Power Relationship In Dangling Man

Saul Bellow(1915-2005)is acknowledged as one of American preeminent Jewish novelists. Dangling Man (1944), his first novel, features a protagonist who anticipates later Bellovian anti-heroes. Among the books and essays about this novel, most of them are concentrated on the male character, while few critics have paid enough attention to the female characters, and still fewer critics have applied Michel Foucault's theory of power to their studies on this novel. Through my tentative study of the novel, it is proved that Foucault's theory of power relations provides a good perspective to interpret and analyze the power relations in Dangling Man.According to the theory of Foucault, power is a relationship between two individuals, a relationship which is such that one can direct the behavior of another, or determine the behavior of another, and the other person may try to avoid or resist such control or attempt to control the actions of others in turn, thus forming a complex network of interpersonal power relations. The reason why the author employs Foucault's theory of power rather than some traditional conceptions of power is that Foucault's theory is more sophisticated, broader and deeper than the traditional ones. Traditional conceptions of power focus on the macro power relations between whole groups or classes, while Foucault foregrounds the micro power relations between individuals. Apart from this, traditional conceptions of power regard power as repressive, while Foucault thinks the nature of power can be productive, not always repressive. And Foucault's microphysics of power is applicable to Bellow's fiction because Bellow's focus is also on the relationship between individuals. Besides, Foucault regards family as a good site to analyze power relations. So, Foucault's theory of power is a very useful framework for analyzing the power relations between women and men at the family level, such as the ones represented in Bellow's Dangling Man.In this thesis Foucault's theory of micro power is applied to analyze the power the male hero exerts on the female characters, and vice versa. The repressive power relations between them as well as the productive power relations between the spouses will be studied. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides a brief account of the writer Saul Bellow and his literary creation, a general introduction of Dangling Man and the previous studies concerning it, the significance of the study, the theoretical framework and the structure of the thesis. The second chapter is a brief survey of the historical background of the book and the characteristics of the spouses in Dangling Man. The third chapter focuses on the emotional and economic power relationship presented in the novel. The fourth chapter analyzes Iva's resistance and its reason. As the power relations between the spouses become more and more repressive, Iva begins to resist her husband's power over her. And the fifth chapter will summarize the findings and the limitations of the study and put forward suggestions for further study.The result of this study may help to offer a new way of reading Dangling Man. And hopefully, Foucault's theory of power can be applied to Bellow's other fictions.