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Existentialism, Violent Liberation, and Racialized Masculinities: Norman Mailer’s “The White Negro” and An American Dream: Difference between revisions
Existentialism, Violent Liberation, and Racialized Masculinities: Norman Mailer’s “The White Negro” and An American Dream (view source)
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Furthermore, much of Mailer’s conception of existential masculinity in “The White Negro” and ''An American Dream'' is based on a masculine protagonist’s anxiety over being defined by what he lacks, a theme augmented by Mailer’s fixation on an “other” as an integral factor in the construction of a liberated masculine identity. Echoing Beauvoir’s comparisons among blacks, Jews, and women in America, Mailer’s constructions of both the “white negro” persona and the character of Stephen Rojack are founded on a simultaneous tension and identification with a racial or female other. That is, each protagonist sees some of himself in these others, yet also fears that this other will somehow threaten his own masculine power or authority. Thus, the masculine identity of each character comes to rely on either an approximation of the other’s identity or a complete eradication of the other’s threat. | Furthermore, much of Mailer’s conception of existential masculinity in “The White Negro” and ''An American Dream'' is based on a masculine protagonist’s anxiety over being defined by what he lacks, a theme augmented by Mailer’s fixation on an “other” as an integral factor in the construction of a liberated masculine identity. Echoing Beauvoir’s comparisons among blacks, Jews, and women in America, Mailer’s constructions of both the “white negro” persona and the character of Stephen Rojack are founded on a simultaneous tension and identification with a racial or female other. That is, each protagonist sees some of himself in these others, yet also fears that this other will somehow threaten his own masculine power or authority. Thus, the masculine identity of each character comes to rely on either an approximation of the other’s identity or a complete eradication of the other’s threat. | ||
In some ways, however, Mailer’s existentialism is as interesting for its differences to Beauvoir and Sartre as it is for its similarities. For example, his own conception of existentialism is grounded more in mysticism and instinct than in explicit philosophical or ideological principles. It is also much more concerned with a Manichean vision of the world: Mailer reads existentialism as a battle not simply between immanence and transcendence, but between good and evil. He believes that to be a “real” existentialist, one must “be religious” and have a sense of purpose that is grounded in an awareness of heaven and hell (a “meaningful but mysterious end”), a point that (as he himself admits) runs contrary to Sartre’s own atheistic existentialism.{{sfn|Mailer|1959|p=341}}{{efn|In ''[[The Presidential Papers]]'' (1964), Mailer writes: “If God is not all powerful but existential, discovering the possibilities and limitations of his creative powers in the form of the history which is made by His creatures, then one must postulate an existential equal to God, an antagonist, the Devil, a principle of Evil whose signature was the concentration camps, whose joy is to waste substance, whose intent is to prevent God’s conception of being from reaching its mysterious goal.”{{sfn|Mailer|1964|p=193}} By contrast, in ''Existentialism is a Humanism'' (1946), Sartre writes: “Atheistic existentialism, which I represent, is more consistent. It states that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence — a being whose existence comes before its essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept of it. That being is man, or as Heidegger puts it, the human reality.”{{sfn| | In some ways, however, Mailer’s existentialism is as interesting for its differences to Beauvoir and Sartre as it is for its similarities. For example, his own conception of existentialism is grounded more in mysticism and instinct than in explicit philosophical or ideological principles. It is also much more concerned with a Manichean vision of the world: Mailer reads existentialism as a battle not simply between immanence and transcendence, but between good and evil. He believes that to be a “real” existentialist, one must “be religious” and have a sense of purpose that is grounded in an awareness of heaven and hell (a “meaningful but mysterious end”), a point that (as he himself admits) runs contrary to Sartre’s own atheistic existentialism.{{sfn|Mailer|1959|p=341}}{{efn|In ''[[The Presidential Papers]]'' (1964), Mailer writes: “If God is not all powerful but existential, discovering the possibilities and limitations of his creative powers in the form of the history which is made by His creatures, then one must postulate an existential equal to God, an antagonist, the Devil, a principle of Evil whose signature was the concentration camps, whose joy is to waste substance, whose intent is to prevent God’s conception of being from reaching its mysterious goal.”{{sfn|Mailer|1964|p=193}} By contrast, in ''Existentialism is a Humanism'' (1946), Sartre writes: “Atheistic existentialism, which I represent, is more consistent. It states that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence — a being whose existence comes before its essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept of it. That being is man, or as Heidegger puts it, the human reality.”{{sfn|Sartre|2007|p=22}} }} In sum, Mailer draws on many fundamentals of existential theory put forth by some of the principle existential theorists, but also makes clear where these theories diverge from his own. In an interview with ''The Paris Review'', for example, Mailer states his suspicion that Sartre and Heidegger “are no closer to the buried continent of existentialism than were medieval cartographers near to a useful map of the world” for “the new continent which shows on our psychic maps as intimations of eternity is still to be discovered.”{{sfn|Mailer|1966|p=252}} For Mailer, these “psychic maps” include a more embattled vision of existential philosophy that includes references to God and the devil, as well an investment in the possibility of magic and mysticism. As J. Michael Lennon has noted, Mailer believed that his unique brand of religious existentialism offered the possibility of “spiritual transcendence,” something that was lacking from traditional American and European existentialism.{{sfn|Lennon|2013|p=203}} | ||
Despite these variant interpretations, the foundational similarities between his own existential premises and those of the French existentialists from whose work he borrows become apparent in his discussion of existential violence. These parallels are particularly evident when one compares Mailer’s ideology to that of Sartre, as both perceive interpersonal and political violence to be imbued with positively charged revolutionary and liberatory qualities. In his famous preface to Franz Fanon’s ''The Wretched of the Earth'', for instance, Sartre argues that “at the individual level, violence is a cleansing force” that has the potential to raise people up from oppression and subordination.{{sfn|Fanon|2004|p=51}} In Sartre’s estimation, then, violence contains within it a redeeming power. Similarly, Mailer views individual violence as a tool that can liberate men from the totalitarian oppression that threatens them, thus serving as a means to recuperate their compromised masculine identities. In a 1964 interview with W.J. Weatherby for ''Twentieth Century'', for instance, Mailer argues that individual violence is an essential response to a possible “extinction of possibilities” presented to us by our environment.{{sfn|Mailer|1982|p=28}} He further argues that those who lack an understanding of existential experience do not understand the complexities of violence, but for those who ''do'' harbor this understanding, violence can offer not only liberation, but revelation. “When violence is larger than one’s ability to dominate,” he notes, “it is existential and one is living in an instantaneous world of revelations.”{{sfn|Mailer|1982|p=30}} Thus, Mailer presents a vision of a specifically existential violence that has the potential to govern the way one lives and understands the world. Moreover, for Mailer violence not only offers the possibility of cleansing or healing, but also serves as a badge of honor or courage—a longstanding foundational point of his own definition of masculinity.{{efn|As early as age 20, Mailer was already commenting on the necessity of violence to the construction of an honorable manhood. In “A Calculus to Heaven,” a story he wrote as a senior at Harvard which was republished in ''Advertisements for Myself'', one of Mailer’s military heroes muses: “It might be necessary for him to die to find that dignity. Certainly, he thought, life and death and violent action were fundamentals, and he would find no lie there.”{{sfn|Mailer|1959|p=51}} }} | Despite these variant interpretations, the foundational similarities between his own existential premises and those of the French existentialists from whose work he borrows become apparent in his discussion of existential violence. These parallels are particularly evident when one compares Mailer’s ideology to that of Sartre, as both perceive interpersonal and political violence to be imbued with positively charged revolutionary and liberatory qualities. In his famous preface to Franz Fanon’s ''The Wretched of the Earth'', for instance, Sartre argues that “at the individual level, violence is a cleansing force” that has the potential to raise people up from oppression and subordination.{{sfn|Fanon|2004|p=51}} In Sartre’s estimation, then, violence contains within it a redeeming power. Similarly, Mailer views individual violence as a tool that can liberate men from the totalitarian oppression that threatens them, thus serving as a means to recuperate their compromised masculine identities. In a 1964 interview with W.J. Weatherby for ''Twentieth Century'', for instance, Mailer argues that individual violence is an essential response to a possible “extinction of possibilities” presented to us by our environment.{{sfn|Mailer|1982|p=28}} He further argues that those who lack an understanding of existential experience do not understand the complexities of violence, but for those who ''do'' harbor this understanding, violence can offer not only liberation, but revelation. “When violence is larger than one’s ability to dominate,” he notes, “it is existential and one is living in an instantaneous world of revelations.”{{sfn|Mailer|1982|p=30}} Thus, Mailer presents a vision of a specifically existential violence that has the potential to govern the way one lives and understands the world. Moreover, for Mailer violence not only offers the possibility of cleansing or healing, but also serves as a badge of honor or courage—a longstanding foundational point of his own definition of masculinity.{{efn|As early as age 20, Mailer was already commenting on the necessity of violence to the construction of an honorable manhood. In “A Calculus to Heaven,” a story he wrote as a senior at Harvard which was republished in ''Advertisements for Myself'', one of Mailer’s military heroes muses: “It might be necessary for him to die to find that dignity. Certainly, he thought, life and death and violent action were fundamentals, and he would find no lie there.”{{sfn|Mailer|1959|p=51}} }} | ||
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* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1964 |title=The Presidential Papers |url= |location=New York |publisher=Bantam Books |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1964 |title=The Presidential Papers |url= |location=New York |publisher=Bantam Books |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Warren |date=2001 |title=Legacy of Rage: Jewish Masculinity, Violence, and Culture |url= |location=Amherst |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Warren |date=2001 |title=Legacy of Rage: Jewish Masculinity, Violence, and Culture |url= |location=Amherst |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last= | * {{cite book |last=Sartre |first=Jean Paul |date=2007 |orig-year=1956 |title=Existentialism Is a Humanism |translator-last=Barnes |translator-first=Hazel E. |url= |location=New York |publisher=The Philosophical Library |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Weatherby |first=William J. |date=1977 |title=Squaring Off: Mailer vs. Baldwin |url= |location=New York |publisher=Mason/Charter |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Weatherby |first=William J. |date=1977 |title=Squaring Off: Mailer vs. Baldwin |url= |location=New York |publisher=Mason/Charter |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Wenke |first=Joseph |date=1987 |title=Mailer’s America |url= |location=Hanover |publisher=UP of New England |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Wenke |first=Joseph |date=1987 |title=Mailer’s America |url= |location=Hanover |publisher=UP of New England |page= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||