A Bohemian's Spiritual Catharsis

Henry Miller (1891-1980) is widely regarded as a bohemian par excellence, living chiefly on wits, and making art his essential outlet. He published his first book when he was more than forty years old, but his unique autobiographical writing style was quite conspicuous from the very beginning. Tropic of Cancer is Miller's first autobiographical novel which is considered disturbing and shocking as all his long bottled-up spiritual repression and physical depression are released violently and vehemently in this small volume of book. In this novel, Miller wrote excessively about his perplexity, misery, abjection and obscenity to channel his hatred and rebellion against modern western world.Most literary critics who showed interest in Tropic of Cancer mainly focused on its features of nihilism and anarchism; and research on its self-liberation theme is also blooming; but there are few papers and books beat the road of interpreting this novel with the carnivalized theories. In fact, Miller's deliberate treatment of what is seemingly ugly, repulsive, distasteful and obscene in this novel really deserves our special attention. Besides, the divine yet latent wisdom in this novel, that is negation and destruction are enhanced with affirmation and the birth of something new and better is accompanied with the death of something old and worse, is not attainable to ordinary readers who can't penetrate through the filthy and obscene exterior of the novel. Therefore, basing on the above two reasons, this thesis dedicated to study this novel in the light of Bakhtin's carnivalization theories which on the one hand can provide effective access to the significance of this novel's remarkable insights of the corruptive western world, on the other hand can make the multiple meanings and potentialities of those seemingly obscene and grotesque images and language of the novel revealed.Henry Miller has once proclaimed himself as the "minnesinger of the lumper proletariat", and this is the most appropriate description of his unique writing style. In Tropic of Cancer, Miller was enchanted to talk coarsely and joyously about the ineffable and taboo subjects; besides, his intense depiction of scandalous scenes and grotesque characters connect him closely with the Rabelaisian style, which in Mikhail Bakhtin's eyes is the most extraordinary and effective style for freeing human beings from all hierarchical positions. What's more, the novel is permeated with a strong sense of destruction and reconstruction, which according to Bakhtin is the spirit of carnival. Therefore, carnival (Bakhtin's interpretation of the word), infiltrates precisely the most fundamental and decisive aspects of Tropic of Cancer, and it is safe to say that this novel, no matter in the aspect of form or spirit, is full of the camivalistic color.In order to analyze directly and concretely the carnivalistic color of this novel and its profound significance, the main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter one made a thorough anatomy of the novel's character depiction, image creation, language style and scene arrangement, so that readers can recognize the carnivalistic characteristics of the novel directly and exactly. Henry Miller depicted in this novel various grotesque images, ridiculous scenarios, profane language, and scandalous behaviors, but there is a carnivalistic logic of art which gives meanings to all those seemingly absurd and grotesque descriptions and thus reveals their latent truth, that is, through his carnivalistic writing Miller exhibited a bohemian life which is a great release and catharsis of the overwhelming spiritual restraints from modern western civilization. This kind of life is realistic as well as ideal; and it is amoral and ambivalent. In fact, the essence of Bakhtin's carnival theories is ambivalence, that is the pathos of change and renewal, which requires constant subversion and reconstruction.Chapter two focused on the spirit of subversion and renewal of Tropic of Cancer. In the novel, Miller laughs to deride and destroy the one-sided tone of seriousness, and he laughs to dispel the religious fear and awe. With its subversive nature, Miller's laughter provides modern people an effective outlet as well as a powerful weapon to fight against all that are depressive and repressive. But subversion is by no means Miller's final task. In this novel, he also offers a peculiar blueprint relative to the selfhood and the world. This new self acts according to the inner impulse and motivation, and it tries to get rid of all entangling power of alienation in modern world, what's more, this new self is also a herald of a whole new world which is passionate and free.Chapter three paid close attention to Miller's development of the traditional carnivalized genre generalized by Bakhtin. Bakhtin accentuated the popular carnival and mass liberation ideals, while Henry Miller emphasized the individual carnival and selfhood emancipation; Bakhtin thought the corrosive carnival laughter was enough to overthrow the corruptive hierarchical world, but Henry Miller appealed to violence to give this world the death warrant. However, Miller's variation of the traditional carnivalized genre doesn't run counter to its nature. Because the soul of carnival, according to Bakhtin, is the pathos of change and renewal, and Miller's combination of carnivaliztion with his time and his life, that is his modernization of the carnivalized genre, reflects their very process and direction of the development. And Miller's variation and modernization of this genre in Tropic of Cancer amount to his originality and profundity.After three chapters' analysis and discussion on the carnivalistic color of Tropic of Cancer, this thesis revealed the novel's unique artistical charm and Henry Miller's profound philosophical thoughts. Carnival offered favorable materials for the catharsis of Miller's bottled-up spiritual repression from the modern western world. Although those materials in Tropic of Cancer violated people's traditional expectation in the aspects of morality and aesthetics, yet they made the catharsis incisively and vividly. Meanwhile, this shocking but instructive carnivalistic color revealed the latent truth of the novel's coarse and obscene description, illuminated the corruptive western world for those hypnotized and petrified modern people, and finally enlightened readers on Miller's artistic and philosophical purpose: self-emancipation.