The double in three twentieth-century novels: Machado de Assis' "Dom Casmurro", Nabokov's "Lolita", and Fuentes' "Aura"

Leslie Thomas Dale, Purdue University

Abstract

The double is a ubiquitous figure in literature that has been traditionally interpreted as representing the divided, dual nature of man. According to Ralph Tymms, the concept of the double grew out of an atavistic belief in the magic of dualism. The theme is a hybrid one that stems from both the matter-of-fact, physical resemblance between two people and an irrational feeling of awe evoked by the confrontation of two identical persons. The German romantics took up the concept of the double and used it extensively in order to express the ambiguities that they found to be inherent in the nature of man. Much of the critical theory on the double or Doppelganger treats it as essentially a realist strategy that can depict the inner being or psychological reality of characters. While the general theory of the double is well-advanced, there is little new theory available to explain the remarkable presence of doubles in twentieth-century literature, particularly in the work of such writers as Machado de Assis, Fuentes and Nabokov, whose fundamental concerns tend not to be with the human personality or the inner self, but rather with issues of writing and language, and of abstraction rather than realism and representation. This study found that in three twentieth-century novels, Machado de Assis' Dom Casmurro, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, and Carlos Fuentes' Aura, the double can be shown to function in a transgressive and subversive way to undermine the text's realistic surface. The result of this use of doubling is a richer, polivalent reading, as the text can be read simultaneously as representional, realist work, and as a formal, poetic artifact, and construct of words.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Dixon, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Comparative literature|Latin American literature|American literature

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