Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)

Studies - László Dányi: Interpretations of Sexuality in William Styron's Sophie's Choice

LÁSZLÓ DÁNYI INTERPRETATIONS OF SEXUALITY IN WILLIAM STYRON'S SOPHIE'S CHOICE William Styron's (1925-) Sophie's Choice (hereafter cited as SC) was published in 1979. As almost all of Styron's books this novel has also become highly controversial, and its treatment of the theme of sexuality has been criticized for the following 'weaknesses': the supposedly chaotic combination of Stingo's sex life with Sophie and Nathan's destructive love, the unjustified comparison of antisemitic Poland to a racist American South, the confused linking of Stingo's experience as a writer to Nathan's druginduced madness, and, most importantly, the juxtaposition of all the above themes tothe horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. (Durham 449) This paper aims to analyze the relationship between meaning and sexuality and tries to explore the ramifications of the questions that are raised in connection with this topic: In what way are the different meanings of sexuality as creative power and compensation are interpreted. What is the definition of sexuality as a communicational channel in the novel? What is the rhetoric of sexuality? In order to try and find answers to these questions, first I will analyze the situations in which the three main characters, Stingo, Sophie and Nathan are sexually entangled. Sophie is a Roman Catholic Polish girl, who is accidentally taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp and loses her father, husband, lover and two children. After her sufferings in the camp, she arrives in the U.S., where the Jewish and schizophrenic Nathan Landau saves the 39