Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Mailer, Norman; Mailer, Norman;

Abstract

"Look to the Forms" examines and establishes the common themes of four of Norman Mailer's non-fiction books: Advertisements for Myself, The Presidential Papers, Cannibals and Christians and The Armies of the Night. In these books Mailer writes of phenomena following World War II and evolves a system of metaphysics, philosophy and sociology which is existential. The whole system rests on an existential metaphysics which finally requires an existential view of life, society and art. The heart of Mailer's metaphysics is an existential God who may succeed in establishing his Vision over the universe. This God cannot act on his own; he is limited to man who acts for him. God is tied to man and man to god by the soul or unconscious or self. The soul is that which may become eternal. It is a non-material entity which must reside within a material. When a soul lives in a body, the result is a being.

Year of Submission

1977

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Daniel Cahill

Second Advisor

Jerome Klinkowitz

Third Advisor

Marian E. Krogmann

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1977

Object Description

1 PDF file (99 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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