Politics and History in William Golding: The World Turned Upside Down

276 Pages·2002·0.85 MB·English

by  Paul Crawford

Politics and History in
William Golding:
The World Turned
Upside Down
Paul Crawford
University of Missouri Press
Politics and History in
WILLIAM GOLDING
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Politics and History in
WILLIAM
GOLDING
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
Paul Crawford
University of Missouri Press Columbia and London
Copyright © 2002 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 06 05 04 03 02
Cataloging-in-Publication data available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-8262-1416-9
(cid:2)(cid:2)™ This paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984.
Designer: Stephanie Foley
Jacket Designer: Susan Ferber
Typesetter: The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc.
Printer and Binder: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
Typeface: Palatino
For
Rhiannon, Ruby, and Jamie
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction: The World Turned Upside Down 1
2. Menippean Satire, the Fantastic, and the Carnivalesque 29
3. Literature of Atrocity: Lord of the Fliesand The Inheritors 50
4. Self-Consciousness and the Totalitarian Personality: Pincher Martin
and Free Fall 81
5. Constructions of Fiction and Class: The Spireand The Pyramid 115
6. Postmodernity and Postmodernism: Darkness Visibleand The Paper
Men 146
7. Historiographic Metafiction, Preromanticism, and the Ship of Fools:
To the Ends of the Earth: ASea Trilogy 187
8. Conclusion: Socialist Subversions? The Radical and Reactionary in
Golding’s Satire 222
Bibliography 239
Index 255
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Andrzej Ga¸siorek for his meticulous advice and for the en-
couragement he gave me during what became a most difficult time in my
life. Yet this book would not have appeared in the first place without
Derek Littlewood, who got me hooked on the fantastic and carnivalesque,
or further back, Tim Boswell, whose lineage and fascination with litera-
ture deepened my own interest. For more specific advice, information, or
discussion, I am grateful to Alan Sinfield, Tony Davies, R. A. Gekoski,
David Maund, Brian Brown, Peter Nolan, and Faye Hammill. Thanks
must also go to the British Academy for their financial support during the
early stages of putting this book together.