Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)

Tibor Tóth: Fiction as the 'River Between': Daniel Martin

FICTION AS THE 'RIVER BETWEEN': DANIEL MARTIN 57 Obsessed by magnitude and quantity, pharaohs had forced their people's sensibilities into a monstruosity-as-art, but human feelings have survived despite megalomania. (For John Fowles writing a novel becomes the expression of freedom) "especially the freedom to know oneself" which has always been the driving-force of human evolution.

5 Daniel Martin is a novel, which discusses the freedom to know oneself, the possibility of return to the childlike innocence of its character and of the above-mentioned mode of 'illustration,' and return to its traditional status. John Fowles tries to incorporate into his novel technical solutions perfected by contemporary film to demonstrate their limited possibilities in terms of artistic creativity and as opposed to the flexibility of various fictional solutions available for the contemporary novelist. The task undertaken by John Fowles in the novel we are discussing is an extremely difficult one as his intention to apply the technical solutions of film industry to fiction writing is problematic and of course it has provoked serious criticism regarding the style, technique and structure of Daniel Martin. Similar attempts of John Fowles to juxtapose seemingly incompatible art techniques, periods of history, different forms of art supported the artist's fiction in virtually all his earlier books. The plot, style, technique of Daniel Martin lead to conclusions which support our thesis regarding John Fowles's faith in the possibilities of contemporary fiction to sort out and artistically formulate aspects of life, art and freedom which are not available to other arts. As the novel is extremely difficult to read and equally difficult to interpret, we are going to select some relatively accessible aspects for our discussion of the themes of art, life and freedom in Daniel Martin. At the level of the plot of the novel the direction suggested by John Fowles is easy to interpret. The protagonist of the novel is an extremely talented middle-aged Englishman, who is a successful writer of film scripts who at the time of the novel's present lives in Hollywood and enjoys financial wealth, the company of beautiful women and even his work. Yet, his conversation with the young Scottish actress reveals frustration as the intention formulated both by the young actress and the writer of film scripts is formulated as the necessity of going home. The possi5 Huffaker 1980, 44.