Dana Anderson and Dr. Lance Larsen, English
In 1959, an inconspicuous Los Angeles postal worker named Charles Bukowski published his first book of poetry-Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail in a press run of only 200 copies. Yet, by the time of his death last March he had sold over one and a half million copies of 46 volumes of poetry and pros works which have been translated into 20 languages and have generated a huge readership here and throughout Europe. Writing from the rigors of the working class, Bukowski was uniquely qualified in his critique of an “American dream” which no longer seemed plausible, of an America which entrenched average people like himself in a dehumanizing cycle of work and consumption.
Despite his international renown, Charles Bukowski has yet to receive adequate scholarly response from critics in his own country. Dr. Russell Harrison, one of a handful of Bukowski critics, notes that Bukowski’s work, “. . . by virtue of its volume, its quality, and its uniquely representative character, should have made him a recognized and critically appreciated writer”. With funding from the Office of Research 1 and Creative Activities, I sought to augment the study of Bukowski by composing and publishing two essays which treat themes new to the existing criticism.
My project underwent two major metamorphoses, and while I neither endorsed the methodology I outlined nor achieved the goals I originally established, I consider it an unqualified success. My first major revision came when numerous ill-timed personal developments precluded the fact-finding trip I had planned to the poet’s home and publishing house in San Pedro, California. I had thought to glean pertinent biographical information from these sources to create a more accurate personal context in which to consider his works. I may not have had the fortune of a personal meeting, but Bukowski’s publisher, John Martin, was nonetheless helpful in providing me with reprints of several articles which discussed such information.
I had originally planned to use the Internet as a supplement to my research in California; given its breadth and current popularity, it seemed an avenue worth exploring. In light of my foiled trip, however, Internet research soon usurped center stage in my efforts. I spent the majority of my ORCA funding on essential communications upgrades and online time. I discovered several sites in which Bukowski readers of every level of sophistication debated both the merits and the messages of his poetry. My participation in these discourses both expanded my knowledge of the poet and, more importantly, pushed me to question new aspects of his critical merit. Thus, what was initially an unfortunate reliance on impersonal electronic communication soon became the very lifeblood of my project, fostering an additional unforeseen benefit: it allowed me to compile a comprehensive list of over 20 Bukowski-related newsgroups and websites, an index to his existence in ever-expanding cyberspace.
Secondly, my interest in his oeuvre itself changed. Whereas I had initially sought to examine the more concrete characteristics of his poet is lack of figurative language, preference for metonymy over metaphor, and use of persona. I became obsessed with the class content of his works. Bukowski’s is a poetry of social contradiction, one in which the most rugged of individuals finds himself inextricably bound to and concerned for the society that surrounds him, a society he both pities and disparages. Characters from every social strata comprise his poetic populace, a community in which alcoholics and indigents as often as priests and professors convey lessons in life’s meaning. While my essays are as yet unfinished, I am attempting to illustrate how Bukowski’s lament for a failed American dream ironically triumphs America as the society in which, despite the tragedies of the masses, we may attain successes even greater than those such a dream entails. I also hope to expand this analysis into part of a master’s thesis on the poetry of the American middle class.
In closing, I would like to thank the Office of Research and Creative Activities for its generous funding of my project. I also express my greatest thanks to Dr. Lance Larsen, whose unparalleled personal and critical appreciation of poetry motivated me both to pursue this project and to continue initiating similar inquiries as I begin graduate study here at BYU.
References
- Russell Harrison. (1994). Against the American Dream: Essays on Charles Bukowski. Santa Rosa, Black Sparrow Press, 11.