Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)
László Dányi: Universal implications of William Styton's Southern Heritage
21 milky idyllic mist, which may however, have been the result of the film's over«19 exposure. 1 y On the one hand these descriptions radiate poetic space. Styron belonged to the tradition of Joyce and Proust. In their writings "Their cities, landscapes and rooms are not photographically literal. Never frontal reportage about apparent localities... A particular time /space axis, as world of appearance, may be recognized, certainly, in 90 the words and the imagination words embody. On the other hand they express the difference between Peyton and Stingo. "Peyton, a modern American girl, can run away from the conventions of society. She can and does; but she cannot escape the self-destructiveness in her own heart, an ugly inheritance bequeathed by her father, Milton, a dissolute, philandering lawyer who spoiled her, and her mother, Helen, one of the more memorable bitches in 9 1 contemporary American literature. 1 Peyton's family and geographical ties to the South forecast her tragedy while Stingo's Eden in the South includes the possibility of regaining balance and establishing personal order. Stingo can inherit the sense of personal order lacking in Peyton's life. For Peyton and Stingo the land of order is the South with its traditional, clear-cut values. And at this point the social implications are connected with the psychological ones. 2/ Psychological implications of the difference By psychological implications I mean the protagonists' longing for the old values, the " land of order", and how they search for order. Styron avoided the determinism of Dreiser and Steinbeck. His characters behave as free agents. In the psychological analyses of his characters he followed the tradition begun by Dostoyevsky and Melville. His attempts to create new dimensions preserving the values of Southern culture are expressed in his heroes' attempts to establish personal order and "the sex, religion and violence are used as vivid means with which to illustrate those attempts."^ Styron makes a clear distinction between the world of order in the traditional old South as well as personal order and the order of organized systems. Peyton cannot establish personal order because her search for order is always undercut by recurring threats of disintegration, annihilation and absurdity. The establishment of personal order has a direct expression in Stingo's life, as illustrated, for instance, in his relationship with ills things. He accurately examines them,... a jar of Barbasol shaving cream, a bottle of Alka-Seltzer, a Schick injector razor, two tubes of Pepsodent toothpaste, a Dr. West's toothbrush with medium bristles, a bottle of Royall Lyme after-shave lotion, a Kent comb, an 'injecto-pack' of
