ABSTRACT
The first chapter of the book outlines the theoretical field within which the psychoanalytic study of The Alexandria Quartet is conducted. There are three major conceptual areas which are discussed: the first is the biographical and the fictional elements in the analysis of works of literature. The postmodernist claim by Barthes that the author is dead is challenged by the psychoanalytic attempt to emphasis the significance of understanding the author’s biography for a fuller appreciation of the literary work. It is shown that a fuller reading can be achieved once the boundary between the biographical and the fictional is weakened. This is not done to reduce the analysis of the author’s life to his fiction, but rather to show the interdependence of the elements and their unique existential expression in the work itself.
The second is the interface between psychoanalysis and literature as two hermeneutic methods of exploring human psyche. In the past, psychoanalytic writers saw the literary text as a vessel into which they exported their clinical observations. Psychoanalysis was “objectively” conducted upon the literary text as if it was a patient, a subject. At the same time, literature was relied upon to provide metaphors for the clinical field. It is now accepted knowledge that the two fields conduct an equal, intersubjective dialogue where they both explore common fields such as self-identity, creativity and many others.
The third is the area concerning issues of belonging and exile. I explore questions regarding the links individuals have to their homeland. A distinction is made between the place of birth and the homeland one creates, or recreates, through his developing life circumstances, aptly termed an imaginary homeland, and specifically through the act of writing.
The three conceptual areas are introduced to support to main concern of this study, which is the way the life and work of the author of the work give expression and construct his quest for a sense of belonging.
Durrell’s exile is not necessarily a concrete one. As is demonstrated, his choice of abode was often arbitrary. Writing The Alexandria Quartet allowed him to explore a mental and emotional sense of exile and “find” a home in the written word. The Quartet is the area which Durrell created to express his complex sense of belonging. Through the fragmentary nature of the text, the multiple narrators and its labyrinthine plot, he demonstrated his sense of existence in the modern world. It is argued the Durrell’s sense of exile emanated from a secret wound, referring to early occurrences in his life.
