Doubling, subjectivity and the role of ideology in the novels of Thomas Pynchon

Abstract

This thesis argues that the role of the double in Thomas Pynchon’s work is to demonstrate the means by which subjectivity and ideology can be questioned and subverted in order to undermine the dominant systems of power. I provide a thesis length exploration of the doubling motif in three of Pynchon’s late novels: Mason & Dixon (1997), Against the Day (2006), and Bleeding Edge (2013). The ideas that form the basis for my understanding of subject and ideology are centred around the work that Louis Althusser has composed on this topic. Althusser’s argument that ideology is the imagined relationship that a subject has towards the systems that govern their existence is central to my reading of Pynchon’s presentation of these ideas. This imagined relationship is dictated by the ideology itself in order to benefit its own principles. For the subject, this same relationship is what dictates what is and what is not socially acceptable. Ideology and subjectivity are also central features of the Gothic genre. It is for this reason that the Gothic will be my primary point of comparison in terms of the doubling motif and how Pynchon adapts it to his own aims. In Gothic texts, the double is often presented along the binary lines of good and evil. Doubles are usually presented as expressions of a transgression from the dominant ideologies and must be destroyed as a means to restore order to society. It is the assertion in my thesis that Pynchon refuses to engage with the binaries that underpin the Gothic double. Instead, he presents the double not as a cause for fear or danger, but as simply a means of alternative existence for the characters that populate his texts. In fact, the characters that refuse to conform to the singular ideals of the dominant ideology are treated far more sympathetically than those that fully subject themselves to these systems. Conversely, those that do benefit from these ideals are ultimately presented as far more evil than those who challenge it. The final section of the thesis also draws on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). I utilise the principles of doublethink first introduced in Orwell’s text as another example of how doubling can be used by an ideology to dictate the thought processes of its subjects. Orwellian doublethink is centered around the idea that a subject must make two contradictory claims into a single authoritative truth that makes seemingly complete logical sense. This process takes place despite the illogical nature of considering two opposing ideas as resulting in the same thing. Through its use and subversion of both the Gothic and Orwellian examples of doubling, Pynchon’s work makes clear that ideologies are oppressive and destructive forces for the majority of those who are subject to them. The thesis concludes that, in Pynchon’s work, the double is a means to challenge and undermine the dominant ideals of a particular society. It is not the subjects that challenge the dominant ideologies that are presented as evil, but the ideologies themselves.