Memory and the Splitting of the Self in John Banville’s The Sea

• Authors: Bożena Kucała
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article explores the problem of the self in The Sea by John Banville. The narrator’s professed lack of a stable identity coexists with a multiplication of his different “selves.” It is argued that the splitting of the self in Banville’s novel is more complicated than the split between a narrating self and the subject of narration, common to retrospective first-person narratives. Due to the intensely visual and time-defying nature of his memory, the protagonist seems to revive the past and achieves the sense of a simultaneous existence as two beings. The narrator’s need to locate himself at a fixed point in his narrative, combined with his inability to adopt a definitive perspective, results in a permanent erosion of identity.

DE

Der Band enthält die Abstracts ausschließlich in englischer Sprache.

FR

Le numéro contient uniquement les résumés en anglais.

RU

Том содержит аннотацию только на английском языке.

Keywords

EN

John Banville; The Sea; memory; selfhood; identity

DE

John Banville; The Sea (Die See); Gedächtnis; Selbstheit; Identität

FR

John Banville; la mer; la mémoire; la personnalité; l’identité

RU

Джон Бэнвилле; Море; память; личность; идентичность

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2016

online

2016-07-27

Contributors

author

Bożena Kucała

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.17951/lsmll.2016.40.1.9