LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:9 September 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Befriending Death: Death, Soul and Eternity in Saul Bellow’s
Humboldt’s Gift

Binu George

Abstract

Saul Bellow (1915-2005), winner of many awards including Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize, seriously discusses the theme of death along with its interrelated concepts of soul and eternity in his well received novel Humboldt’s Gift (1975), which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. He harmonizes various perspectives, ideologies, thoughts, and reflections of different writers such as Heidegger (phenomenology of death), Whitman (death), Plato (soul), and Rudolf Steiner (anthroposophy) together with traditional religious outlook to enhance his own stance on death. Just like his novels, short stories, and essays, Bellow’s handling of death too deserves special attention and remains purely conspicuous.

The Riddle of Death

The riddle of death, existence of soul, eternity, and all such notions stand before living beings as real predicaments and unsolved problems. Among them the unavoidable nature of death and its enigmatic character puzzled humanity from time immemorial, and the more they try to bridle and conquer death the more evasive it proved to be. Majority are afraid of it, some adore and love it, a few glorify and love it, and the rest reject and take it as it occurs. Philosophers conceptualised death, intellectuals idealised it and sages and saints spiritualised the divine relatedness of death.

Amalgamation of Ideas

Saul Bellow, a master craftsman, brings together various ideas on death, soul and eternity in his novel Humboldt’s Gift. One can see here an amalgamation of manifold philosophy, spirituality, ideas which are diverse in their perspective, but bear some sort of similarity, regarding death, soul and eternity. Even though they appear to be natural and pacific for an intellectual giant like Bellow, a keener probe into the depth of these ideas would take one to the realms of Hinduism, “anthroposophy” (Dugan, n. p), Buddhism, Christianity, and specific notions of Martin Heidegger, Plato, and Walt Whitman. Bellow does not hesitate to express his indebtedness to these and many other writers who had a specific interest in the theme of death. He comes out with some of his beautiful, genuine recollections of death, which is a horrendous and at the same time an unavoidable reality in organic life.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Binu George, Ph.D. Research Scholar
Faculty of English and Foreign Languages
Gandhigram Rural Institute-Deemed University
Gandhigram 624 302
Tamilnadu
India
kakanattubinu@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.