Writing Historical Fiction: Authority and the Individual in Gravity's Rainbow

Abstract

This thesis looks at Gravity's Rainbow in a way which takes into account the dialogical nature of the utterance. The novel is seen as a response to the dilemmas of its "present", in terms of the way it constructs the experience of the individual in the immediate past, and in relation to anonymous and systematized authority. The themes of mysticism and sadomasochism are important examples of Pynchon's oscillation between carnivalesque laughter and a sentimental sense of loss in his conception of the individual's plight in relation to the System. The first two chapters outline the theoretical problem of genre implied within the title of the thesis. I look at the relation between the Carnivalesque or Mennipean satire, and the role and function of historical fiction. Gravity's Rainbow demonstrates a highly detailed knowledge of the historical background to the era in which it is set, while at the same time oscillating between satiric attack and sense of sentimentality and pathos. I suggest that a possible way of understanding how this occurs may be found in the Bakhtinian idea of the chronotope. The chronotope, in Bakhtinian terms, is important in understanding the nature of the image of the "speaking person" in the novel and is therefore crucial in understanding the nature of the experience of the individual. In Gravity's Rainbow the chronotopes of horror and nightmare are fundamental in expressing the abject nature of the individual in the face of the system. This abjection reflects Pynchon's construction of the individual's experience of World War Two as an experience of late Romantic or Modernist pathos. It is in this sense, I would suggest, that. Gravity's Rainbow is "postmodern". In order to understand Pynchon's construction of the individual's position within modernity further, I go on to look at the nature of authority as it is represented in the novel. I suggest that Pynchon's reading of the past involves an understanding of the changing nature of political authority from the notion of the great historical leader, to a concept of anonymous and rational System. This change reflects the nature of Cold War rhetoric, institutions, and decision making processes, including, for example, theories of Limited Nuclear War. It also reflects a participation in the larger issues concerning the role of Systems analysis in political and social decision making processes. This concern with the nature of authority is paramount in considering Pynchon's politics. I look at his relation to the politics of the sixties in relation to his essay on the Watts riot, and the idea of the Counterforce in Gravity's Rainbow. I see the "Counterforce" as a parody of the notion of counterculture, and an allusion to the Theory of Limited Nuclear War. In this way Pynchon addresses both the politics of the counterculture of the '60's and the politicians of the Cold War. The two-pronged attack examines the limits and pitfalls of protest in the face of the System. In the final two chapters I look at the way in which sadomasochism and mysticism reflect different subjective relationships to this systematized authority. Mysticism and sadomasochism both provide problematic examples for our understanding of the Carnivalesque novel. They are problematic in that they do not represent the "ambivalent wholeness" which Bakhtin suggests is crucial in the carnivalesque. Both mysticism and sadomasochism have monological orientations based on the metaphysical nature of their desire for transcendence. As a result, the sadomasochistic and mystical experiences that characters have reflect attempts to transcend this material world, and. Result in abjection and entrapment. For my understanding of mysticism I rely on Michel de Certeau, and in my work on sadomasochism I use Girard's notion of metaphysical triangulation. Pynchon is placed in the context of other sixties theorists who attempt to radicalise sadomasochism in and of itself. Pynchon, however, satirizes these attempts to radicalize sadomasochism as symptoms of the dilemma that the individual finds him or herself in, when confronted, with an anonymous and oppressive System.