現代の民話と諷刺 : William Goldingの作品を通して

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One remarkable aspect of the English novel in recent years is that satirical and fantastic elements are involved in it. William Golding, in this respect, seems to me to be one of the most original writers. His peculiarity, or what differentiates him from other younger writers such as the so-called "Angry Young Men,' is not so much in theme as in mood and style. The satire and fantasy in his form, however, are connected with realism and imagination in his content. His fiction hitherto has been treated as fable. His fable, or folk-tale-so I like to call it-is itself not an end but a means; nor is his satire merely for the sake of being satirical. Why, then, does he write his fiction by means of the folk-tale? My answer to this question is rather experimental. A folk-tale follows a pattern with no definite time, and is non-religious, while a myth follows a timeless, religious formula to which life shapes itself. The deeper the writer's concern is about man and society, the more intense is his satire; the greater his moral sympathy, the more critical and objective he is in describing his heroes. Such is the contradiction and complexity in the works of William Golding. He attempts, I think, to describe a solitary man without morality or religion under the condition of loneliness; and to create a new world of fiction out of the traditional, Puritan world. He is not an escapist but a brave confronter with reality.
東京女子大学の論文