Table Of Content

Idiocy Prelims 8/12/03 9:26 am Page i IMAGES OF IDIOCY Idiocy Prelims 8/12/03 9:26 am Page ii ‘It would be safer to ask the judgment of young lads or Countrey idiots … [than] those lubricious wits and overworn philosophers’ Henry More, Preface to Poems (1647) ‘It will be necessary to travel through the eyes of idiots’ Federico García Lorca ‘Landscape of a Urinating Multitude’(1940) Idiocy Prelims 8/12/03 9:26 am Page iii Images of Idiocy The Idiot Figure in Modern Fiction and Film Martin Halliwell First published 2004 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an in forma business Copyright © Martin Halliwell, 2004 Martin Halliwell has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identi- fication and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Halliwell, Martin Images of Idiocy: The Idiot Figure in Modern Fiction and Film. 1. Literature, Modern—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Literature, Modern—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Motion pictures—History. 4. Stupidity in literature. 5. People with mental disabilities in literature. 6. People with disabilities in motion pictures. 7. Motion pictures—Plots, themes, etc. T. Title 809.9'3352'0826 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Halliwell, Martin Images of Idiocy: The Idiot Figure in Modern Fiction and Film / Martin Halliwell. p. cm. Filmography: p. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. People with mental disabilities in literature. 2. People with mental disabilities in motion pictures. 3. Fiction— 19th century—History and criticism. 4. Fiction—20th century—History and criticism. I. Title. PN3426.P46H35 2004 809'8920826-dc21 2003048918 Typeset by Bournemouth Colour Press, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-0265-1 (hbk) ISBN 13 : 978-1-138-27582-9 (pbk) Idiocy Prelims 8/12/03 9:26 am Page v Contents Acknowledgements vii Illustrations ix Introduction: Idiocy and Cultural Representation 1 Part I Idiocy in the Nineteenth Century 27 1 Romantic and Victorian Idiots 29 2 Madame Bovary(Gustave Flaubert and Jean Renoir) 53 3 The Idiot(Fyodor Dostoevsky and Akira Kurosawa) 73 Part II Idiocy and Modernism 93 4 The Secret Agent(Joseph Conrad and Alfred Hitchcock) 95 5 Kaspar Hauser(Jakob Wassermann and Werner Herzog) 115 6 Of Mice and Men(John Steinbeck and Lewis Milestone) 135 Part III Idiocy AfterWorld WarII 155 7 Wise Blood(Flannery O’Connor and John Huston) 157 8 Waterland(Graham Swift and Stephen Gyllenhaal) 177 9 Such a Long Journey(Rohinton Mistry and Sturla Gunnarsson) 195 Conclusion: Idiocy in Contemporary Film 215 Filmography 235 Bibliography 237 Index 257 This page intentionally left blank Idiocy Prelims 8/12/03 9:26 am Page vii Acknowledgements The research for Images of Idiocybegan at the University of Exeter in 1992–93, and I would like to extend my thanks to Peter Faulkner, Anthony Fothergill and Michael Wood for the initial encouragement that galvanized this project. After a number of unstructured years pestering friends about information on and cultural references concerning idiocy, I returned to the subject in the late 1990s. I would like to express my gratitude to a number of individuals who contributed to the conception and development of this book, particularly Alan Burton, Nick Cull, Susan Currell, Michael Davies, Bryony Dixon, Nick Everett, Paul Hegarty, Caroline Hennigan, Michael Hoar, Richard King, Paul Lazarus, George Lewis, Paul Marygold, Anshuman Mondal, Andy Mousley, Dave Murray, Vince Newey, Emma Parker, Phil Shaw, Paul Tipper, Greg Walker and colleagues at the University of Leicester, who generously provided me with anecdotes, comments and advice. Heartfelt thanks go to Laraine and my family for their continual love and support. Laraine helped me to widen the range of this project, and tolerated my incessant ramblings with loving humour at all hours. Warm thanks go to Erika Gaffney, Ann Donahue and Kirsten Weissenberg at Ashgate and to The Wellcome Trust in London for a generous grant that enabled me to spend dedicated time consulting the holdings at the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Thanks also to the librarians at The British Library, The Wellcome Trust Library and The Library of Congress for helping me to track down obscure references, and to the Neue Galerie in Linz and The Wellcome Trust for permission to use their images. Sections of this book were presented at the Hitchcock Rediscovered Conference, organized by Nottingham Trent University and Broadway Media Centre, held in Nottingham in July 1999; the Fourteenth International Humor Conference held in Bertinoro, Italy, in July 2002; a seminar at the University of Nottingham in December 2002, and the British Association of American Studies Conference, held in Aberystwyth, Wales, in April 2003. I would like to dedicate Images of Idiocyto the memory of Nicholas Zurbrugg (1947–2001), with whom I taught at De Montfort University, Leicester, for four years. As a mentor, colleague and cultural agitator, NZ was beyond compare. This page intentionally left blank Idiocy Prelims 8/12/03 9:26 am Page ix Illustrations Herbert Bayer, ‘Lonely Metropolitan’(‘Einsamer Großstädter’, 1932). SW- Photo-Montage, Inv. Nr. G. 20 HB. Stiftung Herbert Bayer, 35, 5 x28 cm, © VBK, Wien 2002.