Alienation in Paul Bowles’s The Spider’s House (1954)
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Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The present dissertation attempts to study the issue of alienation in Paul Bowles’s The
Spider’s House (1954). Our aim is to make a psychological study of the novel focusing mainly
on the feeling of the characters that is for our best knowledge; no work has ventured to make
a study. In doing so, we have followed the IMRAD method, and we have put light on Melvin
Seeman’s theory On the Meaning of Alienation (1959). The focus is mainly on his six
variants of alienation that any alienated subject may experience: Powerlessness,
Normlessness, Meaninglessness, Self-Estrangement, Social Isolation and Cultural
Estrangement. Bowles presents his characters struggling with the surrounding conditions
from different sides including the cultural, social, political and even the religious ones. He
also reveals the impact of these interrelated factors on their psychological state. By
approaching Seeman’s theoretical concepts to Paul Bowles novel, we find that though
Bowles’s characters endure the same state of being which alienation, this feeling is takes
various forms in the same way Melvin Seeman categorizes his six variants of alienation on his
mentioned work.
Description
30cm ; 52p.
Keywords
Alienation, Powerlessness, Normlessness, Meaninglessness, Self-Estrangement, Social Isolation, Cultural Estrangement.
Citation
Littérature and Civilisation.