Spring Break
The Saint of Unbelief
Shrike, Epistemology, and Postmodernism
Michael DiBardino
Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: Spring 2009
The Saint of Unbelief: Shrike, Epistemology, and Postmodernism
michael dibardino
"I am a great saint," Shrike declares to open his seduction speech, to which he
closes with a most debased and equally empowering form of a new omnipotence: "I spit on them all" (Miss Lonelyhearts 7). The novel may be titled Miss Lonelyhearts, but it is the "dead pan" Shrike that, almost clandestinely, steals the show. One may easily list the reasons for Shrike's memorable presence: the bawdy representation; debauched and sordid
domestic life; cold-hearted unconcern for fellow human beings. There is another aspect of Shrike, however, that, I find, fails to get much treatment in the discussions of the novel. What is most appalling about the man may be his sheer disregard, the total irreverence he
displays towards all traditional epistemological paradigms; moreover, this irreverence is compounded with his representation that he is nothing more than a walking episteme-a man whose mouth is but a sieve that leaks ages of discourse and narrative. How are we to receive this character-a character created by West in the throes of the modernist project, yet simultaneously antinomian to that, and, conceivably, any socio-cultural project? Can Shrike be considered a postmodern rogue borne from the determinacy of modernism? In this essay, I will argue that Shrike is indeed a figure of fissure within modernism; a postmodern bastard son of epistemology and aesthetics, who-unlike the modernists who
question, refute, and/or re-appropriate the paradigms-simply spits them out, and "spits" on them without any semblance of reverent concern. Further, I will attempt to explain why Shrike is to be seen as American corporate capitalism's "great saint."
The postmodern concern towards the questioning of knowledge has led certain
thinkers, particularly Jean-Francois Lyotard, to establish the dependency of epistemology on the narrative form, or, more precisely, what he labels as metanarratives. In The Postmodern Condition: A Report On Knowledge, Lyotard states: "I will use the term modern to
michael dibardino
"I am a great saint," Shrike declares to open his seduction speech, to which he
closes with a most debased and equally empowering form of a new omnipotence: "I spit on them all" (Miss Lonelyhearts 7). The novel may be titled Miss Lonelyhearts, but it is the "dead pan" Shrike that, almost clandestinely, steals the show. One may easily list the reasons for Shrike's memorable presence: the bawdy representation; debauched and sordid
domestic life; cold-hearted unconcern for fellow human beings. There is another aspect of Shrike, however, that, I find, fails to get much treatment in the discussions of the novel. What is most appalling about the man may be his sheer disregard, the total irreverence he
displays towards all traditional epistemological paradigms; moreover, this irreverence is compounded with his representation that he is nothing more than a walking episteme-a man whose mouth is but a sieve that leaks ages of discourse and narrative. How are we to receive this character-a character created by West in the throes of the modernist project, yet simultaneously antinomian to that, and, conceivably, any socio-cultural project? Can Shrike be considered a postmodern rogue borne from the determinacy of modernism? In this essay, I will argue that Shrike is indeed a figure of fissure within modernism; a postmodern bastard son of epistemology and aesthetics, who-unlike the modernists who
question, refute, and/or re-appropriate the paradigms-simply spits them out, and "spits" on them without any semblance of reverent concern. Further, I will attempt to explain why Shrike is to be seen as American corporate capitalism's "great saint."
The postmodern concern towards the questioning of knowledge has led certain
thinkers, particularly Jean-Francois Lyotard, to establish the dependency of epistemology on the narrative form, or, more precisely, what he labels as metanarratives. In The Postmodern Condition: A Report On Knowledge, Lyotard states: "I will use the term modern to
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Gabriel Smith
posted 12/21/09 @ 10:38 AM EST
This is a very interesting article, although some generalizations could (and should), be fixed. Shrike as a personfied pineal gland is quite an innovative way of reading the novel. (Continued…)
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