The Imperial Quest and Modern Memory from Conrad to Greene

Julia Rawa

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135494391
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Imperial Quest and Modern Memory explores relationships between narrative and imperium in the context of Western Modernism by examining the Quest as a vexed trope in Heart of Darkness, Passage to India, The Sheltering Sky, and The Quiet American. The book takes stock of twentieth century theory regarding the Quest--as archetype, trope, and construct, considers the dominant expression and the imperial organization of this trope in Western culture and iconography from the Dark Ages to the Age of Empire, explores the ways in which this trope both lingers and changes in the context of Western Modernism, and finally gauges its permutations in Modern discourse. The Imperial Quest and Modern Memory's central claim is that the Modern novel simultaneously reinscribes and subverts Western and imperial manifestations of the Quest. Heart of Darkness, Passage to India, The Sheltering Sky, and The Quiet American are remarkably Modern and subversive narratives. They participate in the revolutionary projects of early and high Modernism and are often in marked opposition to imperial praxis. Yet they are also profoundly influenced by the deep ideological and metaphoric structures of Western culture. Thus, the Quest trope--specifically in its Western and imperial manifestations--lingers in Modern Memory and certainly in the Modern novel. This expansive study emphasizes intriguing intersections between past and present, culture and archetype, norm and narrative, memory and contemporaneity.

Chapter One

The Inexorable Quest:
Archetype or Construct?

The Sufi sage Ibn al’ Arabi wrote, “know that since God created human beings and brought them out of nothingness into existence, they have not stopped being travelers” (qtd. in Metzner 108). The sense of movement through life as a journey is conveyed in myths and texts the world over. Ibn al’ Arabi communicates just this sense. Many poets and scholars (archaic and modern) have remarked upon the dynamism of the journey trope which surfaces in the allegorical language of myths and texts in all parts of the world. Metzner notes that “the journey is a going out, extending into the world, and a returning” (107). He suggests that the image of man as a traveler or wanderer is an ancient one rooted in ancestral memories of the hundreds of thousands of years our species spent wandering in nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers (107). The journey trope also resonates as a metaphor for the basic phases of human existence. The fundamental structure emphasizes growth and self-transformation. There are many different kinds of journeys based on various goals in myths and texts; nevertheless, they frequently suggest change or transformation. Consider the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Ramayana, the Exodus of the Bible, Paradise Lost or even Alice in Wonderland. These are all dynamic texts based on passage and transformation. Marcel Proust notes, “we do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.” For Proust, life is (of course) a journey, and his use of the archetypal metaphor resonates. I begin this book by taking stock of some twentieth century theory regarding the journey or quest—as archetype, trope, and construct. I move on to emphasize the dominant expression and the imperial organization of this trope in Western culture and iconography from the Dark Ages to the Age of Empire and then consider how it both lingers and changes in the context of Western Modernism. I ultimately explore this powerful trope in Heart of Darkness, A Passage to India, The Sheltering Sky, and The Quiet American to gauge its permutations and transformations in Modern discourse.

PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY: QUEST AS DREAM SYMBOL AND ARCHETYPE

Psychoanalytical theory offers much insight regarding symbolic expression and thus the articulation of the journey or quest in narrative; moreover, any conversation about Modernism and Modern narrative must acknowledge the groundbreaking work of Sigmund Freud. There is “a sensitivity to the muted voice of the unconscious” (Groden et al 514) in the Modern works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—including those by Conrad, Forster, Bowles, and Greene. There are a few key Freudian ideas that relate to quest and transformation in Western discourse and Modern narrative in particular: the influence of the unconscious mind (over the conscious mind) and the expression of the unconscious mind via symbols—especially dream symbols.

Freud suggests that the most important human quest is the quest to move beyond unresolved conflicts in order to become more conscious; consequently, many Modern narratives dramatize the struggles of the psyche in search of equilibrium. Freud states that the quest for equilibrium involves three areas of cerebral operation (the id, the ego, and the superego). These areas of cerebral operation work at different levels of consciousness (the conscious, the pre-conscious, and the unconscious) with movement of memories and impulses from one level to another. The id is the unconscious reservoir of drives ruled by the “pleasure principle” while the ego operates at the conscious level and is ruled by the “reality principle.” The ego takes care of the ids urges unless they are posed as unacceptable. The unconscious is both a source and repository of urges that are unacceptable. These urges provoke anxiety and have to be “repressed”; therefore, the conscious mind blocks them via defense mechanisms (like repression, projection, transference, and sublimation). The superego is conscious as well as unconscious and serves as a censor on the id (as well as the ego). The superego is “the conscience”; Freud notes (importantly) that the superego is a product of the social matrix (Complete Psychological Works). Freuds psychoanalysis aims at strengthening the ego via recognition of unconscious drives, desires, and social pressures. He suggests that we are controlled by primitive instincts as well as social censors and can only achieve balance (to some extent) via attentiveness and introspection. Freud focuses on the symbols embedded in dreams and articulated in language to reach these conclusions. Freuds work on the language and structure of dreams anticipates (and makes possible) the work of Jacques Derrida and other poststructuralists for it presupposes that thought and discourse are metaphorical. Freuds concept of the dream symbol also paves the way for Carl Jungs concept of the archetype. Freud notes that it is possible to learn about the symbols in dreams from very different sources:

We learn about [them] from fairy tales, myths, folklore (that is, knowledge about popular manners and customs, sayings, and songs) and from poetic and colloquial linguistic usage. In all these directions we come upon the same symbolism and in some of them we can understand it without further instruction. If we go into these sources in detail, we should find so many parallels to dream symbolism we cannot fail to be convinced of our interpretations. (The Interpretation of Dreams 158—9)

The dream symbol is a compelling expression of the unconscious mind and often operates as a powerful recurring trope in culture too. Freuds observations about dreams and language (especially the idea that language depends on metaphor, simile, and synecdoche to say one thing in terms of another) is clearly relevant to this study. The quest is just such a recurring and symbolic trope. The quest articulates the human desire to triumph over conflict in order to become more conscious and empowered (in dreams as well as narrative). Metzner notes that “the mythic wandering hero represents the human ego exploring and discovering the world of reality as he or she grows up to adulthood, traversing the rites of passage and the transitions and challenges of each phase” (108). Freud notes that conscious and unconscious comparison characterizes thought and language; however, he also points out that cultural conditioning plays a strategic role in shaping thought and language. The Western quest—as dream symbol and trope—is thus shaped (in part) by the authority of the Western superego.

Any conversation about the journey or quest (and the ways in which it has been shaped in the West) must also consider Jungian ideas about the archetype. Jung reworks Freuds idea of the dream symbol into the concept of the archetype—a prototype that emerges from the “Collective Unconscious”:

The concept of the archetype is derived from the repeated observation that, for instance, the myths and fairy tales of world literature contain definite motifs which crop up everywhere. We meet these same motifs in the fantasies, dreams, deliria, and delusions of individuals living today. These typical images and associations are what I call archetypal ideas. They have their origin in the archetype, which in itself is an irrepresentable, unconscious, pre-existent form that seems to be part of the inherited structure of the psyche and can therefore manifest itself spontaneously anywhere, at any time. (Collected Works 10)

The Jungian notion of the archetype (we can trace the phrase itself back to Plato as Jung does: arche, “original” and typos, “form”) is intriguing. Do preexistent or inherited forms surface in world culture and world literature—and is the journey or quest motif one of these forms? Jung distinguishes the journey as a key archetype that recurs in dreams and the analogues of ritual, myth, and narrative. The journey archetype clearly recurs in Western literature and surfaces in Heart of Darkness, A Passage to India, The Sheltering Sky, and The Quiet American. The Jungian journey is based on recognition of the power of the unconscious (and the ways in which it controls us). The Jungian seeker must strive to meet the archetypes and synthesize contradictions. The quest involves meeting the shadow (an archetype from the personal unconscious) and progressing to meet the archetypes of the collective unconsciousness—especially the archetype of the self. The self is the core part of the individual: “the oceanic religious feeling referred to in Buddhism but without a material form” (Storr 212–28). The Jungian journey (like the Freudian journey) is a metaphor for making the unconscious conscious. The goal of the Jungian archetypal journey is individuation—or the process of developing into a more complete individual. Many Modern narratives pivot on journeys that involve the rejection of mass consciousness, and some of these journeys emphasize self-actualization or individuation. Many of the representative characters in these Modern narratives break from social norms (that provoke mass neurosis or psychosis) in order to pursue higher consciousness (knowledge, balance, or union) while lack of consciousness leads to dangers like the vicious avarice in Heart of Darkness; the antagonistic discrimination in A Passage to India; the callous objectification in The Sheltering Sky; and the imperialistic terrorism in The Quiet American.

The metanarratives of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology (especially with respect to the dream symbol and the archetype) point to the power and pervasiveness of the quest trope. Freud proposes a biological paradigm in which we cant always control aspects of our behavior but can search for equilibrium while Jung proposes a more expansive paradigm in which we can achieve individuation by experiencing opposites; however, Freud and Jung both stress unconscious process and symbolic expression. Jung also recognizes divergent strains in culture which modify the articulation of the archetype. A mythlogem is thus an expression of archetype “on the ethnological level” (Collected Works 67). Freud likewise declares that our conscious and unconscious states are contaminated by factors that lie outside these states (Complete Psychological Works). These observations regarding the intersections between psyche and culture suggest productive directions for this study I propose that the Western quest is an articulation of the archetype (the vision quest based on departure, engagement, and return) yet also always already contaminated by factors that lie outside of it.

MYTH-CRITICISM: QUEST AS MONOMYTH

It is hard to deny that the quest pattern crops up everywhere—and certainly in Western narrative. A basic pattern seems clear: there is a synchronicity between the outer and the inner journey as the subject starts in ignorance, moves through the challenging process of learning, and acquires knowledge en route. Joseph Campbell observes the pervasiveness of the quest archetype in ritual, myth, and text and especially in narratives that emphasize the recurring and central role of the hero in the social order. He uses scores of diverse sources from contrasting traditions to illustrate the inexorable power of the archetype in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The Hero with a Thousand Faces defines the hero’s archetypal journey as a sequence of interrelated phases. Campbell argues that

There is a certain typical hero sequence of actions which can be detected in stories from all over the world and from many periods in history. Essentially it might be said that there is but one archetypal mythic hero whose life has been replicated in many lands by many, many people. (PM 166)

The hero begins in a state of naiveté or unconsciousness, crosses a significant threshold, travels to a non-ordinary realm, and experiences challenging ordeals. These ordeals call for skill, courage, and endurance. The hero typically contends with some negative force that represents discord and overcomes this force to return to the source with a boon that promises social rejuvenation or transformation. The hero achieves (for Campbell) a state of developed consciousness at the close of the mythic journey.

Northrop Frye also observes the pervasiveness of the quest archetype in Western literature in Anatomy of Criticism. Frye’s archetype is Jungian: “[it is] a primordial image, a part of the collective unconscious, the psychic residue of numberless experiences of the same kind, and thus part of the inherited response-pattern of the race” (qtd. in Groden et al 709). Frye’s emphasis on texts distances him from the depth psychology of Freud and Jung. Significantly, he distinguishes the quest as the “monomyth” of Western literature. Frye links the Western quest to the genre of Romance:

The complete form of the romance is clearly the successful quest and such a completed form has three main stages: the stage of the perilous journey and the preliminary minor adventures; the crucial struggle, usually some kind of battle in which either the hero and his foe, or both, must die; and the exaltation of the hero. We may call these three stages the agon or conflict, the pathos or death struggle, and the anagnorisis or discovery. (AC 187)

Anatomy of Criticism also defines the (male) hero’s archetypal journey as a sequence of interrelated phases. Campbell explores this trope in the rituals, myths, and narratives of many cultures, while Frye explores this trope in the specific context of Western literature. Campbell argues that this trope pervades narratives throughout the world. Frye argues that this is the key trope in Western literature.

Campbell also emphasizes the figurative nature of myths rather than the literal nature of myths. He cautions us to avoid becoming so trapped in the literal aspects of metaphor that the more sophisticated abstract ideas are missed. He advises us not to “get stuck in the metaphor” (PM 150–206). Language and myths are embedded in the figurative and thus open to interpretation. This is evidenced by Campbell’s impressive interpretive pyrotechnics in The Hero with a Thousand Faces as well as other works. In HWTF, Campbell states:

We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world. (25)

Campbell’s statement suggests that the archetypal vision quest leads to profound and transcendent experience. The vision quest is a metaphor for progressive human transformation and is (as Campbell points out) embedded in human imagination, language, and text. The vision quest emphasizes the idea of process rather than product: the boon is expansive transformation of consciousness rather than other forms of gain. Yet it is important to note that not all quests (in life or in narrative) are exactly the same. They may conform to the basic pattern (departure, engagement, and return), but quests are distinctive in character and ethos. Some quests emphasize expansive transformation of consciousness while others do not. The context of the quest, the structure of the quest, and the language of the quest are all extremely consequential in exploring texts as well as culture in general. It is impossible to deny the power of the quest but also essential to recognize the fact that the quest is influenced by many factors—including the arbitrary standards of the civilization in which it emerges.

POSTSTRUCTURAL AND MARXIST CRITIQUE: QUEST AS CONSTRUCT

If it is possible to accept the archetype as a pattern of energy originating in the collective unconscious and finding expression in dreams and texts (Jung, CW 287), then it is also obligatory to consider the ways in which the archetype is reworked by the power of culture and the power of language. The ground breaking work of many poststructural theorists, for example, stresses the ways economic and cultural forces shape discourse and experience. Poststructural philosophers like Jean-François Lyotard push the Modern project in rejecting eternal, metaphysical truths and calling grand narratives into question. Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard practice a poststructuralism predicated on the celebration of heterogeneity. Jaques Lacan and Julia Kristeva revise (for example) Freuds approach to the authority of the father (which is integrated into the ego and forms the basis of the superego). Lacan and Kristeva emphasize the acquisition of language and the movement from the Imaginary to the Symbolic; therefore, their theories point to the ways in which tropes are shaped and received. Poststructural theorists also point to the totalizing strains in archetypal and myth-critical theory. Though it considers heterogeneous voices from a wide array of cultures, Jungian analytical psychology does push the grand narrative of the collective unconscious. Jungs archetypes are generally presented as universal forms. He celebrates the idea of universal patterns in contrast to poststructuralists who emphasize differánce. In The Postmodern Condition, for example, Lyotard exclaims, “I define Postmodernism as incredulity toward metanarratives” (xxiv). Thus, poststructuralists call the totalizing strains in these metanarratives into question.

Poststructural Marxist scholars resist the idea of archetype. They view archetype as construct. Fredric Jameson sees criticism that leans on Freudian theory or Jungian theory as ethical criticism that poses as immanent but is always already class specific and mired in exclusion:

Here notions of personal identity, myths of the reunification of the psyche, and the mirage of some Jungian self’ or ego’ stand in for the older themes of moral sensibility and ethical awareness and reconfirm the aptness of [realism] which turns upon the critique of the center and the centered self.’ (PU 60)

Rejecting the idea of a centered self,’ Jam...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index