William Styron's most recent novel, Sophie's Choice published in 1979, provides a unique addition to the literature of the Holocaust. The story of Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish Catholic who spent twenty months at Auschwitz, is the novel's core. Just as important, however, is the story of Stingo, the young Southern writer who is working on his first novel during the time that Sophie gradually reveals her story to him. Stingo's encounter with the historical tragedy of the twentieth century is crucial to his coming of age. / As Stingo moves from innocence to experience in the New York of 1947, he evaluates the art of the novel, describes the writing process, and surrounds Sophie's story with the names of more than 150 authors and titles as well as numerous literary allusions. Most of the authors are only named, but among the few who receive more attention are the three Southerners: Faulkner, Wolfe, and Warren. It is important that Stingo is a Southerner influenced not only by his Southern literary heritage but also by the South's historical tragedy, slavery. / Sophie's Choice contains twelve passages quoted from literature. In addition to the Psalms of David, John's Revelation, and the French writers Malraux and Rainer Maria Rilke, the authors quoted include the Americans Emily Dickinson, Hart Crane, and Thomas Wolfe as well as the Britains Sir Thomas Browne, Matthew Arnold, and William Butler Yeats. Throughout the narrative, Styron has carefully chosen words of other writers to intertwine Stingo's movement from innocence to experience with Sophie's headlong journey toward death. / The use of music in Sophie's Choice also underscores the fusion of the two stories. More than four hundred allusions to music occur in the novel. While music is used most often to develop the character of Sophie, Stingo also reveals more about himself through his response to music. Through music Stingo expresses the range and depth of emotions he experiences as he writes his first novel and confronts the evil of Auschwitz. / Four appendices contain all literary allusions; references to Faulkner, Wolfe, and Warren; references to Stingo's development as a writer; and all musical allusions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, Section: A, page: 0799. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74781 |
| Contributors | CHINN, NANCY LOUISE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 147 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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