Existential Awareness in Norman Mailer’s the Naked and the Dead

Authors:

Pages: 203-210
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/WHVX3241

Abstract:

There are episodes in Norman Mailer’s novel The Naked and the Dead that seemingly contradict its realistic genre when ordinary soldiers experience moments of mystical awareness and knowledge about everything and everyone. Admittedly, these moments are fleeting. Yet, studying these flashes of insight inevitably leads to the conclusion that the young author of mere 25 years packed a lot more in his magnum opus than mere realistic representation of war. The brief epiphanies described in the novel place it among the ranks of the long tradition of transcendental thought in American letters starting back in the 19th century with Emerson and Thoreau.

Keywords:

existential, mystical, transcendental, awareness

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