private
man who withdrew more and more inside the small bastion of his family,
and the official ‘mask’ that reluctantly continued to appear in public on some
mandatory occasions and ceremonies. The division created in Shostakovich
by this dichotomy between the private and the public life is rendered vividly
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in the accounts given by his friends and colleagues, even those who were his
enemies, and collected in Wilson’s book. It was a fracture in the self mirrored
both in his expression of suffering laceration, his faltering speech, and in his
fidgetiness and nail-biting habit. Barnes’s portrait highlights all these features,
starting from the initial vignette where the composer is introduced as “a thin,

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

nervous fellow” (p. 2), and gradually building up the psychological portrait
of a man who was a bundle of nerves, with a battered and morbid psyche.
Then, towards the beginning of March 1949, the composer received the
unexpected telephone call of Stalin himself who asked him to travel to New
York as a delegate to the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace
in March. The episode is reported in detail by Yuri Abramovich Levitin, a
composer who had studied with Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatoire
and had become a close friend of him. He was visiting the Shostakoviches and
was a witness to the telephone conversation that is quoted and used by Barnes
as a direct source in the novel; the conversation is also described in Volkov’s
Testimony (1984) in similar terms. To Stalin’s request, Shostakovich raised
a series of objections to avoid going, but Stalin suggested a solution to all of
them. As a last resort, the composer observed that, as he was blacklisted and
his symphonies had been forbidden by the State Commission for Repertoire,
he would be in a difficult position in New York where he certainly was
expected to play some pieces, and he would not know how to behave in such
a situation. In Levitin’s words, “Stalin assured Shostakovich that this was a
mistake, which would be corrected; none of Dmitri Dmitriyevich’s works
had been forbidden; they could be freely performed” (Wilson, 1994, p. 213).
Indeed, in a few days’ time, the ban was lifted; at that point, he had no choice
and had to go to New York.
Here “the voice of Power” (p. 81), in the figure of its leader, interpellates
the composer directly, without hiding himself behind an unsigned editorial
or an official Decree, expecting him to bend to his wishes, foreclosing any
possibility of exercising his autonomous will and freedom of choice. Because,
obviously, in this condition of unbalance of power relations, there is no
possibility of entering the discourse that Power deploys and ‘negotiate’ an
alternative answer, unless one courts death.
The Soviet regime strongly wanted its most prestigious composer to go on
what was basically a propaganda tour, to display him as the best expression
of the country’s intelligentsia, and “as a figurehead, a representative of Soviet
values” (p. 95). This ensued in the paradoxical result that an official document
signed by the Chief Command in Control of Representations and Repertoire
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was defined ‘illegal’ by another official document signed by Stalin, and the
State Commission was even reprimanded for publishing it. So, the Party’s
truth of the day before was manipulated, denied and contradicted by what it
said the day after, and, because Power controlled discourse, “all done with
words, whose transformative powers were truly revolutionary” (p. 84).

43
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

This episode prompts two observations: first, there is a prohibition that a

State political apparatus uses as a procedure of exclusion to ward off its powers,
deny access to the discursive frameworks which circulate in the corridors of
Power, and establish “its regime of truth, its ‘general politics’ of truth: that is
… the techniques and procedures which are valorised for obtaining truth: the
status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true” (Foucault,
1979, p. 46). Truth, then, is something ‘produced’ by societies. Prohibitions,
Foucault adds, “are organised around historical contingencies; which are not
only modifiable but in perpetual displacement; which are supported by a
whole system of institutions which impose them and renew them; and which
act in a constraining and sometimes violent way” (Foucault, 1970, p. 54).
These critical remarks actually anatomize how the consensus politics of the
Stalinist regime worked.
Second, there is the evident distortion of facts, the manipulation of a
document that Power itself had issued, to pursue its ideological propaganda
and political objective, by ‘recruiting’ an individual and transforming him
into a subjected being. Shostakovich was fully aware that he could only speak
within the limits imposed upon him by the discursive frameworks sanctioned
as acceptable and that were disseminated; he knew that he had no escape,
that truth-speaking was impossible “because it led to immediate death”,
hence he resorted to irony, which was “truth’s disguise” (p. 85). Therefore,
the day after his telephone conversation with Stalin, the composer wrote a
letter to, “the Great Leader and Helmsman” (p. 85), expressing his “heartfelt
gratitude for the conversation” and for his support, adding that he was “proud
of the confidence that [had] been placed in [him]” (p. 85). While using irony,
however, he also began to question its effects on a young man’s psychology and
growth: irony, he thought, “stunts the imagination” (p. 85) and could become
“like a cancer” (p. 86). Yet, as he did not live in an ideal world, irony could
at least help him protect what truly mattered to him, music and his family.
However, the worse was still to come, as he found out when he was in
New York where he was exposed to his “purest humiliation, and … moral
shame” (p. 96). In New York, he delivered two speeches, on two successive
days, both of them evidently prepared by the Soviet authorities for him, as
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“anyone with an ounce of political understanding would know” (p. 98). He

read the first one mechanically, like a ‘parrot’, in “a fast, uninflected gabble”
(p. 98); as for the second, longer one, he only read the first part “in a nervous
and shaky way” (Wilson, 1994, p. 240), then sat down, his face twitching,
and left the full text to the English translator. In it, among other things, his
‘other self’ made a “necessary confession of sins” (p. 100) and denounced

44
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

his own work, admitting that “he had departed from the true path of a Soviet
composer …. He had lost contact with the masses and sought to please only
a narrow stratum of sophisticated musicians”, slipping into “errors of …
formalism and cosmopolitanism” (p. 100), a failure for which he was now
apologising. Then, to his total astonishment and shame, he condemned the
work of Igor Stravinsky, whom he profoundly admired, considering him
“the century’s greatest composer” (p. 100). He heard this ‘other self’ define
Stravinsky as the outstanding example of perversion in music, a composer
who, in exile, “had displayed moral barrenness, as was openly shown in his
nihilistic writings” (p. 100).
When the speech was over, Nicholas Nabokov, an exiled Russian composer
present in the audience, started to pose Shostakovich questions that were
clearly meant to embarrass him, by publicly showing how obediently the great
composer followed the Party line. Nabokov asked him if he subscribed “to
the views expressed in [his] speech about the music of Stravinsky” (p. 102)
and the other opinions he had expressed in his speech. The composer, “in a
muttered monotone” (p. 102), could only reply that he did.
The account of what happened during the Congress for World Peace
differs in tone in Barnes’s novel and in Wilson’s book. In Barnes’s, Nabokov
is described as “the provoker of his moral shame” (p. 97) and as “probably
working for the CIA” (p. 98), so intentionally and ironically provoking the
composer with his questions. Barnes also adds that Nabokov was possibly
sympathetic to Shostakovich’s plight and meant to show that it was a
“public masquerade” (p. 105), but, if this was his intention, “he was either
a paid stooge or a political imbecile” (p.105). In Wilson’s book, Nabokov
gives his own account of the episode, justifying his pressing queries to the
composer. He admits that he knew that Shostakovich “was exhibited as the
biggest publicity and propaganda attraction of that Communist-inspired
performance” (Wilson, 1994, p. 239); that he could observe how throughout
the conference the composer’s whole posture expressed intense uneasiness,
how his “sensitive face looked disturbed, hurt”, actually the expression of “a
trapped man” (Wilson, 1994, p. 240), forced to act a tragic role. He adds that
it was evident that Shostakovich’s speech had been written in the propaganda
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style of ‘party organs’, and that it was a “spectacle of human misery and
degradation” (Wilson, 1994, p. 241). All the same, he felt that he had to ask
the composer some simple factual questions, not

to embarrass a wretched human being [but] because of the several thousand

people that sat in the hall, because of those that perhaps still could not or

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

did not wish to understand the sinister game that was being played before
their eyes. (Wilson, 1994, p. 241)

The episode left Shostakovich dismayed, feeling that, in betraying

Stravinsky, “he had betrayed music” (110) and lost his moral integrity. His
second conversation with Power was a moment of public abjection and
humiliation for him, a profoundly unhappy experience, because he realized
that he had been used as a mere pawn in the hands of a political Power that
was playing its cynical game. On this occasion, Shostakovich had unwittingly
to adopt a role, an identity and a type of discourse that misrepresented who
he really was and what he believed in, but it was the only option he had to
avoid being silenced, both as a human being and a musician.
A split seems to have set in here in Shostakovich’s self-perception between,
on the one hand, his most authentic self that lived and thrived in the purity
of his music, and on the other hand, an ‘Other’ mired in “a totally different
universe of socially signifying performances where embarrassment, shame,
guilt, … come into play” (Kristeva, 1982, p. 74), the one who had confessed
his mistakes publicly or who had criticized Stravinsky.
The behavioural and psychological portrait of Skostakovich finds a fitting
representation in Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject, with his “aching body”
(Kristeva, 1982, p. 141), the dark revolts of his being directed against a
menace that seems to emanate from outside, threatening order or system, as
well as the integrity of his moral being. Indeed, Shostakovich’s is a narrative
of suffering, of “being as ill-being” (Kristeva, 1982, p. 104), of “fear, disgust
and abjection crying out” (Kristeva, 1982, p. 145), with his frequent outbursts
of tears and suicidal thoughts.
In Barnes’s novel, the idea of suicide appears at different moments in
Shostakovich’s stream of consciousness; by the end of the New York Congress,
it resurfaces in movingly dramatic terms. While still in New York, he saw
a man outside the hotel where he was staying, holding a placard reading
“SHOSTAKOVICH! JUMP THRU THE WINDOW” (97), an invitation to
jump to embrace freedom that actually tempted him to jump to commit suicide.
This episode brought back to his mind all the times that “he had made threats
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of suicide” (96) over the years, first to his mother, then to his wife Nita. Now,
he wouldn’t threaten them with suicide; he would threaten Power. At the
same time, however, he realized that it was an empty threat, because Power
would “steal his story and rewrite it” (97), erasing the narrative of despair
inscribed in his suicide and imposing its own ‘edited’ version of his death.
They would manipulate the truth of his anguish, as it was in their habit, and

46
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

transform it into their narrative: certainly the story of an assassination plot he

had concocted and corruption of younger composers with his decadent music.
The condition of overwhelming stress and anxiety described in the novel,
and confirmed by the different accounts in Wilson’s and Volkov’s books, can
be analysed and discussed in the light of an article by Esther Giller, entitled
‘What is Psychological Trauma?’ (1999).4 She maintains that

a traumatic event or situation creates psychological trauma when it

overwhelms the individual’s ability to cope, and leaves that person fearing
death, annihilation, mutilation, or psychosis. … The circumstances of the event
commonly include abuse of power, betrayal of trust, entrapment, helplessness,
pain, confusion, and/or loss.

She also emphasizes that it is “an individual subjective experience that

determines whether an event is or is not traumatic” and adds that such trauma
can be determined both by a single event and by repeated experiences,
“sometimes extending over years of a person’s life” (p. 3).
These observations certainly befit Shostakovich; according to Lev
Lebedinsky, whose close friendship with the composer dated from the years
after the war, Shostakovich was already traumatized “from early childhood,
[but] in his adult years his painful perception of reality was aggravated by
persecution from a totalitarian regime” (Wilson, 1994, p. 335). This persecution
started the moment the Pravda editorial was published and, in different forms
and degree, it lasted almost all his life.
Indeed, Giller observes in her article, the traumatic event may even be
over, “but the person’s reaction to it is not” (1999, p. 6). Barnes’s novel clearly
brings to light how, for Shostakovich, the past continued to intrude into the
present, an intrusion that takes the form of distressing memories, flashbacks,
nightmares, and overwhelming emotional states, actually all psychological
symptoms resulting from traumatic experiences that interfered with his wish
to live the life he wanted.
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IN THE BOSOM OF THE PARTY

‘In the Car’ relates Shostakovich’s third, most ambiguous Conversation with
Power, certainly the one “more dangerous to the soul” (p. 131). Indeed, unlike
the first two that “had tested the extent of his courage [this one] tested the
extent of his cowardice” (p.131), thus it was “the most ruinous” (p. 143) and

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

the most humiliating. The episode narrated in this section is also the most
difficult to understand and sympathize with, in the light of the concessions
his conscience made to the badgering of Power and the moral compromise he
accepted when, in 1960, in those years of the post-Stalin ‘thaw’, the composer
more or less voluntarily signed the paper form to join the Communist Party.
Yet, he had resisted joining it during the terrible, paranoid Stalinist decades
and had declared that “he had never joined the Party- and never would” (p.
52). As at other critical moments, after his capitulation, the idea of suicide
again appealed to him, but he ruled it out considering “physical suicide”
pointless having already committed “moral suicide” (p. 156), lacking even
“the self-respect that suicide required” (p. 156).
It is one of the great biographical mysteries in the composer’s life, a
sudden and unexpected decision that provoked harsh critical reactions from
erstwhile admirers in the intelligentsia, surprised his colleagues and bitterly
disappointed his friends, who knew nothing about his intention and found it
out only when they received the official Party communication.
This is also the most problematic section of the novel where Barnes deals
with some of the most fraught questions in the history of music. He has to
tread a very insidious territory, to find a difficult balance between, on the one
hand, his characteristic human understanding of, and sympathetic interest
in, morally compromised figures and, on the other hand, factual reality, in
this case the complex ‘text’ of Shostakovich’s tortured personality concealed
between the lines of the different reports and narratives of his life that, over
the years, have been published in several versions.
In discussing the episode of Shostakovich’s belated joining of the
Communist party in a section of her book, aptly entitled ‘Victim of oppression
or faithful Party member?’, Wilson (1994) claims that the new Premier,
Nikita Khrushchev, needing to inject fresh energies into the Party’s ranks,
looked for support among the intelligentsia. To this end, he wanted to appoint
Shostakovich Chairman of the Russian Federation Union of composers, and
Party membership was a required criterion for this position. So, even though
he was no longer in danger of being arrested and shot, Power still reached
out its “grabbing hands” (p. 130) to him.
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The man entrusted with the task of recruiting Shostakovich was Pospelov,
a high-ranking apparatchick. At this stage “Shostakovich must have found it
increasingly difficult to resist mounting pressure to join a party which had
dissociated itself from some of the worst atrocities of the regime, laying the
blame firmly at Stalin’s door” (Wilson, 1994, p. 332). Flora Litvinova, an old
friend of the composer, in her reminiscences of the events connected with

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

Shostakovich’s decision, expresses her conviction that, if his wife Nina had
been still alive, he would never have joined the Communist Party, seeming
to suggest that it was a decision somehow maneuvered by his second wife
who was a Party member.
The repeated pressure exerted on him, Glikman maintains in the same section
of Wilson’s book, provoked a terrible breakdown in the composer who had
a troubled and confused expression, and, amid tears, mumbled indistinctly:
“They have been hounding me, they have been pursuing me”. Glikman adds
that after the composer had his second meeting with Pospelov, his “nerves
cracked up and he gave in to him” (Wilson, 1994, p. 339).
Another friend of the composer, Lev Lebedinsky recalls the events
surrounding the composer’s application for Party membership. He suggests
that some low-level bureaucrats, who simply wanted to advance their career,
had prepared a text for Shostakovich and somehow tricked him into signing the
request to be admitted to the Party under the influence of alcohol. Lebedinsky
also offers an enlightening psychological key to understand what led to the
composer’s decision, resorting to the metaphor of the ‘mask’, used also
by Volkov and quoted in the previous section. He says that Shostakovic’s
heightened sensibility forced him to live with exposed nerves, and his decision
to join the Communist Party was “the most tragic example of his neurotic
behaviour”. “Over the years”, he goes on to argue,

he had assumed a mask, and played the role of an obedient Party member.
Nevertheless, he often lost his orientation in the complex labyrinths of political
behavior. His writings often contradicted what he said, and, even worse, his
actions contradicted what he had written”. (Wilson, 1994, p. 336)

Then Lebedinsky quotes Shostakovich’s words to him, on the day when

he was to be officially ‘admitted’ to the Party, a meeting that was called off
because the composer missed the Party convocation claiming that he was
ill, actually hiding in his sister’s flat in Leningrad. Sobbing hysterically,
Shostakovich said:
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‘I’m scared to death of them.’ ‘You don’t know the whole truth.’ ‘From
childhood I have been doing things that I wanted not to do.’ ‘I’m a wretched
alcoholic.’ ‘I’ve been a whore, I am and always will be a whore’. (Wilson,
1994, p. 337)

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

The public ceremony of his admission to the Party took place a few
months later. In Volkov’s Testimony (1984) the episode is explained away
in few neutral, descriptive sentences that do not throw further light on the
composer’s motivations.
Though the accounts of Glikman and Lebedinsky differ, they both insist on
the neurotic and fragile psychology of the composer, who had been particularly
affected by the constant pressure exercised on him by the Stalinist totalitarian
regime, and the trauma of its constant threats and intimidations. So, “weary of
his own fear” (p. 56), he fell prey to the grabbing hands of Power that hugged
him to its bosom and capitulated, thus selling his soul. Once more, “Caesar
[had] deman[ed] that tribute be rendered unto him”, nominating also “the
currency in which it should be paid” (p. 54). Barnes’s novel follows largely
Glikman’s account, but his portrait is less emotionally violent, more prone
to light sarcasm than the one emerging from Glikman’s words.
However, at the same time, in the last fifteen years of Shostakovich’s
life, there were also some brave choices, as when in 1962 in the Thirteenth
Symphony he came out openly against anti-Semitism and set to music
Evtushenko’s poem ‘Baby Yar’, a requiem for the 1941 Nazi massacre of
the Jews in Ukraine. The attitude of the Party towards the Jews had been
hostile since the war, and still was; besides, according to the authorities, the
poem was not dealing with the suffering of ‘true’ Russians and could not be
considered part of the official culture. So the Symphony generated his last
sharp conflict with Power which tried to prevent the performance, but was
afraid to ban it. The première was acclaimed by an ecstatic audience, but
“publicly met by complete critical silence” (Wilson, 1994, p. 356).
In the final part of this section, during the Brezhnev years, Shostakovich
was at the height of his career, accepted unquestionably as his country’s
leading musical voice and no less celebrated abroad. Yet, by now, the elderly
and very successful composer was tragically aware that his self had “crushed
into a hundred pieces” (p. 155), and he retreated more and more into his inner
world. Full of self-reproach, he had to confront the costs of his shameful
acts of cowardice, such as putting his name to a public denunciation against
Solzhenitsyn, whose work he admired and reread constantly. Then, a few
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years later he signed another “filthy letter denouncing Sakharov” (p.166).

Both actions, he realized, were beyond understanding or justification; he
rightly felt that he had betrayed both himself and “the good opinion others
still held of him” (p. 166). Once more Lebedinsky offers his interpretation
of Shostakovich’s actions in this period, maintaining that “what moved him

50
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

was not lack of principles, but a deep-rooted contradiction of character”

(Wilson, 1994, p. 337).
What is certain is that his failure to support openly those who were critical
of the Party and to allow “to be manipulated unscrupulously, adding his
signature to official letters and making speeches expressing the party line”
(Wilson, 1994, p. 428), laid him open to blame. And the argument of those
who doubt that he was fully responsible for the signature put to various articles
or letters bearing his name is frankly beside the point. First, because he never
disowned them or dissociated himself from those documents. Second, because
the political climate had somehow changed and he was in a stronger position
to make his influential voice heard.
Yet, despite all his self-loathing and self-criticism, he was still very proud
of the courage he had put in his music that, together with his family, he
wanted to protect at any price, and see it remain after him. He hoped that in
time, after his death, the verbiage would fade away and his music would be
finally liberated from his life and his actions; from the superimposition of
layers upon layers of opposing partisan criticism; from attempts to dig out the
‘truth’ hidden in the subtexts of his compositions to be dissected in endless
debates. Indeed, he wished that his music would finally stand for itself and
be just music, in all its truth, beauty and purity of sound.
It is the hope, and wish, voiced in the vignette that closes the novel: that
people in the future might hear, and remember, that in the middle of a noisy
war, his unending war, he had heard in the “single clink” of three vodka
glasses “a perfect triad” (180).

CONCLUSION

In The Noise of Time Julian Barnes charts the narrative of Shostakovich’s

life, a story counterpointed by the sublime beauty of the composer’s music
and his acts of cowardice. The writer focuses more on his human side and
his troubled relationship with Stalin’s regime than on his music, and offers
the reader the intricate psychological portrait of an artist whose purity and
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honour gradually fade, silenced by the demands and impositions of the

regime, and his continuous accommodations with Power. The novel does
not follow a linear chronological narrative of the events, but proceeds by
assembling fragmented impressions, free-standing passages and diaristic
reflections through memory, “to create an intimately illuminating montage
of Shostakovich’s life” (Lasdun, 2016).

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

The conclusion of the chapter claims first, that, The Noise of Time inscribes
a largely sympathetic portrait of Shostakovich. Barnes’s sympathy for the
composer is not in doubt in the novel; his human understanding is also confirmed
in an interview with Hermione Lee for a Guardian Live Event in London: “To
some he may have seemed a coward; I think he was heroic in that he got the
music that he could write written, he protected his family, and of course he
was prone to enormous self reproach” (Browne, 2016). However, the novel
is never merely celebratory and does not gloss over Shostakovich’s surrender
to power, his most shameful acts and his weaknesses of character, that made
him decline any form of involvement in the political struggle. Differently
from the poet Osip Mandelstam, who is echoed in the novel’s title, there are
no ‘grand’ gestures of heroism in Shostakovich’s life and actions. Indeed, in
the last section, Barnes chooses to give his readers the final portrait of the
disillusioned old man, who was being driven around by his chauffer, sensing
that his long journey was coming to an end and death was impending, thus
indulging in introspective memories and pessimistic self-analysis. He was
still trying to hide his true self behind irony and self-irony, a strategy built
up over decades of deep-rooted fear, yet, at the same time, realizing the
inadequacy and limits of irony as a moral defence. The sentence that seems
to voice Barnes’s view of the composer and that epitomizes with greater
honesty Shostakovich’s complex personality, his duplicity, and his dubious
choices, is in the middle of the third part, when he is under pressure to join
the Communist Party: “He had been as courageous as his nature allowed;
but conscience was always there to insist that more courage could have been
shown” (151).
Second, The Noise of Time prompts questions of universal significance,
that appeal to the modern sensibility. Besides being a study of the idea of
character and the nature of personal artistic honesty, Barnes’s novel is an
inquiry into the pressure and constraint that Power can exert on art; the
limits of courage and endurance. Above all, The Noise of Time examines and
debates the sometimes intolerable prices and compromises that an artist’s
conscience must endure to preserve her / his art. In Shostakovich’s case, to
make the sound of his music outlive him and resonate above, and beyond,
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“the noise of time” (180).

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 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

REFERENCES

Alexis, A. (2016, May 20). Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time is a thoughtful,
humane and compassionate novel. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://
www.theglobeandmail.com
Barnes, J. (2016). The Noise of Time. London: Jonathan Cape.
Browne, M. (2016, March 23). Julian Barnes: Biographical novels are kind
of cheesy. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com
Foucault, M. (1970). The Order of Discourse. In R. Young (Ed.), Untying
the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader (pp. 51–78). London: Routledge &
Keagan Paul.
Foucault, M. (1979). Truth and power: an interview with Alessandro Fontano
and Pasquale Pasquino. In Michel Foucault: Power, Truth, Strategy (pp. 29-
48). Sidney: Feral Publications.
Giller, E. (1999). What is Psychological Trauma? Retrieved from https://www.
sidran.org/resources/for-survivors-and-loved-ones/what-is-psychological-
trauma/
Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (L. S. Roudiez,
Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Lasdun, J. (2016, January 22). The Noise of Time review- How Shostakovich
survived Stalin. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com
McAlpin, H. (2016, May 10). The Noise of Time Can’t Drown Out
Shostakovich. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org
Mellers, W. (1994, August 21). For the common good: Shostakovich: A Life
Remembered: by Elizabeth Wilson. The Independent. Retrieved from http://
www.independent.co.uk
Muddle Instead of Music. (1936). Retrieved from http://www.arnoldschalks.
nl/00c.html
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Saval, N. (2016, May 26). Julian Barnes and the Shostakovich Wars. The
New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com

53
 “Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority”

Volkov, S. (1984). Testimony: The Memories of Dimitri Shostakovich as

Related to and Edited by Solomon Volko. (A. W. Bouis, Trans.). New York:
Limelight Editions.
Wilson, E. (1994). Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.

ENDNOTES
1
The capital letter for “Power” is adopted in the paper to conform to its
use in the novel.
2
Barnes, J. (2016). The Noise of Time. London: Jonathan Cape. Further
references to this book are given after quotations in the text.
3
Acronym for People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, later renamed
KGB.
4
The author thanks the Assistant Professor Karam Nayebpour for bringing
this article to her attention.
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54
 55

Chapter 3
A Representation of British
Gendered Imperial Politics
in Fiction for Children:
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book

Nilay Erdem Ayyıldız

Fırat University, Turkey

ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the gendered imperial politics in short fction for
children through analyzing “The Mowgli Stories” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,”
selected from nineteenth-century colonialist author Rudyard Kipling’s The
Jungle Book (1894). The reason for the selection of the stories is that they
have not attracted the interest they deserve as products and perpetuators of
the gendered imperial ideology. The chapter asserts that they both refect the
British concerns about the future potential Indian rebellions after the Mutiny
of 1857 and applaud the faithful colonizing Indians’ struggle against the
rebellious ones through masculinist power of body and language. The stories
narrate the masculinized bodily actions of the double outsider animalized
characters involved in violence after the rebellion of one of them in colonial
India. Thus, the chapter indicates the author’s response to the mutiny through
the techniques empowering masculinized imperialism in allegorical fction
for children.
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DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch003

Copyright © 2019, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

INTRODUCTION

The chapter suggests that nineteenth-century British children’s literature

justifies and imposes the gendered imperialist ideology on child readers.
To indicate this, first, the chapter provides background information about
British imperial politics, which essentialized fiction to justify and disseminate
the power of the British Empire. The chapter suggests that the reason for
increasing number of children’s books in the second half of the nineteenth
century is the anxiety of the British aroused by the threat of the colonized
and external powers, urging the British to appeal especially British boys as
the saviour’s of the imperial future. To illustrate it, then, the chapter analyzes
Kipling’s selected fables, aimed at children. It asserts that the stories portray
the Indian Mutiny (1857) for child readers by empowering them with the
masculine power of body and language to overcome any potential rebellion in
the future. It indicates the entwined bond between colonialism and patriarchy
by examining the role of both colonizing/colonized men and women in the
selected works. Thus, the chapter does more than a postcolonial feminist
reading, which interrogates the representation of just colonized women in
colonial texts. Consequently, a critical reading of each story displays how
Kipling uses colonial and patriarchal discourses to convey gendered colonial
mission, particularly, to British boys.

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE

VICTORIAN IMPERIAL SERVICE

As Zornado (2002) notes, people “inadvertently reproduce the dominant

culture as a result of the lived relations determined by the structure imposed
on them (p. 4). In this context, the relationship between the adult and the child
seems to be prerequisite for a sustainable ideology in society. As children are
regarded as perpetuators of the adult’s ideology, they have always been main
concerns of adults throughout centuries. Children’s literature, encompassing
books either appealing to child readers or including child characters, has an
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undeniable role in cultural reproduction between adults and child readers.

Children’s books are adult authors’ products through which they convey
their attitudes and beliefs, even ideologies to children (Grenby, 2008, p. 199,
Rockwell, 1974, p. 4). Ideology is an “inevitable, untameable and largely
uncontrollable” factor in children’s books because writers cannot conceal

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

their ideologies even in children’s texts just as in the texts intended for adults
(Hollindale, 1992, pp. 27-30) and demonstrate them to a certain extent in
their works, either explicitly or implicitly. In this regard, narratives may be
taken as pathways to the construction of ideologies which take shape within
language through discourses. With the help of discourses while developing
a plot, creating characters, ideologies operate throughout a children’s book,
too. Accordingly, the representation of ideologies conveyed through children’s
literature has been influenced by the politics leading the life in each period
of time. As to the Victorian era interrogated in the study, the chapter claims
that it was masculinized imperialist ideology shaped children’s literature of
the period substantially.
The period lasting from 1837 to 1901 refers to peerlessly outstanding years
in the British history because “[n]o other power developed more varied and
far-reaching imperial relationships than Victorian Britain” (Darwin, 1997,
p. 614). In the late 1830s, it led the world with the principle “Conquest and
Dominate.” Ergo, it became even ahead of Greece and Rome in affluence.
The industrial, military and economic strength provided the Victorians with
the “discourse of power,” in other words, colonial discourse, to affirm that
they were right to subjugate the rest of the world. For instance, the imperialist
leader Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) stated: “Expansion is everything, these
stars…these vast worlds…I would annex the planets if could” (qtd. in
Arendt, 1973, p. 124). This colonialist expression represents “the political
corollary of the [imperialist] fantasy of omnipotence” (Brantlinger, 2011,
p. 127). Therefore, it was the colonizers who owned the pen rather than
the colonized. The imperialist ideology was born in the mother country but
produced and reproduced both there and the colonized land. Therefore, as
Said notes, Orientalism is a way of reinforcing Western imperial authority
over the colonized East (2003, p. 3). For Orientalists, indigenous people had
to be brought to civilization; otherwise, they would be doomed to die out.
Fiction was a convenient vehicle for justifying and disseminating this idea
of British superiority to the colonies. Therefore, during the Victorian era,
many literary works were published both in Britain and its colonies, and
they all were products and perpetuators of the British power, knowledge,
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and discourse that Britain produced about the rest of the world over which
it ruled. That is why, culture and imperialism were considerably associated
in colonizers’ fiction (Said, 1994, p. xiii). Emphasizing the inseparable
relationship between imperial politics and literature, Brantlinger (2011) states
that the European dominance on the other continents was so considerable
that Western literature, especially since the Renaissance, may be considered

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

to be an “imperialist project” (p.106). For instance, such authors as Thomas

Carlyle (1795-1881), Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), Charles Kingsley (1819-
1875), Robert M. Ballantyne (1825-1894), James Anthony Froude (1818-
1894), Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930),
and Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) were among the Victorian writers who
reinforced their imperialist ideologies through their works. From the political
perspective, the British aimed to bring children up as potential colonizers
of the future to guarantee the colonial power of the British Empire, upon
which they used to believe and perpetuate the notion that the sun never set.
Kutzer (2000) notes that “children are colonized by the books they read” as
writes used fiction to impose both colonizing and colonized child readers
the notion that empire was an essential good for them (p. xvi). Authors of
British children’s literature were regarded as the main coordinators of this
mechanism through their works. Therefore, Victorian children’s literature
often emphasized the spirit of progress, civilization, and empire as the British
authorities deemed it to be.
It was in the Victorian period that the production of books for children was
boosted due to the path-breaking theories of John Locke (1632-1704), Jean-
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Herbert
Spencer (1820-1903). Locke’s path-breaking concept of “tabula rasa” with
the claim that the human mind is like a blank sheet, which is ready to be filled
in since birth and Rousseau’s breakthrough educational philosophy in Emile
(1763) underlining the significance of teaching children bare truth through
spontaneous experiences. Thus, both these philosophers paved the way for
the explosion of pedagogical works intended for children. Children became
the nucleus of the social engineering mechanism in the eyes of philosophers
and writers. Moreover, Darwin’s Origins of Species (1859) introduced the
idea that the child “rehearses the evolution of the species passing through
all the lower animal stages from amoeba to man” (Straley, 2016, p. 4). This
belief fostered the production of animal talking stories for children such
as Kipling’s The Jungle Book. On the other hand, Spencer elaborated on
and evaluated Darwin’s theory in social and economic terms justifying the
oppression of the physically, economically and technically strong over the
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weak. In this regard, they also paved the way for the boom of fictional works
for children. As such, the period covering the years from the second half of
the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century was marked as “the
golden age of children’s literature” (Ang, 2000, p. 15).
There were four main genres produced for child readers during the
Victorian period; school stories, fantasy, adventure, and realistic domestic

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

novels. Each genre served as an imperialist project for children. To illustrate,

schools functioned as an imperial world in miniature in school stories such
as Harriet Martineau’s The Crofton Boys (1841), Thomas Hughes’s Tom
Brown’s Schooldays (1857) and F. W. Farrar’s Eric, or Little by Little (1858).
Also, fantasy novels created an imperial world in fantasy. Charles Kingsley’s
The Water Babies (1863), Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
(1865), George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin (1872), Rudyard
Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894), E. Nesbit’s The Book of Dragons (1900)
and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1906) appeal to children even today.
Thirdly, adventure novels were set in exotic non-European regions as a
colonial world in miniature where especially Victorian boys exercised their
imperial roles. Among the most popular ones were Frederick Marryat’s
Children of the New Forest (1847), R. M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island (1858)
and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883). Lastly, realistic domestic
novels presented a representative imperial life which was in accordance with
domesticity. For instance, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868), Good
Wives (1869) and Little Men (1871) and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little
Princess (1905) and The Secret Garden (1911) illustrated the culture of empire
in domestic life (McCulloch, 2011, p. 38). Accordingly, it may be claimed
that regardless of its genre, each Victorian children’s work dealt more or less
with imperialist ideology either explicitly or implicitly.
The decline in the worldwide prestigious of the British Empire in the
second half of the nineteenth century altered the imperialist contexts of the
children’s works in that period which witnessed the threatening rivalry of
Germany and the United States against Britain and fears disseminating because
of the terror provoked by freed slaves in top colonial lands such as Africa
and the Caribbean. More importantly, as the chapter scrutinizes, the Sepoy
Rebellion of 1857 shook the colonial authority of the British Empire in India
considerably, thus, aroused fear and anxiety in the colonizer. The rebellion
was crushed; nevertheless, it created a division between Hindus and Muslims,
both of whom were under the British rule, and Indian nationalism aroused
as a threat to the Raj and created anxieties for the imperialists. According to
most British writers such as Kipling, during the rebellion, India was saved
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from the Indians rather than the British colonizers. Therefore, for them, the
mutiny proved that it was a must for the British to tame and civilize the Indians
(Brantlinger, 2011, p. 131). Announcing themselves as the rightful settlers
of India, they wished to own “the jewel in the crown” forever. Between the
years the 1860s and 1880s, most British historians wrote about the history of
the British Empire to keep enthusiasm and courage in regards to colonization

59
 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

in the conscious of the British alive. Among the most read ones were Robert
Montgomery Martin’s The Indian Empire (1858–60), and Edward Nolan’s
Illustrated History of the British Empire in India and the East (1860). What is
striking about the discourse of these history books is that they deny the fears
of the British which aroused in the mutiny in India. As to fiction, even from
“the mid-1880s there was a proliferation of novels set in the Indian Mutiny as
if there were still lessons to be drawn from that most catastrophic failure of
control (Tosh, 2016, p. 195). Particularly adventure novels were abundantly
written in regards to the struggle against threats to the British imperialism,
and Kipling’s The Jungle Book to be analyzed in the chapter indicates that
the mutiny was alive in British minds even three decades later when the book
was written even though Kipling was unwilling to write about it as he refused
a publisher offering him to write a book or a story about it as follows: “’57
is the year we don’t mention and I know I can’t” (Lewis, 2016, p. 136).

MASCULINIZED IMPERIALISM IN
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Although empires have often been associated with female figures such as
mothers and goddesses, and the British Empire was reigned by Queen Victoria
during most of the nineteenth century, patriarchal ideology dominated the
era by dividing life into two spheres for men and women. Men were in the
chair of the public sphere of the British Empire including science, economy,
politics, and war whereas women were confined to the domestic sphere. It
was men who made marital, property and land laws for their own benefits
by keeping women bound them. Imperialism was also a masculine activity
to a great extent in terms of both ideology and practice. The construction of
imperialism for both the colonizer and the colonized was always gendered
everywhere, that is to say, affected in every way by people’s understanding
of sexual difference and its impacts (Levine, 2004, p. 2). Colonization
was the white man’s burden rather than white people’s because it required
physical strength, perseverance, and freedom, associated with “manliness”
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in the Victorian sense. Thus, the Empire was quite essentially the sphere
for men to demonstrate their “energy, resilience and physical adaptability”,
so, their “manliness” (Toss, 2016, p. 185). In this regard, men were active
and assertive elements of the Empire. In addition, to control the imperial
politics through the next generations was one of the primary concerns of

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

white men. On the other hand, breeding a healthy and robust male generation
as an empire builder was regarded as women’s national and imperial duty.
Therefore, the relationship between gender and imperialism was so crucial
that they reinforced each other.
Growing interest in bringing up more physically and knowledgeably
capable boys at schools over the late nineteenth century is evidence of the fact
that empire was regarded as men’s business, not women’s. The curriculum
of the schools was based on physical and mental discipline and became the
articulation of imperial agenda in history, geography, English literature and
classics. Classes prioritized making “men colonizers” out of boys. Another
concrete proof is the foundation of “the Boys’ Brigade” in 1883, as an imperial
organization to educate boys to be proper Christian men serving in the Empire
(Tosh, 2016, pp. 196-197).
The homosocial culture of the colonies comprised largely by young men
who discriminate against particularly the ‘New Woman,’ contradicting the
patriarchal convention. In the late nineteenth century, more and more women
were employed, choosing a career rather than dealing with household the
whole day, preferring living alone to marriage. They drew men’s attention in
the community with their ‘manly’ habits such as smoking and cycling. Some
of them developed a feminist reaction, arguing that women were “mothers
of the race” and racially and inherently possessed equal burden concerning
imperialism (Burton, 1992, p. 138). Thus, they were involved in some desk
works in imperialism. Namusak (1992) notes that among them were Mary
Carpenter, Annette Akroyd Beveridge, Margaret NobleSister Nivedita,
Margaret Gillespie Cousins, and Eleanor Rathbone in India. Except for a
few “New Woman” figures, the other dominant British women in India were
memsahibs, the wives of British officials and businessmen, or missionaries,
be it single or married. They were concerned with the arrogant exponents of
British culture or Christianity, but not Indian people or their culture. Although
they approached a little to Indian women afterward, their main concern was
to let them benefit from the British culture (pp. 119-132). After the opening
of the Suez Canal in 1869, more and more women to travel there in a shorter
time (Ghose, 2007, p. 109). They had one more responsibility other than
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childrearing and maintaining households; protecting the purification of their

race by hindering any relationship between their husbands and seductive native
women. The structure of a mission station was really patriarchal as colonizing
men dealt with preaching, building chapels, buying land, negotiating with the
authorities, while their wives cared for home and family, taught the native
girls and women and acted as a nurse at the same time (Hall, 2004, p. 60). It

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

is obvious that domesticity became women’s contribution to the empire in

the nineteenth century because although colonizing men were distant figures
for the colonized, colonial women had a maternal and sisterly role in their
relations to the colonized. Furthermore, while colonial children were sent
to the motherland for education after the age of six, many colonial women
preferred staying with their husbands in India and led a kind of “partnerships
which cast women in a masculine mold” (Hall, 2004, p. 73). As instructors of
indigenous women and children in teaching English, Christianity and many
household crafts from cooking to sewing, colonial women had an efficient
role in perpetuating colonialist discourse of “civilizing mission” by imposing
the benefits of Christianity, Western language, education and culture on native
people (Grimshaw, 2004, pp. 264-269). As Hyam (1990) notes, gender was
“at the very heart of racism” (p. 203) because concerning the social relations
among colonizers and the colonized, such a hierarchy from white men, white
women, black men, and black women, respectively, may be suggested. The
hierarchy draws its force from race first and then gender. Accordingly, the
misogynistic approach led some imperialists to spread different stereotypical
Anglo-Indian figures. For them, the colonial women in India had three
common features. One of them is that they disrupted benevolent relationships
between colonizers and native women when they arrived in India as they are
accepted to be more racist than colonial men. The second one is that they
seduced native men with whom colonial men had to dealt then for this. The
last one is about their laziness and non-effectiveness in the running of the
Empire (Formes, 1995, p. 630). For these alleged reasons, these misogynist
imperialist or historians attribute the fall of the British Empire to women. For
instance, Sir David Lean said: “It’s...well-known…that women lost us the
Empire” (qtd. in Strobel, 1991, p.1) as they supposedly damaged the social
relations between colonizers and the colonized through native women whom
colonizers had intermingled freely to create a huge ‘Eurasian’ population in
India (Strobel, 1991, pp. 1-14).
Gendered imperialism also resulted in the double oppression of colonized
women, who are doomed to silence in their relationship with the colonizer.
Victorian gender ideology which was fortified by imperialism conceived
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white women as virtuous while attributing immorality to colonized women.

Thus, in a colonial context, the moral superiority of colonizing women both
to colonized men and women justified British rule in India. On the other hand,
as Spivak (1988) argues, colonized women cannot represent themselves, but
only be represented by someone with more power and authority. in Spivak’s

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

words, the subaltern, that is, colonized women, cannot speak but can be
spoken by colonizers for (p. 308). The sati tradition in India in which a widow
Indian woman was expected to burn herself on her own will in her husband’s
funeral, indicates their submissiveness well. Until the abolition of the practice
in 1827, Indian women were no other than their husbands’ shadows as long
as the husbands were alive. The outlaw of this practice contributed to the
imperialist fantasy that white men rescued the subjugated and speechless
colonized women from the oppression of colonized men. However, in reality,
white men did not do anything else to improve colonized women’s life during
the Victorian period. Accordingly, imperialist authors hardly ever gave voice
to colonized women in their texts. Thus, the oppression over them was, in
fact, doubled.
In parallel to the patriarchal concept of imperialism, nineteenth-century
British children’s literature was essentially boys’ literature, because boys,
more than girls, were considered directly responsible for imperial duty.
Instead of girls, who were confined to domestic life, boys were on the target
as they were believed to be belonged to the outer world, thus, the colonial
one. Children’s literature of the period helped restrict girls to domestic roles
through identities such as wives, mothers, sisters, and aunt who served
colonialism by bringing up and protecting colonial-conscious children. On
the other hand, it made boys feel motivated about the duty of colonialism,
seeing themselves as promising colonizers. Imperialism and manliness
were emphasized in children’s literature. It is obvious that gender identities
were effective in discriminating against girl readers and female characters
in the period’s children’s literature. Misogyny was common in adventure
tales, by-products of patriarchy in nineteenth-century children’s literature as
hunting, exploring and governing the Orient, ruling the colonized were men’s
activities while women could be just travelers accompanied by colonizing
men there (Brantlinger, 2011, pp. 66-67). Therefore, boys were often offered
adventure stories whereas girls would read realistic domestic and religious
novels. Furthermore, although both sexes would read school stories, different
gender roles of the each were reflected in narratives. Accordingly, the content
appealing to boy readers was about verbal power and authority as they were
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prepared to become builders of the British Empire while the focus was on
maternity, wifehood and linguistic ability in the narratives intended for girl
readers. For instance, through “[a] jungle with human-like, speaking animals
Kipling’s Jungle Book opens up the world for boy readers, suggesting that it
was rightfully theirs to explore, possess, and rule” (Roberts, 2002, p. 364).

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

On the other hand, Burnett’s A Little Princess depicts how Sara Crewe, the
daughter of a colonial father, is confined to the boarding school of Miss
Minchin, who represents a totalitarian native ruler. She is forced to abide by
the domestic culture of the imperial world, but she achieves gaining the respect
of her peers and even her elders through her affection, modesty, helpfulness
and fluent French more than Miss Minchin. Accordingly, it may be claimed
that every genre of nineteenth-century children’s literature conveyed gendered
imperialist ideology more or less in a way.
In contrast to many Victorian novels of bildungsroman such as Charlotte
Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1861),
imperial boys in children’s literature such as in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1904)
are stereotype characters who do not grow up. They are British and white, so
they are superior in every term from the beginning to the end of the works.
More specifically, the imperialist boys in Ballantyne, Kingston, and Henty’s
novels have a dangerous journey to deserts, jungles and remote islands where
they have many struggles against threatening animals and natives, but they
survive and return their homes unchanged. Colonized men are the absolute
contrast of colonized men in every term as they are regarded as devoid of
any Western values which render the British superior to themselves. After
all, they are black, so inferior. Therefore, although both white women and
black men were also considered to be emotional and inferior to the rational
white men, white women surpassed black men in racial terms. Accordingly,
white women were seen as virtuous whereas black men as lascivious. For
instance, concerning the British Imperialist history of India, it may be claimed
that the Indian Mutiny in 1857 reinforced the stereotypical approach to the
natives, especially colonized men. They were accused of raping white women
during the rebellion. Although this claim was not proved, this issue took a
significant part in British fiction about India especially from 1860 onwards
(Ghose, 2007, 107). Thus, the supremacy and existence of white men in
colonial land were directly justified. However, perhaps, to smooth upcoming
threats of the colonized and as an articulation of his fear, Kipling applied a
distinct way of characterization in Jungle Book by creating male colonizer
natives as protagonists and applauding their victories against the rebellious
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natives to protect the sustainability of the Empire. Therefore, Kipling offers

a disparate case study for the chapter in relation to gendered imperialist
politics of the period.

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

KIPLING AS A POST-MUTINY IMPERIALIST AUTHOR

Kipling, as a son of imperial parents, was “synonymous with empire” (Krebs,

2003, p. 163). He kept all the British’s interest and pride in distant European
regions alive through his stories and poems in the 1890s. Thus, he was
regarded as the most significant mouthpiece of the British Empire at those
times (Krebs, 2003, p. 157). Despite being born and grown up until the age
of six in India, Kipling was drifted in an imperialist direction and addressed
his own generation from the imperialist philosophy of life through his works
such as Captains Courageous (1897), “The Man Who Would Be King”
(1899) and Kim (1901) (Bloom, 2014, pp. 16-18). He supported the faith in
the “divine mission” of the white race to conquer, rule and civilize all of the
non-white races of the world with his notion of “The White Man’s Burden”
which is, just like Orientalism, used to legitimize the Western colonization.
For Kipling, ‘The Unofficial Laureate of the Imperialists’, “it was India’s
best destiny to be ruled by England” (Said, 1993, p. 146). He could not
stand imagining any opposition to British rule as he thought that it referred
to civilization, justice, peace, and security for the colonized. Therefore, he
exoticizes India, gives power to the colonizers serving the imperial purpose to
demonstrate their supremacy to “uncivilized” natives. Kipling’s works on India
draw an essentialist line between the West and the East, specifically Britain
and India and take the latter ones in the service of the Empire. As mentioned
above, no matter how many times he denied, he was deeply influenced by
the mutiny in India and sought a solution to the problem of how to survive
the political loss of the “jewel in the Crown” in the 1880s and the 1890s as
he did in “The Bridge-Builders”, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” “William the
Conqueror,” “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes” (Sullivan, 1993, pp. 15-
30). These works of Kipling tell stories about the British power and survival
in India through compromise and the disguised invasion of India and its nature
/jungle by Britain and its civilization and imperialism. For Sullivan (1993)
and Goswami (2012), Kipling’s works in the late Victorian period contain his
anxiety about the future of the British Imperialism in a way, so they should
be reread in terms of the imperial culture (p. 180; p. 8). As noted by Randall
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(1998), through The Jungle Book, Kipling reconstructs India “as the Western
world’s dominated other” after the Sepoy Mutiny (p. 107).
The originality of the chapter derives from the fact that despite Kipling’s
renowned colonialist identity, the selected stories, aimed at particularly
child readers, attracted less critical attention than they deserved in regards

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 A Representation of British Gendered Imperial Politics in Fiction for Children

to gendered imperial politics. Although Dan Randall argues the duties of

“the imperial boy” in Kipling’s Imperial Boy: Adolescence and Hybridity
(2000), and John McBratney deals with Kipling’s depiction of the native
boys in Imperial Subjects, Imperial Space (2002), they do not engage with
Kipling’s stories, selected for the study in regards to gendered imperialism.
Similarly, neither Andrew Hagiioannu’s The Man Who Would Be Kipling
(2003) nor Jan Montefiore’s Rudyard Kipling (2007) fill absolutely in the
blank concerning about the mentioned issue even though they confirm that
Kipling has colonialist concerns to convey to child readers through his
stories. Furthermore, Sue Walsh does not also deal with the stories’ gendered
political dimension in Kipling’s Children’s Literature: Language, Identity,
and Constructions of Children (2010) analyzing the language in Kipling’s
works including Kim and Just So Stories. Therefore, the purpose of this study
is to analyze the selected stories to reveal that Kipling attempts to propose
a masculinist ideology as a part of imperialist vision through gothic double
characters besides rebellion, violence, hierarchy, and power both in verbal
and bodily language.

REPRESENTATION OF GENDERED IMPERIALISM IN

“THE MOWGLI STORIES” AND “RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI”

The chapter deals with the first of Kipling’s The Jungle Books (1894-1895),
consisting of two separate short story collections. The book contains seven
stories entitled “Mowgli’s Brothers”, “Kaa’s Hunting”, “Tiger! Tiger!”,
The White Seal” “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, “Toomai of the Elephants”, and “Her
Majesty’s Servants.” The first three ones of these stories comprise “The Mowgli
Stories,” related to each other covering almost half of the book, whereas the
others have their own separate plots. Out of them, the study will deal with
“The Mowgli Stories” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” to indicate Kipling’s strategy
to convey the masculinized imperialist ideology to child readers.
“The Mowgli Stories” revolve around an Anglo-Indian boy, lost in the
Indian jungle when he was a baby and raised by The Mother Wolf, called
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Raksha and Father Wolf. He leads a wild life in the jungle by hunting with
his brother wolves, a black panther, Bagheera, and a bear called Baloo. The
stories tell about the boy’s struggle against a strong tiger in the jungle named
Shere Khan attempting to get rid of him and disobeying the Law of the Jungle.
After escaping from his attack, Mowgli shelters in a village where the Indian

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couple, Messua and her husband look after him. He kills Shere Khan there and
proves his own superiority both to all animals in the jungle and the villagers.
As for “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” it tells about a young Indian mongoose named
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and his efforts to protect the British family, whom he resides
with in a bungalow house, against a poisonous cobra couple called Nag and
Nagaina in colonial India. They plan to kill the family to have the house for
themselves, but Rikki ruins their plans. He kills Nag and then manages to save
the little boy, Teddy, from being bitten by Nagaina, who desires to take her
dead husband’s revenge. Then, the family lets Rikki, who proves his loyalty
to the family members, live with them. Afterward, Rikki devotes himself to
protecting the family from any kinds of threats outside.
Although they seem to be simple children’s stories, when looked closer,
Kipling creates a representative colonial world through speaking animal
characters in colonial India in both stories. They are set in India which
witnessed the rebellion of the sepoys in 1857, so, included threatful natives
to colonizers. Kipling presents the struggle against them outdoor in “The
Mowgli Stories” and indoor in “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, but both in India, which
presents “exotic foreign locations that offer scope for masculine and violence”
in the context of Empire (Nyman, 2003, p. 40).
In addition to the setting, the characters, abundantly male, in the stories
assert masculinized imperialism. It is striking that Kipling animalizes the
colonized, be it a woman or a man, except for the Indian villagers in “The
Mowgli Stories”, whereas colonizers are characterized as human beings in
both stories. In Nyman’s view, the animal trope functions “in the manner of
the stereotypical native as cunning, untrustworthy and not-quite-human [not
an exact colonizer in the colonial context]”. In this regard, even the existence
of animals in the stories, except for Kaa, Baloo, Bagheera and Akela helping
Mowgli in “The Mowgli Stories” and the Darzee couple helping Rikki in
“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, works as potential threat to the prolongation of reason,
order and hierarchy, which are prioritized in masculinized culture (2003, pp.
39-40). Their presence in the stories also promotes the imperialist notion of
the natives as racialized Others, “harnessed to serve the Empire and [their]
British rulers” (Nyman, 2011, p. 206), and their faithfulness does not approve
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their being “proper embodiments of ‘true’ English” (Nyman, 2011, p. 216), but
the British family in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” as “truly” English. More importantly,
Kipling distinguishes among the animals in regards to power, hierarchy, and
faithfulness, apparently in bodily and verbal articulation. More concretely, in
“The Mowgli Stories”, Akela is at the top in the hierarchy, but then Mowgli
becomes the master of the jungle. Shere Khan is on foreground because of

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his power and wildness; however, Mowgli surpasses him, as well. In addition,
while the animals such as Kaa, Balo, Bagheera, the Wolf parents, and Akela
represent obedient colonized Indians, whereas Shere Khan stands for unfaithful
one and the Monkey People are mimic men, as another frightening “Other”
of the colonial Self. As for “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, the cobra couple is on the
foreground with their strength and rebellious nature as colonized Indians,
overwhelmed by Rikki, the faithful colonizing Indian, aided by other obedient
natives, the Darzee couple. Besides animals, Kipling also deploys an English
boy, Teddy, in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” and an Anglo-Indian boy, Mowgli, in “The
Mowgli Stories” “as tools to both confute native insurgency and glorify
imperial conquest” (Supriva, 2012, p. 4) so that he can represent colonial
Indian history to children, future colonizers of India in a manner which made
it controllable and accessible to them.
To enhance the suspense of masculinized imperialism, Kipling creates
two gothic characters in the selected stories, Mowgli and Shere Khan in “The
Mowgli Stories” and Rikki and the cobra couple in “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”. They
are all outsiders and cruel. Mowgli represents an Anglo-Indian colonizer, and
he is as alien to the jungle as Kipling as a white imperialist in India (Newton,
2004, p. 189). He is unfamiliar with the order and culture of the jungle, of
which he becomes a master later. Mowgli is distinct from the animals by
blood, whereas Shere Khan is an outsider with his inherent lameness. He is
murderous enough to kill people and a rebel against the Law of the Jungle, so,
the order in the jungle. Shere Khan’s masculine physical power corresponds
to Mowgli’s ability to stare, which makes him distinguishable in the jungle
indicating that he has a soul (Yarbrough, 2011, p. 170). That even a huge
black panther cannot look into the eyes of powerful and wise Mowgli as he
regards him as “his master” (Kipling, 1994, p. 27) asserts Mowgli’s masculinist
imperial power in the jungle. In Darwinian thinking, Mowgli is superior to
them as he has passed through all the lower phases of animal and become a
human. He says to himself: “Mowgli the Frog have I been, Mowgli the Wolf
have I said that I am. Now Mowgli the Ape I must be before I am Mowgli
the Buck. At the end, I shall be Mowgli the Man” (Kipling, 1994, p. 13). His
adaptability to the jungle life and overcoming a robust tiger, Shere Khan,
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asserts his masculinized imperialist power. Thus, in the colonial context,

as Newton (2004) notes, Mowgli reminds Tarzan, Hollywood’s savage
Englishman, who is strong enough to wrestle with an enormous crocodile
or a lion suggesting that “nothing matter so much as being white” (p. 192).
He stands out as an aggressive masculine agent confronting male powerful
animals such as wolves, bears, and pythons. He acts like a white sahib in

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India (Cosslett, 2006, pp. 139-140). In the beginning, Kaa, Baloo, Bagheera
and Akela attempt to masculinize Mowgli and adopt the Law of the Jungle,
produced by the colonizer. The Law acknowledges Mowgli not only about
the “proper” manner but also “proper” words as it consists of certain words
of power supposed to be uttered on certain circumstances. Mowgli learns
how to speak to each animal; “how to speak politely to the wild bees,..what to
say to Mang, the Bat” (Kipling, 1994, p. 32). Thus, the knowledge provides
Mowgli with much more superiority and manly authority over the animals.
He faces the costs associated with the imperial masculinity by counteracting
Shere Khan, a disobedient to the Law of the Jungle, which appears to be a
colonial law contributing to the colonialist project and the violation of which
leads to natives’ punishment by armed white men (Nyman, 2011, p. 209).
“Man Killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants,
with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches.
Then everybody suffers” (Kipling, 1994, p. 13). The rebellion of the tiger is
responded by Mowgli’s manly action, violence. The ones who do not abide
by white men’s Law of the Jungle, just like Shere Khan and the Monkey-
People, are othered in “The Mowgli Stories”. Therefore, accordingly, from
the colonizer’s perspective, Shere Khan embodies “the absence of values…
defiguring all that has to do with beauty or morality” in Fanon’s words
(2004, p. 34). Considering the animalized natives, while all the animals who
seem to have adapted themselves to white men’s “law of the jungle,” Shere
Khan who wants to remove Mowgli from the wolf pack, in fact, the jungle,
is from the latter category, that is, the rebellious natives who do not tolerate
any colonizers in their own land. He hates Mowgli as much as a disobedient
colonized detests the colonizer. It is obvious that although Mowgli’s life among
the animals is portrayed as innocent and harmless in terms of Mowgli, his
existence disturbs Shere Khan as the colonizers’ presence disturbed Indians
especially after the Abolition of Slavery (1843). From Fanon’ perspective,
the colonized dream to be as “imperious” as and even more than colonizers.
This desire of the colonized who internalize their inferiority and the belief that
they can never attain colonizers’ superior position result in the colonized’s
hatred against colonizers (2004, p. 16)
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Similar to Shere Khan, the Bandar-log, the Monkey-People, also disregard

the Law of the Jungle, so their rebellion is also responded by violence. Their
disobedience is distinguishable with their “foolish words” (Kipling, 1994, p.
53) similar to the long and “loud talk” (Kipling, 1994, p. 27) of Shere Khan.
The endless boasting chatter “like the talk of frogs in a pond” (Kipling, 1994,
p. 54) indicates their ineffective language of heroism when they are devoid

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of the order set by imperialism and when the chaos takes over (Sattaur,
2011, p. 96). Kipling initiates rebellion and puts his masculine hero Mowgli
into trouble again, this time, caused by monkey-people abducting Mowgli.
Raskha and Messua are distinguishable female characters gendered with
their attempts to nurture and protect Mowgli in “The Mowgli Stories,” and
Teddy’s mother with her protective concerns about her son and despite her
murderous violence, Nagaina with her endeavors to save her cubs’ lives in
“Rikki-Tikki Tavi” demonstrate their disparate roles as women. However,
besides their chattering noises weakening their manliness, they are not
gendered as men, as well. The monkeys live in an old and ruined Indian city
away from the animals in the jungle, whom they “pretended to despise…
because they lived in the forest” (Kipling, 1994, p. 44). Accordingly, they
are mimic men who despise their own race and believe in releasing from its
inferiority by imitating the colonizer’s way of life: “they never knew what
the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit in circles
on the hall of the king’s council chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to
be men…” (Kipling, 1994, p. 44). The narrator also draws attention to their
ridiculous position they occupy while they are imitating colonizers. It is told
that “Mowgli could not help laughing” (Kipling, 1994, p. 45) while listening
to their shouting: “‘We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are
the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be
true’” (Kipling, 1994, p. 46). In Nyman’s view (2003), [t]heirs is a colonial
psyche, a maddening, or already maddened, form of identity that threatens
the stability of colonial rule” (p. 44). Evaluating the Anglo-Indians’ responses
to the Indian Mutiny, Bhabha states: “[Panic] does not simply hold together
the native people but binds them affectively, if antagonistically [...] with
their masters” (qtd. in Nyman, 2011, p. 211). Thus, the notion of going mad
indicates the fear of uncontrollable native panic, like the Monkey-People’s.
It is curbed by white men’s Law of the Jungle (Sattaur, 2011, pp. 94-95).
Furthermore, from Bhabha’s perspective, the mimic men seem ridiculous
in the colonialist view. No matter how similar the mimic men seem to the
colonizers, they remain “other” for them (2004, p. 86). Thus, they just repeat
rather than represent the British (Bhabha, 2004, p. 88). As British people’s
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‘bad imitators’, they are mocked as they do not behave in their own way or
will, but just ‘pretend’. Indeed, their representation is “partial,” not whole
(Bhabha, 2004, p. 86). By holding a distorted mirror to the colonial identity
by displaying them the mockery self-righteous constructed colonial identity.
The monkeys “throw sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope
of being noticed” (Kipling, 1994, p. 36). They seek to make themselves

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visible as much as ‘superior’ colonizers. They do not have a leader, laws,

and customs of their own. They abduct Mowgli as they admire his manners
and think that they have found a great leader for themselves. Moreover, their
incessant “howl[ing] and shriek[ing] senseless songs” (Kipling, 1994, p. 48)
disturb the representative of the colonial order, primarily Mowgli and Kaa,
Baloo, Bagheera, and Akela. Even their presence indicates an ambivalent
situation of colonial hierarchies, so they are, in Baloo’s words, “forbidden to
the Jungle People” (Kipling, 1994, p. 42). According to Nyman (2011), this
“suggests an attempt to suppress the Other of the colonial Self” (p. 213). Their
mimicking and displaying distorted image of colonizers endanger the “true”
manly Englishness, so Mowgli fulfills his imperialist mission by letting them
be slaughtered by Kaa. Thus, this rebellion is also responded by violence as
a corrective force to restore masculinized imperialism.
Raised among the animals, Mowgli becomes familiar with the language
and customs of his subjects just like Kipling who spent most of his lifetime
in India. Therefore, Mowgli’s comprehending the jungle animals supplies
him with “a form of surveillance and control” over them (Cosslett, 2006, p.
139). His becoming the ruler of the jungle at the end of the story indicates
the author’s suggestion that to achieve colonial rule, one must be a part of the
culture that he wishes to rule but also apart from it. In fact, through Mowgli,
in his visit to the villagers, Kipling degrades the native culture which requires
Western civilization. For instance, he cannot also understand “the idea of
difference that caste makes between man and man” (Kipling, 1994, p. 60).
Although he is an Anglo-Indian man, he does not feel himself in the same
category with them as from Westerner’s viewpoint, his masculine imperial
power renders him superior to them in all terms. By criticizing the Indian
caste system, he draws a contrast between primitive Indian culture and
Western civilization to justify the colonial assumption that the natives need
to be civilized with the colonizers’ help. When Mowgli goes to the village
to abstain from Shere Khan’s attack, the natives there are also startled that
he is engaged with the real jungle animals such as buffaloes. He proves the
children that “he was the master” (Kipling, 1994, p. 61) as a representative
fearless and courageous colonizer by defeating Shere Kahn. He becomes the
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masculine leader of the jungle. Even Akela, who is the leader of the wolf’s
pack and represents a colonized man who has internalized the superiority of
the colonizers and their law, wants him to lead them: “‘Lead us again…O
Man-cub, for we be sick of this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People
once more” (Kipling, 1994, p. 71). Thus, it may be claimed that the solidarity
he has with the other animals is not based on love but based on masculine

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power. As Sullivan (1993) claims, from a masculinist imperialist perspective,

Mowgli enjoys his desire to be loved, control and be feared in the jungle (p.
1). Therefore, he does not allow the rebellious natives to take precedence
over him. “The Mowgli’s Stories” ends with the death of Shere Khan and
the celebration of Mowgli’s victory. Likewise, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” finishes
with the demises of the rebellious cobra couple.
Similar to “The Mowgli Stories”, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” also revives the Indian
Mutiny and presents the victory of the obedient colonized to the disobedient
one. Therefore, in contrast to many children’s adventure tales such as Daniel
Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ballantyne’s The Coral Island (1858) and
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883) characterize the British as
protagonists and savior of “uncivilized” natives, Kipling prioritizes faithful
colonising natives as protagonist ensuring and consolidating the imperial
power in India. Accordingly, the obedient colonized, Rikki, is introduced as
a hero at the very beginning: “This is the story of the great war that Rikki-
tikki-tavi fought single-handed, [and] did the real fighting” (Kipling, 1994,
p. 148) while the cobras represent “members of an old Indian or Mogul
ruling family, plotting to kill the English and take over the land again, as
the sepoys and their aristocratic leaders hoped to do in 1857” (Lewis, 2016,
pp. 134-135). Indeed, just like Mowgli and Shere Khan, both Rikki and the
couple is outsider and the “Other” for the colonizing family.
Washed out of the place he lived with his parents by a flood, Rikki finds
himself in the bungalow of a colonizer family, and he is adopted by the
family which he feels responsible for protecting against any threats in return.
Teddy’s mother others him as “a wild creature” (Kipling, 1994, p. 96), but
thinks that he becomes “so tame because we [they]’ve been kind to him”
(Kipling, 1994, p. 96). Thus, he represents an obedient colonized man in
colonial India, as he is ‘civilized’ by the family and pays for it by protecting
the family members against the rebellious Indians, Nag and Nagaina. In
fact, for Teddy’s mother, no matter how obedient he is, Rikki is a threat for
her son at the beginning. She seems not to trust him. When she sees Rikki
awake on Teddy’s pillow, she says: “‘I don’t like that…He may bite the
child’” (Kipling, 1994, p. 97). Through Teddy’s mother, Kipling reflects the
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prejudiced colonizer mother’s concern about her son’s security threatened

by the colonized in ‘threatful colonial land’ India after the Sepoy in 1857
because “[t]he site of greatest vulnerability was, of course, the memsahib’s
child” following the mutiny (Ghose, 2007, p. 115). Accordingly, Kipling
follows a similar technique by throwing the colonizer family and the obedient

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colonizing native into trouble caused by the disobedient natives representing

the sepoys in the Indian Mutiny. However, by protecting the family from the
threats with his manly heroic fight against Nag and Nagaina, Rikki proves his
loyalty and gains the British family’s sympathy, thus secures his position at
home as a faithful servant to his master household: “Rikki-tikki had a right to
be proud of himself. But he did not grow too proud, and he kept that garden
as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till
never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls” (Kipling, 1994, p. 109).
Rikki may be also claimed to be on the way of being a mimic man just like
the Monkey-Folk in “The Mowgli’s Stories” as he also aspires to have the
same living conditions as the colonizers because “every well-brought-up
mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose some day and have rooms to
run about in…” (Kipling, 1994, pp. 110-111). In fact, he wears a mask so that
he can be adopted by the colonizing family and can live with them. Rikki’s
mother who “used to live in the general’s house at Segowlee had carefully
told Rikki what to do if ever he came across white men” (Kipling, 1994,
pp. 100-101). She appears to be a faithful colonial servant in a colonizer’s
house and advising Rikki about the ways of getting this chance for himself,
as well. It is a chance for Teddy now, so he plays sympathetic tricks to be
adopted by the family. His voluntary obedience sounds well, but it is also
threatful for colonizer as it serves his benefits, so it indicates his insincerity.
Although he remains ‘other’ for the British colonizers, he seems to have an
authority over the family by supplying them security in threatful India, thus
his new status in the British family evokes the question: ‘Who is the master;
the othered and once-unreliable Rikki or the colonizer father of the family
who cannot secure his son?’ Therefore, the “camouflage” in Bhabha’s term
(2004, p. 88) and the “white mask” in Fanon’s words (2008), Rikki wears
indicates that Kipling’s colonialist language is, in Bhabha’s term, “forked”
that expresses the colonizer’s both dominance and anxiety about the mimic
man (2004, p. 85). Just like Mowgli, Rikki also hides a violent potentiality
behind his “position as child and vulnerable orphan” which renders him “the
master, and the powerful precursor to the future” (Sattaur, 2011, p. 86).
In contrast to Rikki who chooses obedience to the colonizing family to
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live in comfort, the rebellious native cobra couple plans to assassinate the
family to take over the house. Nag says: “So long as the bungalow is empty,
we are king and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs
in the melon bed hatch (as they may tomorrow), our children will need room
and quiet” (Kipling, 1994, pp. 160-161). The portrayal of Nag’s appearance

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indicates the coming danger for the family members: “A hot wind knocked
him senseless and red fire singed his fur” (Kipling, 1994, p. 103). The
terror and violence of the cobra couple are suppressed by Rikki’s masculine
heroism. Considering all female figures in both stories, Nagaina seems to
be the cruelest one. She attempts to take her husband and eggs’ revenge and
never gives up until the end. Raksha and Messua are concerned with Mowgli
throughout “The Mowgli Stories”, thus serve the Empire indirectly, as the
“co-mothers of the race” in comparison to the British colonising women who
regard themselves as “mothers of the race”, like Teddy’s mother, confined
to domesticity taking care of her son, the future colonizer of the Empire.
However, as a disobedient woman native, the single woman who is involved
in violence, counteracting masculine power is Nagaina in “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”,
so she is represented as the most threatful and cursed one even though she
is also a mother with domestic concerns about the future of her baby cobras.
In comparison to the disobedient natives, the obedient colonized natives
helping Rikki are praised in the story. More concretely, Darzee’s wife is
said to be “a sensible bird” (Kipling, 1994, p. 105). Furthermore, Darzee is
resembled to “a man” (Kipling, 1994, p. 105). As he helps Rikki restore the
imperial order and hierarchy at bungalow house, Darzee is associated with
men. Nevertheless, he is degraded even when he is praised. Furthermore,
the narrator contradicts himself through his colonialist discourse. Darzee
is told to be “primitive” and “simple-minded” as a stereotypical colonized.
On the other hand, he also resembles him to men who represent ‘superior’
British colonizers in every field. Thus, this point confirms Bhabha’s argument
about the contradictory nature of stereotypical signification (1994, p. 82).
Accordingly, no matter how obedient they are, just like Baloo, Bagheera,
Akela and the Wolf parents in “The Mowgli Stories”, they cannot represent
“true” British colonizers. In Lewis (2016)’s view, the servants in the house
are animalized as “[t]here would have been a dhobi to do the washing,
and a human Darzee” to tidy up the clothes because every modest British
household of the Raj would have had at least an ayah or a cook, a gardener
and a sweeper (p. 135). Moreover, indeed, the Darzee couple is as revengeful
as the sepoys in the Mutiny, so the cobras because as their child is killed by
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Nag, the Darzee birds help Rikki to entrap Nagaina. The sense of revenge for
a mother seems heavier, because while Darzee does not think “at first that it
was fair to kill them [Nagaina’s eggs]” (Kipling, 1994, p. 105), but his wife
knows that “cobra’s eggs meant young cobras later on” (Kipling, 1994, p.
106) and does her best to help Rikki. Obviously, the colonized are portrayed

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as disloyal even to their own race as much as the colonizer. This makes the
colonized totally unreliable. As Fanon notes, from the colonizer’s perspective,
the colonized is an “animal,” “bad,” “mean,” “ugly” (2008, p. 86), thus, the
embodiment of all known negative attributes. Thus, colonial discourse helps
to represent Indian women as inferior to European women (Hall, 2004, p. 52).
Accordingly, Nagaina is the evil character for the obedient natives and the
British family. She spins “clear round, forgetting for the sake of the one egg”
(Kipling, 1994, p. 109). Although she is also a mother like two other female
characters in the story, the narrator does not allow the reader to sympathize
with her, as she is a rebellious and evil native, thus the story ends with her
death. Ironically, Rikki-Tikki and Mowgli respond to violence by violence
in order to secure a peaceful future for themselves and the Empire.

CONCLUSION

The comprehensive analyses of the stories under consideration indicate that

Kipling, as a Post-Mutiny imperialist, allegorizes the Indian Mutiny drawing
an opposition between obedient colonized natives and disobedient ones both
to warn children, colonizers of the future, against any potential rebellions
and, perhaps, to smoothen this probability by applauding faithfulness of
colonizing natives against disobedient ones through heroic portrayal of their
body and verbal languages. Thus, it may be claimed that his fears and anxiety
deriving from the Mutiny lies under his fabulous stories. As a way out, he
conveys masculinized imperialist ideology to child readers. He fictionalizes
his imperialist political view in the stories to compliment and perpetuate
the power of the British Empire attributing disparate imperial roles to men
and women. Like many nineteenth-century patriarchal imperialist authors,
Kipling values male colonizers above anybody else and affirms masculinized
imperialism through counteracting a rebellion through the power of body
and language. On the other hand, he assigns girl readers with domestic
roles for contribution to the Empire though they are othered by British men.
Considering that Kipling leaves women behind in the rank of superiority in
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imperial terms, and women, expressly native ones, are doomed to death if
they are disobedient, the chapter reveals Kipling’s misogynist approach in
the fiction for children. Briefly stated, the chapter concludes that the selected
stories are product and perpetuators of the Victorian gendered imperial politics
in the context of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

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Tosh, J. (2016). Manliness and masculinities in nineteenth-century Britain:

Essays on gender, family and empire. Routledge.
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Zornado, J. Z. (2002). Inventing the child. New York: Taylor & Francis
E-library.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Children’s Literature: A genre covering various works, written exclusively

for children.
Colonial Discourse: A system of constructed knowledge and beliefs about
all items related to colonialism.
Colonialist Author: An author who justifies and perpetuates colonialism
in his/her texts.
Gendered Imperialism: The belief that men and women have separate
roles in the imperial mission.
Imperialist Ideology: A collection of ideas supporting imperial activities.
“The Mowgli Stories”: A collection of three related stories entitled
“Mowgli’s Brothers,” “Kaa’s Hunting,” “Tiger! Tiger!” in Kipling’s The
Jungle Book.
Nineteenth-Century British Imperial Politics: The process of exercising
British imperialism in the nineteenth century.
“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”: One of the short stories in Kipling’s The Jungle Book.
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79
 80

Chapter 4
Reflection of Ideology and
Politics in Travel Writing:
America and Russia in Each
Other’s Mirror, 1930s-1940s

Xenia Liashuk
Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia

ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the ways in which politics and ideology are incorporated
into travel writing. The analysis of two travel books involving the U.S.
American and the Soviet Russian cultures, namely Little Golden America
(One-Storied America, 1937) by Soviet humorists Ilf and Petrov, and A Russian
Journal (1948) by American novelist John Steinbeck, reveals the two factors
of importance infuencing the depiction of politics and ideology in travel
writing, namely the authors’ identity including their personal ideologies and
the polarity of bilateral political and ideological relations between the nations
concerned. These two factors predetermine the specifc issues of political and
ideological nature described and explained in travel writing and the angle
and character of their interpretation and evaluation by the authors.

INTRODUCTION
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Travelling has always been one of the most alluring and illuminating way
of exploring the unknown cultures, communities and spaces. Throughout
centuries and up to the present times, the creation of travel writings has been
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch004

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

a highly inclusive activity since the only tangible prerequisite to be met here
has been the possibility to go on travel coupled with willingness to document
one’s experience. Thus, travel writing constitutes a cultural artefact which
reproduces the intercultural encounter conducted by a traveler, who attempts to
discover and comprehend a new cultural reality by applying cultural patterns
from his or her home environment. The present study focuses on two travel
books embracing two cultures that constitute the two opposing poles of the
world, both literally as far as their geographic location is concerned, and
metaphorically in terms of the prevailing ideology of the historical period in
question. The first travelogue, One-Storied America by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny
Petrov, provides an account of a more than four month long trip across
the USA and back to New York, which the two famous Soviet humorists
undertook from October 1935 till January 1936. The original Russian version
was first published in the USSR in 1937, while the authorized translation
into English by Charles Malamuth was published in the USA under the title
Little Golden America in the same year. The second travelogue, A Russian
Journal (1948) by John Steinbeck, covers the forty days between July 31 and
mid-September 1947 that the well-known American novelist spent on a trip
to the Soviet Union, including the Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia,
being accompanied by Robert Capa, a famed war photo journalist. The chief
objective of the present chapter is to explore the forms and ways in which
ideology and politics are reflected in the selected travel writings, both as an
object of description, explanation or interpretation and a factor that might
influence the authors’ choice of cultural elements to be described, explained
and interpreted for the domestic readership.

BACKGROUND

There are two main perspectives from which the term “travel writing” can
be defined. The broad definition of the term is centered on the subject
matter as the decisive factor for identifying a text as a travel writing. In this
perspective, any text that describes the specifics of a given country by focusing
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on various elements and aspects of its existential space can be considered as

travel writing as long as it is related to travelling activity. Travel writing in
the broad meaning will include not only those texts that were produced as
a result of a specific travel experience, like travel journals and diaries, but

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

also those that are meant to be instrumental to a prospective traveler, like

guidebooks or articles of geographical, ethnographic, anthropological or any
other orientation that contain no explicit signs of being accounts of a specific
journey. The narrow definitions of travel writing are based on the assumption
that certain form-focused criteria have to be identified alongside the subject
matter in order to generate a functional, yet a more descriptive definition of
travel writing. In this regard, Carl Thompson introduces the term “modern
or literary travel book” (2011, p. 17) as an alternative coinage for the literary
form of “travel book”, proposed by Paul Fussell to refer to travel writing in the
narrow sense. According to Fussell, the specifics of travel books lies in their
form of “extended prose narrative”, optionally supplemented by “illustrative
material”, which is constructed from a marked autobiographical first-person
perspective, includes the author’s response to the subject matter and aims
at creating an aesthetic impression apart from providing practical verifiable
information about reality (1987 as cited in Thompson, 2011, pp. 13-15). Jan
Borm draws attention to the prevalence of the theoretical distinction made
“between the genre ‘travel book’ or ‘travelogue’ (mainly known as ‘travel
genre’) as a predominantly non-fictional genre and ‘travel writing’, ‘travel
literature’ or ‘literature of travel’ as overall headings for fictional texts whose
main theme is travel” (2004, p. 10). For the purposes of the present chapter,
travel writing will be understood in the narrow meaning as a genre in which
the non-fictional reproduction of the explored cultural space is modelled
in such a way as not only to inform the readers but also to bring aesthetic
pleasure. The designation travel book will be used to refer to a specific text of
the genre of travel writing as a hypernym to the narrower generic categories,
such as travel journal, travel report, or travel essay.
Travel writing created by established prose writers is of particular interest
as their preferred creative approach and their use of figurative means and
other stylistic devices constitutes an additional layer of the construction of
meaning that supplements, expands or modifies the non-fictional content of
the work. It can be assumed that literary figures as travel writers are more
likely to use the travel writing opportunity to make a certain case about the
cultural reality, which will be compatible with the overall orientation of
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their creative activity and will be constructed both explicitly, through factual
descriptions, and implicitly, through the choice of issues to be described in
the first place and through the manner of their depiction.
The focal point of travel writing is a certain cultural environment, which is
most frequently compatible with the corresponding nation state. However, the
quality of foreignness in travel writing acquires a more inclusive connotation

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

of being unfamiliar enough for the author to motivate his or her exploratory
interest. To emphasize the inclusive nature of this quality, which reaches beyond
the mere geographical distinction between nations, Thompson employs the
term “alterity” (2011, p. 9). Travel books might vary in terms of alterity, and
can be tentatively classified as either intercultural travel writings, focusing
on the cultural reality which has no immediate relation to the author’s home
environment, or intracultural travel writings, which focus on the reality of a
cultural group within the broader cultural environment to which the author
also belongs. Regardless of the degree of alterity, travel writing constitutes
the record of communication “between self and other”, the essence of which
lies in the negotiation of similarities and differences (p. 10). In the case of
intercultural travel writing, the differences might naturally prevail, which,
however, does not rule out the author’s conscious or subconscious inclination
to detect intercultural parallels and analogies for the purpose of an easier
accommodation of the unknown into the framework of the known.
Travel writing can thus be taken for the record of the instance of intercultural
communication between the exploring culture, vested in the traveler/author,
and the culture being explored by them. The authors as a travelers assume the
role of cultural ambassadors: their goal is to explore the foreign environment
and to mediate the results of this exploration to readers in the form which will
be understandable to them. On the other hand, they are also the representatives
of their culture in the foreign environment, from whom the members of the
explored culture in turn learn something about the exploring culture. In
this regard, travel writing appears to pursue a threefold objective, which is
to describe a phenomenon of foreign reality to the audience, to explain the
peculiarities of its functioning and to interpret it in evaluative terms. While
the objectives of describing and explaining are more immediately connected
to the “non-fiction dominant” (Borm, 2004, p. 17) of travel writing and can
thus be considered an inherent element of the genre, the introduction of an
interpreting and evaluative component is primarily conditioned by the authors’
intended mission and their decision not only to inform their audience but
also to urge them to form an opinion about the explored culture. It should
be pointed out that travel writing inherently disposes of a strong potential to
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influence the audience due to the authority assumed by the author, “which
comes only and crucially from experience” (Campbell, 1988, p. 3) and is
salient enough to instil in the reader the conviction of objectivity of what in
fact is “the case of unverifiable records of private experience taking place
in profoundly unfamiliar surroundings” (p. 2). The positioning of travel
writing as the account of the authors’ personal experience presupposes their

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

right to the evaluative treatment of the subject matter as such. However,

their perceived authority might also latently prompt the readers to embrace
the same evaluative perspective, especially if the travel writer is the person
whose opinions are important to the public, as is the case with established
prose writers.
Although the primary focus of travel writing is laid on the explored culture,
the texts of this genre also provide space for the manifestation of the selected
aspects of the exploring culture in both the overt and the covert form. According
to Thompson, travel writing can be “revelatory to a greater or lesser degree
of the traveler who produced that report [on the wider world], and of his
or her values, preoccupations and assumptions”, and “by extension, it also
reveals something of the culture from which that writer emerged, and/or the
culture for which the text is intended” (2011, p. 10). At the overt level, the
exploring culture frequently serves as a source of analogies drawn to facilitate
the depiction and/or explanation of unknown phenomena. It can also become
the object of description, which is the case in the scenes reproducing authors’
communication with the natives, explicitly aimed at familiarizing them with
the specifics of the exploring culture. At the covert level, the cultural patterns
in the form of values, belief and norms of the exploring culture constitute an
important factor which underlies the authors’ interpretation and evaluation
of the phenomena observed.
The inherent oscillation of travel writing towards the generic conventions
of factual literature, in the form but most notably in the contents, creates
preconditions for a more immediate and, arguably, more conspicuous influence
of extra-textual factors on the process of text creation. The weakened position
of the fictional component, where the imaginative creativity is mostly limited
to the task of retouching or intensifying the depiction of characters and scenes
but cedes to be the driving force of the storyline, facilitates the reflections
of author’s personal viewpoint in such a way that makes the vestiges of the
author’s socialization, contained in his first person perspective, more readily
observable. In other words, the pronounced authorial position, where the
narrator figure is unmistakably associated with the real personality of a given
writer, makes travel writing a rich and vivid source for investigation into
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the influence of external cultural factors on his or her creative viewpoint,

including the factors of political and ideological nature.
The non-evaluative definition of ideology is based on its presumed affiliation
to the way of thinking, which varies synchronically, from community to
community, but also diachronically, from one historical period to the other.
Thus, ideologies are defined as “patterns of symbolically-charged beliefs

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

and expressions that present, interpret and evaluate the world in a way
designed to shape, mobilize, direct, organize and justify certain modes or
courses of action and to anathematize others” (Kettler, 2000, p. 182). Karl
Mannheim’s distinction between the total and the particular ideology appears
to be instrumental to building the analytical framework for the analysis of the
manifestations of ideology in travel writing. According to the dual conception
of ideology, the total ideology as “the characteristics and composition of the
total structure of the mind of [an] epoch or [a] group (Mannheim, 1954, pp.
49-50) is not “a mere sum of . . . fragmentary individual experiences” (p. 52).
Thus, a travel writer as a “bearer” of the ideology of his or her community
“participates only in certain fragments of [its respective] thought-system”,
which they might reveal during the processing of foreign reality in travel
writing.
Andrew Heywood identifies three conceptions of politics, the first related
to the activities within the formal institutions of government, the second—
to public life and public activities as opposed to the private interests, and
the third—to the distribution of power, wealth and resources, regardless of
the nature of institution or the level of social life (2004, p. 52). Politics as
a tangible realization of regulatory power over the given nation by specific
bodies and agents constitutes a separate aspect of a given cultural environment
and can become a potential object of description and explanation in travel
writing. A partial question of interest in this respect is the reflection of the
specifics of the international relations between the two cultures that meet in
travel writing and the extent to which these influence the process of cultural
exploration conducted by the author.
It might be assumed that the travel writer’s attempt to interpret and evaluate
(apart from describing and explaining) a given element of the political realm
of the explored culture will open the gate to the manifestation of political
ideology characteristic of the exploring culture. Political ideology can be
defined as a pre-constructed “set of core beliefs” which is purposefully evoked
by the “ruling bodies and their agents” to exert “measurable power over their
subjects” and prompts them to adopt an intended “practical decision” on a
matter of wider public concern (Decker, 2004, p. 74), by extension including
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the very issue of how the power relations between the subjects and the political
authorities should be organized.
In relation to the ideological aspect of travel writing, Bernard Schweizer
outlines the three criteria which determine the character of ideological
functions performed by a political travel book, which include “the traveler’s
personal ideology”, “the historical imperatives of the time”, and “the political

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

contingencies at the traveler’s destination” (1997, p. 2). This analytical scale

can be slightly modified to be applicable to the works of travel writers who
explicitly distance themselves from the political and ideological agenda, as
is the case with Steinbeck’s journal, but are nevertheless influenced by it.
Thus, our analytical scale for the examination of the influence of politics and
ideology on travel writing consists of the two main parameters, which include
1) the authors’ identity in relation to their cultural background, including
their personal ideologies, and 2) the political and ideological framework of
relations between the two nations that enter into the intercultural dialogue
in the given travel book, most importantly in terms of the polarity of these
relations. These two factors can be assumed to work as gatekeepers that
determine the form and the way in which the political and ideological aspect
of the explored cultural reality will be reflected in travel writing.

ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS AND

IDEOLOGY ON THE SELECTED TRAVEL WRITINGS

The Factor of Author’s Identity

IIf and Petrov’s Loyalty to Socialist Ideals

The literary tandem Ilf and Petrov was the result of creative collaboration
between the two professional journalists, Ilya Ilf (real name: Ilya Arnoldovich
Faynzilberg) and Yevgeny Petrov (real name: Yevgeny Petrovich Katayev),
who went on to become widely acclaimed writers after the publication of
their most celebrated novels, The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden
Calf (1931) (“Ilf and Petrov,” n.d.). Their creative style is characterized by
an astute satirical angle, which together with their journalistic background
molded the perspective they adopted in their exploration of the U.S. reality:
being inherently interested in the workings of the society, they actively search
for the underlying reasons and explanations, are particularly drawn to the
instances where the human vices and imperfections can be exposed, and feel
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naturally impelled to take a stance towards the phenomena of wider public

concern. Ilf and Petrov’s approach to the evaluation of the American cultural
reality is influenced by their identity as Soviet intellectuals and avowed
socialists, which they actively assert throughout the travelogue.

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

It should be highlighted that Ilf and Petrov’s devotion to socialism and

communism as its highest stage is essentially the devotion to the socialist
ideals of justice, solidarity and cooperation, which they apply on the American
reality and consequently reveal their condemnatory attitude towards those
issues where they trace the betrayal or inadequate implementation of these
ideals. For example, despite an overall favorable depiction of Ford’s automobile
factory at Dearborn, conveying the authors’ amazement at its efficiency and
the quality of its products, Ilf and Petrov also highlight the grim emotional
tall this occupation takes on conveyor workers, who appear “gloomy”,
“worried” and “depressed in spirit”, which the narrators trace to the lacking
“sense of self-esteem which is found among trained American workers with
a trade” (Ilf and Petrov, 1937, p. 63). The narrators’ evaluative stance can
be inferred from the text: “a good wage” cannot compensate for the missing
chance of professional and personal growth, which constitutes an unalienable
right in the ideological framework of socialism: “Working for Ford gives a
man a livelihood, but does not raise his qualifications and does not assure
his future” (p. 63). A shade of reproach for the lack of worker’s solidarity
as another fundamental value of socialism can be sensed from the segment
where the narrators state that “American try not to work for Ford; . . . the men
who work for Ford are Mexicans, Poles, Czechs, Italians, Negroes” (p. 63).
The pronounced evaluative treatment of the U.S. American reality, which
creates the impression that the narrative is imbued with “a didactic moralizing
tone” (Wilson, 1973, p. xi as cited in Ryan, 2002, p. 266), might arise from
the authors’ conviction of certain moral superiority of the Soviet Russian
culture on the basis of the tangible social achievements, which are alluded
to in the travel book. For example, the abolishment of unemployment, which
was claimed to have taken place in the fourth quarter of 1930, amidst rampant
unemployment during the Great Depression of 1929-32 (Hutchings, 1967, p.
29), can be assumed to underlie the scene where the narrators meet a young
Baptist, who is struggling to find work and is depicted as being conscious of
the futility of his aspiration. At the end of the scene, the narrators assure him
that if he came to Russia, he could have work, “just as all the other people
in Russia” (Ilf and Petrov, 1937, p. 134).
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In one of the concluding chapters of the travel book, Ilf and Petrov create
a straightforward superiority-inferiority opposition, backed by ideology
alone, between “the attributes of our economists, their loyalty to ideas, their
devotion, their efficiency”, being “the attributes of the Communist party, which
brought them up”, and “the deficiencies of American business people, their
lack of loyalty to ideas, their lack of principle, their chase after the dollar”,

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interpreted as “the defects of the capitalism which brought them up” (p. 233).
The criticism of the American reality in Ilf and Petrov’s travel book is not
universal or predetermined; it is chiefly the criticism of capitalism, embodied
in the metaphor of “an incurable disease” (p. 232), which does not prevent the
authors from the explicit celebration of “many splendid and appealing traits”
in the character of the Americans (p. 98), of the “remarkable achievements of
American technique” (p. 115) and the overall richness and greatness of the
nation. In a way, their analysis of the American reality might be considered
as an attempt to expose the possible reasons that led to the predicament of
the American nation, quoted by Upton Sinclair, the prominent left-wing
American novelist, in the following way: “The richest country in the world,
‘God’s country,’ as Americans call it, a great country, is capable of assuring
its people neither jobs, nor bread, nor lodging” (p. 186). Despite the clearly
outlined ideological opposition and the predominantly satirical treatment of
the subject matter in Ilf and Petrov’s travel book, the failures of capitalism are
exposed with the purpose of evoking compassion rather than malicious joy.

Steinbeck’s Apolitical Stance as a Compromise

Between Socialism and Americanism

John Steinbeck’s interest towards the struggles of the everyday life of

underprivileged social groups in the USA, most notably migrant laborers,
depicted in his novels of social awareness, such as In Dubious Battle (1936)
or The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and backed by his personal experience of
working as a manual laborer (“John Steinbeck”, 2018), predetermined a similar
angle for observing the Soviet reality. At the very beginning of the narrative,
he explicitly claims that his main concern is “a private life of the Russian
people” (Steinbeck, 2000, p. 4). Steinbeck’s interest in the human capacity to
withstand misery is reflected in the close attention he pays to the aftermath
of World War II in terms of its direct impact on the life of common people.
Apart from farmworkers, whose daily life Steinbeck observes during the visits
to collective farms, the archetype of the unfortunate and the struggling in his
travel journal appears to be broadened to include the entire population of the
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Soviet Union, which he consequently treats with respect and pity. This, in
essence, leaves him no room for outward criticism, and it appears to be only
logical that Steinbeck renounces a right to evaluate or judge, and ultimately,
draws one and only, universally human, conclusion “that the Russian people
are people, and, as with other people, that they are very nice” (p. 212).

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

In relation to Steinbeck’s personal ideology, Susan Shilliglaw emphasizes

the author’s denial of allegiance to the communist agenda and even his alleged
“despise” of it, manifested through the incorporation of the anti-communist
themes into his works, including the criticism of self-serving communist
organizers in the novel In Dubious Battle (2000, pp. xxi-ii). However, Alan
Wald suggests that despite a conscious decision to distance oneself from
the agenda of the Communist movement, a writer can be influenced by pro-
communist ideals due to a certain “mental structure” inherent in his or her
personality, which includes high praise and encouragement of “selfless and
good behavior” and “a feeling of deep horizontal comradeship” (2017, pp.
573-573). Steinbeck’s perspective on the Soviet reality, as constructed in
his travel journal, points to his “imagined solidarity” (p. 573), most notably
“on behalf of the victims of fascism” and by extension, with an “idealized
Soviet Union” (p. 574).
Steinbeck’s resolute avowal to aim at the preservation of the apolitical
nature of his travel journal can be interpreted in light of the “widespread
disillusionment with politics”, identified by Schweizer as a dominant trend
of post-WW II English travel books (1997, p. 196), which can arguably be
applied on the whole Western travel writing of the given period. Writers of
post-WW II travel books are believed to be “more culturally and philosophically
self-reflexive, more interested in human relations” (p. 197). In A Russian
Journal, this tendency is reflected in Steinbeck’s inclination to seek cultural
explanations based on the specifics of the national or individual character
instead of trying to dig deeper into the ideological framework with a purpose
of unmasking it. For example, describing the customs procedure he mentions
the “extremely thorough” approach of the customs officer, which he interprets
as being motivated by his “interest in foreign things” (Steinbeck, 2000, p. 12).
Steinbeck also applies culture-specific rationale in his interpretation of certain
controversial issues that were perceived as topical in 1940s. Expressing his
overall condemnatory attitude towards the decision of the Soviet authorities
to prevent Russian wives of Americans and Britons from leaving the Soviet
Union despite an official request by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee,
he calls attention to the universal human tendency to resist the pressure of
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others trying to govern our actions, and speculates: “Perhaps it is just that the
Russians do not intend to be told what to do about anything by anyone else”
(p. 36). At the same time, he remains true to his apolitical commitment and
does not hide his disdain, referring to the whole matter as “one more of the
international stupidities which seems to be on the increase in the world”, and

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mocks “the leaders of nations” by comparing them to “little boys with chips
on their shoulders, daring each other to knock them off” (p. 36).
The social-minded dimension of Steinbeck’s personality seems to be
juxtaposed with his avowed affiliation to the American nation and the values
vested in it. In this regard, Tsuyoshi Ishihara points out to the “two dimensions
of public mind in America”, embodied in Steinbeck, the first being “the people’s
critical mind against injustice in American society” and the second being the
“naïve and optimistic belief in ‘America and Americans’” (2004, p. 24-25).
The first dimension can be interpreted as being inherently affiliated with the
perspective of “imagined solidarity”, which predetermined Steinbeck’s people-
centered approach and his decision to screen out all interfering factors that
might distort with negative connotations the image of the Russians as “any
other people”. As far as the American dimension of Steinbeck’s personality
is concerned, it constitutes the benchmark for evaluation once he decides to
transcend the boundaries of the mere documentation of what he observes;
at the same time, it seems that it also represents an object of additional
negotiation and assertion as a constituent part of the intercultural encounter.
In this light, Steinbeck’s travel journal seems to fulfil a partial function
pertaining to the genre of travel writing, namely the function of being “part
of an autobiographical project, part of a larger attempt to explain oneself
to the world or at least to the reading public” (Hamera & Bendixen, 2009,
p. 2-3). It is noted that American writers tend to approach their traveler’s
persona “synecdochally” and to embrace more readily their mission of an
individual “stand[ing] in for Americanness” on the basis of the “presumed
and constructed” image of “the United States as an imagined community”
(p. 5-6).
It is noteworthy that Steinbeck’s assertion of his American identity, ranging
as far as direct introspection targeted at the values and belief underlying
the American form of government, do not constitute a purpose of its own
but is rather called in to help him navigate the instances of overt or covert
confrontation between the Soviet and the American cultural patterns, or
ideologies. This seems to be in line with Clifford Geertz’s concept of ideology
as “a response to strain”, which he traces through the three general components
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(personal, social, and cultural) of a person’s identity. Geertz emphasizes the

intrinsic power of ideology to take over the perception once individuals find
themselves in the situation of “the loss of orientation”, characterized by “an
inability, for lack of usable models, to comprehend the universe of civic rights
and responsibilities in which one finds oneself located” (1973, p. 219). It
can be consequently assumed that travel writers are highly likely to resort to

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

the ideological patterns of their home culture when confronted with stimuli
of opposing nature, which either directly challenge their cultural patterns
or implicitly prompt them to question the validity of their core underlying
values and beliefs, and ultimately cause the instantaneous loss of orientation.
Thus, being confronted with the system of government based on the people
being “taught, and trained, and encouraged to believe that their government
is good, that every part of it is good, and that their job is to carry it forward,
to back it up in all ways” (Steinbeck, 2000, p. 26), Steinbeck feels impelled
to contrast it with the American government, “designed to keep anyone from
getting too much power or, having got it, from keeping it” (p. 55) under the
influence of the “fear of power invested in one man” (p. 26). Having outlined
the juxtaposition of the two ideologies, the author consequently endorses the
system pertaining to his cultural environment: “We agreed that this makes
our country function more slowly, but that it certainly makes it function more
surely” (p. 55). Numerous scenes of this character shed light on Steinbeck’s
definitive position, resulting from the negotiation of the pro-social and pro-
American dimensions of his identity: he sympathizes with Russians on the
universal human grounds, but maintains cultural distance on the basis of the
contrasting values.

The Factor of the Political and Ideological

Framework of Bilateral Relations

Even though the two travel books are set apart by hardly more than ten years
as far as the date of their publication, Little Golden America in 1937 and
A Russian Diary in 1948, the overall historical background of the relations
between the Soviet Union and the USA withstood several important changes
that left their traces on the respective travel writings both on the level of
subject matter and of its evaluative treatment.

Little Golden America: Cooperation

Despite Ideological Opposition
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Ilf and Petrov’s travel book documents the first trip of the Soviet intellectuals
to the USA after the re-establishment of formal diplomatic ties between the
two nations, which happened on November 17, 1933 (Garrett, 2007). The
reasons that motivated President Franklin D. Roosevelt to initiate this step
allow qualifying the general framework of Soviet-American relations as

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amiable and positive in polarity. At the economic level, there was the growing
pressure from the U.S. business circles which saw trading with the Soviet
Union as an opportunity to overcome the aftermath of the economic crisis
of 1929-1933 and to mitigate the negative impact of the customs and fiscal
restrictions imposed by Roosevelt’s predecessor, President Hoover. USA also
required the Soviet presence on the international political level as a geopolitical
constrain to the Japanese expansion in the Far East, which started with the
occupation of a large part of China in 1932 and undermined the U.S. position
there by striking a blow against the Open Door Policy. On the contrary, the
bilateral U.S.-Soviet relation of the period were not marked by any outward
political confrontation. A further backing-up factor of importance was the
growth of pro-Soviet sentiments in the cultural and social circles, related
to the activities of the Friends of the Soviet Union and later the National
Council of American-Soviet Friendship, whose co-founder and chairman
was philosopher and publicist Corliss Lamont (Sevostyanov, 1985).
This demonstrable inclination of a share of the U.S. American population
towards the acceptance of the Soviet regime and most notably of the socialist
ideals is reflected on the multiple layers of Ilf and Petrov’s travel book. The
authors seem to differentiate Americans according to the ideological factor,
which is manifested in the explicit contraposition of “advanced American
workers [and] the radical intelligentsia” on the one hand and “the so-called
average American, the principal buyer and the principal voter” on the other
hand (Ilf & Petrov, 1937, p. 119), with the latter being the object of direct
evaluation and more or less intense criticism. Further on, the narrative includes
elements that are meant to reinforce the impression of a greater openness of
the American society towards the Soviet nation and its values. The elements
in question are the scenes depicting the authors’ meeting with the Americans
who either directly express or imply with a moderate degree of obviousness
their favorable attitude towards the Soviet reality, occasionally accompanied
by their criticism of a counterpart phenomenon in their domestic environment.
The positive endorsement of the Soviet reality ranges from casual mentioning,
for example that Hemingway and Dos Passos “wanted to go to the Soviet
Union, to Altai” (p. 28), to outward declarations, like that of the muckraker
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Lincoln Steffens, who wants “to go to Moscow, so as to see before his death
the land of socialism and to die there” because he feels having been “bribed
by the bourgeois society” since “the fame and respect” he was rewarded with
“were only a bribe for the support [he] gave to this iniquitous organization
of life” (p. 164).

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

A particular category of figures portrayed as well-disposed towards the

Soviet reality consists of those Americans who had had direct experience of
living and working in the Soviet Union. Their appearance in the travel book
generically resembles the journalistic form of an interview-based feature
article which contains explicit references to the history of the U.S. technical
and economic assistance to the Soviet Union, highlighted by personal
testimonies conveying a favorable attitude towards cooperation with the
Soviets. For example, Mr. Sorensen, manager of Ford plants, is eager to show
to Ilf and Petrov “a photograph showing him together with the manager of
the Gorky factory, Dyakonov, and with Grozny” (p. 66), representative of the
Soviet machine-building industry in the USA. The scene refers to the Ford
production plant that was erected at Nizhni Novgorod (later renamed Gorky)
in 1929-1930 under the supervision of the Austin Company, a Cleveland
engineering and consulting firm (Hughes, 1988). In this respect, Thomas
Hughes highlights that the process of construction and putting the plant into
operation was “smoothed” by an “exchange of several hundred Soviet and
Ford foremen and engineers” (1988). Another person with immediate technical
cooperation experience is Mr. Thompson, the chief installation engineer of
General Electric, who participated in the construction of Dnieprostroi, the
largest hydroelectric plant on the Dnieper River in contemporary Ukraine,
which lasted from 1927 to 1932. The text relays Thompson’s memories of
the moment when the plant was put into operation, which are marked by
a solemn and sentimental tone: “. . . I transmitted the switch to Winter, so
that he would turn on the electricity with his own hands. I said to him: ‘Mr.
Winter, the soup is ready.’ There were tears in Winter’s eyes. We kissed each
other, Russian fashion” (Ilf & Petrov, 1937, p. 137).
In this regard, it should be noted that the idea of beneficial and fruitful
cooperation between the USA and the Soviet Union in the economic and
technical sphere was hallmarked as a crucial factor for the construction
of socialism back in 1920s when the Soviets realized that “modern
industrialization involved more than machines, processes, and devices; it
involved order, centralization, control, and systems”, which could be borrowed
from the U.S. economy and would hopefully be even more effective not being
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“burdened by the political and economic ‘contradictions’ of capitalism”

(Hughes, 1988). The same ideas seem to resonate in Ilf and Petrov’s approach
to the exploration of the American reality, which prompted Karen Ryan to
assert that “Ilf’s and Petrov’s positive assessments of American society are
invariably about services, behaviours or habits that might be useful in the
building of socialism”, while “a fundamental question they posed, it would

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

seem, before assigning positive or negative value to a phenomenon was

whether socialism could profitably learn from it or adapt it” (2002, p. 266-
267). In fact, Ilf and Petrov openly acknowledge this educational agenda and
even endorse its importance in the concluding chapters of their travel book
when they declare: “It is important for us right now to study their attributes
and our defects, because it is necessary for us to learn from them. Not only
engineers but also economists, our business people, must learn from them”
(Ilf &Petrov, 1937, p. 233).

A Russian Journal: The Background

of Latent and Overt Hostility

Steinbeck’s travel journal appeared in the period when the Soviet-American

relations had swerved from cooperation into the rising geopolitical confrontation
on top of the existing ideological polarity. In fact, Steinbeck’s trip took place
slightly more than two years after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
proclaimed the metaphorical construction of the “Iron Curtain” during his
visit to Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946 (Garrett, 2007), which essentially
meant the polarization of the world according to the ideological factor and
created the framework of attitudinal hostility between the respective poles,
the USA and the Soviet Union. References to specific instances of adversative
geopolitical moves of both nations on a larger international scale also found
their way into A Russian Journal. The reason for that seems to be Steinbeck’s
commitment to focus on the information that “was non-political, except
insofar as the politics were local, and insofar as they directly affected the daily
lives of people” (Steinbeck, 2000, p. 1). He soon realized that not only the
local, but also the international politics affected the daily lives of people as
it occupied their mind and instilled in them the fear of yet another war. In the
scene in a Ukrainian farmer’s house, Steinbeck exposes the inadequacy of the
one-sided approach to foreign policy under which “their” steps are invariably
hailed as malicious while “our” steps of a similar kind are either ignored or
downplayed. When he is confronted with the question, “Can you explain to
us why the American government has its friends reactionary governments,
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the governments of Franco and Trujillo, the military dictatorship of Turkey,

and the corrupt monarchy of Greece?”, he reacted with questions pointing
at an equally purposeful expansion of the Soviet Union—“the questions
about the domination of the Balkans by Communist parties; the questions
about, and the denunciations of, the use of the veto by the Russians in the

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

United Nations; the questions about the denunciation of America by the

Russian press” (p. 83-84). The point behind this short dialogue seems to
boil down to a trivial universal truth: judge others the way you would judge
yourself and do not do unto others what you don’t want done unto you; and
the violation of this very truth at the level of international relations, not by
the common people but the by the policy-makers of their respective states, is
what Steinbeck seems to lament most as far as his evaluation of the Soviet-
American relations is concerned.
From the authorial position throughout the travel journal it can be inferred
that it is the Iron Curtain and the Cold War that Steinbeck is in fact critical
of. War as such, represented by World War II, constitutes one of the dominant
motifs of the novel, and its treatment demonstrates an unambiguous and
pronounced anti-war stance, which the author advocates vehemently whenever
he has a chance to do so. The travel books echoes Steinbeck’s and Capa’s
personal experience from WW II and outlines the two important goals that
the books tries to attain: not to allow the heroic contribution of the Soviet
Union in the ultimate defeat of the Nazis to be diminished and not to allow
another world war to take place. These two goals might have influenced
Steinbeck’s writing: in his travel book, certain aspects of the Soviet reality
are depicted as negative only to the extent that does not interfere with his
cause for cooperation, which would have been undermined if the American
readership had perceived his image of Russians as threatening.
It could be assumed that Steinbeck interpreted the Cold War not as a real
confrontation but as a quickest and surest pavement to world war, while the Iron
Curtain was for him nothing more than a harmful impediment to the mindful
and mutually respectful dialogue between the nations, the dialogue which is
vital for the prevention of any conflict. Even though Steinbeck’s perspective
vested in the travel book is often labelled as idealist or even utopian, he views
in fact contain humanist wisdom about a personal motivation behind political
actions, which is often mistaken for the natural order of events:

We suggested that curtains were a prelude to war, and that if war should
come it could be for only one of two reasons—either through stupidity, or
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through intent, and if it was through intent on the part of any leaders, then
those leaders should be removed, and if it was through stupidity, then the
causes should be more closely inspected. And we proposed that since no one,
not even the most stupid and belligerent of men, could imagine that a modern
war could be won by anyone, then any leader on any side who seriously

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proposed war should be hunted down as an insane criminal and taken out
of circulation. (p. 181-182)

The merits of A Russian Journal are best understood if one looks at it

from the perspective of Steinbeck’s humanism, which transcends all borders
and ideologies. In his travel journal, Steinbeck traces down and exposes the
forces that, in his view, undermine mutual understanding between people from
rivaling nation states. It is noteworthy that his criticism of the USA in this
regard might seem more specific and detailed, but it is invariably balanced
out by the recognition of the existence of similar phenomena in the Soviet
reality. Steinbeck’s main targets of criticism appear to be the manipulative
power of the press and the liability of human consciousness to misinformation
and superstitions. Right in the first chapter, which works as an introduction
to the motives of Steinbeck and Capa’s trip to the Soviet Union, we can find
a warning about the limits of objectivity of press reports due to the human
factor: “What we often read as news now is not news at all but the opinion
of one of half a dozen pundits as to what that news means” (p. 3). In this
perspective, Steinbeck’s travel journal can be seen as an attempt to create
a human-centered counter-balance to news reports that highlight hostile
moves undertaken by the USSR, and to demonstrate that the actions of the
government might be different from what people want. In his travel book,
Steinbeck reacts to the gradual implantation of “the concept of threatening
action” into mass consciousness as a basis for modern ideologies, according
to which any activity of the other-minded is portrayed as hazardous to the
well-being of a given community (Decker, p. 73). In the first chapter of his
travel book, Steinbeck creates a vivid satirical picture of his fellow countrymen
warning him of all possible dangers they believe to be real in the Soviet Union
and ultimately compares the hysteria created by the rhetoric of threat to an
infectious disease: “We found that thousands of people were suffering from
acute Moscowitis—a state which permits the belief of any absurdity and the
shoving away of any facts. Eventually, of course, we found that the Russians
are suffering from Washingtonitis, the same disease” (Steinbeck, 2000, p. 7).
The validity of A Russian Journal has been repeatedly questioned by critics
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on the grounds of the staged character of the trip as such since Steinbeck
and Capa were “led to Soviet-approved locales and to people with unspoiled
records” (Hauzer, p. 54), which resulted in them being “lost in the complexities
of the Communist regime” (p. 55). However, numerous clues in the travel book
indicate that Steinbeck was not interested in the regime in the first place. He
quite clearly demonstrates his scorn for the political sphere by openly stating

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

that “Russian politics are important just as ours are” (Steinbeck. 2000, p. 4),
possibly implying their axiomatic lack of importance for him personally. In
Steinbeck’s case, the separation of the people from the regime might be seen
as a conscious choice, motivated by his “Americanness”. For Steinbeck, it is a
common value basis implemented in the national character that holds a nation
together; regime can be potentially changed while the national character is
fundamental. It can be assumed that Steinbeck was predominantly interested
in the psychology of Russians and in the features of character which allowed
Stalin’s regime to take hold in the first place. Thus, trying to understand the
reasoning behind the presence of Stalin’s portrait all over the public space,
the author cites opinions elicited from the Russian and starts his outline with
culture-based concepts – the state of being used to seeing “pictures of the
czar and the czar’s family”, which had to be substituted by something, and the
icon as “a Russian habit of mind” (p. 49). At the same time, he appears to be
mindful of the influence of ideology on people’s thinking as he supplements
the citation of a popular opinion that “Stalin himself does not like this and
has asked that it be discontinued” with a satirical remark: “But it seemed to
us that Stalin’s dislike for anything else causes its removal, but this is on the
increase” (p. 49). It can be concluded that the absence of purposeful analysis
of the negative side of the regime results not that much from Steinbeck’s
disorientation due to its complexity, but rather from his conscious decision
to shift it to the margins of the narrative, which is still dispersed with clues
that reveal the author’s critical stance.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

As mentioned earlier, politics constitutes an integral part of the cultural reality

which can potentially become the object of exploration in travel writing from
the perspective of the form of government, the public relations or the factual
distribution of power. However, in the two travel books under consideration
the factual information concerning the form of government of the target
nation is limited to occasional references which help to locate the text in time
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but are too sparse to carry substantial historiographical information. In their

travel books, the respective authors do mention the governing bodies and
their agents while constructing the setting for the narrative, but refrain from
detailed description or explanation of their functions. It is noteworthy that
references to the political bodies and agents tend to be linked to the depiction
of the underlying power relations, which are only indicated by the respective

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authors but are never exposed directly. In this case, the authors tend to avoid
taking an evaluative stance but enhance the depiction with details from which
their attitude can be inferable with a high degree of probability.
Thus, Little Golden America contain multiple references that help its reader
to get a basic idea about the functioning of the U.S. federal government.
Simultaneously, the narrators point at certain features which they deem to
be problematic due to their potential to result in dysfunctional solutions.
For example, with regard to the presidential elections, the narrators point at
their disruptive effect on the overall political course, resulting in the general
uneasiness of the population who has to wait till the very election day to
understand “what is America and where it is located” as far as “the path along
which [it is] to proceed” (Ilf & Petrov, 1937, p. 33). They also refer to the
fact that an average citizen “shows an interest in the life of the country only
once in four years, at the time of the presidential election” (p. 230), which
makes him or her particularly susceptible to the populist ideas, tailored by
politicians to win the voters’ loyalty.
On the other hand, A Russian Journal contains interesting observations
of the manifestation of the cult of personality and the Party’s hierarchy in
the symbolic sphere framing the daily life of Soviet citizens. For example,
taking part in the celebrations of the 800th anniversary of Moscow in 1947,
Steinbeck observes that “there was no building on which there was not at least
one huge picture of Stalin, and the picture second in size was that of Molotov”,
while the size of the portraits of the presidents of the Soviet republics and
of the other heroes of the Soviet Union was “graduated down” (Steinbeck,
2000, p. 192). Describing his visit to Stalin’s birthplace, Steinbeck also
expresses his insightful impression of the deep-rooted obedience to Stalin’s
absolute authority by comparing the effect of the inclusion of his quotes in
nearly every speech to “the stopping quality of the ipse dixit of the medieval
scholar who put his argument in the lap of Aristotle” (p. 164). Steinbeck
also outlines the essence of totalitarianism, which avails itself of all possible
means—“propaganda”, “training”, “constant reference”, “iconography”—to
instill the conviction of the authority’s ultimate prerogative to establish the
truth: “In Russia there is no appeal from the word of Stalin, and there is no
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argument against it” (p. 164).

Authors’ personal ideologies constitute an important factor which
determines the scope and the character of the depiction of politics and
ideology in travel writing. Ilf and Petrov, who appear to have internalized
the socialist ideas of equality, justice and solidarity, manifest their interest
in the various components of the social life in the USA, which results in

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

detailed critical accounts of the position of the minorities in the America of

1930s. Thus, the authors indicate the hypocrisy of state’s policy towards the
Native Americans aimed at preserving their small number of descendants by
building state-controlled reservations and opening museums of Indian art, but
also making sure that the instruction at Indian schools is conducted only by
white men and only in English. The narrative insinuates that the aim behind
this policy is not to ensure the revitalization of the American Indian ethnicity
but rather to safeguard its mummification as a cultural artefact. This idea is
embodied in the comparison of Native Americans to “a rare old lion”, who
is a matter of pride for the director of a zoo: “The proud beast is very old
and is no longer dangerous: his claws are dull and his teeth have fallen out,
but his skin is magnificent” (Ilf & Petrov, 1937, p. 124)
In relation to the situation of African Americans, Ilf and Petrov openly
denounce the discrepancy between the nominal status of Blacks as “free citizens
of the United States” (p. 222) and the actual restriction of their access to civil
rights under the unspoken racist rules, whereby African Americans willingly
refuse to access white-only facilities as they know “only too well how such
experiments might end” (p. 222). From the documentary perspective, the
travel book contain an interesting reference to the historical figure of Oscar
De Priest, the first African American congressman from Chicago, Illinois. The
authors demonstrate the pervasiveness of segregation practices in American
society by retelling the story of the incident when it was decided to close
the Congress dining-room after De Priest started going there together with
his Black secretary and “could not be turned out” as “he paid no attention
whatever to the quiet demonstrations against him” (p. 222). Even though it
is hard to establish the degree of facticity of the story, it undoubtedly reflects
the segregator moods of the period. The story might also be inspired by a
real incident when De Priest’s secretary and his son were expelled from the
Whites only public restaurant at the House of Representatives under the
order issued by a Representative from North Carolina in January, 1934 (“De
Priest”, n.d.). The authors spotted institutional racism in practice when they
observed that if a Black ever appeared near a mansion in the residential part,
“he would invariably have a broom, a pail or a package, all of which pointed
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to the fact that here he could be only a servant” (Ilf & Petrov, 1937, p. 217).
Chapter 44 of the travel book exposes the ideological foundation constructed
to justify the servile position of African Americans, embodied in the popular
assumption: “No matter how much you pay him, he’ll live like a pig, anyway.
Therefore, pay him as little as possible” (p. 218), and uncovers the way in
which art is used to propagate the ideology of white patronage: “In motion-

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 Reflection of Ideology and Politics in Travel Writing

picture dramas about the life of the landed gentry there is always an old grey
Negro who adores his master and is ready to give up his life for him” (p. 219).
For Steinbeck, the outreach of ideology into art in general and literature
in particular constitutes a particular topic of interest. In fact, it is one of the
few issues on which the author takes an explicit denunciatory stance. The
object of his criticism is a play, The Russian Question, written by a celebrated
Soviet author Konstantin Simonov, which centers on a tragedy of an American
journalist, whose life was destroyed by the newspaper tycoon, “a man of no
principles and no virtues” (Steinbeck, 2000, p. 106), because he refused to
help the baron to instigate anti-Soviet feelings with his report. Apart from
highlighting the poor aesthetic quality of the play and the alleged improbability
of its too generalized vision of Americans based on the exaggeration of the
negative features, Steinbeck appears to be predominantly preoccupied with
the undermining effect of such literary works in relation to his advocated
cause of establishing amiable relation between the two nation as Simonov’s
play, in his view, “far from adding to Russian understanding of America and
Americans, will probably have an opposite effect” (p. 106).
It seems that Steinbeck’s general cause in relation to ideology is to expose
the cases where it is used to instigate hostility against the other-minded.
His typical strategy in this respect is to reverse the viewpoints and to apply
the simple logics of putting oneself into the shoes of the “anathematized”
other. Being true to his avowal to write from personal experience, Steinbeck
recognizes the sources of the input, which increases the overall persuasiveness
of the point he makes. One of the controversial topics he touches upon is the
unwillingness of the Russian to have contact with foreigners, which has been
routinely accounted for by the fears induced by the totalitarian ideology. In
this regard, Steinbeck cites the anecdote-like story, told by a member of the
American Embassy in the Soviet Union, who reversed his fellow countrymen’s
point by eliciting from him the conclusion that he would probably punish his
employee for having close contact with Russian diplomats, and then returned
to the starting point by concluding that “maybe the Russians feel the same
way” (p. 29). The given strategy of reversing the viewpoint appears to be
an effective tool of checking the degree to which the mind of an observer is
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influenced by the internalization of the ideology-based stereotypes. It can

be assumed that for Steinbeck’s cause of establishing a rapport between the
people living in politically and ideologically antagonist countries it is crucial
to make both Russian and American individuals conscious of their inclination
to look for purely ideological interpretations towards each other, regardless
of the plausibility of interpretation of a different kind.

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CONCLUSION

Politics and ideology in travel writing can constitute an independent object of

depiction and can thus be found on the factual layer of the book focused on
the reality of the discovered culture. Travel writing has a valuable potential
for capturing manifestations of ideology in the everyday life of a given
nation together with the attitudes of the contemporaries in relation to it.
The authors’ perception of the foreign reality, influenced by their personal
ideologies, predetermine the range of political and ideological phenomena
that find their way into the text of a given travel book as well as the manner
of their description. The overarching goal of travel writing is to establish
rapport between the people of the two nations, which constitutes a separate
challenge when the relations between the given nations are demonstrably
negative in polarity, either on the level of politics or ideology, or both. To
navigate the given challenge, the authors choose to focus on the daily life
of the “common people” of the counterpart nation, which can be taken for
an intention to be apolitical. However, they are inevitably confronted with
the reflections of political affairs and/or ideology on daily life, leaving it for
them to decide whether to add polarity and critical evaluation to the factual
depiction of these reflections in their travel books. The decision to add the
evaluative component to descriptions appears to be linked to the salience
and intensity of the authors’ civic identity and the character of their personal
ideologies. Despite the focus on searching for similarities between the lives
of the two people, the authors maintain their cultural identity by highlighting
the fundamental differences which they might interpret as impediments for
the establishment of truly amiable relations between the nations or as the
reasons for the existing animosity. The authors’ treatment of the observed
phenomena might indirectly reveal beliefs and values related to their political
and ideological background, thus providing an indirect insight into the reality
of the exploring culture.

REFERENCES
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Fussell, P. (Ed.). (1987). The Norton Book of Travel. New York, NY: W.W.
Norton & Co.
Garrett, A. C. (2007). Highlights in the History of U.S. Relations with Russia,
1780-June 2006. Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/p/eur/ci/rs/200years/
c30273.htm#soviet_union
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic
Books, Inc.
Hamera, J., & Bendixen, A. (2009). Introduction: New Worlds and Old
Lands – the Travel Book and the Construction of American Identity. In A.
Bendixen & J. Hamera (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to American Travel
Writing (pp. 1–9). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/
CCOL9780521861090.001
Hauzer, K. (2013). So This Is Peace? The Postwar Ventures by John Steinbeck,
Irwin Shaw, and Robert Capa. Ad Americam. Journal of American Studies,
14, 51–62. doi:10.12797/AdAmericam.14.2013.14.04
Heywood, A. (2004). Political Theory: An Introduction (3rd ed.). Basingstoke,
UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hughes, T. P. (1988). How America Helped Build The Soviet Machine.
American Heritage, 39(8). Retrieved from https://www.americanheritage.
com/content/how-america-helped-build-soviet-machine
Hutchings, R. (1967). The Ending of Unemployment in the USSR. Soviet
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Studies, 19(1), 29–52. doi:10.1080/09668136708410565

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Ilf, I., & Petrov, E. (1937). Little Golden America (C. Malamuth, Trans.).
New York, NY & Toronto, ON: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. (Original work
published 1937). Retrieved from https://ia802804.us.archive.org/10/items/
IlfIlyaPetrovEugeneLittleGoldenAmericabOk.xyz/%5BIlf_Ilya%2C_Petrov_
Eugene%5D_Little_Golden_America%28b-ok.xyz%29.pdf
Ilf and Petrov: Soviet Humorists. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica online.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ilf-and-Petrov
Ishihara, T. (2004). John Steinbeck’s America: America and Americans
(1966), the Neglected Work. Faculty of Letters Revue of Otemon Gakuin
University, 40, 23-34. Retrieved from https://www.i-repository.net/contents/
outemon/ir/301/301041205.pdf
John Steinbeck, American Novelist. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica
online. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Steinbeck
Kettler, D. (2000). Ideology. In D. Miller (Ed.), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia
of Political Thought (pp. 182-185). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
Mannheim, K. (1954). Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology
of Knowledge (L. Wirth & E. Shils, Trans.). New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace
& Co. Inc.
Ryan, K. L. (2002). Imagining America: Il’f and Petrov’s Odnoetazhnaia
Amerika and Ideological Alterity. Canadian Slavonic Papers, 44(3/4),
263–277. doi:10.1080/00085006.2002.11092311
Schweizer, B. (1997). Political Travelers: the Ideological Functions of English
Travel Writing in 1930s (Doctoral dissertation).
Sevostyanov, G. N. (Ed.). (1985). Instoriya SSHA (Vol. 3). Moscow, Russia:
Izdatel’stvo NAUKA. Retrieved from https://www.history.vuzlib.su/book_
o072_page_42.html
Shillinglaw, S. (2000). Introduction. In L. Steinbeck (Ed.), A Russian Journal:
with Photographs by Robert Capa (pp. vii–xxv). London, UK: Penguin Books.
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Steinbeck, J. (2000). A Russian Journal: with Photographs by Robert Capa.

London, UK: Penguin Books.
Thompson, C. (2001). Travel Writing. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

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Wald, A. M. (2017). Imagined Solidarities: The Bolshevik Revolution

and the U. S. Literary Left. Science and Society, 81(4), 570–579.
doi:10.1521iso.2017.81.4.570
Wilson, R. K. (1973). The Literary Travelogue: A Comparative Study with
Special Relevance to Russian Literature from Fonvizin to Pushkin. The Hague,
The Netherlands: Martinus Niihoff. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-0993-0

ADDITIONAL READING

Brisson, U., & Schweizer, B. (2009). Not So Innocent Abroad: The Politics
of Travel and Travel Writing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cabañas, M. A., Dubino, J., Salles-Reese, V., & Totten, G. (Eds.). (2015).
Politics, Identity, and Mobility in Travel Writing. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
doi:10.4324/9781315742076
Ditsky, J. (1982). Between Acrobats and Seals: Steinbeck in the U.S.S.R.
Steinbeck Quarterly, 15, 23–29.
Ilf, I., & Petrov, E. (2013). Ilf & Petrov’s American Road Trip (E. Wolf, Ed.).
New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.
Marinova, M. (2011). Transnational Russian-American Travel Writing.
Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Mounagh, M. (2008). Political Tourism and its Texts (Cultural Spaces).
Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442688810
Reilly, A. P. (1971). America in Contemporary Soviet Literature. New York,
NY: New York University Press.
Siemens, E. (2010). In Search of True America: Images From Ilf and Petrov’s
1935 American Road Trip. In Language and the Scientific Imagination:
Proceedings of the 11th Conference of the International Society for the Study
of European Ideas (ISSEI). Helsinki, Finland: University of Helsinki.
Copyright © 2019. IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Slater, J. F. (1975). American Past and Soviet Present. Steinbeck Quarterly,

8, 95–104.
Zilcosky, J. (2008). Writing Travel: The Poetics and Politics of the
Modern Journey. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
doi:10.3138/9781442689671
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 105

Chapter 5
Uprootedness, Resentment,
and the Will to Power
in Emily Brontë
Michail Theodosiadis
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

ABSTRACT
The chapter refects on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and brings into
the discussion the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, Simone Weil, and
Hannah Arendt. It emphasizes Heathclif’s personality as an expression of the
will to power, a theme that has been developed both by Arendt and Nietzsche.
It will be argued that the will to power is the outcome of uproodetness, a
notion developed and thoroughly examined by Simone Weil. Finally, the
present study elaborates on Christopher Lasch and Carl Jung simultaneously
and seeks solution to a problem that also characterizes the contemporary
Western societies, the liquidation of norms and values (cultural updootedness,
in other words), the destruction of the past, of a world within which human
beings develop their own sense of personality and identity, a world that,
simultaneously, functions as a positive simulator in order to avoid resentment
and destruction.
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DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch005

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

INTRODUCTION

‘When Emily Brontë’, writes Haire-Sargeant (2003), ‘created the pivotal

character Heathcliff, she set herself a daunting challenge; how to tell the story
of a brutal, calculating sadist, the bane of two families over two generations,
in such a way that by the end the reader’s horror is overwhelmed by sympathy’
(p.410). Heathcliff is depicted as ‘a diabolical man’ (Brontë, 2003, p.171),
cruel, revengeful, cynical, ‘selfish and disagreeable’ (p.163), for whom one
can only reserve the worst possible condemnation (Haire-Sargeant 2003,
p.410). Perhaps, if there could ever be a religion denying the existence God
altogether, considering instead hell as the one and only matrix of the world’s
creation and the sole posthumous space at the same time, Heathcliff’s figure
could serve as its best representative archetype. Understandably, the reader’s
initial reactions toward Heathcliff’s personality are overwhelmed by extreme
aversion. However, a more careful examination on Brontë’s Wuthering
Heights (1847/2003) sheds light on certain aspects of the character’s inner
world, unveiling strong links between traumatic experiences. His unrestrained
passion for revenge is the outcome of the intense suffering himself experienced
as a child. More to the point, Heathcliff personifies individual and social
attitudes that exist or have been always existed. According to Northrop Frye
(1982), stories written within ‘a particular context’ acquire ‘a universal
significance’ as long as it resonate to different realities from which they have
been produced (p.217). In order to understand how Brontë’s Romantic novel
resonates in the contemporary world it is necessary to examine the thought
of the French mystic and philosopher Simone Weil, and more precisely, her
concept of uprootedness, developed in her famous treatise The Need for Roots
(1943/1987). Uprootedness signifies the destruction of one’s cultural past
and the loss of a common world within which all sorts of meanings, capable
of producing a stable and solid life, can be traced. Uprootedness is ‘by far
the most dangerous malady to which human societies are exposed’ (p.45).
Uprootedness is what characterizes Heathcliff’s traumatic experiences. In a
sense, it could be argued that Heathcliff is a ‘tragic’ personality. As Aristotle
explains in Poetics (2013), tragedy is synonymous with imitation of an
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occurrence. In ancient drama, more specifically, actors have no capacity of

exercising free will. Instead, they are obliged to follow an alreaedy written
scenario. The ‘classical tragedy’, argues Spengler (1960) (while elaborating
on Aristotle) is ‘the lament of a given theme’ subordinated ‘to the visual
presentation of a great human suffering as present motive’ (p.174). By taking

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

the word imitation literally in order to describe cases where human beings are
forced to copy the actions of others, one understands that classical tragedy
per se is concerned with the absence of free will. Such as the actors of the
ancient dramma are helpless, impotent and powerless, incapable of intervening
on the scenario which has been already set before them, being subjects to
inexorable suffering for which they can claim very little or no responsibility
at all, similarly human beings who have lost their free will, their capacity to
judge impartially, are ruled by their unconscious passions. Their attitude is
shaped by their inner deep and dark impulses. Making sense of this rationale
requires us to move back to Weil’s (1987) idea of updootedness. For the same
author, the uprooted populations fall ‘into a spiritual lethargy resembling
death, like the majority of the slaves in the days of the Roman Empire’ (p.45).
Weil brings up the example of the rise to power of National Socialism in
Germany, where ‘uprootedness had taken on an aggressive form, whereas
in France it was characterized by inertia and stupor’ (p.46). Therefore, if
uprootedness boosts revenge, authoritarianism, ruthlessness, and leads human
beings to inertia (Theodosiadis 2017), Heathcliff’s cynicism, selfishness
and passion for revenge derives from his rootlessness and humiliation he
experienced as a child. Uprootedness, in other words, causes sharp pain and
intense emotional excitement. The emotional explosions emerging due to
the absence of a common world, capable of ascribing meaning and common
purpose, creates the appropriate conditions where human beings are left at
the mercy of their own despair. Their capacity for conscious determination
and rational thinking is drained tout court. Unable to exercize free will, they
sink into the abyss of extreme anger; passions direct their own deeds often
with unpredictable consequences.
In order to investigate in full detail the reasons uprootedness intensifies
visceral psychical reactions Hannah Arendt’s theories, especially those
presented in The Life of The Mind (1978), will have to be acknowledged. In
this work Arendt distinguishes between the two closely connected faculties of
thinking, judging. Thinking pinpoints to mind’s capacity ‘of making present
what is absent’, what has been disappeared from sight, smelling or touching (1,
p.76). In other words, thinking is associated with memory, which ‘stores, and
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holds at the disposition of recollection, whatever is no more’ (ibid). Thinking

is ‘actualized in the silent dialogue between me and myself’ (2, p.179). When
the thinking ego dives into the storehouse of memory in order retrieve all
these disappeared objects, simultaneously reflects upon them. Thus, thinking
paves the way for judgment, which is related to understanding, to the ‘taking
of consideration the viewpoints of others’ (Fine 2006, p.128). On the opposite

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

end, willing confers to the uncontrollable passion to dominate and reign

supreme, to oppress and tyrannize indiscriminately. It seems that Arendt’s
interpretation on willing is similar to that of Nietzsche, discussed in his late
work The Will to Power (1968), as also Robert Fine (1996, p.123) argued1.
Willing refers to all sorts of violent impulses that stimulate ruthlessness,
domination and passion for destruction. As opposed to judgment, which
stands for the capacity of distinguishing right from wrong, and requires ability
to evaluate the outcome and consequences of all possible given options,
willing subordinates human actions to aggressive and unconscious feelings.
Thus, we can associate Heathcliff’s revengefulness with willing, with the
instinctual forces unleashed when human personality is crippled of its capacity
to think and judge. Heathcliff’s profound passion (willing) for revenge, as
aforementioned, comes as a direct outcome of his abandonment; picked up
from a street in Liverpool and introduced into Earnshaw’s family (Brontë,
2003, pp.29-30), spends his entire childhood in complete isolation; vilified
and degraded (Eagleton 2005, p.111), lives in the margins of Earnshaw’s
family life. Joseph Hindley, Mr Earnshaw’s son constantly expresses with
passionate hated against him (Brontë, 2003, p.30). But Heathcliff had to
withstand these hardships ‘uncomplaining as a lamb’ (p.31). According to
Eagleton (2005), ‘Heathcliff is inserted into the close-knit family structure
as an alien; he emerges from that ambivalent domain of darkness’ which is
located ‘outside of the tightly defined domestic system’ (p.102). As Earnshaw,
the head of the family and the master of the Heights, says: ‘“See here, wife;
I was never so beaten with anything in my life; but you must e’en take it as a
gift of God, through it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil’ (Brontë,
2003, p.29). Eagleton sees the young Heathcliff as an obscured ‘proletarian’
(p.102) (obscured due to his unclear origin)2, as an ‘asocial vagrant, classless
natural lifeform’ (p.103); he associated the ‘adult Heathcliff’ with an ‘atomic
capitalist to whom relational bonds are nothing, whose individualism is now
enslaving rather than liberating’ (p.111). But the adult Heathcliff knows no
other pleasure apart from his ruthless pursuit for personal domination. As
the same author adds, ‘[h]aving mysteriously amassed capital’ outside the
agrarian society of the Heights, ‘Heathcliff forces his way into that society to
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expropriate the expropriators’ and embodies ‘a force which at once destroys

the traditional Earnshaw settlement and effectively confronts the power of
the squirearchy’ (p.115). In what follows it will be argued that Heathcliff’s
transformation from a powerless child into a power hungry individual does
not exclusively pinpoint to the capitalist type of being, whose ascendance is
followed by the subordination of the old aristocracy to its greedy demands.

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

It goes without saying that within Brontë’s novel the socio-political

upheavals and re-alignments occurred during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries are widely reflected. Along with other authors and poets, like
William Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and so on, Brontë
was deeply inspired by the clash of two diametrically different worldviews,
the religious and conservative aristocratic on the one hand, and the capitalist
bourgeois mentality (Lasch 1991a, p.88), the main exponent of the secular
idea of unlimited technological progress and unrestricted economic expansion
(pp.22-39), on the other. Nonetheless, an exegesis that solely attempts to
address influences of the political context of the early eighteenth century in
Brontë’s works impedes any possibility to obtain a universal understanding
concerning human personality per se that a different interpretation of the
same novel could offer. Let us take this issue further: the end of Heathcliff’s
relationship with Catherine – who (in Chapter IX) marries Edgar Linton, the
rich aristocrat of the Thrushcross Grange – follows a deep emerging desire
for vengeance, as ‘the only mode of self-affirmation’ (Eagleton 2005, p.111).
More precisely, in the story Catherine, Heathcliff’s ‘Platonic [childhood]
lover’ (Nussbaum 2003, p.396), is portrayed as a respectable member of the
Earnshaw’s family. Eventually, her love and affection for Heathcliff incites
to the latter’s mind a strong feeling of connection with the Heights, a feeling
of being recognized. When Heathcliff loses Catherine he loses his sense of
belonging; his sense of value and worth as a human being is shattered once
and for all. Catherine was for him the only human being capable of offering
a sense of meaning and affection; while almost everyone in the Heights
(including Nelly)3 treated Heathcliff as a pest, Catherine stood for him during
his troubled childhood. Catherine was the solid ground on which Heathcliff
could grow roots. Having lost any vital psychical support, he finds himself
exposed to the hostility of the world that surrounds him. Thus, ruthlessness
and aggression – which destroys all forms of thinking and judging and
surrenders human beings to the impulsive forces of will – seem for him the
only means of survival. Therefore, if Heathcliff’s personality is deemed
‘tragic’ and, hence, incapable of making rational choices, this condition
comes as a direct consequence of his inability to find a stable world roots, a
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haven in a heartless society. After all, it was Weil (1987) who insisted that
the sense of belonging constitutes the most fundamental prerequisite of the
human soul. It is the only mean through which human beings are protected
from ending up hostages of their resentment, of their unlimited will to deceive,
dominate, exploit and destroy without acknowledging moral limits. In short,

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

it is uprootedness what converts them into ‘tragic’ beings, subjects to their

hidden energies that escape rational calculation.
As opposed to Heathcliff ‘tragic personality’, Nelly Dean, who narrates
the story to Mr Lockewood (a wealthy man from the South of England,
who rents the Thrushcross Grange while seeking peace and recuperation)
exercises thinking and judgment; Dean expresses intense criticism against
acts and deeds performed by other characters, while giving key eyewitness
accounts in regards to what happens between them. More precisely, if – as
Arendt (1978, 1) explained – thinking signifies the restoration of old ideas of
crucial significance from memory, if at the same time, thinking offers critical
evaluation on them, and since judgment and understanding – which are par
excellence products of thinking – represent the outcome of this process of
evaluation, then Dean is the only character who has not lost this ability (to think
and judge). Dean is the only individual capable of understanding, of taking
into ‘consideration the viewpoints of others’ (Fine 2006, p.128), expressing
self-limitation, sobriety and enlightenment over hatred and misery, these In
cases where no positive motivations can be found (due to uprootedness) and
individuals are trapped within their own despair, becoming hostages of their
uncontrolled desire for resentment and revenge (willing), small glimpses of
light can offer hope for judgment. Such glimpses can be found in deep the inner
self. These moments of delight are lodged in the storehouse of memory. They
could offer comfort during times of psychical affliction. Consider this verse
from Brontë’s (1992) poem Anticipation: ‘Why dost thou hold the treasure
fast, / Of youth’s delight, when youth is past’ (p.12). Such images of delight,
referring to childhood (or to other moments of assured happiness), could be
seen as a psychical asylums. On this imaginary world thinking reflects, draws
on inspiration and restores its capacity for judgment when the present offers
no inspiration but absolute despair.

UPROOTEDNESS, RESENTMENT
AND THE WILL TO POWER
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In order to shed further light on the way uprootedness incites aggression and
resentment, it is necessary prima facie to reflect on Jung’s notion of collective
unconsciousness. Jung (1960) defines as archetypes the ‘a priori determinants
of all psychic processes’ (p.133). All unconscious processes of the mind are
dominated by instincts ‘which are inherited, and occur uniformly and regularly’

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

(p.131). They are not socially constructed either ‘individually acquired but
are inherited’ and ‘carry out actions from necessity, without conscious
motivation’ (p.133). The archetypes are located in the deeper stratum of the
such unconscious processes. They force perception ‘and apprehension into
specifically human patterns. The instincts and the archetypes together form
the “collective unconscious”’ (ibid). It is called collective because ‘unlike
the personal unconscious, it is not made up of individual and more or less
unique contents but of those which are universal and of regular occurrence’
(p.134)4. The archetypes are created within a common world; they are
common notions, concepts, ideas, perceptions through which individuals
obtain meaning and orientation.
However, the unconscious is overwhelmingly ruled by instincts and
impulses (1989, p.173), that is with feelings, emotions, and all sorts of passions
(including anger and rash action) that are contrary to reason, as Cicero (1961,
p.89) claimed a few centuries ago. However, even the most benevolent emotion
of compassion, according to Arendt (1990), are capable of unleashing forces
which gradually dry out the capacity to persuade (p.87). When human beings
lose their capacity of speaking, violence emerges as a substitute; resentment,
violence and brute force absorbs the mind, converting human beings into
things says Weil (2005, p.202; p.204)5, into instruments and hostages of their
own impulses. Their actions escape rational control; they become ‘tragic’ (in
the Aristotelian sense). It could be, therefore, stressed that uprootedness, the
destruction of the past, the inability to reflect upon concepts (archetypes) that
provide a sense of identity, signifies the eclipse of all the empirical bases upon
which thinking can reflect. What follows is the total surrender of the individual
to his/her impulses (sentiments) of the unconscious, of what Arendt (1978,
2) defined as willing (as aforementioned). In contrast, thinking and judgment
pinpoint to the past, to the ability of elaborating on objects (the outcome of
our meaningful experiences), in short on archetypes. Put it otherwise, if as
Eagleton (2005) argued, Heathcliff’s knows no other freedom apart from
the freedom to coerce others (p.111), this reality pinpoints to the condition
where human beings are left at the mercy of their own sentiments, deprived of
their capacity of controlling their own emotions by telling right from wrong,
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becoming instruments of their own uncontrollable desire for domination and

revenge. This tragic condition is best exemplified by Heathcliff’s persona,
which according to Nelly’s narration, was nothing but God’s forsaken ‘stray
sheep … to its own wicked wanderings’, a prey to ‘an evil beast … waiting
his time to spring and destroy’ (Brontë, 2003, p.85). Heathcliff’s expression,
that ‘[t]wo words would comprehend my future - death and hell; existence,

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

after losing her, would be hell’ (p.117), indicate the importance of earthly
attachments, of meaningful objects on which human beings can cling on.
In order to crystallize this rationale Nietzsche’s (2006) viewpoints must
be given consideration. Nietzsche regards consciousness as a creation of
the outer world (p.252). His extreme relativism asserts that ‘[t]here is no
such a thing as a “fact-in-itself,” for a meaning must always be given to it
before it can become a fact’ (p.268). ‘Necessity is not an established fact,
but an interpretation’ (p.264). Hence, ‘[t]he will to truth’, that is the will to
identify and describe concepts as they objectively appear, relying on facts and
evidences, is ‘a process of establishing things; it is a process of making things
true and lasting, a total elimination of that false character, a transvaluation of
it into being’ (p.265). This ‘“real and apparent world” … is a mere fiction,
formed out of a host of imaginary things’ (p.272). When such imaginary
things become established, serve as means through which ‘the will to power’
is concealed (p.280). Obviously, this is ‘not a moral power … This would
have to be proven by the fact that it avails itself of every immoral means
there is; above all, those of the metaphysics’ (ibid). Consider, at this stage,
William James’ (1978) pragmatic method, which instead of focusing on the
existence of truth particular theories and religions potentially contain, strives
to identify if viewpoints offered by such belief-systems have ‘high pragmatic
value’ (p.75), whether they can ‘become instruments’ to answer ‘enigmas’
(p.32) or not. Therefore, it matters very little whether Nietzsche’s extreme
relativism describes the actual human condition or not. One could object
Nietzsche’s viewpoints, which assert that ideas are mere expressions of the
human desire to reign supreme and nothing more, a desire that on certain
occasions leads to destruction, leaving as its residue only sorrow and sharp
pain. There can exist cases where notions and concepts are converted into
means through which the will to power manifests itself. Willing emerges as
a consequence of the annihilation of all valuable archetypes, when human
beings are incapable of tracing their own roots into a common world capable
of ascribing to themselves a sense of belonging. More to the point: a) objects
upon which thinking reflects, in order to produce judgment, disappear and,
thereby, intense sentiments invent in the imagination a distorted aspect of
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the same world, capable of satisfying this nostalgic feeling. In addition, b)

rootlessness incites ruthlessness and rampant self-interest (as aforementioned),
since the inability of tracing valuable concepts that promote friendship,
human solidarity and common decency wipes out every hindrance against
selfishness. The prevailing negativity of rampant self-interest converts these
imagined concepts and meanings into objects that satisfy this self-interest.

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

On this occasion, pastness serves as a mean through which the will to power
finds expression through concepts and meanings.
It is important, at this stage, to trace the validity of Weil’s (1987) assertion,
that ‘[w]hoever is uprooted himself uproots others’ (p.45), relying on Nietzsche’s
viewpoints offered in The Genealogy of Morals (1887/2013). In this work
Nietzsche discusses the concept of slave-morality: ‘[t]he revolt of the slaves’
(of the sick and the dispossessed, in other words) ‘in morals begins in the very
principle of resentment’ (2003, p.19). The slave-morality, however, ‘requires
as the condition of its existence an external and objective world, to employ
physiological terminology’ (p.19). It requires ‘objective stimuli to be capable
of action’, while ‘its action is fundamentally a reaction’ (ibid). Resentment
sanctifies ‘revenge under the name of justice’ and rehabilitates revenge in
order ‘to reinstate generally and collectively all the reactive emotions’ (p.47).
Reactive emotions are overwhelmingly destructive. Therefore, the sick, the
depressed, the oppressed creatures ‘are the greatest danger for the healthy; it
is not from the stronger that harm comes to be strong, but from the weakest’
(p.87). A system that produces slave-morality instead of elevating the sick
‘under any circumstances also makes them more ill’ (104) and, simultaneously,
reduces the standards of the healthy to that of the ill by normalizing reactive
emotions. Since slave morality is the outcome of uprootedness, the way an
uprooted (a sick) person resorts to resentment, which lowers the healthy to
the standards of the sick (through the normalization of reactive emotions, as
aforementioned) leads to the impression that the healthy person him/herself
is filled up with all sorts of afflictions that characterize the mentality of
the former. Reactive emotions are seen in Heathcliff’s expressions, when
he is abandoned by Catherine and, subsequently, plunges into the sea of
envy (Brontë 2003, p.48). Nelly’s descriptions on ‘the transformation of
Heathcliff’ from a pariah to a rich ‘tall, athletic [and] well-formed man’, but
with a ‘half-civilized ferocity’ and a manner of ‘roughness’ (p.75), ready to
take revenge for all his past sufferings, implies that a) material amelioration
cannot soothe traumatic memories or the feeling of extreme affliction (caused
by uprootedness) and more importantly, b) the reactive emotions, invoked
by the weak, by Heathcliff’s resentful attitude (in our case), quickly spreads
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from one individual to another, affecting families, communities and societies

in whole. What is the antidote to this tragedy? The next section elaborates
on what I have already defined as moments of delight. Romantic poetry and,
more importantly, Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, could offer interpretations
that inspire individuals to rediscover their inner strength in order to withstand
the consequences of nihilism and rootlessness.

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

JUDGMENT: MOMENTS OF DELIGHT

Because delight is often associated with the endless fulfillment of all

human desires through material abundancy, with what Arendt (1998) calls
as ‘modern hedonism’ (p.309), it is crucial to take into account Hesiod’s
Theogony (2006). In this work the poet speaks about the three Graces, the
daughters of Zeus. These are: Aglaia (the younger), who stands for beauty
(or splendor), Thalia, representing flowering and plentifulness, and finally
Euphrosine, who stands for beauty, joy, delight and goodness. The three
Graces were pure virgins who lived with the gods and served Aphrodite
(the goddess of love). By acknowledging also Pindar’s (1997) fourteenth
Olympian Ode, suggesting that the Graces were created in order to fill the
world with pleasant moments and, at the same time, with goodwill, we are
completely detached from the modern understanding of delight, as being
synonymous with hedonism tout court. Hence, delight is mainly psychical;
it pinpoints to what Lasch (1991a) defined as ‘the reassuring memory of
happy times, which serves to link the present with the past and to provide a
sense of continuity’ (p.82), as opposed to nostalgia, a feeling of ‘regret for
the lost innocence no longer accessible’ (p.90). For the same author (1991a),
nostalgia serves as a mean of escapism from the afflictions of the present; it
creates an imaginary world of lost innocence, which instead of becoming a
source of inspiration, offers a false sense of security from all the hardships
of modern life, and prevents everyone from ’leading a constructive life in the
present’ (Tytler 2012, p.13). Nostalgia has been a central theme in Romantic
and Victorian literature, as Lasch (1991a, p.91) argued; the retreat to a past
world disappeared became a ‘definitive symbol’ in novels aspiring to exalt
childhood, holding the young ones ‘up to adoration’ (p.92). It was partially
‘the spirit of the age’ (p.89) to refuse associating the death of a child with
events that cause intense affliction, since the happiest children, for many
Romantic authors, were the ones who have never ‘grown up at all’ (p.92).
Perhaps, the socio-political transformation western Europe (especially England
and France) was experiencing due to the spread of the Industrial Revolution,
and the subsequent destruction of the countryside due to modernization,
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followed by forced migration of deprived yeomen to industrialized cities, in

the Romantic imagination, as also Lasslet explains in The World We Have
Lost (1983), was parallelized with the end of a season of assured happiness.
It was often associated with the delights of pastoral life, whose disappearance
came as a consequence of the destruction of the English countryside, with the

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

end of the age innocence. Thus, scenes of ‘children neglected, oppressed, or

shamefully deserted’ (p.89) in Romantic literature do not simply stimulate
awareness and moral shame about poverty and exclusion; the aim is, instead,
the dramatization of the ‘death of childhood’. While the Wuthering Heights
hardly escapes from this dark and morbid mood that dominates the Victorian
age, Heathcliff’s hardships and the sad death of Catherine, instead of idealizing
childhood per se, highlight the devastating consequences of abandonment
and neglect. More precisely, while Heathcliff’s childhood is marked by brutal
oppression, the author avoids to portray the hardships of his early years in
a manner that causes emotional reactions concerning the sadness of some
imagined lost happiness. It is true that in the Wuthering Heights, ‘excessive
nostalgia is one of the principal reasons why Catherine and Heathcliff each
eventually succumb to mental illness’ (Tytler 2012, p.10). Heathcliff sees the
‘entire world’ as ‘a dreadful collection of memoranda that she [Catherine]
did exist, and that I have lost her! Well, Hareton’s aspect was the ghost of my
immortal love; of my wild endeavours to hold my right; my degradation, my
pride, my happiness, and my anguish’ (Brontë 2003, p.247). However, what
Heathcliff was denied was not simply some childhood affection, but more
importantly, his possibility of development into an adult, which could occur
only if Catherine had not abandoned the Heights, in exchange of glamour and
richness. Heathcliff’s nostalgia was the illness of uprootedness, which (as it
will be stated in what follows) can be reversed by converting traumatic life
episodes into moments of (psychical) delight, by reflecting on the invocation
to conventions, gestures, customs and perceptions from a perspective through
which one can see the past as a source of inspiration, overcoming psychical
affliction. For Tytler (2012) Heathcliff allowed ‘his memories of [Catherine]
to turn into an incurable mental illness’ (p.13), into nostalgia. As the previous
section revealed, uprootedness incites the desire for domination; it strengthens
the will to power, without acknowledging any moral limit.
Lasch (1991a) juxtaposes nostalgia with what he calls as ‘reassuring
memory’, a memory of delight (eu-phrosene) by citing William Wordsworth’s
poem Intimations of Immortality. The poet asks: ‘Whither is fled the visionary
gleam? / Where is the glory of the dream?’ (quoted by Lasch 1991a, p.90).
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But simultaneously he responds with the following words: ‘We will grieve
not, rather find, / Strength in what remains behind’ (ibid). According to
Lasch, the poet sees the past as a source from which one can gain strength
while confronting the vicissitudes of the present world, ‘as a political and
psychological treasure from which we draw the reserves … that we need
to cope with the future’ (Lasch 1991b, p.xvii). ‘The dominant emotion in

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

Wordsworth’s early work was gratitude’ (1991a, p.90) rather nostalgia. Making
sense of this rationale requires us to consider also Jung’s (1989) analysis
on memory as an inner source of inspiration in times of intense affliction
and bereavement. Consider, for example, Jung’s stance on his childhood
memories from his ‘tenth or eleventh year’ (p.173). The young Jung, as the
author describes, was building ‘houses and castles, using bottles to form
the sides of gates and vaults’ (p.173). To his astonishment this memory was
‘accompanied by a good deal of emotion’ (ibid). The memory ‘possesses a
creative life which I lack’ (ibid). However, ‘[t]he small boy is still around,
and possesses a creative life which I lack. But how can I make my way to it?’
(p.174). The adult Jung in order to retrieve his childhood delight imitates the
actions of the young; he build castles and houses using stones and bottles, until
he realizes that he has built an entire town. His childhood delight, therefore,
‘released a stream of fantasies’ (p.175) against the ‘blank wall’ of emptiness
(p.176). ‘Each such experience’ was for Jung ‘a rite d’ entree’ for his future
ideas and works which have ‘grown out of the stone sculptures’ he did after
his ‘wife’s death’ (ibid).
Moments of delight drive a human mind back to the past, to happy events
(Lasch 1991a, p.82) that bestow ‘Courage and Truth’, in Brontë’s (2003,
p.332) words, while coping with suffering. It should not be confused with the
exaggerations of nostalgic invocation of a disappeared world. Lasch (1991a)
was well aware of the intense ‘disparagement of the present, the hallmark of
the nostalgic attitude’ (pp.82-3). To value the past as a source of gratitude,
as a mean through which one can draw on inspiration, implies that the same
past serves as an intimation for making promises; when, to put it otherwise,
the common world collapses into nihilism, and subsequently human beings
are gradually descending into the abyss of their own resentment, ending up
instruments of their will, extractions of past moments of delight, of psychical
beauties, reconstruct one’s degraded live. However, the term ‘extractions of
past moments’ does not imply a literal imitation of the past; instead, it is a
process that involves thinking; it involves critical evaluation of all the objects
that are restored from the storehouse of memory, seeking for pragmatic
solutions that could minimize the devastating consequences of affliction.
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Jung’s attempts to build castles using bottles, striving to bring back in life
his childhood happiness should be seen only as a metaphor. Heathcliff’s
nostalgia, on the other hand, is a recollection that instigates sharp pain, as also
depicted in the following passage: ‘Now, am I old enough to go to Peniston
Crags?’ (Brontë’s 2003, p.147), to a location associated with Catherine’s and

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

Heathcliff’s idyllic adventures, for Brontë has not given exact information
in terms of what these young characters were pursuing during their visits.
A more practical understanding of the term ‘gratitude to the past’ must
be given right now’. In Wuthering Heights Catherine’s death will always
be remembered as an instance of desperation for Heathcliff. Similar events
of painful separation – like the death of Jung’s wife - and traumatic events
that shape one’s personality, will always be viewed as instances of violent
rupture from a world that used to produce meaning. However, Catherine’s
death and Heathcliff’s lost chance to gain a solid life within an abyss of
psychical wilderness, could be approached from a different angle; the psychical
impacts of death (either referring to the death of meaning or of a person, of
a loved one) can be minimized by acknowledging Nietzsche’s (2006) notion
of amor fati (love of fate). The unconditional acceptance of events regarded
as unavoidable, the absolute compromise with the inescapable hardships
of life, may serve as a appeasement of affliction. Therefore, by preventing
the prevalence of such affliction, by obstructing the savageness of willing,
in other words, one erects fences against all emotional explosions that seek
to convert the past into an object that satisfies nostalgia and ruthlessness,
satisfying the illusion of comfort during times of despair. Could the entire
text of the Wuthering Heights be different, if Heathcliff was capable of
granting the necessary psychical strength, destroying emotions of resentment,
approaching his childhood lover as an archetype that pinpoints to moments
of delight? Figures and images (archetypes) that derive from such moments
could revitalize one’s inner world, gaining strength in order to release a ‘a
stream of [creative] fantasies’, to use Jung’s (1989 p.175) words again.
Therefore, delight (eu-prosene) is correlated with gratitude, as opposed
to nostalgia, which ‘evokes the past only to bury it alive’ (Lasch 1991a,
p.118), to convert it into an object with no practical utility in life. In fact,
being grateful to someone implies that the same person has something to
offer, something of real value. Thus, to acknowledge the past as a reservoir
of strength, implies that the same past comprises elements of positive
resonance. On the other hand, to weaponize the past in order to provoke an
attack against objects deemed undesirable (the present, for instance), expresses
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aggressiveness, hatred, bitterness and rage. If delight and goodness pinpoint

to thinking and judgment, and if hatred confers to willing (the opposite end of
thinking), we understand that nostalgia (as long as it rests on aggressiveness)
is at odds with delight (or goodness). With this in mind, we can argue that
Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, from the moment it expresses deep concerns
regarding the ‘soul’s receptivity and vulnerability’ according to Nussbaum

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

(2003, p.395), issues a clear warning against emotional explosions capable

of inciting hatred, resentment, egoism and/or the desire (will) to dominate,
sentiments prevalent in the ‘conventional Christian world’ that Brontë
sought to challenge, by structuring her novel around ‘an opposition between
Christian pity and authentic love’ (p.397). It is noteworthy to mention Arendt’s
(1990) view on goodness, as a sentiment ‘beyond virtue … ignorant of the
argumentative reasoning by which man fends off temptations and, by this
very process, comes to know the ways of wickedness’ (p.87). Goodness is
‘also incapable of learning the arts of persuading and arguing’ (ibid). It has
been explained, however, that judgment is inherently connected with thinking
and, subsequently, with processes through which the mind learns how to
distinguish a moral from a vicious act. Hence, by following Arendt’s view on
goodness one can easily end up to the conclusion that goodness per se (which
also the same author connects with the notion of compassion) is irrelevant
to judgment. Eventually, Lasch’s (1991a) understanding of goodness (or eu-
phrosine), which is connected with the notion of reassuring memory, seems
more in line with this interpretation. This particular form of memorizing is
not irrational as long as it relies on thinking. If thinking produces judgment, if
moments of delight are retrieved back into the present and become critically
observed, and moreover, if thinking and goodness are connected, one is led
to the conclusion that goodness per se constitutes the par excellence motive
through which an impartial understanding of his/her past can be pursued.

CONCLUSION

The current political mood of pessimism, followed by the subsequent rise of

populist movements across Europe and north America, movements undefinable
in character, with unclear demands, vague and imprecise, unconfined to any
clear objective, emerging as a reaction to the process of globalization – to
cosmopolitanism and deterritorialization (Ampuja 2011, p.295) seen as means
of cultural diversity, as also Christophe Guilluy (2013) noted, that (additionally)
spread hostility toward customs and traditions – indicate the necessity for
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reconsidering the potentially devastating outcomes of uprootedness both

for individuals and societies. By reflecting on Wuthering Heights this study
asserted that uprootedness undermines the solid world upon which individuals
and groups can interact on a peaceful manner. By relying on Weil’s theories
it has been explained that uprootedness, the destruction of archetypes that

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

shape what Jung defined as the collective unconsciousness, is what creates

the conditions where human beings are becoming tragic; their free will and
capacity to judge are destroyed as long as they become subdued to violent
emotions, which require enormous efforts in order to be restrained. It has
been explained that uprootedness does not only cause sharp pain on the
person it affects; it gradually spreads and creates a spiral of hatred, envy
and resentment, demoting the standards of all even on a lower level from the
standards of the uprooted.
Almost two centuries ago Nietzsche (2006) wrote that ‘[n]ihilism is at
our door’ (p.3)6 assuming that Christianity itself was directly responsible for
the downfall of all moral standards, for setting up foundations that created a
socio-political reality which forced spirituality to die out. Almost four decades
ago Lasch (1991a; 1991b) warned about the rise of a nihilistic culture, which
has been parallelized with Weil’s notions of uprootedness. Lasch argued that
excessive consumerism, solipsism and narcissism would create the conditions
where all forms of communal solidarity and robust social relations would
disappear, while national and regional identities, whose influences create
a web of meaningful archetypes, capable to inspire and bind individuals
together within human groupings smaller than humanity as a whole, would
gradually fade away. Resentment, revenge and the rapacious pursuit to oppress
and destroy, are sentiments emerging when such groupings are dissolved and
human beings are sinking into the abyss of emptiness, when nothing that could
inspire has been left for them, when no positive aspirations and meaningful
interactions keep them in awe. The solipsistic culture of narcissism, as defined
by Lasch (1991b), and its tendencies to remove all positive representations
from the collective imagination, could signify the destruction of all moral
standards. Heathcliff’s tragic personality, his inability to confront his own self,
to confine his emotions, seeking revenge even for revenge’s sake, might be
used as an archetype and warning sign for a potentially negative social (and
political) turn. As an antidote to the melancholy of uprootedness, to the tragedy
and chaos such a condition intensifies, moments of delight (eu-phrosene) offer
a chance for redemption, for rebuilding a world through which persons find
meaning and courage to carry on, confronting the vicissitudes of the present
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in a more graceful way. Acceptance of the unavoidable (amor fati) would be

the first step in the struggle of reclaiming thinking, that is, of re-discovering
archetypes that pinpoint to moments of happiness. Such an attempt not only
saves individuals from the destructive tendencies of uncontrollable willing,
where consciousness is gradually put under the dictates of impulsive reactions,

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 Uprootedness, Resentment, and the Will to Power in Emily Brontë

but at the same time by re-creating a world of meaningful representations,

they can gradually re-activate their capacity to judge, to tell right from wrong.
Finally, as Nussbaum (2003) argues, ‘redemption is found in the very depth
of exposure in erotic effort - redemption from the clutter of everyday life and
its superficial cares, which obscure from the self its own true being’ (p.396).
An uprooted world, ‘a world without wonder’ in Lasch’s (1991a, p.226) terms,
is essentially the modern (and postmodern) world of cultural liquidity, as
Bauman (2000) put it, where all solid values, capable of stimulating such a
delightful type of love, capable of transcending the ‘clutter of everyday life’,
to use Nussbaum’s (2003, p.396) words again, has been plunged into the sea
of nihilism and cultural emptiness. Lockewood personality is also another
expression of this emptiness. Lockewood is a ‘city man’ who ‘has made
to come to the country to avoid .. the “stir” and bustle of superficial social
forms’ (p.397), ‘afraid and ashamed of love’ (p.398) is a clear reflection of
the cultural decay that characterizes the current climate, as both Lasch and
Bauman would agree. The demographic contrasts between the cosmopolitan
‘global cities’ (symbolized by Lockewood) and the quasi traditional life of
the countryside (as the images of the Wuthering Heights and the Thrushcross
Grange depict), during the 2016 US elections became even more apparent
(Singh 2017). The commercialized ‘global cities’, drown into the liquid - or
nihilistic - culture of postmodernity, where all representations are changing
in a fast mode, inasmuch as it becomes impossible to develop a solid world,
within which individuals can grow roots, are best described by the man who
‘locks his vulnerability away behind the wooden exterior of conventional
social forms’ (Nussbaum 2003, p.398). Lockewood locks his interest, to
use a more vernacular language, behind a world where love, hatred, anger,
revenge, forgiveness and piety can emerge in every instance of life. This
is the world of the traditionalist countryside, sometimes trapped within a
nostalgic paralysis, but (on the other hand) incorporates memories that can
also function as a source of inspiration, in order to confront the emptiness of
life, the nihilism of the current age. The Penistone Crags, as an example, a
moment of delight, of ascending love, is not a fictional place, but a real existing
force that dwells in the interstices between reality and legend, between what
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has been already done and what goodwill (as opposed to the will-to-power)
and resilience can do. A return to the Penistone Crags, to a ‘spirit’ capable
of unveiling the creativity through which human beings can recreate their
common world, offering a sense of grounding, would revitalize judgment,
the capacity to tell right from wrong.

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Eagleton, T. (2005). Myths of Power. A Marxist Study of the Brontës. London:
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Jung, C. (1960). Collected Works of C.G. Jung: Vol. 8. The Structure and
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Vintage Books.
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Lasslet, P. (1983). The World We Have Lost - further explored (3rd ed.).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Pindar. (1997). Olympian odes, Pythian odes. Harvard University Press.
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Spengler, O. (1961). The Decline of The West. London: George Allen &
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Sign, R., (2017). ‘I, the people’: A deflationary interpretation of populism,
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Weil, S. (1987). The Need for Roots. London: ARK Paperbacks.

ENDNOTES
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1
‘Drawing on Nietzsche, Arendt links the emergence of the will to the
sources of evil in the modern world ... drawing on Heidegger, Arendt
associates the destructiveness of the will with its obsession with the future:
“In order to will the future in the sense of being the future’s master, men
must forget and finally destroy the past”’ (Fine, 2006, p.123).

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2
Nelly Dean, in a dialogue with Heathcliff, where she attempts to confront
him while the latter is losing Catherine for Edgar, argues: ‘Who knows
but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen,
each of them able to buy up, with one week’s income, Wuthering Heights
and Thrushcross Grange together? And you are kidnapped by wicked
sailors, and brought to England’ (Brontë, 2003, p.45).
3
As Nelly recounts ‘Miss Cathy and he were now very thick; but Hindley
hated him, and to say the truth I did the same … for I wasn’t reasonable
enough to feel my injustice’ (Brontë, 2003, p.30). Through these lines we
witness Nelly’s sound reasoning; a person capable to exercise judgment
is the one who tells right from wrong without discerning whether
wrongdoing concerns the actions of others or his/her own past deeds.
4
‘The collective unconscious consists of the sum of the instincts and their
correlates, the archetypes’ (Jung, 1960, p.138).
5
When violence reigns supreme, as for example in the concentration
camps, ‘not only laws’ but almost ‘everything and everybody must fall
silent’ (Arendt, 1990, p.18).
6
It comes not as a surprise that Nietzsche’s arguments articulated in The
Will to Power are plumbed by relativism and disdain for objectivism while,
right in the beginning of the same book, the thinker denounces nihilism
as a ‘pathological condition’ and ‘decadence’ (p. 9). This inconsistency is
attributed to the fact that The Will to Power ‘has posthumously compiled
from Notes for Nietzsche’s ambitiously planned by ultimately abandoned
magnum opus’ (Taffel, 2006, p. ix).
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123
 124

Chapter 6
Negative Impact of Ideology
in Albanian Literature
Marisa Kerbizi
Alexander Moisiu University, Albania

Edlira Tonuzi Macaj

Tirana University, Albania

ABSTRACT
Ideology as a form of ideas and as a practical tool with determinative
purposes in certain circumstances may become very infuential and risky,
too. Albanian literature, as one of the East Bloc countries where communism
was installed as a political system after the Second World War, severely
sufered the ideology consequences in art. The purpose of this research is
to focus on some problems related to the limitations, restrictions, deviation,
regression created by ideology in literature. Concrete case studies will
complete the theoretical frame through the analytical, historical, aesthetical,
and interpretative approach. The hypothesis sustains the idea that the political
ideology of the Albanian dictatorial system has found many ways to damage
the most representative authors and their artistic works of Albanian literature.
The ideology claimed “the compulsory educational system” by interfering in
the school textbooks, by excluding several authors from those textbooks, by
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denying their inclusion or the right for publication, or even by eliminating

them physically.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch006

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

INTRODUCTION

Ideology is broadly defined in terms and characteristics. There are some

specifications which unify its usage every time we deal with it. It stands
closely with other fields as politics, sociology or art and the way it is activated
creates an impact on them.
The main concern of this research is to analyze the relation created
between ideology activated in Albania during the dictatorship period and
the influence it had on the literature. It is needed to operate with the term
in its historical development in order to achieve the differences and to be
familiar with its connotative aspects. It is also necessary a clarification of
ideology nature applied in Albania during 1945-1990 related specifically to
the literary field. The second part of the research deals with specific cases
(authors) who suffered the consequences of ideology.
Ideology is treated briefly in its historical development point of view from
Destuttto Frankfurt School and others as well. Also there are underlined
terminological consistencies and differences of the concept in the works of
some very important scholars, theorists, and critics. This part is considered
as a theoretical segment which helps to understand the ideology concept in
its historical context. There are taken in consideration especially ideologues
who deal constantly with ideology in the shift created from philosophical
point of view to its application on guiding and deciding how the literature
should be looked at. This theoretical framework is necessary to explain the
nature of political ideology which was installed in Albania after 1945, its
strategy: orientations and limitation of Albania literature.
By embracing the socialist realism methodology, the ideology required
that all literary works should follow rules like Zdanov Manifesto suggested.
The main focus of this chapter raises questions like:

1. How and why was set the ideological orientation in Albania and what
its program was about?
2. How is deformed the relationship between literature as a free art with
a schematic sterile form of production?
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The important research part is dedicated to some of the most representative

authors of the Albanian literature and the incompatible or problematic
issues their work produced according to the political reception. Due to this

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

intervention of the ideology in the reading and interpreting process, these

authors experienced the lack of communication with their readers.
The connection between text and readers was limited through ideological
interventions and this lead to a misreading process. Some of ideological ways
that were used to dictate political influence in Albanian literature may be
understood from analyzing these ideological actions:

1. Editing, adapting or erasing parts of the original literary texts in order

to orientate and reduce the interpretation. (Migjeni, Mjedja, etc.);
2. Rejecting authors who were in coherence with political ideology (Fishta,
Camaj, Koliqi);
3. Impeding authors to publish their literary works (Zef Zorba case);
4. Bringing authors to work in difficult work conditions in farms, factories
or even mines, a punishment known as ‘education amidst the working
class’;
5. Imprisoning authors for many years (V. Zhiti, A. Pipa, P. Arbnori, etc.)
6. And the most radical of them all: author’s physical elimination (Genc
Leka, Vilson Blloshmi, Trifon Xhagjika etc.)

This paper analyses and synthesizes the ideology invasion in artistic

production and its deforming process on the history of Albanian literature. It
impoverishes the full panorama of a whole literary history, which could have
been completely different from what we have nowadays. This interruption
phase helps us to re-read, re-interpret and re discover authors who were in the
black list of the dictatorial ideology. In order to evaluate the complete history
of the literary phenomena in Albania, it should been taken into consideration
the process of refilling the huge gap through analyzing the problems that
come from this very dark period of the literary process.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Ideology, fully belongs to ideas, like Destutt stated, it is a ‘science of ideas’,

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and it should be basic for the moral and political sciences (Destutt de Tracy,
A., 1805); after his definition, the term was quickly spread and used in
different aspects. The wide usage of term created a difficulty on its accurate
definition, especially when it is associated with social sciences. Since then, it
has developed into a wide theory of ideology. As a concept though, it contains
an epistemological and a socio-political dimension. Because ideology was

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

in its core ‘a set of ideas’, it is inevitably associated with philosophy, politic,

sociology and arts too.
One of the most important historical viewpoints of how the ideology
should be understood is the Hegelian philosophy. It helps to achieve the
ideology meaning as part of the whole truth (Hegel, F., 2015) while his
successor Feuerbach opposed Hegel’s philosophy giving an anthropological
explanation of religion and embracing a form of materialism (Zalta, E.N.,
2008). Feuerbach ideology on religion, the Hegelian dialectic and the radical
materialism inspired Marx later to conceive his model of ideology as the
product of a society made of classes. Marx and Engels used the term mostly
for conceptions that are on the world of ideas independent of material life.
The metaphysics of ideas in Marx conception of ideology is transformed in
a social and historical explanation focused on class struggle and domination
(Tucker, R. C., 1978: 3). Later, Gramsci spoke about hegemonic ideology,
(different from Stalinism ideology) while Marxist ideology was elaborated
further in the view of Frankfurt School members too.
Adorno, as one of the representative figures, distinguishes the contrast
between liberal and positivist ideology. In his Negative Dialectics, he
described all ideology as identity-thinking form. (Adorno, Th.W., 2004)
Another member of Frankfurt school, Althusser, clearly divided the science
and ideology and how science influences on ideology. By using science, one
can make a reflection over ideology. According to him ideology implies the
imagined existence (or idea) of things as it relates to the real conditions of
existence; he also wrote about ‘ideological state apparatus’ as an ideological
unity of social formation. (Althusser, L., 1969).
In different studies, ideology is considered as a construction of multiple
forms. John Gerring considers the meaning of ideology related to the postwar
context. He points out its flexible nature. Ideology might be dogmatic, might
carry a political sophistication, might suggest modes of thought, might be
related to the parties etc. (Gerring, J., 1997)
So, ideology passes from philosophic abstractions into other fields of
knowledge. It is often used as a theoretical frame of explaining or as a method
of interpretation in art too. It is already a well-known fact the close connection
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between ideology and specifically the literature. Literature is the object of

Marxist criticism, studied by other theorists too such as Macherey, Eagleton,
Jameson, Bourdieu, Bakhtin, Žižek, Foucault, etc.
Macherey relates the concept to the mirror metaphor. The reflection of
the mirror should be partial, selective. The mirror doesn’t reflect everything.
So ideology is inevitable, but the ideological nature of the mirror becomes

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

different in different social formations. (Macherey, P., 1978: 120-130).

Eagleton on the other side explained a list of ideology meanings from the
Enlightenment to postmodernism, while Bourdieu enriches the ideology
meaning with the concept of the authoritative discourse, not necessarily
apprehensible from the mass.
There is also a visible shift from philosophical ideologies toward other
kind of ideologies, like that of a political ideology. Political ideologies are
developed according to certain strategies. Generally, political ideology is
concerned on how to allocate the power.
Ideology is presented as a multifaceted construct from philosophy to
other fields and it takes different forms respectively to each case where it is
applied. Its variety of representations comes as the result of a multiple ways
of interpretations. It might be considered as a body of ideas or as a set of
doctrines, or basically a system of belief.
It is beyond any doubt that literature and ideology have a complicated
relation between them. The influence of ideology on the society is conditioned
by highly specific circumstances occurred in the literature of specific
countries. This relation creates a multifaceted problem which joins them in
an incompatible or exclusive point; ideology (political) by one side and the
author or his literary works on the other side.
In dictatorship countries it is same as the binary opposition monolithic
/ free or metamorphic forms. Between the two edges stands the reader who
experiences the problems of reception of a specific artistic work. In relation to
literature, this hidden ideology is in evidence whenever there is an emphasis
on formalism or aesthetics as the governing principles of literature and art.
(Quinn, E., 2006: 204).
The political ideology is the most influential form of ideology in literature
especially on East bloc countries like Albania. When Eagleton listed some
definitions of ideology among others there were also articulated two ideology
meanings as: (a) ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power; and
(b) false ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power. (Eagleton,
T., 1991:1-2) These features are considered mostly in explanations below.
Shifted from the philosophical abstraction toward political and aesthetical
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observation there are a lot of problems that an ideology caused in the literary
process of Albanian literature, because every ideology has its specifics, they
are not a general phenomenon, as Mitchell suggests. (Mitchell, W. J. Th.,
1986: 177).
Affiliated to the literature the ideology decided to apply the socialist
realism as Zdanov suggested for.

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

Albanian ideology which interfered during 1945-1990 in arts created

an irreparable fractured literary process as well. The socialist realism was
evaluated as the only system of communication – semiotic and how a literary
work had to contain a practical judgment. (Yzeiri, I., 2013). Socialist realism
was decided as the only way the literature should follow. This mindset caused
serious problems during 1945-1990, because as Belinsky principles suggested
literary works have the same assessment criteria.
And this was one side of the situation. The other side is related to the
problems of the reception of these ‘prefabricated works’ like socialist realism
pretended. The concept of the literary reception does not refer to the circulation
or popularity of a text, but it marks indeed the semantic contribution that the
reader, with his expectations, with his knowledge and interpretation, gives
life to a text. (Jauss, H. R., 1982)
The concept of reception connects issues of literary criticism and literature
study in general: tradition, novation, dialectics between classics and modernity.
This novation in literature, besides the discovery of new proceedings, also
comes through rediscovering something that can be updated or recovered.
Jauss underlined the problem of historical differences that exist between
the readings. What about the so called ‘excluded literature’ of 1945 - 1990?
It should be seriously reconsidered because there were a lot of cases
where authors, their properties, their successors, their whole family, were
considered pestilent for the party and they were imprisoned. Arshi Pipa one
of the persecuted Albanian authors highlighted that socialism removed the
bourgeoisie system by dispossessing capitalists and forming a proletarian state
in the form of a dictatorship (Pipa, A., 2010). This was the darkest phase of
the Albanian art whose development was harshly interrupted in its original
growing process. The intervention of the ideology wanted even a dull reader,
who is ready to believe the installed model.
The conscious of the reader needed to be manipulated, that is why ‘critics’
traced talented poets and hunted them down before they might become too
risky for the socialist realism.
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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

RESEARCH

Albanian Literature and the Ideology Intervention

It is a historical fact that Albanian history of literature has been conditioned

and seriously damaged by the installed political system during 1945-1990
which was extremely harsh and had created a network of the surveillance of
artists in general and writers in particular.
In the Albanian history of literature the romanticism had its influence for
a very long time and the first literary modernist examples appeared between
two World Wars. This period of time was considered to be one of the most
successful moments in the history of Albanian literature. New forms, new
approaches and styles flourished on. The literary criticism was just a new
born and the literature experienced the most successful of its time because
the maleficent had not arrived yet.
During the Second World War the artist all over the world were interested
on following the art tendencies. But the twentieth century is also considered as
the century of ideologies as Communism, Fascism, and Nazism. This century
produced only dictatorial powers. Art was dear to them; through art they
might control the spirit and inspiration of humankind. But is it possible? Do
the spirit, inspiration and the fantasy make a compromise with the ideology
and its forms? What happened with those who didn’t follow this oriented
schematized approach to literature?
Propaganda is one of the means of ideology. It takes place anytime, but
its negative connotation is related to dictatorship. It used everything to
achieve its goal. During 1945-1990 the ideological prospective in Albania
had officially decided for almost all the fields of knowledge, it was even
developed by diverse strategies. The ideology on literature was affiliated with
the term socialist realism known generally as a style of idealized realistic
art, applied also in whole Albanian art, which basically embodies ideas that
help to legitimate a dominant political power, as Eagleton suggests in one
of the forms of ideology.
There are diverse definitions about the socialist realism referred to different
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sources as: official theory (Britannica), theory of art (Oxford Dictionary), etc.
The term certainly differs in core from the social realism (of social concern).
In Soviet Union socialist realism was related with the concrete historic
view of artistic representation and this view was associated with the task of
ideological transformation and education of workers in socialism orientation

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

as well. (Zdanov, A., 1970) So Zdanov imposed the socialist realism as the
only way to be followed. This approach toward art and literature in Albania
was adapted from Soviet Union at that time. It was known as the only artistic
creative form of art. It certainly conjugated art with political power.
This way of thinking and criticizing the art work (literary work) influenced
the whole process of judgment of artistic fields. So all artists: writers, musicians,
sculptors etc., were ‘advised’ to transform art ideologically and through it
to educate masses.This kind of ideology proposed for art, and especially
for the literature didn’t stop in general orientation but it went further on.
It was as a curse for writers, their artistic work fate, their texts which were
also manipulated, and also it was dangerous for their personal fate. Ideology
entered on judgment of multiple aspects and levels of writers work and life.

The Aesthetic of the Ideology

Describing the literature in the function of the reality context interferes in

the artistic element of its originality. There is no distinction between the
literary criticism and the criticism of the state apparatus. There was no literary
criticism at all. It stopped to play its role it was meant to have. There was
only a speculation in the name of criticism.
The literature in the context of the ideology (Marxist) should be in the
service of the real life and real people. Perceived in this way, the literature
fell into a schematized program with positivist heroes where the antagonist
and the enemy should always be condemned.
The purity of work class, the equality etc., should be central in fiction.
The literature should be popular, national and educative. Literature should
embody what it is needed (utility). The principles of Belinsky were accepted
as the most right points in the criticism field as poetry was the immediate
contemplation of the truth. The necessity of “true art”, which literature
cannot but accept, reflects the concrete existential naturalness, which must
adapt its structures to the social dialectic of reality and this position formed
the ‘revolutionary’ aesthetic.
According to this criticism there is no need to complicate, to fade or to
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unclear the narration and these technical choices should be avoided anyway.
The totalitarian criticism handled the artistic work completely engaged with
the historical context and with the mission to direct, to educate the taste of
reading according to the programmed model.

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

The literary work should emphasize the model of the individual known
otherwise as the cult of personality most likely as the state-party required him.
The dictator was the model and the artistic image of the spiritual, military
and mindful leader.
At any circumstances the literary character of a novel or the feelings in
poetry should be reflected his figure and where his activity takes place. These
heroes become so special if they don’t give up and sacrifice their life about the
common wealth. These characteristics are part of the socialist realism, part
of Albanian ideology and the only model which literature should represent
its realm.
There was not an individual style at all. De facto it was not allowed.
Art in Albania during 1945-1990 became mainly conditioned by political
control, under a strong pressure of surveying authors and their works. The result
is that the literary history of Albania has been equal to authors subordinated
to the propaganda lines.
In such conditions the literature became an expression of a fake reality,
not substantial, but useful for the ideals described and oriented by the state
ideology.According to it the literature should follow these features: to be
relevant and understandable to workers, to deal with problems of everyday
life, to be realistic and always in support of party and state.
What about the rebels? Their fate was soon decided and provided by the
party-state.

The Concrete Literary Regress Caused

by the Ideological Pressure

Artists were quickly grouped or classified by the ideology (the writers in this
case). Some of them were used by it and they served their art according to
state previsions, some of them were just stuck in that schematic artistic view,
some were excluded from the system, some were declared ‘unwanted’, some
of them could be admitted only if their text would change after a ‘professional’
revision whereas others were left with no choice; they were even physically
eliminated as considered dangerous contingents to the propaganda. How
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come? There is a simple historical explanation of the facts occurred one after
another in that period of time.
After the Second World War, Albania took a serious transformation in its
society. Communist system was undertaking its predicted actions.The Union
of the Albanian writers held in 1945 the first Congress. Its adherents had

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

different mindsets and they were educated in different cultural backgrounds.

Some were educated in Western Europe and some of them in the East. The
membership was full of notable intellectuals as: V. Prenushi, S. Shpuza, Sh.
Musaraj, L. Poradeci, Dh. Shuteriqi, S.Malëshova, A. Xhuvani, A. Asllani, S.
Luarasi, M. Kuteli, S. Spasse, etc. These writers had contributed in Albanian
cultural sphere according to their intellectual beliefs often in disagreements.
During its first session the congress finalized the discussion with the
approval of a general declaration. The article 4 declared the exclusion of every
member (writer) of the Union who had collaborated previously with the enemy
(1945). Because of this rapid wind of dramatic changes that was coming, the
cultural newspaper ‘Bota e Re’ (‘The New World’) stopped its publication.
It was soon replaced by another review entitled: Our literature, with its first
volume published in 1947. In its content it was published Zdanov’s discourse.
In the literature environment it becomes important the identification
process of the writers who deviated from the party guidelines. At times there
was a super control of the editorial section in every edition of books and of
cultural newspapers. A document found in State Central Archive, related to
the literature development on 1947, contains the new concept of ideology on
the literary process. It sees the literature as a representative of classes (the
traitors have their pro fascist literature and the people should have their own.
(Gjoka, A., 2017) It had also been a kind of writer’s classification in groups.
There were distinguished a notable group labeled as fascist whereas in fact
there were intellectuals who contributed in Albanian literature and patriotic
issues too (Gjergj Fishta, Anton Arapi, Ernest Koliqi, etc) who were later
executed or exiled by the political system installed. Others were labeled as
compromised writers as Lumo Skëndo (Mi’that Frashëri), etc. They were
less involved in politics than the first group of writers as the document states.
Years of 1946-1948 were the first years of the selective process of ‘values’
and ‘writers’ as the ‘party-state’ would soon recommend. In 1949 Sejfulla
Malëshova was expelled from the Party. With his fall, political extremism
triumphed. Major writers such as Fishta, Konitza, Schirò, Mjedja, Prennushi
and Poradeci, were expelled from literature textbooks as if they were rags
to be thrown out. Also expelled were other writers who had had connection
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with political parties during the Fascist and Nazis occupation. Malëshova
was replaced by Shuteriqi. (Pipa, A., 1959)
In 1949 the third conference on literature issues was framed through
intensive debates. The main focus was to lead the Albanian literature towards
socialist realism. Some writers were punished. The only framework that was
decided was the same as that in the Soviet Union. The socialist realism was

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

the only method for conceiving the literary product. Disobedient writers were
excluded, punished, prosecuted, executed, etc. Literature themes should be
oriented toward “The new socialist man” adopted on socialism, economic
prosperity, heroism of partisans and heroism of the work class.The literature
inspired from the socialist realism method was decided to be the only one
needed to feed the Albanian Art. This model dominated forcedly till in years
’60 of the past century and that was not enough.
The blurred political situation between Russia and Albania indicated the
ideology system of Albania to seek other political and artistic allies. This
period caused interruption of studies for many students we were attending
their universities in the Soviet Union. It was Chinese interference culture
which became a new inspiration beside the economic and political support.
In 1967 another repressive action was taken: the religion was prohibited and
all the religion cults were destroyed or transformed in other destinations.
During ’69-’72 there was a light and a hope for changes but it was quickly
repressed. There was a new wave of detentions, many people were arrested
found guilty for these ‘unpredictable changes’.
In this situation literature was like a bird in cage, echoing a mourning music
rather than a melody. The situation began to take a breath after the dictator’s
death. There were some developments and the influence of political system
in art and literature in general was fading little by little.
The realist socialism was the only way that the literature could proliferate.
All the others forms were condemned and the writers who would dare not to
obey were imprisoned or executed.

The Fractured Literary Reception (Specific Cases)

Letting out analytic reasons why or how the socialist realism became obligation,
let us take into consideration what did this radical line of political ideology
do to important figures of the nation. Analyzing the ideology’s strategy to
prevent other aesthetic forms besides socialist realism there are listed some
identified of them:
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1. Authors whose literary texts were interrupted, edited and interpreted

politically, adapted as the ideology required by erasing parts of the original
literary texts in order to orientate and reduce their communication. Their
texts were used against the previous political regime, before socialist
realism was settled as the only choice. (Mjedja, Noli, etc).

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

2. Rejected authors, excluded from the history of literary scholar texts, for
not being compatible with the installed model (Fishta, Camaj, Koliqi).
3. Unpublished authors (Z. Zorba case).
4. Long time imprisoned authors; K. Trebeshina, Arshi Pipa, Pjetër Arbnori,
Gjergj Komnino or poets as Frederik Reshpja, Visar Zhiti, etc. were
denounced and imprisoned unjustly. After the imprisonment period they
suffered long time internments, known as the practice of ‘education in
the middle of the work class’. Many of them died in miserable conditions
like Musine Kokalari, one of the most notable woman writers.
5. Executed authors like Anton Harapi, Trifon Xhagjika, Bernardin Palaj,
Lazër Shantoja, Genc Leka,Vilson Blloshmi, etc.

1. Mjedja is one of the most read and beloved authors of Albanian literature,
identified for high quality verses with his published work Juvenile,
published in 1917. Although his poetic language is difficult (dialect
gegh) it didn’t prevent generations to memorize his verses. All scholars
do evaluate Mjedja as one of the most excellent poets. (Papleka, A.,
1999: 235)

Gradilione in his writings, in 1906, insisted that Mjedja has the influence
of some foreign authors, especially Italians such as Pascoli and Carducci
and Cordignano and he appreciates him as a poet who harmonizes perfect
thought and form as classicist writers used to do. (Cordignano, F., 1938:195-
197) He was distinguished among others for the perfect poetic techniques on
elaborating sonnets. Scholars as R. Kryeziu, when elaborating the process and
the individuality of criticism of poetry of the time, agree that the year 1944
was the last when critical thought had the freedom of expression, irrespective
of authors’ approaches, freedom that would soon be lost. (Kryeziu, R., 2008:
260-261)
In 1945-1990 there were some partial and incomplete reprints of Mjedja’s
work. In 1953, Vjersha (Poetries), in 1964 Juvenile and other poems were
published. This is a problematic period over the conclusions he had drawn
on his poetic work especially about his famous poem Andrra e jetës (Life’s
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Dream), where the criticism did not escape from the political interpretation.
In other cases there were removed or changed many verses from his poems.
Sometimes there were removed even the diacritics signs, accents, etc., but
Mjedja really insisted to use them as a personal choice, as poetic technics.
In other cases there were removed verses related to the Christian religion,
terms, names, reference about Christian belief, etc. The monography of

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

M. Gurakuqi, with an introduction by V. Bala underlined the idea: …cuts

have been made in parts of unnecessary extension or excessive detail, any
overview has been removed. (Gurakuqi, M., 1980:8) That’s what authors
like Mjedja need to be re-read and re-evaluate through the original texts and
not by the adapted texts according to the editors who served to the ideology.
The problem stands at the interpretation of his verses too. This evaluation
ignored the religious dimension, one of the most important of his work. The
critics tented to analyze his poetries in the light of realism poetics. Noli also
was one of the authors to whom the biblical references are reduced a lot in
the interpretation, focusing into his texts only in the parts where he attacks
the political system before 1945 (the monarchy). He never came back in
Albania after deliberation of the country. Many other authors passed through
the filters of the political power.

2. Fishta, Koliqi and Camaj are some of the authors who didn’t have
any communication with the reader during the 1945-1990, because
their artistic work was forbidden to be published, learned at schools or
discussed. Fishta was excluded by scholar texts. His name and his verses
of the most popular poem Lahuta e Malcis’, (The Highland Lute) were
denied all the time but his influence remained in collective memory.
According to Robert Elsie ‘Yet despite four decades of unrelenting Party
and propaganda that tried to reduce Fishta’s personality to a ‘clerical
and fascist poet,’ the people of northern Albania, and in particular the
inhabitants of his native Shkodra, did not forget him’. Even Fishta was
early excluded by the literary textbooks and his works were able to
publish after the fall of communist regime.

Ernest Koliqi (1903-1975) studied at Jesuit College in Shkodra later in

Italy when he gets his PhD. He becomes the editor of the literary magazine
Ora e maleve. He worked as a Minister of Education, while he opened many
schools in Kosovo to teach Albanian language. He also edited the first Albanian
writer’s anthology. In 1944, after the communist took the political control he
left Albania till he died in exile, in Italy. During this time he was the editor
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of the literary magazine Shêjzat. Meanwhile, his work in Albania was totally
forbidden. The readers hadn’t any chance to know his artistic work. They
were not been able to know one of the most notable intellectuals of that time.
Martin Camaj (1925-1992) was born in Dukagjin and first learned as
an autodidact. He studied in Belgrade. In 1956 he moved to Italy, Roma
and later studied and worked in Munich from 1960 till he died in 1992.

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

His contribution and teaching experience at university was about Albanian

language and dialects. Soon he was highlighted as one of the most talented
poets who unfortunately couldn’t communicate with the Albanian readers,
because of the censorship. His works were published in Prishtina, 1953,
1954, but not in Albania during 1945-1990. His poetry was clearly against
any ideological line.

3. Zef Zorba (1920-1993) was born in Kotor and studied at the Lyceum of
Shkodra and then at Padova, Italy for Political Studies. He returned to
Albania during the second war and was employed in the bank. In 1946
he was arrested and sued until 1951. After the imprisonment he worked
as an accountant and secretly translated R. Frost, Xh. Ungaretti, S.
Quazimodo, E. Montale, T.S. Eliott; He wrote only a volume of poetry
that was published after his death. So Zorba is one of those poets who
didn’t have the chance to be read during dictatorship. His book was
published only after the fall of the communist regime.
4. There is also a tragic category of imprisoned authors or those who
passed their life or a part of it in working camps and in internment.
They were imprisoned mainly with the same accusation: agitation and
propaganda. For years they suffered the most miserable conditions in
cells where everything was against the human rights. Pjeter Arbnori,
after a long unjust trial was tortured and first sentenced to death. Then he
suffered 28 year of prison. During this time he wrote his novels and short
stories. After the communism had fallen he continued his battle for the
freedom of speech. His victory was considered to be ‘The Amendament
Arbnori’ which guaranteed the independence of press from political
interference. In 2006 the International Center of Culture established the
Pjetër Arbnori Prize for Literature. Another case of long internment till
death was Musine Kokalari, the first female writer in Albania before
the communism was installed.
5. Genc Leka and Vilson Blloshmi, two young promising poets stand as
the most flagrant case of what a censorship instructed by the ideological
principles may cause. Both poets were executed after the famous
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accusation of propaganda. Their poetry was unconditioned from socialist

realism aesthetic. Their remains were found from their familiars after
the demise of dictatorship. Trifon Xhagjika was charged as a revisionist
and was executed too. His poetry volume Gjurma, 1963 was unsuitable
for the regime.

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

During the dictatorship period (1945-1990) scholar textbooks, academic

texts related to the history of the Albanian literature held the same standard
of evaluation. (HLSH II, 1959; Bihiku, K., 1980; HLSH, 1983). The authors
who were diverse from the ideological line were vanished as they had not
ever existed.
After ’90-s a lot of things changed. The academic viewpoint of evaluation
too.The ideological line of assessment about literature installed big deviations
from the aesthetic criteria. Many scholars took individual enterprises to
stabilize facts and the nature of studies.Censured authors were re-read and
reinterpreted in the light of the different methodologies, overpassing socialist
realism which damaged the most part of original texts. Rejected authors or
the unpublished ones were reevaluated and according to their contribution
were included into literary canons. The political imprisoned people, among
them all the writers, were released from prison in 1991.They were partly
rehabilitated. Executed (shot mostly) writers were the stigma of that brutal
political system, none or nothing could fill the emptiness of their human and
artistic values.
Literary studies have experienced new approaches and a lot of work is
done. Manuscripts are found, unpublished artistic works have been revealed
and a process of rehabilitation has been undertaken. But a lot of things remain
unsolved too. So after ’90-s the situation was not easy.
There are a lot of problems to face. It is needed a new approach in order
to finalize a healthy model which would be the right one to represent authors
and literary works. Criteria should be selected accurately.
The ideology left apart the most notable national figures. They might
have contributed in Albanian culture if they had been free. Censure of texts,
exclusion of well-known authors, imprisonment or internment of writers,
execution of them without any trial or with false one, seriously damaged
Albanian literature.
The task of contemporary studies stands on the rehabilitation of all authors
who are directly affected by the political ideology.
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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Today it is still vague the option of having a final and full panorama of the
literary historical representations of authors and values. It is an unfulfilled
course because of the inadequacy of the selection criteria (even partly literary)
that such a pattern should have or because there should be in consideration
occurrences interfered into. (Gashi, O., 2010; Sinani, Sh., 2010)
It is still a challenge compiling the full description of the literary
historiography. It should have a scientific balance, a clear structure, everything
is needed for a full proof of the entire culture in order to overcome its problems
(Dado, F., 2011: 350) and this might require a full database of authors who
are damaged for their artistic work during
It’s an obligatory task for scholars to review the role, to assess the
contribution, and to rehabilitate the status of the damaged stakeholders in this
complex process. It is needed a scan and a deep analyses of their unpublished
contribution, of their process of creation under difficult circumstances and
in order to represent the interference of this wild ideology which wanted to
enter the literature’s skin.

CONCLUSION

Ideology, especially the political ideology succeeds to affect all aspects of life
in a society. It becomes installed even in the production of art meaning. The
ideology installed in Albania after 1945 till 1990 affected all fields of life.
It certainly wanted at any cost the power of mindset inspired from literature.
So instead of a natural movement of mindsets in literature it guided in the
production of meanings and through them to definite social values.
Instead of following its natural development literature was hostage of the
ideology as a political power to install false ideas, a false communication
with the reader, because there was a program how and what literature should
represent.
Due to this interference the ideology cut the energy and diversification of
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art and literature in specifics. It took the leading process to represent literature
only as the unique way in its development which was the socialist realism.
The literature directed only in socialist realism took the advantage in
literature field. It constituted the way how a literature should proceed, what
authors should do and took care how to isolate art from foreigner interferences.

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

The situation must be controlled with the censorship of texts, preselected

authors, a detailed review of texts and programming literature according to
the ideological philosophy.
The ‘traitors’ of this line suffered severe punishments: imprisonment,
internment and even executions.

REFERENCES

Adorno, Th. W. (2004). Negative Dialectics. London: Routledge.

Althusser, L. (1968). For Marx. London: The Penguin Press.
Belinsky, V.G. (2001). Selected Philosophical works. University Press of
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Claude, A. L. (1805). Elèmensd’idèologie. Troisiemepartie. Logique.
Cordignano, F. (1938). Dom Ndre Mjedja. “Cirka”. Shkodër, nr.49-50.
Dado, F. (2011). Sfida teorike të historiografisë letrare. Tiranë: Bota Shqiptare
Destutt de Tracy.
Eagleton, T. (1991). Ideology. An introduction. London: Verso.
Elsie, R. (2011). English Albanian Literature in Translation.
Gjergj Fishta. Retr ieved from https://www.webcitation.org/
query?url=https%3A%2F%2Fround-lake.dustinice.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.albanianliterature.net%2Fauthors_
classical%2Ffishta.html&date=2011-04-05
Gerring, J. (1997). Ideology: A Definitional Analysis. Political Research
Quarterly, 50(4), 957–994.
Gjoka, A. (2017). Kur nisi udhën e saj letërsia e realizmit socialist në Shqipëri.
Gazeta shqiptare.
Gurakuqi, M. (1980). Mbi veprën poetike të Ndre Mjedjes. Tiranë: N. Frashëri.
Hegel, F. (2015). Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline,
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Part 1, Science of Logic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Holden, P. (2013). Hans Robert Jauss and Literary Horizons of Expectations.
University of Singapore. Retrieved from http://www.gsh.al/2017/08/07/kur-
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Jauss, H. R. (1982). Toward an aesthetic of reception. Minneapolis, MN:

University of Minnesota Press.
Jost, J. T., Kay, A. C., & Thorisdottir, H. (2009). Social and Psychological
Bases of Ideology and System Justification. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320916.001.0001
Konferenca e III-të e Lidhjes së Shkrimtarëve të Shqipërisë 9-12 tetor 1949.
(1950). Tiranë: Botim i Lidhjes së Shkrimtarëve të Shqipërisë.
Kryeziu, R. (2008). Nga lindja në perëndim: Aspekte të mendimit kritik
shqiptar 1913-1944. Prishtinë: IAP.
Macherey, P. (1978). A theory of literary production. London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Mitchell, W. J. T. (1986). Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226148052.001.0001
Papleka, A. (1999). Poetë shqiptarë nga shek 12- 19. Antologji. Tiranë:
Mësonjtorja e pare.
Pipa, A. (1959). Communism and Albanian Writers (R. Elsie, Trans.). Retrieved
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albanianhistory.net%2Ftexts20_3%2FAH1959.html&date=2012-01-10
Pipa, A. (2010). Stalinizmi shqiptar. Tiranë: Botimet Princi.
Quinn, E. (2006). A dictionary of literary and thematic terms (2nd ed.). New
York: Facts on File.
Terras, V. (1974). Belinskij and Russian Literary Criticism: The Heritage of
Organic Aesthetics. University of Wisconsin Press.
Tucker, R. C. (1978). The Marx-Engels Reader. W. W. Norton & Company.
Yzeiri, I. (n.d.). Semiopragmatika e realizmit socialist (1944-1949). Tiranë:
Onufri.
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Zalta, E. N. (2008). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Academic Press.

Zdanov, A. (1970). Arte e socialismo. Milano: Cooperativa Editrice Nuova
Cultura.

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 Negative Impact of Ideology in Albanian Literature

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Albanian League of Writers and Artists: The organization of the

Albanian writers, critics, scholars.
Censorship: An interference, usually a political one, or the concrete
practice to forbid, to censure the artistic activity of authors; the attempt not
to publish certain texts, interference.
Dictatorship: Undemocratic government, a country governed by absolute
rules of a party directed by the prime leader, the dictator.
Ideology: A political sophisticated set of ideas, a theoretical orientation
in order to have the control in different fields of life, (here) especially in the
literature.
Internment: Isolation of people who were suspected for the activity against
state. They were settled in camps or far villages in miserable conditions.
Political Ideology: A harsh line of ethical principles of the party-state in
Albania that explain to the society and oblige it how works should be done.
Propaganda: One of the means of the ideology, information, ideas programs
usually controlled by an organization or state in a biased argument with the
intention to influence the society.
Reader’s Reception: Experiencing the meaning of a text.
Socialist Realism: A literary methodology that explained the literary
work according a political line.
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 143

Chapter 7
Intertextuality in
Political Discourse
Elena Kitaeva
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4000-7771
St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Olga Ozerova
St. Petersburg State University, Russia

ABSTRACT
The chapter presents the discussion on intertextuality role in political discourse,
namely in key leaders’ political speeches. Intertextuality highlights the
uncontested dialogicity of political discourse and takes it to the next level of
decoding the speaker’s message to the audience. By means of intertextuality,
political leaders establish links with their audience outlining common values
with the support of history, cultural traditions, and religion. Research into
the speeches by key politicians allows the authors to reveal trends of intertext
usage in European and American political discourse.

INTRODUCTION

Political speech is the most salient genre introduced in the field of political
discourse (Chernyavskaya, 2006). Political speech speaks volumes of how
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the power is transferred, exercised, and generally perceived in a country.

Political speech is a powerful source of influence for the state institutions,
that determine political and social processes in the society (Fairclough,
1989); political speech is a powerful tool for shaping the political thinking

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch007

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

and political “mind” of a nation, that enables the actors and recipients of the
political activity to acquire a certain political vision.
The style of official speech-giving is seen as one of the major cornerstones
of communicating the country’s ideology to the public, both domestically-
wise and world-wise. As performed by key-politicians of a country, rhetorics
of political speech has become identified with the particular political leader
and his/her style.
Political discourse encompasses a multitude of rhetoric strategies, tactics
and linguistic devices; these are all goal-oriented and depend on the particular
goal a politician chooses to pursue. Hence the diversity of discursive strategies
is traditionally in the spotlight of linguists and researchers who study and
analyze political discourse.
The public use of language has always been a fruitful field of research
since Aristotle’s “Rhetoric” dating from the 4th century BC. In the XXth
century it gained its momentum after the World War II, when the power of
words and persuasion became tragically obvious. A series of research carried
out in late 1940-s and 1950-s got into the limelight: intrinsic links between
language and politics were studied in Central Europe and Germany, and this
was influenced by the overall usage of propaganda and the Cold war onset
(Wodak, R.E. 2018 Language and Politics In: English language. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan 508 p).
Then, in the 1960-s and 1970-s, the notion of intertext and discourse
were brought into the field of linguistics and political studies. According to
the concept of discourse by Michel Foucault, discourse is not merely a way
of thinking or production of meaning. Discourses deal with the patterns of
knowledge which can be found in any disciplinary structure and function by
connecting knowledge and power; moreover, they constitute unconscious
and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern
(Foucault, 1972). A major body of research on political discourse focuses
on discourse in theory and practice, (Dijk, 1997; Wilson, 2001; Chilton,
2004; Lakoff, 2009); parliamentary (Ilie, 2003; Ilie, 2006; Bayley, 2004;
Alvarez-Benito, 2009; Dijk, 2004) and presidential discourses (Carpenter,
1982; Kendall, 1995; Gilmore, J., Rowling, 2018).
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The concept of intertextuality originates from the M. Bakhtin’s studies

on F. Dostoevsky and F. Rabelais (Bakhtin, 1986) and is based upon the
polyphonic nature of literary works; later intertextuality was coined as a
term by Julia Kristeva (Kristeva, 1986) when she first introduced it at Roland
Barthe’s seminars in Paris.

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

According to J. Kristeva intertextuality is a continuity of texts referring

to one another, producing and reproducing over time other texts/discourses.
N. Fairclough argues that all texts are inherently intertextual by their nature,
and as such are constituent of other texts (Fairclough, 1992). Dwelling on
the notion that texts immersed into one another create a dense and diverse
context, G. Genette defines intertextuality as a relationship of co-presence
between texts (Genette 1997; Alfaro, 2016).
Mikhail Bakhtin developed the notion of dialogicity and addressivity as
two integral elements of intertextuality. M. Bakhtin states that text is always
produced for someone – a reader, a listener (addressivity); therefore, this text
becomes a channel for communication (dialogicity).
Political communication via political speech or any other means of
addressing the public (billboards, slogans, campaign ads, etc.), has got a range
of particular features: it is performed to a large audience, it is prepared and
non-spontaneous, and is perceived and processed at the moment of speaking.
A politician giving a speech aims at succeeding not only with the target
group of listeners/viewers but also tries to reach for a bigger audience at both
cognitive and emotional levels. While conducting their discourse politicians
tend to exploit intertextual inclusions multidimensionally: they do so to
establish rapport with people, to affect people’s minds and make them believe
the speaker, and create a specific environment that can unite participants of
a “dialogue”, the most prominent example being the speech by M.L. King “I
have a Dream”, where the orator masterfully employs notions, references and
manner of speaking close to the public he addresses, achieving the goal he
aimed at (https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm).
The essence of public speaking and namely this inherent “dialogicity” is
to influence the recipient of the text/speech, and public opinion in general,
to employ the power of persuasion and various rhetoric strategies in order
to verbalize political intentions and produce new meanings. Thus, political
language establishes the socio-political environment and determines the
implicit and explicit pattern of mediating the discourse between state and
society (Macleavy, 2006).
Considering all the interrelations that are persistent between language and
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politics, politics and culture and culture and language there is little doubt that
political discourse is rich in context and should be studied in a more profound
way. So far, it seems, that intertextuality issues have escaped the researchers’
attention while analyzing linguistic content of political discourse; however,
it seems well worth looking into the issue, as t intertextual implementation

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

can shape the peculiarities of the political message and establish “special”
relations with the audience.
The aim of the study is to analyze the role and functions of intertext in
public/political speech. To achieve this, the following stages of analysis should
be carried out: to reveal intertext inclusions in speeches; to outline tendencies
in selecting intertext inclusions; to evaluate functions of intertextuality in
political discourse and its effects on the audience (using audio versions of
speeches and video footage) in order to enable the assessment of public
reaction and response to intertext used.

METHODOLOGY AND MATERIAL

Since the focus of this study is to reveal the mechanisms of intertext usage in
public speech, a decent framework for empirical analysis is needed. Several
models that offer some evaluative criteria for intertextual analysis exist.
Gerard Genette’s model of text analysis investigates textual relations
across structuralism, post-structuralism and semiotics, outlining five basic
types, namely architextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality, hypertextuality
and intertextuality. G. Genette further distinguishes explicit (in forms of
quotations), non-explicit (termed as plagiarism when no reference or clue is
given as a homage to the source text) and implicit forms of intertextuality
(hidden intertexts and allusions) (Mirenayat, Soofastaei 2015).
Although Genette’s model of textual analysis provides a grounded theoretic
framework, it is difficult to operate within this model because it is cutting
down the intertext prevalence to only three forms (quotations, plagiarism,
allusions).
Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor proposed another model of intertext
analysis. It accounts for intertext across all text genres, opposing to the
“literary intertext” dominating concept. Intertextual inclusions are present on
two levels of the text: the intrastructural level (lexicon, grammar, style and
semiotics) and interstructural level (elements and internal inclusions of textual
and intertextual dimension) (Bloor, Bloor 2013; Ahmadian, Yazdani, 2013).
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The main limitation evident here is that the model omits literary intertext,
overlooking the importance of cultural background allusive inclusions in
the text.
The following model of intertext analysis performed across two dimensions
– the horizontal and the vertical one proves to be more empirically applicable
with a minimum of limitations (paradigmatic and syntagmatic).

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

The paradigmatic axis is both about the integrity of the constructed text
and the reader’s/audience’s perception of the text/oral speech as a whole.
It encompasses the creation of a text in terms of design, construction and
production together with the interpretation of a text by a reader. A text may be
an adaptation or imitation of another text, or simply have intertextual inclusions
leading to other texts leading for the horizontal type of text comparison.
The functions of paradigmatic intertext are:

• to develop and maintain the frst level of the author/narrator- reader/

listener relations;
• to provide substantial grounds for future communication and feedback;
• to integrate a text as a construct and text’s perception provided by a
reader as one;
• to allow for genre adaptation/imitation of another text, featuring
interdiscursivity;
• to be is explicit and recognizable;
• to lead to other texts in order for a text-to-text comparison;
• to denote references of the same level of analysis;
• to allow for “manifest” forms of intertexts that carry the old context in
order to perform a new meaning.

The syntagmatic axis deals with text in the context of all the previous
and current texts present. The intertextual inclusions are mostly hidden and
implicit, referring not to the surface structure of the text, but to its deeper
layers. Intertext can be represented in forms of allusion, adaptation, indication
and quotation; intertextual references and allusions that come from the pre-
text acquire new meaning in the text and become connected to the global
intertextual net, thus creating new vertical context.
Intertextual functions revealed on the syntagmatic axis are:

• to embed the text into a global net of contexts-historical, cultural,

political;
• to deal with texts in context of all the previous and current texts present;
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• to carry the old meaning to the new contexts.

Such methodological findings fall in the line of how intertextuality is

viewed theoretically-wise- also perceived in two dimensions: the paradigmatic
and the syntagmatic one, therefore this model of intertext analysis seems

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

to be the most comprehensive one for the present study (Kristeva, 1986;
Fairclough, 1992).
Speeches delivered by key statesmen during their presidency were analyzed
(B. Obama, D. Trump, V. Putin, N. Sarkozy, T. May). The speeches were
retrieved from the official websites of Administrations; in the case of V. Putin
and N. Sarkozy the speeches were analyzed both in corresponding native
languages of the speakers and the English language, translation provided by the
abovementioned websites. Generally, about 10-12 speeches for each politician
were subject to linguistic analysis. The chosen speeches were delivered to
honor the major events for this or that country/international events of global
importance. A detailed analysis of three Presidents’ speeches, namely B.
Obama, V. Putin, N. Sarkozy will be given below. These three were chosen for
presentation to show possible differences and similarities related to national and
cultural identities that are evoked due to the intertext employment. However,
the results of the research cover all the material. All speeches were analyzed
both in their transcript versions and video presentations, making it possible
to include oral specifics of a speaker (rhythm, intonation, pace, etc.) to see
the audience’s response and reaction to the speaker.

ANALYSIS OF INTERTEXTUALITY
IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The Role of Intertext in American Political

Discourse (Barack Obama Case-Study)

The 44th President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama created his
Presidential discourse during his Presidency around two main sources:
American history and American Civil Religion. The employment of intertextual
references in Obama’s speeches is rich and diverse.
The Sandy Hook Prayer Vigil national eulogy, given by Obama is an
outstanding example of speech giving. The speech is architextual and
interdiscursive, which in this case is obvious for the genre’s blend of political
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speech and a prayer given for a nation. Obama says: “I come to offer the love
and prayers of a nation”. Moreover, he sounds like a preacher masterfully
using a whole range of stylistic devices such as pitch, rhythm, sentence
parallelism, contrast, metaphors and biblical lexicon- «carnage», «evil»,
«despair», «resilience», «love», «shield».

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

B. Obama starts his prayer with the quote from Scripture: “So we fix
our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. This is a part of the Second Letter
to Corinthians (4: 16-18), where the major focus is made on the ability to
present weaknesses and to resurrect life.
B. Obama creates the discourse following the structure of prayer. He starts
with the words from Scripture, then refers to those gathered, speaking of the
loss and sorrow, then confronts the sin – the perilous massacre at the Sandy
Hook Primary school, and admits that the efforts of the nation are too humble,
and a lot more has to be done. Obama says: “No single law — no set of laws
can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence
in our society. But that can’t be an excuse for inaction”, highlighting two law
systems – the Godly single law and a set of laws, made by people. Then he
goes deeper for the meaning of life, exploiting a preacher “conversationalist
style”: “Why are we here? What gives our life meaning? What gives our acts
purpose? We know our time on this Earth is fleeting” and responds mirroring
the main message of the prayer, that love wins over anything: “There’s only
one thing we can be sure of, and that is the love that we have”. B. Obama
says that love is the basic staple of human life, love is «fierce and boundless»,
inspirational and kind. The climax of the speech is introduced with the quote
from Matthew 19:14: “Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “and
do not hinder them — for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And
then he calls out the names of the children who died during the shootings,
concluding “God has called them all home”.
B. Obama closes the speech with a blessing “May God bless and keep
those we’ve lost in His heavenly place. May He grace those we still have
with His holy comfort. And may He bless and watch over this community,
and the United States of America”. He offers people not only his presidential
guidance but consolation in the name of God.
There is a great number of intertextual references with pretexts rooted in
American culture and therefore immediately recognizable. One of the key
allusions in Barack Obama’s text and talk is the motto of his presidential
campaign, “Yes, we can”. It is widely exploited throughout all his speeches and
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serves for topical coherence and pragmatically successful message delivery.

This slogan is a translation of “Si, se puede” – a slogan created by César
Chávez, the leader of Hispanic United Farm Workers Union of the USA
(1970-s), therefore it provides for substantial resonation with the Hispanic
community.

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

“Yes, we can” is a three-part classical rhetoric slogan that creates a mini-

story of opportunity for positive change and success. By saying “Yes, we
can”, Obama tells a story constructed by the metanarrative and the underlying
sense of challenge fulfilled.
Intertextual references here highlight the intermingling of genres, creating
the architext that lies within the context of the past. Deeply rooted cultural
heritage of the American nation, namely the culture of prayer and preaching
gets reflected in the new discourse tissue. Explicit references to the text (Holy
Scripture), and genre (prayer) provide the well-known and recognizable
context and help to establish the speaker-audience connection.
Barack Obama’s first Inaugural address follows all the rules of a genre- it is
a highly institutionalized formal speech aimed at setting the tone for the new
Administration and speaking to the nations’ concerns and hopes. Inaugural
speech is loaded with deep pragmatic function, i.e. to deliver the message
on the presidential vision of the nation and the world. Usually, the focus of
the speech is on thematic intertextuality: sites of national memory, unity and
traditional American values. This is when B. Obama uses the type of political
discourse that is known as American Civil Religion (Kitaeva Ozerova, 2018).
Americans share a common Civil Religion that is based upon fundamental
beliefs and values. It is rich with vertical reminiscence and allusions that attach
to the American History, the Founding Fathers and main documents of the
American Nation: The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It
echoes Protestant values and assumptions, sanctifying the Founding Fathers,
Puritans, and all those who fought for America on the battlefield. The idea of
American Exceptionalism, featured by such quotations as “one nation under
God” and “the city on a hill” are also widely introduced in the American
civil religion.
The American Civil Religion is filled with biblical intertexts and quasi-
biblical words and phrases: “the fruits of prejudice and bigotry”, “the seeds
of its own demise”, “responsible stewards of God’s blessing” [Remembrance
Speech], “When the trumpet call sounded … the people came” [Bloody Sunday];
“to pick up the torch and cross this bridge”, “a beacon of opportunity”, “the
foundation stone of our democracy”, “the culmination of so much blood and
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sweat and tears”, “the product of so much sacrifice” [Bloody Sunday speech].
Obama’s rhetoric emphasizes a multitude of antagonisms of the American
society, at the same time giving hope and maintaining the significance of
bonding American values.
In his first Inaugural speech, B. Obama uses historical intertext listing
himself as one of the Presidents to show the link with the predecessors

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and pay homage to them. He says: “Forty-four Americans have now taken
the presidential Oath” and counts himself demonstrating that he now has
inherited the great responsibility and honor given to him by the nation).
He addresses the audience using quasi-religious language (which itself is
an interdiscursive device and intertextual inclusion) in his journey through
American history, touching upon all the sacred symbols of the Nation. He
quotes Scripture (The First Letter to Corinthians 13:11) saying: “the time has
come to set aside childish things”, thus postulating that the American nation
is still young but has already grown up in terms of deeds and values. One of
the key intertextual inclusions that Obama employs from the Constitution is
the form of appeal to the audience as “We, the people” – a direct quotation
of its first line. He refers to the Founding Fathers reminding us of their great
deeds for the Nation and Liberty: “Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils
that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and
the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations”.
Barack Obama uses metaphorical intertext in historical context speaking
of the making of a nation: “In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of
months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores
of an icy river. The Capitol was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The
snow was stained with blood. «Let it be told to the future world...that in the
depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city
and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]”.
After referring to the cold winter of the Revolutionary War, B. Obama
enables the nation’s spirit: “America: In the face of our common dangers, in
this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words”. Obama
reminds: «passing through a hard winter. we’ve weathered some hard winters
before “<…>Together, we shall make a way through winter, and we’re going
to welcome the spring”.
The references are made not only to the staples of American nation and its
highest values, but also to the moments of greatest sorrow, the major of which
is slavery and consequential racial discrimination. So, he alludes to history:
“and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and
emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united”. The intertextual
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inclusion here plays a role of connector. A line is drawn across generations,

linking the past to the present like this: “a man whose father less than sixty
years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand
before you to take a most sacred Oath”. Thus, he personifies his story and
mirrors it in the moment of American history timeline.

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

The notion of sharing a common history and shaping common future

accounts not only for the best, but for the wish-for-better days when America
had to grow stronger through sacrifice and pain. Speaking of racial issues
Barack Obama uses Martin Luther King’s words.
B. Obama extensively uses metaphoric language and relies on metaphoric
intertexts creating powerful images. His rhetoric offers transformation, he
uses the image of the road, a journey, a march: “they would stay true to their
North Star and keep marching toward justice”, “We know the march is not
yet over”; he addresses the nation as «Fellow marchers” [Bloody Sunday
speech] and calls them to “continue the long march”, stating “Here we are,
once more marching toward an unknown future”; quoting King “Let’s take
a victory, he said, and then keep on marching” [Remembrance Speech]. The
goal of this march is to pursue a Dream, therefore Obama tells us about “a
young preacher from Georgia” who spoke of “his dream”. This is the way
how B. Obama introduces his signature discourse of hope that calls for unity
and common future.
In his political talk, Obama tries to connect American culture to the whole
spectrum of world culture. This rhetorical technique promotes American
outlook and creates an enriched metanarrative; introduces American heroes
that portray major humanistic ideals and values. The intertextual image of
Martin Luther King serves both as a historical anchorage and as a temporal
deictic marking the globally important turning point in American history.

The Role of Intertext in Russian Political

Discourse (Vladimir Putin Case-Study)

It is necessary to mention the fact that in modern Russian/Soviet history the

tradition of a public speech has been very specific. In Soviet times country
leaders rarely addressed the public directly (excluding very special occasions,
e.g. Joseph Stalin’s speech devoted to the beginning of the Great Patriotic
War, June 1941). The speeches were highly formalized and “boring”, filled
with statistical figures.
The very tradition of a political speech in a classical form of communication
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of a leader with people, in which he/she aspires to convey the ideas, aims and
objectives to the audience and makes people support him/her, emerges in
Russia with “Perestroika” (1986) period. Consequently, to analyze speeches
delivered by the Russian President is to observe the development of a literally
new tradition in orator’s art.

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The study shows that V. Putin shapes his discourse from the following
main sources: Russian heroic history with its tragic events and great culture
along with traditions, Russia-Fatherland/Homeland concept, Russian nation
as a united whole, dynamic and developing present with great achievements.
Delivering any speech, he conjoins two dimensions that of a powerful leader
of his country and a man really close to common people, actually being one
of them. Speeches’ analysis demonstrates that intertextual inclusions are not
as numerous as, for example, in B. Obama’s ones, neither they are taken from
religious or literature sources. However, V. Putin skillfully employs allusions,
and citations refers to commonly known and praised events (especially heroic
and tragic), thus, establishing a dialogue with the audience.
All speeches delivered by V. Putin are available in Russian and English at
the official Kremlin sites: in English: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/
transcripts/57732; in Russian: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/.
Speeches were analyzed both in Russian and English (translation from
the Kremlin site), the results of the analysis were similar in both languages,
proving that language difference does not affect the intertextual structure
of the public speech. The stylistic analysis shows that both in the Russian
language and in the translation into English all linguistic tools (allusions,
metaphors, etc.) are preserved.
V. Putin’s Inaugural Address-2018 is an ideal example of a political
architextual discourse. Thematic intertextuality, common to Inaugural
Addresses, is obviously a key functional structure of V. Putin’s Inaugural
Address.
Being a formal speech with highly rigorous structure, it creates an
atmosphere of victory “I will do everything to build up Russia’s might,
prosperity and glory, and to live up to the expectations and hopes of the
country’s citizens” and praises multi-national people of Russia: “I am keenly
aware of the immense responsibility towards each and every one of you, and
towards our entire multi-ethnic nation”, “a country of magnificent victories
and accomplishments, towards the history of the Russian state that goes
back centuries and towards our ancestors. Their courage, relentless work,
undefeatable unity, and the way they sanctified their homeland are eternal
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examples of their dedication to their Fatherland” (Vladimir Putin has been

sworn in as President of Russia on May 7, 2018).
Vladimir Putin speaks of Russian history with its challenges highlighting the
immense sufferings the country had to undergo: “I am aware of my responsibility
towards Russia, a country of magnificent victories and accomplishments,
towards the history of the Russian state that goes back centuries and towards

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our ancestors. Their courage, relentless work, undefeatable unity, and the
way they sanctified their homeland are eternal examples of their dedication
to their Fatherland”, “we remember all too well that throughout its history,
which reaches back centuries, Russia faced a number of dark periods and
challenges”, concluding that it eventually “rose like a phoenix from the ashes
every time, achieving heights that seemed unattainable to others”.
Putin sets general aims and objectives for the nation, authorities, himself:
“I am aware of my responsibility towards Russia”, “I believe that it is my duty
and the meaning of my entire life to do everything for Russia, its present and
future, to ensure that it is peaceful and prosperous, to preserve and perpetuate
our great people, and bring prosperity to every household in Russia. Let me
assure you that just as before I will devote my life and my work to serving
the people and our Fatherland. This is my outmost aspiration”.
Following the genre demands, in his Inaugural Address he sets future goals
for the country and outlines presidential vision of Russia in the modern world:
“Russia must be a modern and vibrant country ready to take up the challenges
of time and respond to them with all its energy in order to consistently build
up its leadership in areas where our positions have been traditionally strong”,
“Of course, we should keep pace with the global changes and organize our
breakthrough development agenda so that no obstacles or circumstances
could prevent us from determining our future on our own and only on our
own and from implementing our boldest plans and dreams”.
One of the major points that Putin makes and persistently dwells on is
the status of Russia and its success on the global political arena: “Russia is a
strong, active and influential participant in international life; the country’s
security and defense capability are reliably assured. We will continue to pay
the necessary, close attention to these issues”.
Putin promotes the idea of a strong and powerful Russia, ready for
cooperation and partnership with other countries: “…we are open to dialogue.
Along with our partners, we will actively promote our integration projects
and build up business, humanitarian, cultural and scientific ties”; “We are
in favor of equitable and mutually beneficial cooperation with all states in
the interests of peace and stability on our planet”.
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As for numerous other speeches delivered by V. Putin, a specific feature

structuring the latter can be highlighted, namely tendency to create/imitate
a form of a dialogue with an audience.
From the very start of a speech V. Putin tries to establish a direct contact
with the audience he addresses. With the target audience being Russians, he
never uses the common address “Ladies and Gentlemen”, instead he uses

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more intimate forms such as “Friends”, “Dear colleagues”, etc. He aims to

establish the contact by addressing people directly, implementing phrases
and slogans which correlate with the event and type of audience:

Vladimir Putin: But in order to start this additional internal engine in each
heart, I would like to ask each of you, can you do it?
Audience: Yes, I can!
Vladimir Putin: It would be difficult to expect a different answer from this
audience. We will provide for its future, and we will do this together. Yes?
Audience: Yes!
Vladimir Putin: I wish you success. (Russia – Land of Opportunity Forum)

One of the tools to create an atmosphere of common discussion, of

audience’s involvement in the “dialogue” is asking rhetoric questions, thus
making the audience agree with him:

We must properly face these crucial, historic challenges. What are these
challenges? (Russian Popular Front Action Address)

What should be our priority? Let me reiterate that I believe that the main,
key development factor is the well-being of the people and the prosperity of
Russian families. (Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly)

He often addresses some individuals directly and asks rhetoric questions:

We have just exchanged opinions, as they say, on the sidelines, about the
forum, and Ms Lagarde just told me that she was pleasantly surprised by this
friendly atmosphere. (St. Petersburg Economic Forum, 2018)

By implementing this tool V. Putin manages the audience reaction shaping

the expected response. The audience engaged follows the rules of the dialogue
he imposes on them.
Another distinctive feature that organizes the framework and designs
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Vladimir Putin’s speeches is the extensive implementation of the pronoun

“WE”. V. Putin creates unified psychological and emotional environment
with the audience, specifically when he speaks about challenges, difficulties
and ways to overcome them. This pattern is mostly evident in V. Putin’s
Inaugural Address-2018: “The objectives we face and the decisions we will
be called upon to take are without exaggeration historic in their scale”;

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“We have a lot of hard work ahead of us that will require the entire Russian
society to come together”; “We must cast aside everything that constrains
people, prevents them from fully unleashing their potential and their talents,
becoming a barrier for the development of the entire nation”
The same device is widely used by Putin in his address to the Russian
Popular Front in 2017: “We have already proven that we can make our dreams
and most ambitious plans come true and overcome the most difficult obstacles
despite the situation. We heard all kinds of prophesies at the beginning of the
2000s: they said the country would break apart, the state would collapse, the
nation would die off, that we would fail to tackle the challenges facing us as we
fought international terrorism and that we will never be able to resolve many
of our social and economic problems.; “And it is true, the situation was very
difficult, and even critical sometimes. But we not only managed to preserve
Russia’s unity and sovereignty and to travel the complex path of revival, but
to achieve true breakthroughs in the most important development areas”.
Concepts “Russia”, “Fatherland”, “Homeland” become reference anchors
almost in every home speech: “For us, Russia, the Homeland, is much
more than the place where we were born and live. In our hearts, we feel
an indissoluble bond to our history, spiritual values and moral principles”
(Russia Day Reception).
V. Putin, repeating these words quite often, impregnates them with proud
emotional meaning, always stressing the fact that it is not just a country, but
the entity that is of the greatest value and importance to each and everybody
on this territory. In most cases, Russia goes with the pronoun OUR, the latter
denoting in the Russian language “the dearest and nearest”.
He communicates this love and feeling of strong bonds to Russia to all the
Russians, but most of all to young and aspiring citizens, such as school leavers:
“We will make every effort to make Russia a country of opportunities for
you, so that each of you will achieve personal success”; young professionals:
“This is a source of strength for each person’s small homeland, and for our
vast and great Russia”; those in the Army: “ I would like to say that our duty
toward Russia, our Motherland, is to be ready to stand up for its sovereignty,
security and national interests, and support our allies, if required” (Address
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to Russian School Leavers

The name of the country – Russia – is used only in a positive context: “We
are well aware how many clever, talented, and brave people Russia is blessed
with. They are capable of stunning success, achieving the seemingly impossible,
making discoveries in science and technology, and creating masterpieces of
culture admired the entire world over” (Russia Day Reception, 2018).

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Thus, the speaker unites the audience implying that Russia is not just a
country, a geographical name, but rather a vast space filled with special “air”
and meaning. The concept of Motherland/Fatherland/Homeland becomes the
primary concept in speeches made for the Russian audience.
Addressing the Russians on various occasions, he mentions a lot of facts
and events concerning only Russian history, alludes to Russian history and
traditions:

The decree to establish the Border Guards Service was issued 100 years ago,
in 1918, which were very challenging times for our country.

As we mark this historic occasion, we can be proud of the glorious tradition

of courage that runs deep in history, spanning the frontier strongholds of the
Russian epic heroes, the bogatyrs, those who served on Great Abatis Border
fortification lines, soldiers and officers of the Separate Border Guard Corps,
the immortal feats of heroic border guards who fearlessly went into combat in
the summer of 1941, and those who performed their duties in Afghanistan and
combatted international terrorism. (Greetings on Border Guards Day, 2018)

Historical, cultural and geographic allusions create the picture and image
of a huge country proud of its history rich in tragic and victorious events and
very dynamic present aiming at flourishing future.
All implicated allusions are easily recognized and welcomed by the
audience:

1. In our hearts, we feel an indissoluble bond to our history, spiritual

values and moral principles. And this invisible but durable thread binds
all generations together.
2. Our country has been through numerous critical times and severe trials.
But our multinational people met all challenges with dignity and honor.
The foundation, the core of this unity and tenacity has always been and
always will be devotion to the Fatherland.
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Today proactive love for Russia, responsibility for it, the readiness of each
person to join in addressing national challenges and, no less importantly, the
everyday challenges its people face – this is what guarantees the inviolable
sovereignty of our state, a reliable foundation for the effective protection of
our national interests. (Russia Day Reception, 2018)

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The very idea of the heroic past, great and powerful country, the awareness
that everybody is ready to serve the Homeland is close to Russian worldview.
V. Putin’s speeches are rich in facts and dates of historical, political
and cultural character. However, the difference in intertextual inclusions
targeted for the inner audience and that of outer can be traced. Talking to the
international audience, the Russian President mostly refers to international
events and documents.
The most prominent examples of allusions can be found in the corpus
of Vladimir Putin’s speeches in the frames of the annual St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum, a world-known economical event:

However, it is possible to pursue one’s interests in different ways – either

by ignoring others or respecting the position of one’s partners based on the
understanding that the modern world is interconnected and countries are
mutually dependent, and every state, especially the world’s major economies,
bears an enormous responsibility for the common future

However, today we are witnessing not even erosion – and I say this with
regret – but the undermining of these foundations. The system of multilateral
cooperation that was built for decades is being crudely destroyed instead of
undergoing natural and needed evolution. Violating rules is becoming a rule.

Open markets and fair competition are gradually replaced by all kinds of
exemptions, restrictions and sanctions. Different words can be used to describe
these notions but the meaning remains the same. Many countries now use
these approaches as their official trade policy tools. And some countries
simply had to adapt to this environment, respond and come up with tit-for-
tat measures. (St Petersburg International Economic Forum plenary session
May 25, 2018, 18:00 St Petersburg)

V. Putin definitely speaks about growing tension in relations with Western

countries and sanctions imposed on Russia.
To sum up, it is interesting to highlight the fact that there is an obvious
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difference in inclusion types that depend on target audiences. Allusions,

references, facts, names and dates in speeches addressed to the Russian
audience are always connected with its great and remarkable historical/cultural
past, fraught with difficulties and tragic events which were courageously
overcome, deeply rooted national ethical traditions, that are proudly followed

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and that unite people nowadays, and a very special attitude to the Motherland/
Fatherland/Homeland.
When V. Putin addresses an international audience, all types of intertextual
tools he includes imply inequity and injustice ruling in the current global
world. Along with this, he stresses the importance of Russia in this global
world, its sovereignty and national interests.
In contrast to B. Obama, but similar to many others, it is hardly possible
to find quotations in V. Putin’s speeches.

The Role of Intertext in French Political

Discourse (Sarkozy Case-Study)

Nicolas Sarkozy was sworn in as the sixth President of the French Fifth
Republic on May 16, 2007. His discourse is marked with multiple intertextual
references, but it would be fair to mention that Nicolas Sarkozy applies intertext
into the tissue of his speeches in a different manner, distinct from the classical
rhetoric strategies mentioned above in Putin’s and Obama’s speeches.
Sarkozy in France and abroad is constantly being referred to as The Gaullist
French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Most evidently it occurs because Sarkozy
engages in a constant dialogue with de Gaulle. This inherent dialogue is easily
recognized in France and abroad and impacts the domestic and foreign affairs.
This tendency becomes obvious when he talks about both foreign and
military policy of France, trying to follow the trends made by Charles de
Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand.
Sarkozy discursively represents ‘the spirit of Gaullism’ in the following
passages:

I think about all the presidents of the Fifth Republic that preceded me. I think
of General De Gaulle, who saved the Republic twice and who brought to
France sovereignty, dignity and authority. <…>…I will fight for a Europe
that protects because the European ideal is to protect the citizens of Europe.

I am very proud to be here with you in Cherbourg to salute all those who built
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Le Terrible, the fourth and latest addition to our strategic fleet. Right here,
in 1967, General de Gaulle came to pay tribute to those who had built Le
Redoutable. Like your predecessors, you may take pride in this submarine—a
symbol of France’s high technology and resolve to remain master of its destiny.

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N. Sarkozy attempts to represent himself as the heir to de Gaulle’s outlook,

ideas and plans. He intends to persuade people that he is the one who speaks
for the needs and demands of ordinary people, promoting the Gaullist discourse
of national sovereignty. Sarkozy avoids to mentioning his political party in his
speeches, creating the atmosphere that he is the spokesperson of the whole
nation. Here the intertextual reference to General de Gaulle creates a direct
link between the Head of State and ‘the French nation.
N. Sarkozy’s discourse is framed around several basic concepts of state,
nation and Fatherland. Sarkozy employs all these concepts in his speeches; he
combines the notions of State and Nation thus imposing an idealistic abstract
concept of Political nation at the same time linking it to the Fatherland – La
Patrie – an emotionally charged concept of State, which is defined culturally
and historically.
N. Sarkozy creates a collective identity using the construct “French people”;
consequently, he uses the antonymic option “US” vs “Them”, drawing the
image of the “all-people’s enemy”. This rhetoric tool is rather populistic and
affects the audience on the emotional level.
The shift from reason to emotion is one of the key-features of Sarkozy’s
discourse.
Sarkozy tends to evade the domain of reasoning switching to the emotional
level (happiness, pain, fear, ambition etc.). In fact, he agitates fears and
anxieties preparing the audience for the introduction of the Fear Discourse.

But today, fear is back.

The fear that destroys confidence.

The fear that paralyses consumers, that prevents investors from investing,
entrepreneurs from doing business, bosses from hiring and bankers from
lending.

That fear has a name: it’s the fear that France will lose control over its destiny.
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The only way in which that fear can be kept at bay is to tell the truth.

Sarkozy is a master of a forceful, aggressive style of rhetoric. His speeches

are dynamic and emotionally fueled, his pathos is negative by nature (fear,
pity, contempt). Sarkozy extensively uses the formula “It is either X or Y”,

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leaving no third option, restricting the choice and building up to drama and
anxiety:

Three years ago, on 25 September 2008, at the worst moment of the financial
storm that was to plunge the global economy into the greatest crisis since the
Second World War, I spoke to the French people from this very same hall.

I did not listen to those who advised me to say nothing for fear of creating
panic by speaking the truth. It was my firm belief that, on the contrary, in
order to preserve confidence, to avoid fear, it was necessary to tell the French
people the truth.

And the French people were ready to hear that truth.

If French people feel anxious when they wonder about their future and that
of their children it is because they have the feeling that their lives are prey
to crises for which they are not responsible, that they are no longer masters
of their future.

To give French people back control over their future, France’s mastery over
its destiny must be restored. And for that it is necessary to stride forward with
determination into the new economic cycle. France must prepare itself for this.

His persuasive techniques work in order to embed the fear or feelings

of insecurity, ensure that these feelings are shared by the majority of the
audience and then manipulate it. This experience of fearing the feared,
acknowledging it and winning over it, creates a tight emotional bond of the
President and his people. The compassion and empathy demonstrated by
Sarkozy are presented as a President’s duty, and the protection of victims as
a top Presidential priority.
Sarkozy widely exploits rhetorical questions. He uses simple, non-figurative
language, avoids stylistic ornamentation of speech; short sentences (20 words
and less)- he speaks in chunks:
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…the big question of the 21st century: how can we make the economy again
serve mankind? This is the question facing every leader. How can we ensure
that the economy no longer appears as an end itself, but as a means to an end?
How can we move towards a globalization in which the development of each

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will assist the development of the others? How can we build a globalization
which has to be more cooperative, because today it is too conflictual?

Either we change of our own accord, or the changes will be imposed on us.
By what? By whom?

The functions are diverse- to stress the particular issue, to pay extra attention
to it, to reverse the possible accusation, to imitate a form of a dialogue.
“Bonapartism” is another salient feature of Nicolas Sarkozy’s discourse. He
promotes the self-image of a hero, savior of France and an outsider alluding
to Napoleon III, General de Gaulle:

I will make my decisions when the time comes and I will explain them to the
nation.

For I do not want—indeed, it is not my right—for France to prepare for the

previous war, as it has done all too often in the past, or to find itself unarmed
in the face of a strategic surprise. I want to forge the defense policy that France
needs, not a policy based on old habits or previous certitudes. I want us to be
able to confront all the problems facing us. I owe our armies transparency
and truth. I owe transparency and truth to the entire French people. I refuse
to give way before a fait accompli and resign myself to having no room to
maneuver. I have chosen to build the future with a few simple guideposts: our
strategy, our ambitions, our alliances, the European objective. And a principle
that is simple as well: I absolutely reject the idea of lowering our guard. The
defense budget is the State’s second-largest budget. It will remain so.

N. Sarkozy takes the position of one man speaking for France and in
the name of France. He extensively alludes to historical events of global
importance. He highlights the role of France and its allies in the World War
II, speaking of partnership and trust: “We need first of all this new Franco-
British entente”. He “learns from history” projecting the experience of past
into the future, thus demonstrating the importance of the lessons learned:
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“France hasn’t forgotten, she will never forget that when she was almost
annihilated, Britain was at her side. She will never forget the fine young
people who came from all over the British Empire and laid down their lives
on the Normandy beaches and in the surrounding bocages”.
N. Sarkozy ensures the audience that history makes its spiral move and
negative and tragic moments of the past may soon return and the history

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will repeat itself: “After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of
Communism, it had been thought that history was going to end in the global
triumph of democracy and the market; With the return of friction between
different identities and the return of religious fundamentalism, we now know
that history hasn’t ended and that it is often tragic.”
Obviously, the usage of historical intertextual references helps to time-travel
safely at the same time filling the past events with the new global meaning.
N. Sarkozy is a proponent of the idea of French exceptionalism (Greatness
and leadership of France) because of the concept of the political State-nation.

France enjoys exceptional advantages that enable it to cope with all forms
of competition and hardship. Of all the major developed countries, France
is the one whose institutional system has stood up best to the crisis. Thanks
to its institutions, France can be governed even in difficult times.

He outlines the conceptualization of the French European and foreign

politics:

To ensure that French people do not see wiped out all the great and beautiful
things they have built through their hard work, intelligence and generosity –
that is what France is fighting for both internally and externally. And France
is leading this fight without arrogance, but tirelessly, in the firm belief that
even at the lowest point of the worst economic crisis to threaten the world
for three-quarters of a century, it bears hope that must not be extinguished.

According to the idea of French Exceptionalism France can create history

and achieve something that other countries cannot.
It is no secret that French Exceptionalism is grounded on the concept of
French Universalism, that states that France gifted eternal values – namely
Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood - to mankind. This is an underlying idea
of the French political discourse because French revolutionaries invented
the notion of State-nation since 1789. Therefore, France is perceived as the
beacon of human rights and liberty: “On behalf of the French people, I have
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come to invite the British people to write with us a new page of our common
history, that of a new Franco-British brotherhood. A brotherhood for the
21st century”.
N. Sarkozy stands for the point that France plays a decisive political role
in the EU because France has invented the universal human rights (1789).

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All in all, N. Sarkozy ‘s discourse is filled with intertextual inclusions of

various types. He refers to history of France promoting the spirit of Gaullism,
Bonapartism creating his own peculiar style – Sarkosyzm. He supports the
concept of a ‘European Europe’, a multipolar world, France being allied to
the US but not automatically aligned to the USA and cherishes the idea of
French exceptionalism seeing France as the key force and leader of Europe.
His globally-oriented discourse promotes the ideas of French Exceptionalism
and French Universalism and the moral values of the French outlook.

Findings

The study of intertextual inclusions in political discourse shows that political

leaders redefine the spectrum of political speech providing for dialogue with
the audience by means of intertexts.
They intensively employ various intertexts that are easily recognizable
in order to establish relations with the audience and convey new explicit
meanings in the talk. Intertext allows to voice hopes and concerns of the
nation in a more explicit rhetoric style.
Historical intertexts play the role of the connector of the past to the present.
Intertextual references highlight the basic principles and beliefs of a nation
alluding to the historical context of the past, reviving the historical timeline.
Traditionally intertexts originate from the pretexts rooted in national and
global culture.
B. Obama’s discourse is marked with his outstanding rhetoric skill, he
is known for quoting from the fundamental American documents (The
Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bible and The Holy
Scripture).
V. Putin redefines the tradition of public political speech in Russia. The
intertexts that he employs create the image of the victorious past, dynamic
present, and complicated relations with international Western partners. The
concept of Fatherland/Motherland/Homeland constitutes the core of Putin’s
political talk.
N. Sarkozy’s political discourse is intertextual by its nature. Sarkozy defines
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his political views and talks as empowered with the Gaullistic spirit and
Bonapartist image of France. Sarkozy’s political talk that employs intertext is
undoubtedly polyphonic in nature. It offers new dimensions of understanding
between text and context (both national and global).

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The results of the study show that key-politicians use explicit and well-
known intertextual references in order to ensure more implicit political goals:
to unite the nation, to educate, to project a vision of common future, to alarm,
to support, to give hope, to revive national spirit, etc. Intertextuality generally
structures political speeches creating rapport environment, and characterizes
the style of communication with the audience.
Further investigations into intertextuality features in political discourse
will provide: a deeper understanding of a political language in general from
the linguistic viewpoint, strategies, the speechwriters can implement; what
is more essential, these researches will bring a deeper understanding of a
certain target groups, the speeches are addressed to; national values, national
identity common to people of a given country can become much more obvious.

CONCLUSION

The research carried out shows distinctive common and diverse tendencies
in the application of intertextual references in political speech. The results of
comparative analysis demonstrate that all the speeches lie within the frames of
the institutionalized genre - presidential political speech. As it is well known,
the main functions of the political speech are as follows: to communicate the
ideas to the public and to make people believe your ideas and follow you.
It is obvious that a certain pattern of intertextual inclusions usage exists:
all the speakers refer to the historical and cultural background of their
countries, highlighting the most victorious and tragic events; speaking of
great predecessors and heroes of the nation; remembering the way a country
overcame all the trials.
Whereas B. Obama, T. May, D. Trump and N. Sarkozy tend to speak of the
distant heroic past of their countries (18th century - The Great Revolutionary
War, the Civil War; The French Revolution, Napoleon; the times of the Great
British Empire), V. Putin basically mentions the history of the XX century,
starting with the 1917. It shows the distortion of Russian historical reality
and speaks volumes on the perception of history by the Russians. The modern
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Russia is viewed as an heir to the Soviet Union, rather than being aware of
the consistency of Russian historical development. Most frequently V. Putin
alludes to the events of the World War II, particularly to years 1941-1945,
the period which is known in Russia as The Great Patriotic War.
The cultural background is represented in political speeches differently. V.
Putin constantly speaks about the importance of cultural traditions and their

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observance for the national spirit and tightly knit community in a large sense.
In contrast, B. Obama sees religion as one of the key parts of the culture of
the nation. Quotes from the Bible, the Holy Scripture and saying the God’s
name are the prominent features of American political discourse. This pattern
was not observed in any other political rhetoric tradition.
When speaking about their country all politicians praise their nation.
The concept of nation and state develops further and another concept - that
of Fatherland/Motherland/Homeland - appears in French (La Patrie) and
Russian (Родина, Отчизна) discourse. These concepts are fundamental to
the Russian and French culture; they imply self-sacrifice, heroism and deed.
In American discourse praising the nation results in ideas of America’s
greatness and self-perception as the superpower. The United Kingdom sees
itself as an integral part of the global world.
In political speeches of American and French politicians, the idea of
American/French Exceptionalism is strongly pronounced. Exceptional position
of a country is viewed as leadership at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the
intertextual inclusions in speeches of Russian leaders underline the equality
and international partnership along with preserving sovereignty.
Democracy is one of the intertextual cornerstones of American, French and
British political discourse. They see themselves as pioneers of Democracy
and fierce proponents of democratic values.
One of the prominent tools that serve to cherish an individual is to
incorporate into a speech a story of a particular person/family and praise their
courage and professionalism. American Presidents and British leaders love to
incorporate stories about common people into their speeches – the storytelling
tool creates a strong emotional bond positively charges the audience, that’s
why it is always is met with applauses and cheering.
Evidently, presidential discourse can be defined as a complex intertextual
phenomenon. The systematic and profound account of intertextual references
demonstrates that such devices reflect the worldview/moral values of the
target audience. Speakers discursively build up to establishing the image of
their country from a global perspective.
Studying the range of intertextual inclusions enables to widen the knowledge
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of a certain nation in a social and cultural aspect. Moreover, it is possible

to say that intertextual structure can characterize a linguistic persona, his/
her way of conveying political messages and establishing connections with
the audience.
Intertext helps to highlight both the integrity of different national political
and cultural frameworks and their global connectedness and interdependence.

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 Intertextuality in Political Discourse

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to express their gratitude to St. Petersburg State
University and Faculty of Modern Languages for providing necessary
organizational support in conducting the research.

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UK: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-57185-4_35

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Intertextual Analysis: Analysis of all types of intertext inclusions, their

functions and meaning they create in a new text.
Intertextuality/Intertext: A continuity of texts referring to one another,
producing and reproducing over time other texts/discourses.
Intext Inclusions: All types of inclusions from existed texts (written/oral)
into a new one, thus creating additional deeper meanings, language means
of establishing rapport with the target audience.
Political Discourse: The text and talk of professional politicians or political
institutions, such as presidents and prime ministers and other members of
government, parliament or political parties, both at the local, national and
international levels, includes both the speaker and the audience.
Political Speech: The talk of a professional politician addressed to a
certain target group (e.g., electorate in general, students, older citizens, etc.)
and aimed to pursue them to support her/his ideas and activities.
Copyright © 2019. IGI Global. All rights reserved.

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 171

Chapter 8
Narratives of Erasure:
Caste in R. K. Narayan’s
The English Teacher

Lucky Issar
Berlin Freie University, Germany

ABSTRACT
This chapter examines R.K. Narayan’s novel The English Teacher as a narrative
of caste erasure. As he goes on to construct his “authentic,” “brahminical”
India, he efectively erases caste-others by creating an exclusive, selective
imaginary of Indian nation as upper-caste. This construction requires caste
erasure and suppression of “queerness” that constantly poses a threat to
caste-based ideological formulations of Indian society as brahminical, Hindu,
and hetero-normative. Through the close reading of the text, the author shows
that caste not only damages Dalits, but it makes a deleterious impact on the
upper castes and by extension on the whole Indian society.

NARRATIVES OF ERASURE; CASTE IN R. K.

NARAYAN’S THE ENGLISH TEACHER

R.K. Narayan is considered by many to be an apolitical and authentic Indian

writer. Writers such as Khushwant Singh, V. S. Naipaul, Vikram Seth,
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and Shashi Tharoor admired and critiqued Narayan on a range of themes;

however, they have not looked at his work from caste perspective. Narayan
prefers that his readers read his stories for pleasure, and should not look at

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9444-4.ch008

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 Narratives of Erasure

his fiction as raw material for hidden meanings and socio-cultural analysis.
“I’m not out to enlighten the world or improve it” (Narayan, 2001, p. 517).
In the same vein, one of his Brahmin characters says about his servant “take
him as he was; to improve or enlighten him would only exhaust the reformer
and disrupt the nature’s design” (Narayan, 1992, p. 258). This sensibility
toward nature’s design [Brahmanical-order] runs throughout his work. Just
like Caste, Narayan resents being altered.
One cannot talk about India without talking about the Indian caste system
– an ancient, supposedly divinely ordained system that stratifies Indian society
on a hereditary basis into four hierarchical categories: priests, warriors,
merchants, and servants. Those outside the caste are called Untouchables
(Dalits) – the most exploited people in India. All present-day major issues
can be linked to caste. However, most socio-political conversations avoid
the question of caste. Issues concerning the violation of human rights – the
oppression of Dalits and sexual (outcastes) minorities – are framed in ways
that benefit the urban elite – primarily the upper-castes. In modern-day India
social problems are being discussed exclusively in terms of recovery from
colonialism, whereas internal Brahmanism is conveniently forgotten.
Indian writings in English deal primarily with the concerns of upper castes.
However, unlike many other Indian writers, Narayan seems to endorse the
caste system in the name of culture, tradition, and social order. For instance,
the Dalits and lower castes, who runs into millions in India, seldom appear
in his work. There have been a few exceptional writers who wrote Dalit
characters. Mulk Raj Anand used a Dalit character in his novel Untouchable
(1935). Interestingly, in every instance, when Dalit characters are depicted,
they are upgraded and alienated from their respective backgrounds and given
brahminical hue (Khair, 2001). Several decades later, Arundhati Roy portrayed
a god-like Dalit figure in her novel The God of Small Things (1997). Although
Roy’s novel exposes the hypocrisy of the upper castes, her depiction of the
central Dalit character is cosmetic. Dalits are largely ignored or represented
selectively. This tendency to erase or ignore caste is seen in Indian English
Novel. In addition to Indian fiction, the question of caste is neglected in the
works of post-colonial theorists. For instance, Ranajit Guha, Gayatri Spivak,
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Dipesh Chakratabarty, Ashis Nandy have comprehensively written on the evils

of colonialism on India, but they have not shown similar rigor in addressing
the internal Brahmanical colonization of Dalits, and its various tropes that
predate colonization. More recent theorists (Bhaba, Appadurai) are largely

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 Narratives of Erasure

concerned with issues such as globalization, immigration, and hybridity that

largely concern upwardly mobile upper-caste Indians, and have little bearing
on the lives of Dalits. In addition to Indian English novel and post-colonial
theory, even the queer theory that focusses on India has ignored the Dalits.
Interestingly, the word caste has not been examined once in Vanita and
Kidwai’s seminal study on the history of same-sex love in India.
Not portraying Dalits in Indian writings in English occurs because
conceptions such a equality, inclusion are incompatible with caste. Creating
Dalit characters would mean to acknowledge the brutality of caste that marks
millions of bodies as ‘Untouchables.’ It would also mean encountering one’s
own complicity in the oppression of Dalits. In the case of Narayan, when one
looks at his brahminical, idyllic, serene, ordered Malgudi – a microcosm of
India – one knows that this order is achieved – to put it mildly – by ‘unseeing’
the Dalits.
I argue that each key component of Indian society – family, religion, law,
politics, education, and health care – plays a strategic role in keeping the
existing status-quo by maintaining the caste order and by erasing counter
narratives of caste. Since the benefits of caste are so immense, the upper castes
do not let it go. Commenting on contemporary India, the author Arundhati
Roy says, “The most secessionist struggle that has been waged in India is
the secession of middle and upper middle classes to a country of their own”
(Roy, 2014, p. 221). The already privileged upper-castes could take this leap
in modern-day India because the new class-based differences are inscribed
on older caste-lines. Brahmins, the upper-most caste, constitutes less than
five percent of the Indian population, and yet they hold most of the key
powerful positions, whereas Dalits do more than ninety percent of menial
scavenging. Democracy and a liberalized economy have not altered the caste
hierarchies in modern-day India. Continuation of the caste system not only
oppresses Dalits, it stigmatizes all those bodies that transgress caste-norms:
caste only embraces hetero-normative bodies, and discards the rest. Anyone
who challenges caste or seeks to reform it seen as a threat to Indian culture.
Through the close reading of Narayan’s The English Teacher I show how
Dalit narratives are effectively erased and their bodies stigmatized in everyday
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life, and how this oppression of vast population of Dalits and lower castes
impact the upper castes. Since caste is maintained by observing normative
sexual lines, women and sexual minorities are oppressed irrespective of their
caste status.

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 Narratives of Erasure

Caste Erasure in The English Teacher

In this section, through the discursive analysis of Narayan’s The English

Teacher I explore how caste is, though so prevalent in the culture, erased from
mainstream discourse such as literature and how does caste, in addition to
perpetuating caste-others, inform seemingly unconnected issues of violence
toward sexual minorities and self-censorship in Indian life.
Krishna, the young professor of English, lives in a hostel. His wife, Susila
comes to live with him with their toddler daughter, Leela. As the story unfolds,
we get to know this family closely. A severe tragedy strikes Krishna; his wife
dies of typhoid. The rest of the novel concerns his quest for harmony and
inner peace.
In Krishna’s college, amidst upper-caste teachers and students, we meet
Singaram, an eighty-year-old servant who is most probably a Sudra, but not
an Untouchable. Unlike Untouchables, Sudras fall in the domain of caste and
have some access to caste-society in everyday life. In the text, whereas the
servants are shown, the Dalits appear nowhere in the text as real people. The
text hardly acknowledges them. The Brahmanical purity is so inextricably
tied to the Dalit impurity that Dalits are hardly allowed to come in direct
contact with the upper castes. But at a crucial point in the text, Dalit presence
is held responsible for the central tragedy that takes place in the novel. Even
before this strategy, they are shown as harmful to the well being of upper-
castes like Krishna and his family. Whereas upper-caste characters demonize
lower castes, they do not acknowledge that Malgudi would collapse in the
absence of Dalits.
Unlike Dalits, we see servants and daily-wage workers who appear in the
text, and how their presence reveals caste and class dynamics prevalent in
Indian society. Krishna’s attitude toward Singaram shows how class-caste
nexus functions. He has known the servant as an undergraduate and later as
a faculty member, and yet Krishna does not really respect him. Even though
the text shows Singaram as an efficient and hardworking man, Krishna
devalues him.
Another significant trope that emerges in Narayan’s work is that the
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lower-caste workers appear on the doorsteps of the upper-castes, begging for

work. In each case, the upper-caste families claim that they do not have a job,
even when they do, but after a clever negotiation, they hire and pretend that
this is done out of kindness. Only when these workers show themselves as
worthy servants, are they kept. However, the servant remains a marginalized

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figure; the terms and conditions of their employment solely resides with the
employer. Krishna and his wife, Susila, employ one such woman-servant, but
after careful deliberation. In fact, Susila first resents the idea of employing
her, but soon she finds the servant’s help indispensable: ‘’she cooked the food
for us, tended the child, gave us the necessary courage when the child had
fever or stomachache … she established herself as a benign elder at home,
and for us it meant a great deal’’ (Narayan, 1993, p. 44). We also learn that
the diligent, old maid lives ‘’on one meal a day, just a handful of rice and
buttermilk’’ (Narayan, 1993, p. 45). Clearly, whatever the dynamic of Susila
and her husband’s relationship is; towards the maid, they both effectively
exercise their hegemonic caste. Although upper-caste women, like Susila,
are policed and assigned secondary status to men in society, this does not
stop them from oppressing the lower castes.
Although the old maid runs the house, she does not utter a single word
in the text. In the domain of house the servant’s position is firmly fixed, and
in the public sphere, it is the Dalit whose presence is eschewed from the
brahminical landscape of the novel. In addition, we see how a caste-based
society creates layered inequalities and oppressions within the confines of
home. For instance, in Krishna’s family, everyone else’s position is subservient
to him and can be arranged on a slanting scale of oppression; his mother,
Susila, Susila’s parents, and finally the maid. Dalits do not appear even as
victims in brahminical households.
There are instances in the narrative when Krishna’s brahminical behavior
emerges, and he shouts his caste-status to intimidate the landlord to procure
a flat. ‘’Everybody knows how good we are, and how cultured our family
is! … don’t mistake me for an ordinary person’’ (Narayan, 1993, pp. 26-27).
The text does not spell this out literally, but it is implied. In another instance,
right in the beginning, when Krishna goes to pick up his wife at the station,
he seeks the help of a coolie whom he calls number-five. Although he has
known the coolie for years, he does not know his name. On another occasion,
he is at the bus station waiting for his mother’s arrival; the sun is baking the
entire landscape. Krishna notices the plight of animals, but he does not see
the caste-others who work in that heat for bare survival.
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Everywhere in the text, lower castes are presented in a negative light. The
everyday ‘untouchables’ who never enter the novel are held responsible for
Susila’s sickness. When Susila goes out with Krishna to view a property, she
uses a dirty lavatory. The owner claims that his unguarded property is frequented
by some strange, dirty people. These dirty people, who are not explicitly

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mentioned, are the Untouchables – people who clean the neighborhoods where
upper castes live. Throughout the text, they are criticized and devalued, but
here by implication, they are held responsible for Susila’s death.
In addition, the lower castes are shown as idle and beastly. On one occasion,
Krishna visits a neighborhood where non-brahmins live: carpenters, egg-
sellers, and a miscellaneous lot of artisans and traders. ‘’The street was
littered with all kinds of things – wood shavings, egg shells, tin pieces and
drying leaves. Dust was ankle deep … I felt we would catch all kinds of
dreadful diseases. Unkempt and wild-looking children rolled about in the
dust …’’ (Narayan, 1993, p.142). In the text, this neighborhood is at the
walking distance from Krishna’s house, but he has never been there before.
He shows disdain toward these people as if he were in some obscure foreign
country. In the preceding paragraph, the narrative voice, too, comments on
the area in the same vein:
There was every sign that the municipality had forgotten the existence of
this part of the town. Yet it seemed to maintain a certain degree of sanitation,
mainly with the help of the sun, wind, and rain. The sun burned so severely
most months that bacteria and infection turned to ashes. The place had a
general clean up when the high winds rose before the monsoon set in, and
whirled into a column the paper scraps, garbage, egg-shells, and leaves; the
column precipitated itself into the adjoining street, and thence to the next
and so on, till, perhaps, it reached a main thoroughfare where the municipal
sanitary staff worked, if they worked anywhere at all.’’ (Narayan, 1993, p.142)
These observations betray an essentialist view on the lower-castes. Whereas
the text seeks to portray them as savages, it also exposes the blatant brahminical
indifference and prejudice toward the caste-others. As readers, we know that
there are sections of Malgudi that are clean where people like Krishna live.
The author refers to Dalit workers by using a secular expression ‘municipality
workers’, and erases the role of Dalits. Only Dalits do all manual scavenging
and sanitary work. Despite this, they have no stake in the town. One must
notice here that Krishna is visiting a lower-caste neighborhood and not one
inhabited by Dalits. It is easy to imagine how Krishna might react if he were
to visit the Dalit hutments.
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Not even once, does Krishna speak about them sympathetically. However,
throughout the text, he is incapable of doing manual work. For instance,
when he awaits his wife at the railway platform, Narayan devotes one page
to show Krishna’s as an ideal (brahmin) husband, but the text shows his

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paranoia and aversion to deal with her luggage. The train has not arrived yet,
but he frets over the probability of carrying her trunks, even though he has
the nameless coolie ‘number five’ to help. This aversion to physical work
shows his brahminical privilege. Throughout the text, he runs away from
manual work. Even moving a rice sack from the front door of his house to
the kitchen once a month seems a burden to him.
In his hostel-days, he plants jasmine, but soon after he abandons the idea
as it involves work, and gives it to Singaram (here he suddenly thinks of the
womenfolk in Singaram’s house, but this gallantry is absent when Singaram,
on the verge of retirement, asks him for some extra cents). But Krishna gets
jasmine flowers placed on the sill of his window. On another instance, just
before Krishna’s wife comes to live with him, he claims to be extremely busy.
‘’The next three days I was very busy. My table was placed in the front room
of the new house. All my papers and books were arranged neatly. My clothes
hung on a peg. The rest of the house was wept and cleaned’’ (Narayan, 1993,
p. 28). These passive sentence constructions indicate his passivity toward
manual labor, it is his mother who sets the house. In such selective moments
in the text, his patriarchal and casteist attitude surfaces. At home, it is milder
but unmistakable. Outside home, towards Dalits, his views are essentialist.
Ironically, what he condemns in Dalits is his own unaddressed guilt.
Throughout the novel, the upper-castes observe rituals, partly to maintain
their purity, and partly to display it. They perform the rituals because it is their
dharma. There are moments in the course of a day when a Brahmin considers
himself impure, but this must not be confused with the untouchability that a
Dalit suffers in a caste-society. Brahmin’s sense of his own impurity is self-
imposed and it goes away as he performs the rituals. At the time of Susila’s
sickness, these rituals are rigorously followed and performed. In a tangential
way, this is a way to exercise one’s superiority toward the lower castes and
Dalits (Sarukkai, 2009).
In the novel, Krishna is portrayed as a contemplative person, but he
does not reflect on caste that is so prevalent in his society. When he resigns
from his teaching job and informs his college principal, Mr Brown, that he
wants to work with children in a primary school, the principal asks him if
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he has the required training to do so. Krishna, at this point, feels contempt
for the principal’s European mind that categorizes and classifies everything.
Ironically, it never occurs to Krishna that his own society categorizes people
through caste.

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 Narratives of Erasure

A Suitable Boy in The English Teacher

In both textual and visual forms, boys (young men) are shown to give up
their personal happiness for the sake of family. These boys are celebrated
and embraced by Indian society. Rama, the ideal hero of the great epic poem
the Ramayana holds a firm grip on the Indian mind because Rama, at every
stage in his life, looked after his family and parents and gave up pursuits of
personal ambition and desire for the collective good of his family and society.
Indian society admires and values the figure of Rama. Boys in Indian families
are raised to be like him. Whereas in Indian mythology there is a far more
complicated, erotic, and queer figure of Lord Krishna who also is loved and
venerated but boys are raised to be like the Maryada Puroshotam Rama. So
these boys learn to shape themselves after Rama even when they know that
they cannot be him. However, family, religion, politics, education supports
and cajoles him to remain a suitable boy. He always acquiesces. This giving
in to the family by suppressing the individual self has a range of consequences
on the suitable boy’s life and those around him.
As the novel opens, in the very first paragraph, we get to know about
Krishna’s inner life. In few pages, the text reveals ‘queer’ aspects of his life.
A close reading of the text reveals tropes of queerness in his character as
he tries to be a suitable boy in the tradition of Rama, but he fails, and this
failure leads to the death of his wife, Susila, and his own suffering. Whereas
Narayan constructs an ideal, brahmanical family-man, and seems to glorify
Hindu family-traditions, the text points out to the darker spots in its central
character and the choices he makes. In fact, ‘his choices’ are thrust upon
him, and he voluntarily lives by them. His father tells Krishna – a full-time
professor – to live together with his wife and child. The reader is made privy
to an interesting conversation. Krishna is not a child, but yet he is given an
order, in the garb of suggestion, to obey. His father writes:

I think in the best interests of yourself you should set up a family … I don’t
feel you ought to be wasting the best of your life in the hostel as it will affect
your health and outlook … if you have no serious objection to this, your
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father-in-law suggests the 10th of next month … (Narayan, 1993, p.19)

After deep contemplation, Krishna accepts the idea, even relishes it.
Strangely enough, more than his wife he wishes to see his child. In addition,
it is interesting to see how he prioritizes the letters – he opens his wife’s

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letter at last and hurriedly goes through it. In addition, instead of picking up
his wife from her parental home, it is Susila’s father who brings her to him.
Looking at the text from a queer-perspective, one witnesses the violence
that goes into making an ordered, ideal Indian family. Even though everything
in the text concerning Krishna’s conjugal life seems one long, mild, pleasing
Hindu ritual, underneath this delightful, harmonious facade of brahminical
order pernicious forces lurk. In the text, this burden to be like an ideal Rama-
like figure eventually makes Krishna retreat from the world, and suffocates
Susila to untimely death.
As the novel opens, Krishna is close to 30 years of age and living in a
hostel with his male colleagues, although he is already married and has a
child. The opening paragraph gives a glimpse into his inner thoughts;

I was on the whole very pleased with my day – not many conflicts and
worries, above all not too much criticism … The urge had upon me for some
days past to take myself in hand. What was wrong with me? I could not say,
some sort of vague disaffection, a self rebellion I might call it. The feeling
again and again came upon me that … I should cease to live like a cow, …
eating, working in a manner of speaking, walking, talking, etc. – all done
to perfection … but always leaving behind a sense of something missing.
(Nararyan, 1993, p. 5)

Later, we learn nothing about this missing part. In addition, the novel
does not reveal the timeline of his marriage. It is the presence of the child
that makes his father ask him to set up a home, and he acquiesces. However,
this is not something he actively pursues. In fact, he hesitates to give up his
bachelor life style. The novel does not give any compelling reason for his
bachelor lifestyle except that he prefers to be alone.
In addition, although he is almost ‘thirty’ before he starts living with his
wife, it is not clear how long he had already been married. Since marriages
are largely arranged in Indian society, questions of employment are less
important than other considerations such as caste affiliation and matching of
horoscopes. Also, early marriage is the norm rather than an exception. The
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narrative does not spell out these significant and, in a tangential way, unusual
aspects of his married life. He could have been married for any number of
years. In addition, his parents and in-laws live within a distance of a few
miles from his college, and yet he hardly visits them. Furthermore, he does
not show any zeal to set up a house with his wife, he rather mildly resents it.

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The decision is made for him by his parents and in-laws and he accepts it as
if trying to be an Indian suitable boy.

The Platform Episode

The platform scene is crucial in the novel as we glimpse the negative dynamics
of Krishna’s relationship with Susila, which remains a permanent fixture of
their lives until Susila lives. Narayan, in his enthusiasm to depict a Rama-
like figure, shows Krishna as a caring, concerned, and responsible man, but
Krishna is seen fretting over imagined anxieties; he seems like a harassed
man who gets edgy at the prospect of doing the unpleasant task of lifting
Susila’s luggage. The only person he truly waits for is his child, Leela. He
remains steadfast in his adoration toward her throughout the text. Right at
the station, Krishna shows a genuine interest in his daughter, and a slightly
condescending, indifferent attitude toward his wife. For instance, when the train
arrives, first thing he wants to do is to hold Leela. Playfully, his wife suggests
that he should carry some other stuff. In this hullabaloo, he perhaps forgets
to greet his father-in-law, but Susila reminds him to do so. As Krishna greets
him, he also hints at the crowded third-class train journey. When he utters
this insult, his earlier negligent manner toward his father-in-law, now, seems
calculated. His wife, at this point, defends her father. A small conflict ensues
between husband and wife. He also remarks, ‘’once again in this saree, still
so fond of it’’ (Narayan, 1993, p. 33) which in an obtuse way is the critique
of her family. Krishna acts like a typical Indian son-in-law – someone who
takes his in-laws for granted.
As these exchanges take place, only in retrospect, does one think of his
earlier small talk with the railway official when he showed his disdain for
those who prefer discomfort over the option of having to spend money. He
also mildly blames his wife for not giving him the exact information about
the train journey. These small things, by default, reveal negative aspects
Krishna’s character, which eventually hold severe consequences for Susila.
Knowing the socio-cultural norms of Indian society, Krishna’s seemingly
benign remarks and actions are mild forms of psychological violence that men
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inflict on women in caste-based societies. Susila does respond to Krishna’s

insinuations to save her family’s honor at the railway platform.
So what we see at the platform in this momentary segment, later emerges
consistently between them. She is seen surviving his slights and indifference,
but never initiating an argument herself. Their small tiffs take agonizing

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proportions. The cause of their (mild) fights core deeper than the trivialities
which the author suggests. Whereas the authorial intent is to constitute a
respectable brahminical narrative about Krishna, the text breaks out and fails
it own internal coherence as it does the opposite.

The Politics of Home

In this section, I will show that whereas in the public sphere Krishna has
everything going well for him; in the private domain of ‘home,’ caste norms
damage him.
Caste perpetuates and strengthens itself within the domain of home,
particularly by dominating women. It is through this control that caste purity
is maintained. Any transgression – sexual, economic, religious – that threatens
caste order is effectively dealt with. Whereas such a set up is unarguably
beneficial to the upper castes, especially the upper-most caste of Brahmins,
the text shows how the grip of caste damages everyone. The lower castes and
Dalits suffer in obvious ways, but Krishna and Susila, being upper castes,
pay a heavy price as well. Throughout his life, Krishna tries to live up to the
tradition of caste and suppresses himself which only causes him pain, and
eventually destroys his family.
What binds Krishna and Susila is the presence of their daughter, Leela. It
is this presence that gives their marriage some veneer of a unit. Apart from
this redeeming feature, right from the start until Susila dies, there is nothing
solid about their relationship. Not even once does Krishna speak with Susila
in an intimate way, and no sign of genuine intimacy surfaces between them.
Usually, such gestures in conservative societies are shown by men. He,
instead, dreams about his yet-to-be-written epic poem; the other thing that
possesses him is his daughter.
Towards Susila he shows neither passion nor kindness. At one point in the
text he has a heated argument with Susila over something insignificant. Susila
cleans his room and sells some of his old examination papers, not realizing
that those are important to him (but the text does not tell how examination
answer sheets are important, and further why they are in his possession;
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technically, they should be the property of college’s Examination Records

Office). Krishna’s intense anger toward Susila raises questions: Why does he
get so enraged over something inconsequential? Is there something deeper
that the novel does not, cannot explore?

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Consequently, Susila sobs for a long time, but Krishna continues with his
work in the adjoining room till midnight. He feels the pang of her sobs and
wants to console her, but this feeling is not strong enough, and therefore,
it remains unarticulated. He only says, ‘’what is the use of crying, after
committing a serious blunder? Through her sobs, she sputtered: ‘’what do
you care … if I had known you cared more for a dilapidated clock.’’ she did
not finish her sentence, and broke down and wept bitterly’’ (Narayan, 1993,
p. 50). Krishna now admonishes her and asks her to ‘’behave like a normal
human being.’’ Stop crying, otherwise people will think a couple of lunatics
are living in this house … ‘’ (Narayan, 1993, p. 50). The novel does not shed
any light on Susila feelings, it only focusses on Krishna’s. The next two days,
she avoids him. Out of guilt, he takes her out, and she readily agrees to his
proposal (the power equation of their relationship is firmly established). At the
platform, when she is not yet living with him, she voices her disagreements,
but inside the home she slowly begins to give in to him – quite literally at last.
Krishna, after his fight with Susila, tries to heal the relationship through
a material undertaking such as of buying a house, with his father’s money
where he can read and write. He asks her to join him and she readily accepts
it, but he refrains from rendering her an apology or showing a genuine gesture
of remorse. In addition to this, among other things, culturally, deals such as
buying a property materialize quicker when a buyer is a family man. So one
can assume Krishna’s idea of taking her out is partly pragmatic and partly
to assuage his guilt.
As Krishna negotiates the financial matters concerning the property,
Susila goes away to check the site. It is an interesting episode, Krishna at this
point suggests her not to go alone and proposes to accompany her, but she
casually ignores him. But this going away costs her and leads to her death. A
fly infects her and she gets sick, and a few weeks later, she dies. This episode
distinctly mirrors Sita, the ideal wife of Rama, crossing the Laxman Rekha
in the epic poem Ramayana. In the epic, Rama’s brother Laxman draws a
line every time he goes out of the hut to protect Sita from the demons. Sita
follows the rule, but once she crosses the line to feed a demon disguised as
an ascetic; her life changes forever – the act of crossing the Laxman Rekha
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leads to her abduction and downfall. Knowing Narayan’s fascination with

Hindu religious epics, the idea of Laxman Rekha seems to give credence to
the myth that women should always listen to men for their own good.
Narayan has largely remained reticent about sex in his works. However,
in regards to Krishna, it is not reticence; he is a flawed character. As I
mentioned earlier, throughout the novel, Krishna hardly behaves like a lover

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toward his wife. Every time he compliments her in the text, his compliments
seem insincere, back-handed, and even insulting. At one point, he recites a
poem to her but later she finds out that the poem was not his. He acts as if
he were indulging a child. Unlike him, Susila shows her desire toward him
in a gender appropriate way. In a caste-based society, women are supposed
to show restraint toward matters of sexuality and desire, particularly in the
domain of marriage. At one point, Susila touches her husband through the
hand of her child and demonstrates her desire, in an indirect, respectable way
so that the action may not brand her as too open and freak-like. However,
Krishna not even once shows such a gesture. He always behaves like an
excellent father and teacher, but seldom as a passionate husband. On one
occasion, he finds Susila standing outside and waiting for him. The moment
he sees her, he taunts her. She takes umbrage at this and becomes defensive.
He almost behaves like a closeted misogynist. Only after she dies, he begins
to obsessively think about her.
In addition, throughout the text, Susila is portrayed to enhance some
positive aspect of Krishna’s character; a range of negative compliments are
given to her to absolve him. For instance, Krishna tells us that before Susila
came to live with him, he used to spend his salary within days of receiving
it (being a poet, he sees himself as generous and less worldly). Unlike him,
Susila is shown pragmatic with financial matters. He also mentions that he
gives her all his salary (he does this when she comes to live with him but
not before). However, Susila’s handling of Krishna’s monthly income is no
indication of the power balance in their relationship; in fact, this puts the
burden of family logistics on her.
Even on her deathbed, she tells her husband that her father will give her
five hundred rupees when she gets well. But before this, we see her suffering
for weeks. Even in pain, she thinks of her father’s proposal and announces
it to Krishna. During her sickness, this is the only time she speaks. When
Krishna hears this, he casually suggests that she should get well and claim
the reward. Even with his child he shows more feeling and tact, but not with
Susila who always seeks to please him.
This constant reference to Susila’s attitude toward money is actually his.
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When Krishna leaves the hostel, he argues shabbily with the eighty-year-old
servant, Singaram, who has served him for ten years, over a few cents. The
old man begs him, but Krishna refuses to oblige him. This one scene reveals
Krishna’s true attitude toward money which the text so assiduously seems
to suppress. Although access to money does give Susila agency over others
such as her maid and daily-wage workers; at a more personal level, one can

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argue that she uses this privilege to fill the void created by her emotionally
unavailable husband.
Another dimension of Krishna’s character emerges when Susila falls sick.
As a lover he is distant and inscrutable, but as a caretaker he is impeccable.
But even in the role of a nurse, the same man whom we have seen at the
station reemerges – mildly condescending and unkind. Before anyone shows
discrimination toward Susila, he feels sorry for her. He thinks that her disease
has stripped her of all identity, that she is only one thing now – her sickness.
Susila is kept in a separate room. Her daughter is not allowed near her
– Susila is turned into an ‘untouchable’ in her own house. In this whole
period while she is quarantined, we do not see what is happening inside
her. We see her shivering, not wanting to eat, her spiking temperatures, her
discomfort, but we know nothing about her feelings and fears. There is no
gentle, genuine conversation ensues between the two. The nurse in Krishna
absolutely subsumes the husband in him. In addition, he spends a lot of time
taking care of his daughter, not letting her go close to Susila. Although the
child is shown as curious, intelligent, but she seldom insists on seeing her
mother. Even after Susila’s dies, the child hardly talks about her mother.
Krishna somehow manages to manipulate her. It is quite probable that such a
perceptive child learns to regulate her behavior, and instinctively understands
what is expected of her. For instance, at school, in a story class, with her
classmates, she does interpret stories as if grappling with the trauma of
losing her mother. Krishna’s initial, intense fear about the society at large in
connection with Susila’s sickness is his own fear, which is played out in the
sacred periphery of home. Throughout this phase, the thrust of the text is on
Krishna’s excellent caring nature, although the readers know that he has an
excellent maid and his in-laws helping him.
The episode of Susila’s sickness reflects the woman from Gilman’s
story The Yellow Wallpaper. In Narayan’s novel, it is Krishna who inflicts
a mild, unarticulated violence on his wife. In Gilman’s story, it comes from
everyone including the husband. The wife likes writing, but she is kept
under surveillance and is not allowed to write. As for Susila, things are not
any different. She is being locked up in the name of precaution and concern.
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She is constantly reprimanded and asked to behave for her own good. Not
only in normal circumstances, but in her sickness too, he talks to her as if
she were a child. On many occasions, he refers to her as ‘Patient.’ At one
point, she starts singing and flinging her legs. Krishna asks her not to exert
herself. Clearly, her delirious movements discomfort him. These moments
raise questions in the novel: Why does she indulge in such unexpected acts

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such as singing and tossing her legs? Could it be that her bodily gestures are
howls of revolt against an unspeakable injustice?
Finally, when she dies, Krishna stoically accepts it. The manner in which
her death is mourned seems odd:

We squat on the bare foot around her, her father, mother, and I. We mutter,
talk among ourselves, and wail between convulsions of grief; but our bodies
are worn out with fatigue. An unearthly chill makes our teeth chatter as we
gaze … Gradually … we recline against the wall and sink into sleep. The
dawn finds us all huddled on the cold floor. (Narayan, 1993, p. 94)

This is the only way he mourns Susila’s death in the text, as if her loss can
only be experienced and expressed collectively, and that there is no personal
dimension to his grief. In fact, he gets used to the fact of her death rather
quickly. Before he begins communicating with the spirit of Susila, he seems
happy raising his child and nurturing a newly found male friendship with the
headmaster of a primary school that he describes as ‘profound.’
In addition, in such circumstances, it is common that the widower is flooded
with marriage proposals, and everyone tries to fix the family for the child
sake’s. However, in the novel, something extraordinary happens – Krishna
rejects the idea of remarriage. He takes the duel responsibility of both father
and mother toward his child. When his mother sees him singlehandedly taking
care of the child, she cries and says that no one ever lived that way in their
family. It is not clear what she meant by that half-articulated lament, but it
suggests that Krishna’s unorthodox choice of remaining single is resented
by his family.
As I argued before that instead of marrying again, Krishna gives up his job
and considers renouncing the world. A caste-based society, when it comes to
individual desire, is anti-democratic. In the beginning of the novel, he does
what is expected of him, even though he prefers to live alone and concentrate
on writing; towards the end, he rejects the idea of re-marriage. In both ways,
he suffers. He deals with his problems in passive ways so as not to fight the
societal norms, and finds his place in society. In doing so, he does not intend
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to change the world or fight it, he seeks to find a place within it. Between
queerness and balance, he chooses the latter. His very privilege in society
depends on this ‘balance,’ – the old brahminical instinct, unconsciously,
perhaps, guides his choices.
Only after Susila dies does Krishna come in true contact with her. As the
reality of her death sinks in, he becomes obsessed with her. It is, then, we see

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him missing her and wanting to communicate with her. Whereas the novel
focusses on his grief and aims to portray him sympathetically, it also shows
that his sadness emerges from guilt. Through the use of Susila’s spirit, Krishna
hears everything he wants to hear. Her spirit constantly absolves him and
assuages his guilt. Right in the first letter, Susila says all the expected things
to validate him. If their relationship has been normal, equal and loving, the
nature of their talks would have been different. In most of these talks, the wife
nurtures him. Krishna finds solace in talking to her. He feels consoled, and
assumes that she is happy and wants him to be well. This assurance is what
he craves to minimize his guilt and indifference that he has shown toward
her while she lived.
Throughout these exchanges with his dead wife, his guilt comes to the
fore. In another time, Krishna might have addressed his inner demons – that
caste society imposes on people – differently. In the last page of the book,
Krishna makes his peace with Susila’s death. This positive resolution that
he reaches with his deceased wife’s spirit is one-sided. He finds peace with
himself by creating a mythical Susila who has never existed.
I have shown how caste emerges in the novel. Caste’s strategic absence
from the narrative exaggerates its presence. The world that Narayan creates has
no meaning for a Dalit because he either sees himself erased and neglected,
or being demonized as the caste-other. The socio-cultural landscape of this
novel is upper-caste: the major characters, their rituals, and festivals, and
the place where they work and live reflect an India that belongs only to a
few. Within this India, there is non-brahminical India that is everywhere but
is not narrated. In suppressing this India, Narayan is not any different from
other Indian English writers; however, unlike others, he consciously seems
to embrace and celebrate this ‘brahminical India’ which ironically enhances
his reputation as an authentic Indian writer. Caste embedded in everyday
socio-cultural practices comes with full force in the text which exalts India as
upper-caste and heterosexual. In doing so, the upper castes erase and tend to
demonize non-brahminical India, and non-normative sexualities, irrespective
of their caste status. Consequently, caste injures not only the lower castes and
Dalits, it damages the whole society albeit in different ways.
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Related Readings

To continue IGI Global’s long-standing tradition of advancing innovation

through emerging research, please find below a compiled list of recommended
IGI Global book chapters and journal articles in the areas of political writing,
gender politics, and political discourse. These related readings will provide
additional information and guidance to further enrich your knowledge and
assist you with your own research.

Ak, R., & Bingül, B. A. (2018). Kuwait. In S. Ozdemir, S. Erdogan, & A.

Gedikli (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Sociopolitical Factors Impacting
Economic Growth in Islamic Nations (pp. 276–292). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2939-2.ch014
Azad, S. K. (2016). Women, Migration, Ready Made Garment Factories in
Dhaka: Formation of New Class, Culture, and Relationships? In N. Mahtab,
S. Parker, F. Kabir, T. Haque, A. Sabur, & A. Sowad (Eds.), Revealing Gender
Inequalities and Perceptions in South Asian Countries through Discourse
Analysis (pp. 41–56). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-
0279-1.ch003
Banerjee, A. K. (2017). “Why Can’t I Have the Vote?”: Women’s Poetry,
Politics, and the First World War. In Ö. Çakırtaş (Ed.), Ideological Messaging
and the Role of Political Literature (pp. 117–144). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Copyright © 2019. IGI Global. All rights reserved.

doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2391-8.ch007
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Bhattacharyya, D. K. (2016). Effectiveness of Critical Discourse Analysis

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Two Indian Organizations. In N. Mahtab, S. Parker, F. Kabir, T. Haque, A.
Sabur, & A. Sowad (Eds.), Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in
South Asian Countries through Discourse Analysis (pp. 100–120). Hershey,
PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0279-1.ch006
Bozkurt, İ. M., & Koç, M. (2018). Islamic Republic of Iran. In S. Ozdemir,
S. Erdogan, & A. Gedikli (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Sociopolitical
Factors Impacting Economic Growth in Islamic Nations (pp. 122–146).
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Brahmana, R., & Chen, S. (2016). The Role of Women Directors for Malaysian
Firms’ Performance. In N. Mahtab, S. Parker, F. Kabir, T. Haque, A. Sabur,
& A. Sowad (Eds.), Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in South
Asian Countries through Discourse Analysis (pp. 121–136). Hershey, PA:
IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0279-1.ch007
Brice, T. S. (2016). Race Relations in the Churches of Christ: Strategies towards
Reconciliation. In B. Glimps & T. Ford (Eds.), Gender and Diversity Issues
in Religious-Based Institutions and Organizations (pp. 184–199). Hershey,
PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-8772-1.ch008
Bristow, D. C. (2017). What Danger Can There Be in Being the Shadow of
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O’Casey, and Yeats. In Ö. Çakırtaş (Ed.), Ideological Messaging and the Role
of Political Literature (pp. 1–24). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-
1-5225-2391-8.ch001
Çakırtaş, Ö. (2017). Mustapha and Greville: Constructing Anglo-Ottoman
Diplomacy and Machiavellian Identities in Early Modern English Drama. In
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(pp. 145–158). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2391-8.
ch008
Campos, E. Jr. (2017). “Power Is Only a Word”: Language, Control, and
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the Orwellian Philosophy of Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Ö. Çakırtaş (Ed.),

Ideological Messaging and the Role of Political Literature (pp. 25–42).
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Cappelli, M. L. (2017). The Digital Politics of Pain: Exploring Female Voices

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1-5225-2391-8.ch009
Cengiz, V. (2018). Afghanistan. In S. Ozdemir, S. Erdogan, & A. Gedikli (Eds.),
Handbook of Research on Sociopolitical Factors Impacting Economic Growth
in Islamic Nations (pp. 314–331). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-
1-5225-2939-2.ch016
Chowdhury, F. (2016). Permanently Temporary: The Production of Race,
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Foreign Worker Program. In N. Mahtab, S. Parker, F. Kabir, T. Haque, A.
Sabur, & A. Sowad (Eds.), Discourse Analysis as a Tool for Understanding
Gender Identity, Representation, and Equality (pp. 175–203). Hershey, PA:
IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0225-8.ch009
Dama, N. (2018). Iraq. In S. Ozdemir, S. Erdogan, & A. Gedikli (Eds.),
Handbook of Research on Sociopolitical Factors Impacting Economic Growth
in Islamic Nations (pp. 147–160). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-
1-5225-2939-2.ch008
Demirhan, K. (2017). Participation, Civil Society and the Facebook Use of
NGOs in Turkey. In K. Demirhan & D. Çakır-Demirhan (Eds.), Political
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Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2019-1.ch010
Demirhan, K. (2017). Scandal Politics and Political Scandals in the Era of
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Di Martino, M. L. (2017). The “Development” Dilemma in the Literary
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Across Literature. In Ö. Çakırtaş (Ed.), Ideological Messaging and the Role
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1-5225-2391-8.ch004
Durgun, Ö. (2018). United Arab Emirates. In S. Ozdemir, S. Erdogan, & A.
Gedikli (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Sociopolitical Factors Impacting
Economic Growth in Islamic Nations (pp. 253–275). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2939-2.ch013

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 202

About the Contributors

Önder Çakırtaş is currently associate academic in the Drama, Theatre

and Performance Studies Department of Univeristy of Roehampton, UK. His
research areas include political and psychological literature. He specializes
in contemporary British political theatre.

***

Nicole Anae graduated from Charles Sturt University with a B.Ed and
Dip.T before earning her PhD through the Faculty of English, Journalism and
European Languages at the University of Tasmania. Her research interests
include writing, creative self-expression, embodiment and performance, and
the interplay between literature, performance and identity. She is Senior Lec-
turer in Literary and Cultural Studies at Central Queensland University. Her
published work appears in a variety of refereed journals and edited collections.

Nilay Erdem Ayyıldız is a graduate of Hacettepe University, English

Language and Literature. She holds her MA from the same department at
Fırat University where she is currently teaching. She holds her PhD from
Atılım University, Department of English Language and Literature with a
full scholarship from TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey). Her dissertation was about the representation of colo-
nial ideology in nineteenth-century British children’s adventure novels. It
was published as a book entitled “British Children’s Adventure Novels in
the Web of Colonialism” by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in September
Copyright © 2019. IGI Global. All rights reserved.

2018. Her areas of interest are Victorian and children’s works of literature
and postcolonial and gender studies on which she has delivered conference
papers and published articles.
 About the Contributors

Lucky Issar has worked in field of education in India and Denmark. Cur-
rently, he is doing research at Berlin FU, Germany.

Marisa Kërbizi is the Vice Dean of Education Faculty and the lecturer of
“Albanian Contemporary Literature” in “Alexander Moisiu” University, Dur-
rës, Albania. She is a member of Research Scientific Committee in AMU. She
holds the CEO position at “Mankind Tracks” ctr., an organization dedicated
to advancing understanding, culture and education. Her main research inter-
ests include issues relating to quality assurance in HEIs, building capacities,
gender studies, ethnography, literature, etc. She has published more than 40
critical articles and reviews in international scientific journals.

Elena Kitaeva is an Associate Professor for the Faculty of Modern Lan-

guages, Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia. For the last 10 years she
has been involved in managing and coordinating the work of the English
Language Department for Faculty of Psychology, St. Petersburg State Uni-
versity, being its Chief. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from St. Petersburg
State University. Her research and interests focus on linguistics, discourse
studies, higher education, higher education management. She has developed
curricula and syllabuses for St. Petersburg State University. She has been
involved in researches and projects in the field of discourse studies, corpus
studies, stylistics, adult education and teaching foreign languages. Her pro-
fessional and research interests are concentrated in the sphere of education
technologies and methodology in Higher School, and she is the author of
articles and book chapters in the fields mentioned above.

Xenia Liashuk is Assistant Professor of English at the Faculty of Educa-

tion, Trnava University, Slovakia. She is a graduate of intercultural commu-
nication from Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus and holds a PhD
in translation studies from Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her
research and publications are in the fields of cultural studies, contemporary
American literature and intercultural communication in ELT.
Copyright © 2019. IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Olga V. Ozerova holds a specialist degree in sociology and cultural stud-

ies (St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, 2004). Olga Ozerova
has worked as a junior researcher (Sociology of Health dept) at the Socio-
logical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Former Academy of
Sciences of the USSR) for 11 years- 2006-2017. Olga Ozerova is an author
and co-author of a number of prominent articles in peer-reviewed journals

203
 About the Contributors

and co-author of book chapters in the field. Since 2015 she has pursued her
linguistic degree at the St. Petersburg State University (bachelor’s programme,
master’s programme); 2019 MA in linguistics (Theory and history of lan-
guages of Europe. Discourse and Variation of the English language). Olga
Ozerova is a lecturer at the department of Foreign Languages, St.Petersburg
State Institute of Culture by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federa-
tion. She has been involved in research in discourse studies, namely political
discourse and discourse social variability.

Maria Antonietta Struzziero is an independent scholar. She received

her PhD in Linguistic and Literary Studies from the University of Salerno.
Her doctoral dissertation concentrated on Jeanette Winterson and the love
discourse in some of her novels. She has published articles and book chapters
on Thomas Hardy, Julian Barnes, Jeanette Winterson, and Rose Tremain, and
given papers at international conferences. She has co-edited Voci Ed echi:
Quaderni di letteratura comparata and translated two novels. She is currently
working on mythology in contemporary novels, particularly Colm Tòibìn’s
House of Names and Madeline Miller’s Circe.

Michail Theodosiadis is a PhD researcher and lecturer in Goldsmiths,

University of London. His main fields of research involve: theories around
populism and citizenship, American history, English Literature (and more
particularly Romanticism).

Edlira Tonuzi Macaj was born in 25.08.1980, Durrës, Albania. She was
graduated in Doctoral Studies, University of Tirana, Faculty of History and
Philology, Department of Literature (2015) while previously she completed
a Master of Science in Ljubljana University, Faculty of Arts, Department of
Information Science and Book Studies and a Master of Science in Literature
Studies at University of Tirana too. 2009-2013 she was a lecturer in Alek-
sandër Moisiu University, Durrës, Albania and from 2015- she is a lecturer in
University of Tirana, Faculty of History and Philology, focused in theoretical
orientation. She’s the author of books: Letërsi-Ab Initio, 2019; Narcissus
Copyright © 2019. IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Mirrors, Mythical symbolism and text semiotics, which presented her as a

candidate for the debutant category at the National Literary Prize “Penda e
Argjendtë”, 2012; Coauthor –Vise të preme, (chapter 2), 2011; Literature
10. (scholar textbook) 2016, etc. She´s participated in international literary
and multidisciplinary conferences, projects, and trainings. Her academic
contributions are published in proceedings, academic reviews, international
journals, etc.
204
 205

Index

“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” 66-68, 72, 74, 79 discourse 8, 17, 33, 43, 46, 57, 60, 62, 74-
“The Mowgli Stories” 55, 66-69, 72, 74, 79 75, 79, 128, 133, 143-146, 148-150,
152-153, 159-160, 162-166, 170, 174
A
E
A Russian Journal 80-81, 89, 94, 96, 98
Aboriginal 1-23 Emily Brontë 105-106
Albanian League of Writers and Artists 142
Albanian literature 124-126, 128, 130, F
133, 138
Australia 6, 8, 10, 12-13, 16, 20, 23 Foucault 33, 44, 127, 144

B G
B. Obama 148-153, 159, 164-166 Gendered Imperialism 62, 66, 79
Gjergj Fishta 133
C
H
caste 71, 171-175, 177, 179, 181, 186
censorship 31-32, 137, 140, 142 Hannah Arendt 105, 107
children’s literature 56-58, 60, 63-64, 66, 79
Christopher Lasch 105 I
colonial discourse 57, 75, 79
Colonialist Author 55, 79 ideology 31-32, 42, 55-57, 59-60, 62, 64,
66, 75, 79-81, 84-87, 89-90, 97-101,
D 124-134, 136, 138-139, 142, 144
Ilf and Petrov 80, 86-88, 91-94, 98-99
D. Trump 148, 165 imperialist ideology 56-57, 59, 64, 66,
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Dalit 172-177, 186 75, 79

detective fction 1-3, 5-7, 10, 12-14, 16- India 55, 59-65, 67-69, 71-73, 171-173, 186
17, 22-24 Indigenous 1-5, 7, 12, 14-19, 21-24, 57, 62
dialogue 32, 86, 95, 107, 145, 153-155, infuence 33, 49, 81, 83-86, 91, 97, 125-
159, 162, 164 126, 128, 130, 134-135, 142-143, 145
dictatorship 94, 125, 128-130, 138, 142 intercultural communication 83
 Index

internment 138, 140, 142 Q

interpretation 50, 80-81, 84, 89, 100, 108-
109, 112, 118, 127, 129, 135-136, 147 queer 173, 178
intertext inclusions 146, 170
Intertextual Analysis 146, 170 R
Intertextuality 143, 165, 170
Intext Inclusions 170 Reader’s Reception 142
reception 41, 125, 128-129, 134, 142,
J 156-157

J. Kristeva 145 S
John Steinbeck 80-81, 88
sexuality 183
L Simone Weil 105-106
socialist realism 125, 128-134, 138-139,
literary travel book 82 142
Little Golden America 80-81, 91, 98 Stalin 32-39, 42-44, 48, 51, 97-98, 152

M T
M. Bakhtin 144-145 T. May 148, 165
manipulation 44 trauma 32, 34, 41, 47, 50, 184
Martin Camaj 136
mythology 178 U
N untouchability 177
updootedness 105, 107
N. Sarkozy 148, 160, 162-165
Nineteenth-Century British Imperial V
Politics 79
nostalgia 114-117 V. Putin 148, 153-156, 158-159, 164-165
violence 6, 13-14, 19, 23-24, 55, 66-67, 69-
O 71, 74-75, 111, 149, 174, 179-180, 184

One-Storied America 80-81

P
political discourse 17, 143-146, 148, 150,
152, 159, 163-166, 170
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political ideology 85, 124-125, 128, 134,

138-139, 142
political speech 143-146, 148, 152, 164-
165, 170
political writing 1-2, 7, 22
postcolonialism 3
propaganda 41-45, 98, 130, 132, 142, 144

206