John Updike's Human Comedy (Modern American Literature)

160 Pages·2005·0.76 MB·English

by  Keener Brian

John Updike’s
Human Comedy:
Comic Morality in
The Centaur and
the Rabbit Novels
Brian Keener
PETER LANG
John Updike’s
Human Comedy
Yoshinobu Hakutani
General Editor
Vol. 43
PETER LANG
New York ! Washington, D.C./Baltimore ! Bern
Frankfurt am Main ! Berlin ! Brussels ! Vienna ! Oxford
Brian Keener
John Updike’s
Human Comedy
Comic Morality in The Centaur
and the Rabbit Novels
PETER LANG
New York ! Washington, D.C./Baltimore ! Bern
Frankfurt am Main ! Berlin ! Brussels ! Vienna ! Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keener, Brian.
John Updike’s human comedy: comic morality in the centaur
and the rabbit novels / Brian Keener.
p. cm. — (Modern American literature: new approaches; v. 43)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Updike, John—Humor. 2. Humorous stories, American—History and criticism.
3. Updike, John—Characters—Harry Angstrom. 4. Angstrom, Harry (Fictitious character)
5. Middle class men in literature. 6. Comic, The, in literature. 7. Updike, John. Centaur.
8. Mythology in literature. 9. Updike, John—Ethics. 10. Ethics in literature.
I. Title. II. Series: Modern American literature (New York, N.Y.); v. 43.
PS3571.P4Z744 813’.54—dc22 2004006665
ISBN 0–8204–7090–2
ISSN 1078–0521
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de/.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.
© 2005 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
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All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
Printed in Germany
Keener v-viii-138-148 3/24/05 12:17 PM Page v
To my mother,
Anne M. Keener,
also a lover of literature and laughter
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Keener v-viii-138-148 3/24/05 12:17 PM Page vii
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction: Updike’s Comic World: “The comical is
always the mark of maturity” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1 The Comic Paragon and the Meticulous Man in
The Centaur:“The mortals have the joy of struggle,
the satisfaction of compassion, the triumph of courage;
but the gods are perfect” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 2 The Comic Hero’s Place in the Generations in
Rabbit, Run:“Today either everyone is a hero or
no one is. I vote for everyone” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 3 The Comic Hero’s Renewal in Rabbit Redux:
“Being crazy’s what keeps us alive” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter 4 The Role of Comedy in Dispelling Illusion in
Rabbit Is Rich:“Whatever reality is, it’s not that” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 5 The Comic Hero Accepts His Mortality in Rabbit at Rest:
“There comes a time” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 6 Nelson Redux in “Rabbit Remembered”:
“The function of comedy is to sustain hope” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Conclusion What Updike’s Comedy Has to Say:
“Only goodness lives. But it does live” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank three scholars for their guidance and encouragement, particu-
larly in the early stages of this project: Joan Richardson and N. John Hall of
the City University of New York Graduate Center and my brother, Frederick
M. Keener. Thanks to Lowell Scheiner for proofreading the final version of
this book, to Bob Cermele for his computer expertise, and to Lily Lam for as-
sisting me in myriad ways. Thanks to the City University of New York and to
the Professional Staff Congress for a grant to help support the preparation of
this manuscript, and to two colleagues from the English Department at New
York City College of Technology, Juanita But and George Guida, for encour-
aging me to apply for this grant. Finally, thanks to my family, especially Tonya,
for their moral support.
I would also like to thank the following for their permission to reprint from
the following works:
From THE CENTAUR by John Updike, copyright ©1962, 1963 by John
Updike. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random
House, Inc.
From THE CENTAUR by John Updike (Penguin Books 1966) Copyright ©
John Updike, 1966.
From RABBIT, RUN by John Updike, copyright © 1960 and renewed 1988
by John Updike. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Ran-
dom House, Inc.
From RABBIT, RUN by John Updike (Penguin Books, 1964) copyright ©
John Updike, 1960, 1964.
From RABBIT REDUX by John Updike, copyright © 1971 by John Updike.
Copyright renewed 1999 by John Updike. Used by permission of Alfred A.
Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.