On The Existentialism Of Norman Mailer And The Themes Of His Early Novels

Norman Mailer (1923-2007) is one of the most important contemporary literary figures of America. His famous The Naked And the Dead (1948) brought him enormous prestige, and since then he had been regarded as a famous representative of the postwar American literature. First, he had developed a kind of American existentialism; Second, he was honored as the contemporary US existential writer; Third, his new journalism and non-fiction novel won him two Pulitzer prize of literature in 1968 and 1979.This dissertation conducts the research on Norman Mailer's existentialism and the themes of his early novles. On one hand, the research aims to analyse and evaluate Mailer's existentialism expressed in The White Negro(1957) and the thought about existential God expressed in some of his interviews; On the other hand, it will study the themes of his early novles, particularly the works created in university and these unpublished which were neglected by most researchers, thus to prove the relation between his existentialism and the themes of his early novles, and to demonstrate the formation and development process of his existentialism. With the "New-Sensibility" theory of the contemporary American philosopher Herbert Marcuse(1898-1979), this dissertation argues that Mailer's existentialism could be a kind of pursuit of "New-Sensibility", and the development of his early themes shows the development of his existentialism.The Introduction demonstrates the writer's biography and works in different periods and then introduces the existing research. For the low level of the domestic research on Mailer, the analysis of the existing researched focuses on the current and historial research of the American scholars, and emphasizes two kinds of research, one is on Mailer's existentialism and the other is on his power theme. It also discusses two Chinese scholars' research works. This dissertation believes that there are two demerit in the existing research. First, Mailer's existentialism has not been analyzed by the term of philosophy; Second, Mailer's early literary production especially the work created during his university has not been studied seriously. This dissertation argues that to discuss Mailer's existentialism by philosophy terms, it must be compared with European existentialism which could be represented by the philosophy of Heidegger and Sartre, and it must be taken into account the characters of the acceptance of the American scholars to the European existentialism in the postwar days. On the other hand, to analyze the formation and the development of Mailer's existentialism, the themes of his early novles must be reviewed to demonstrate the interactional relations between his existentialism and his early themes.Chapter 1 analyzes Mailer's existentialism. The European existentialism philosophers with the representatives of Heidegger and Sartre considered their own philosophy as "philosophy of being", but opposed all forms of humanitarianism. On the contrary, after World War II the American thinkers accepted the explanation of existence of European existentialism and absorbed it into their own ideology system and developed their existentialistic humanitarianism and social theory. Mailer's existentialism manifested the basic attitude of the American thinkers to the European existentialism. Mailer took existentialism as guard of individual freedom and dignity, and mixed it with Nietzsche's will to power and the superhuman theory, Fluid's psychoanalysis, Marxism revolutionary theory, as well as the religious mysticism, which finally expressed in The White Negro. The dissertation argues that Mailer's existentialism belongs to Fluid-Marxism in the contemporary West ideology, and try to analyze Mailer's existentialism by the concept of "New-Sensibility" from Herbert Marcuse(1898-1979). This dissertation believes that Mailer's existentialism also has social and historial foundation and mysticism connotation: characters of black culture and Jewish culture.Mailer's existentialism demands the individual to revolt against the social culture with the strength of instinct, which means the revolt of sensibility to logos. The theme of revolt passes through Mailer's whole career. In the works from his university to 1965, the year of the publications of An American Dream, Mailer displayed two kind of resisters emphatically, whose common revolted object perhaps was destiny, or the time atmosphere. Mailer mostly tested his main characters in the novel with totalitarianism. One kind of these two kind of resister were the rational resisters, whose standpoint were liberal ideal, they waged the struggle with the individuality and the freedom as the weapon to the social power and oppression. Without exception, these resisters were defeated in the end. Another kind may be called non-rational resisters, they took instinct and the will to power as their weapon. Mailer's early novels had demonstrated this kind of resisters' development, and this kind of resisters turned to be "Hipster" in The White Negro. This dissertation will discusses Mailer's early novel from the second chapter to the fifth chapter. Through writing, Mailer examined the possibility of the "New-Sensibility" personality which is the core of his existentialism. There are four themes of Maile's early novels: Human nature, totalitarianism, rational revolt, non-rational revolt. These four themes demonstrated the development and significance of "New-Sensibility" personality in the post-modern historial and the cultural reality.Chapter 2 discusses Mailer's view of human nature. This dissertation believes that "naked and dead" manifestes Mailer's basic idea of the human nature, which means the death is meaningless and the survival is lack of dignity. This is the human nature foundation for Mailer to develop his own existentialism. Mailer's existentialism ethics perseveres individual freedom and dignity, encourages the revolt against the oppressive society culture. This chapter pays attention to The Greatest Thing in the World, Maybe Next Year, A Calculus at Heaven, A Transit to Narcissus and The Naked and the Dead.Chapter 3 discusses totalitarianism. Mailer called the postwar American social environment totalitarianism, and carried profound critique on mass culture and the middle class values. Mailer's totalitarianism is by no means a strict politics concept, but a cultural concept, which refers in particular to the oppressive cultural condition of the so-called post-modernism society. This chapter discusses the totalitarianism in Barbary Shore, Deer Park and An American Dream.Chapter 4 discusses the rational revolt. The majority of rational resisters of Mailer are liberalists, and their ideological foundation is the modern rationality as well as the corresponding humanitarianism. With the guide of common human nature and rationality, their revolt mostly is defeated in the end, without obtaining the dignity they expected. The failure of their revolt manifested Mailer's distrust to humanitarianism, or final abandonment of rational revolt, namely Mailer's idea of revolt changed from rational revolt to non-rational revolt and so established his existentialism. This chapter examines the revolt of the liberal humanist to the totalitarianism in A Calculus at Heaven, A Transit to Narcissus, The Naked and the Dead, and Deer Park.Chapter 5 discusses the non-rational revolt. Mailer's existentialism aimed to create the New-Sensibility personality to revolts against the social culture which destroys individuality and freedom. Mailer portrayed a series of non-rational resisters to carry on his thought about the New-Sensibility personality. This dissertation believes that Nietzsche's will to power and the superhuman theory had great influence on Mailer's non-rational revolt, for the will to power fueled the non-rational resisters with strength to pursue the true ego and fight against the oppression. The naturalistic meaning of the will to power makes sure its combination with the concept of instinct of the psycho-analysis theory, which became the human nature foundation of the non-rational revolt. This chapter will discuss the non-rational resisters in A Transit to Narcissus, The Man Who Studies Yoga, Deer Park and An American Dream. With the non-rational resisters, Mailer showed the development of the New-Sensibility personality, and demonstrated its human nature foundation as well as realistic condition.Through the examination of Mailer's existentialism and the themes of his early novels', this dissertation believes that ,on one hand, with the logical view, Mailer's early novel's themes contributes to the formation of his existentialism, and his existentialism may be regard as the summarization and sublimation of his early themes; On the other hand, Mailer's early novels made the visualized explanation of his existentialism.Mailer proposed Hipster as the carrier of the New-Sensibility personality, regarded the union of instinct, sensibility and rationality as the new foundation of human nature, and so qualified himself the contemporary vanguard of individual dignity and freedom.In his early novels, Mailer payed great attention to the will to power and tried to express the will to power and superhuman by his characters. He tried to unify Nietzsche's will to power, Fluid's instinct theory and Marx's revolutionary theory, and made the energetic rebirth highest pursuit of his characters, so he deepened the thoughts about the human nature. With the New-Sensibility personality theory, Mailer payed more attention to the non-rationality, instinct and sensibility, which enabled his novels to have more splendid richness in research of the human nature. The sensitive description of the feeling and thought of the charactors in the novels demonstrated Mailer's exquisite talent of writing.Mailer's existentialism belongs to the new left wing or the cultural left wing in postwar western ideology, whose revolutionary idea emphasizes psychic and cultural revolution, but not political revolution, and takes psychic and cultural revolution as the foundation of social revolution, so it invertes the relation between social existence and social consciousness. Mailer's thought of cultural revolution is of less significance in the level of social practice. But his New-Sensibility theory enlightens our consideration of the human nature, promotes our understanding of west theory of human nature, and offers an important view of theory to estimate the post-modernism culture.