Variations Of Selfhood In Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet

Contemporary novelist Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) is considered by many critics as one of the greatest experimental writers in the 20th century. Starting from 1960s Durrellian studies has been popular among many critics abroad and their Studies on his masterpiece The Alexandria Quartet are focused on the theme of love, the experimental writing techniques and its relevance with realities. The current study is a continuation and of the previous studies abroad and is a relatively pioneering one in China because Durrell is a generally ignored British writer among Chinese scholars of contemporary British and American literatures.Selfhood is the main concern of Durrell's tetralogy because as an expatriate writer Durrell constantly cares about the issue of self-identity. In the tetralogy Durrell's artistic representations of selfhood change from novel to novel, as a result of which the tetralogy offers the reader an overall view on the variations of selfhood and helps the reader understand the contemporary existential situations of mankind. Taking variations of selfhood as its pivot, this dissertation chooses Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet including four novels, i.e. Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea to illustrate Durrell's concern on the variations of selfhood within different contexts. The body of the dissertation contains four chapters and each chapter deals with one kind of context within which variations of selfhood are examined.Starting with the discussion on Durrell's literary achievement and reputation the introduction lays out research purpose and task of this dissertation. A complete critical survey of Durrell and The Alexandria Quartet at home and abroad is conducted in this section. Theories and definitions on selfhood are presented to construct a relatively firm theoretical framework for the dissertation. The essence, characteristics and significance of the variations of selfhood in the tetralogy are also discussed. Finally the introduction provides the reader a summary of each chapter so that they can have a rough idea about the major content of the dissertation.Chapter one"Modern Selfhood in Justine"analyzes the variations of selfhood in Justine in the context of modernity. Modern selfhood has the characteristics of fragmentation and a strong tendency for the reconstruction of the lost unity. In Justine the fragmentation of selfhood is caused by the disintegrating influence of the city of Alexandria and people's incessant pursuit of sensual pleasure. Manhood and womanhood are distorted in Alexandria's"gravitational field"or"winepress of love". Darley exiles from the city to an isolate island and accomplishes the totality of his once fragmented selfhood by means of artistic reconstruction of memory in idyllic nature.Chapter two"Postmodern Selfhood from Justine to Balthazar"examines the variations of postmodern selfhood in the first two novels of the tetralogy. Postmodern selfhood is characterized by its fluidity, uncertainty, multiplicity and relativity. In Justine Darley's self achieves his narrative liberation by means of chronotopic narration whose quintessential features are"Postmodernism's multiple temporalities"and spatialized narrative. In Balthazar due to the equation between character and personality that is known for its ontological uncertainty and protean nature the selfhoods of Darley and Justine are no longer as stable as they used to be in Justine. They proliferate in number. Darley gradually grows into a maturer narrator by decentering himself from a subjective narrative to a relatively objective one.Chapter three"Postcolonial Selfhood in Mountolive"is focused on the variations of selfhood within postcolonial context. Binary opposites, diaspora, hybridity and resistance are the terms used to define postcolonial selfhood. In Mountolive the first British ambassador Mountolive suffers from geographical and political diaspora. His selfhood becomes a hybridized entity of the Englishness and the Egyptian otherness, which curbs his political functions. The selfhoods of the Egyptian elites such as Leila, Nessim and Justine are characterized by a hybridity of European culture and Egyptian culture. But the hybridity is by nature a kind of camouflage for their anti-British resistance. The selfhood of Narouz is immune from the upper mentioned hybridity. By sticking to Egyptian aboriginal Shamanic religion Narouz becomes a leader of the religious crusaders in his radical anti-British resistance. His sacrifice is compared with that of Jesus Christ.Chapter four"Consummation of Selfhood in Clea"discusses various consummations of selfhood in a specific historical context, the Second World War, in the last novel of the tetralogy. Although Alexandria is a hell-like city at the beginning or during the Second World War Durrell still presents the reader a bright picture within which almost all the characters achieve self-fulfillment. Darley, Clea and Mountolive consummate their selfhoods by means of love and individuation. Some characters such as Scobie and Pursewarden achieve self-fulfillment by being canonized into sainthood and by exerting therapeutic powers on others after death. Some living characters such as Keats, Balthazar and Clea achieve a rebirth by going through physical and spiritual transformations.The conclusion of the dissertation reviews major argumentations in each chapter and comments on Durrell's artistic achievement as far as the variations of selfhood in The Alexandria Quartet are concerned. Resembling a contemporary chronicler of philosophical reflections on selfhood in literature Durrell helps the reader to gain a panoramic view on the existential situation of mankind. In the end as a humanist he shows the reader his faith in human goodness and their rehabilitating potential among modern chaos.