“His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy
This article shows that ambivalence is a major symbolic pattern in John Wray’s 2009 neuronovel Lowboy, and it affects the major aspects of the novel, including the characters’ identities and the narrative structure of the book. Ambivalence may refer either to the split personality of the schizophren...
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| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas, |
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| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
European journal of American studies
2019
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| Konular: | |
| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ejas_14639 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ejas_14639 https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.14639 urn:doi:10.4000/ejas.14639 en https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14639 2019-07-15T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fmqe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ “His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy European journal of American studies European Association for American Studies info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1991-9336 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas Antolin, Pascale genre bildungsroman representation mystery novel neuronovel paranoid schizophrenia This article shows that ambivalence is a major symbolic pattern in John Wray’s 2009 neuronovel Lowboy, and it affects the major aspects of the novel, including the characters’ identities and the narrative structure of the book. Ambivalence may refer either to the split personality of the schizophrenic hero (psychoanalytic approach) or to the structure of the brain (neurologic approach). Especially, ambivalence allows subversion to prevail and transform the main protagonist’s mental confinement into textual freedom. This is shown, first, by an analysis of the referential framework and its major references, space and time. Then the major genres Lowboy borrows from are analyzed: on the one hand, the neuronovel suggests a bildungsroman, on the other, a mystery novel. While Wray borrows conventions from both, he also revisits and revises them, thus asserting the specificity of his novel and his freedom from generic conventions. Eventually, the manipulation of representation will be examined through an analysis of the language of description, particularly the use of incongruous images in the sections where Lowboy is the focal character. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
genre bildungsroman representation mystery novel neuronovel paranoid schizophrenia |
| spellingShingle |
genre bildungsroman representation mystery novel neuronovel paranoid schizophrenia Antolin, Pascale “His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy |
| description |
This article shows that ambivalence is a major symbolic pattern in John Wray’s 2009 neuronovel Lowboy, and it affects the major aspects of the novel, including the characters’ identities and the narrative structure of the book. Ambivalence may refer either to the split personality of the schizophrenic hero (psychoanalytic approach) or to the structure of the brain (neurologic approach). Especially, ambivalence allows subversion to prevail and transform the main protagonist’s mental confinement into textual freedom. This is shown, first, by an analysis of the referential framework and its major references, space and time. Then the major genres Lowboy borrows from are analyzed: on the one hand, the neuronovel suggests a bildungsroman, on the other, a mystery novel. While Wray borrows conventions from both, he also revisits and revises them, thus asserting the specificity of his novel and his freedom from generic conventions. Eventually, the manipulation of representation will be examined through an analysis of the language of description, particularly the use of incongruous images in the sections where Lowboy is the focal character. |
| author |
Antolin, Pascale |
| author_facet |
Antolin, Pascale |
| author_sort |
Antolin, Pascale |
| title |
“His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy |
| title_short |
“His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy |
| title_full |
“His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy |
| title_fullStr |
“His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy |
| title_full_unstemmed |
“His cramped and claustrophobic brain”: Confinement and Freedom in John Wray’s Lowboy |
| title_sort |
“his cramped and claustrophobic brain”: confinement and freedom in john wray’s lowboy |
| publisher |
European journal of American studies |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.14639 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14639 |
| _version_ |
1877241560067735552 |