IN SEARCH OF SELF: POINT OF VIEW AS A MEANS OF ASSESSING THE FICTION OF CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD (EGO PSYCHOLOGY; BRITAIN)
Abstract
Tumultuous events in Britain in the nineteen-thirties led the young into a search for stability. In moving away from the objective safeguards provided by social institutions and the subjective anchors provided by the fantasies and myths created by Auden and other friends, Christopher Isherwood looked within to find reassurance for existence through an understanding of self. Isherwood turned to the creation of something founded on what can be termed emotional reality--i.e., the construction of a self as both person and character in his own fiction. His use of narrative techniques, particularly his unique namesake narrator, enables him to establish a self image, one that reflects in turn his interests. His work, in fact, may be viewed as a continuing Bildungsroman influenced by and reflecting his developing sense of self. The growth and integration which takes place throughout Isherwood's work in his narrators and narratives confirms and illustrates the psychological paradigm of human development proposed by psychologist Erik H. Erikson, who suggests that each individual negotiates a growth sequence of what he terms phase-specific, psycho-social tasks. These are related to age periods and allow for the development of an ever-increasing participation in the world. Isherwood's work experiments with narrative techniques as it presents adolescence, young and mature adulthood, and mature age. Isherwood's fiction best achieves artistic integration and literary significance when it reflects his personal concerns through technique and theme. As he develops as a writer he employs a namesake narrator as both character and author; from this he moves to an omniscient narrator; and then to a divided narrative voice as he reviews and assesses his place in the world. Isherwood's work as a result proves him the psychological contemporary of all people, and his work becomes emblematic of the processes of human growth.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Literature
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