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" Mother and son conversations in crises in the modern novel "
Lydia Distefano Thiel
L. Andrews
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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55148
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| Doc. No
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TL25102
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| Call number
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3262571
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| Main Entry
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Lydia Distefano Thiel
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| Title & Author
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Mother and son conversations in crises in the modern novel\ Lydia Distefano Thiel
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| College
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Kent State University
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| Date
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2007
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2007
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| Page No
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290
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| Abstract
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This study analyzes the communication that takes place between mothers and mature sons in the following five modern novels: D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (1913), James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Elio Vittorini's Conversazione in Sicilia (1941), and Albert Camus' The Stranger (1942). Concepts of communication that are used in this analysis are dialogue, dialectic, and conversation. The concept of "conversation" receives the greatest emphasis because of its designation of the nature of an association between humans—humans are with each other ("con") and with the concerns that they bring before one another. This study looks at the autobiographical and cultural conditions which help to inform these works in light of modern and postmodern critical views of autobiography and culture. Questions are raised about the "essential" nature of autobiography, and culture as an essential condition of the self. This study also examines the gender and psychological dimensions to these works, as it considers the authors' attitudes toward women, in general, and as it also considers traditional and modern views of maternal/filial sensibilities. My analysis covers the conversations that occur between sons and living mothers in Sons and Lovers, Look Homeward, Angel, and Conversazione in Sicilia. Much of the mother/son discourse is of an existential nature and includes topics such as economics, love and marriage, familial disintegration, loss, separation, commitment, tradition, suffering, and death. War is a theme that is present in either the foreground or the background. My analysis also covers the conversations that occur between sons and non-living mothers in Ulysses and The Stranger. Being (son) and non-being (mother) engage in bizarre or sorrowful "conversations" that are based on unresolved issues that emerged during the lifetime of both individuals. This study colligates these five major modern novels through an original, comparative analysis of the conversations that occur within an enduring and essential type of relationship within our civilization: mothers and sons. My analysis of these mother/son conversations contributes to the idea that essential conversations are critical events that interpret and support our complex existence.
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Language, literature and linguistics; Algeria; Camus, Albert; Conversations; Ireland; Italy; Joyce, James; Lawrence, D. H.; Mother-son conversations; Novel; Vittorini, Elio; Wolfe, Thomas; Comparative literature; Literature; Romance literature; African literature; American literature; British and Irish literature; 0593:British and Irish literature; 0298:Literature; 0591:American literature; 0295:Comparative literature; 0316:African literature; 0313:Romance literature
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L. Andrews
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Kent State University
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