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A Postmodern Picaresque: The Limits of the Sovereign Self in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Chiarelott, Clayton J.

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
The novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson is often celebrated by popular culture and either ignored or derided by literary critics, while this thesis reads it in relation to the picaresque literary tradition with a consideration for both the mass appeal and the disturbing qualities that make it a messy and difficult text. At times it comes across as transgressive in the way it creates sovereign space for alternative lifestyles, sometimes referred to as freaks by the narrator, Raoul Duke, but those moments are fleeting. More often, the narrator and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, are reinscribing a dominant structure that abuses the less privileged and less mobile members of society, such as a hitchhiker, a maid, and a waitress. Moreover, the narrator even ends up working against himself and counteracting what he apparently values: mobility, individual sovereignty and liberty, and his version American Dream. Through a rapidly moving and episodic narrative structure reminiscent of the picaresque tradition but with a postmodern twist that amplifies and accelerates the format to such an extreme that it paradoxically paralyzes meaningful movement in a focused direction, the novel proves both appealing and unsettling. At such extremes, the potentially positive and negative aspects blur and flatten into a messy text whose meaning resembles the polar extremes and sharp contrasts Jean Baudrillard found so sublime about America itself.
Bill Albertini, PhD (Advisor)
Phil Dickinson, PhD (Committee Member)
71 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chiarelott, C. J. (2012). A Postmodern Picaresque: The Limits of the Sovereign Self in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1342546829

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chiarelott, Clayton. A Postmodern Picaresque: The Limits of the Sovereign Self in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1342546829.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chiarelott, Clayton. "A Postmodern Picaresque: The Limits of the Sovereign Self in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1342546829

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)