Title: Reconciling your self: individuation and ontological ambiguity in J.G. Ballard's The Empire of the Sun and The Drowned World
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2017, vol. 43, iss. 2, pp. [165]-178
Extent
[165]-178
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2017-2-9
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/137613
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This article explores the multifaceted ways in which J. G. Ballard's work grapples with the problematics of the self and its codependency with ideological representation. One of the most interesting critical contexts which sheds light on this theme is Jungian psychology, which also happened to wield considerable influence on New Wave writers during the 1960s, and it is especially Jung's notion of individuation that is of relevance in regards to the particularly ambiguous relationship Ballardian protagonists have with exterior reality. It is the contention of this article that acceptance of the inherently fictional and textual nature of the depicted exterior reality is a prerequisite for individuation to take place. What this means is that two seemingly incompatible discourses, that of Jungian psychoanalysis and postmodernism, can be seen to share a certain liberatory theme that can be found in Ballard's novels. This is a contention that will be developed in an analysis of Ballard's The Empire of the Sun and The Drowned World.
References
[1] Althusser, Louis (1971) 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'. In Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. New York: Monthly Review Press.
[2] Ballard, James Graham (1997) J. G. Ballard: User's Guide to the Millennium: Essays and Reviews. London: Flamingo.
[3] Ballard, James Graham (1989) Empire of the Sun. London: Grafton Books.
[4] Ballard, James Graham (2012) The Drowned World. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation.
[5] Baxter, Jeannette (2009) J. G. Ballard's Surrealist Imagination: Spectacular Authorship. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
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[11] Hauke, Christopher (2000) Jung and the Postmodern: The Interpretations of Realities. Hove and New York: Brunner-Routledge.
[12] Jameson, Fredric (1991) Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso.
[13] Jung, Carl Gustav (1960) The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. New York: Pantheon.
[14] Luckhurst, Roger (1997) The Angle Between Two Walls: The Fiction of J. G. Ballard. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[15] Stephenson, Gregory (1991) Out of the Night and into the Dream: A Thematic Study of the Fiction of J. G. Ballard. London: Greenwood.
[2] Ballard, James Graham (1997) J. G. Ballard: User's Guide to the Millennium: Essays and Reviews. London: Flamingo.
[3] Ballard, James Graham (1989) Empire of the Sun. London: Grafton Books.
[4] Ballard, James Graham (2012) The Drowned World. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation.
[5] Baxter, Jeannette (2009) J. G. Ballard's Surrealist Imagination: Spectacular Authorship. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
[6] Brigg, Peter (1985) J. G. Ballard. Starmont's Reader's Guide 26. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House.
[7] Fauteux, Kevin (1994) The Recovery of Self. Regression and Redemption in Religious Experience. New York: Paulist Press.
[8] Francis, Samuel (2011) The Psychological Fictions of J. G. Ballard. London: Continuum International Publishing.
[9] Gasiorek, Andrzej (2004) J. G. Ballard. Contemporary British Novelists. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
[10] Groes, Sebastian (2008) 'From Shanghai to Shepperton: Crises of Representation in J. G. Ballard's London'. In: Baxter, Jeannette (ed.) J.G. Ballard: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. London: Continuum. 78-93.
[11] Hauke, Christopher (2000) Jung and the Postmodern: The Interpretations of Realities. Hove and New York: Brunner-Routledge.
[12] Jameson, Fredric (1991) Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso.
[13] Jung, Carl Gustav (1960) The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. New York: Pantheon.
[14] Luckhurst, Roger (1997) The Angle Between Two Walls: The Fiction of J. G. Ballard. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[15] Stephenson, Gregory (1991) Out of the Night and into the Dream: A Thematic Study of the Fiction of J. G. Ballard. London: Greenwood.