VOL. 59, BOOK 1, PART B, 2021, pp. 70-79 Full text (En)
Author:
Daniel Kamenov
Affiliation: Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv
Abstract
In The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen introduces the reader to the Lamberts: a dysfunctional family of highly individualistic characters whose goals and ideas never intersect. Throughout the course of the novel, the elderly parents and their three grown-up children further degrade their relationships – both within the family and even with reality. They are utterly, self-consciously alone and incapable of creating a stable connection to one another or with anybody else. In the current paper, I shall try to explain their inability to connect to others by using their intrinsic loneliness as a starting point and the manner in which it helps in forming their identity.
Key words: existential loneliness, identity, Jonathan Franzen, Charles Taylor, existentialism
