2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study on the Influence of Mystic Theology on William Golding
| Project/Area Number |
13610578
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
英語・英米文学
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| Research Institution | Yamaguchi University |
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Principal Investigator |
MIYAHARA Kazunari Yamaguchi University, Faculty of Humanities, Associate professor, 人文学部, 助教授 (10243875)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2003
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| Keywords | William Golding / Anthroposophy / mysticism |
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| Research Abstract |
It is critical commonplace to preface a study of William Golding's fiction (Lord of the Flies un particular) with some reference to his teaching career, but there has not been sufficient attention paid to the fact that he taught at the Michael Hall Steiner-Waldorf school for nearly two years. Golding was introduced to Anthroposophy and to Rudolph Steiner's educational theory by Adam Bittleston, a friend at Oxford. Later, in 1961, Golding wrote a favorable review of The Faithful Thinker, a book for Steiner's centenary of which Bittleston was a co-author
I learned from a biographical sketch of Golding by his daughter Judy Carver, and also from e-mail communications with several stuff members at Michael Hall, that Golding's attitude towards Steinerian thought was snore like reserved sympathy than full committment. During and after the 1970s, he was more interested in Jungian psychology andadopted a somewhat critical and conical attitude towards Steiner. However, whether his attitude towards Anthroposophy was sympathetic, critical or ironical, its influence is recognizable in Golding's novels, especially in the early works
The Steinerian theory of human development and education provides a clear explanation for the idiosyncratic mannerisms of the different age-groups in Lord of the Flies. Also, the four colours used in the novel green, pink, white and black are the basic colours in Rudolf Steiner's colour theory (deriving from Goethe). Interpreting Simon as a Christ figure is a rather banal reading now, but if Steiner's view of Clrist is applied here, the Simon-as-Christ interpretation might well regain relevance. Again, eurhythmy plays a significant role in the naming of the Neanderthal people in The Inheritors. And Golding's third novel Pincher Martin can be read as a pessimistic, ironical representation of the "path of knowledge" described in one of Steiner's plain works, Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der hoheren Welten?
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