Abstract

LENCINA, Eva. War, identity crisis and spiritual search in J.D. Salinger's narrative. Cuad. Fac. Humanid. Cienc. Soc., Univ. Nac. Jujuy [online]. 2016, n.50, pp.197-211. ISSN 1668-8104.

In the present article, we intend to perform a socio-critical reading of the topics of war, identitary crisis and spiritual search in J.D. Salinger's narrative. We will restrain our analysis only to those works by the author in which the chosen topics are best articulated: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (1948) and "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor" (1950).             As theoretical motivation, we seek to solve the lack of socio-historical perspectives suffered by the salingerian critic. We will use as theoretical frame Lucien Goldmann's theory known as "genetic structuralism", which will enable us to establish an analysis whose width includes the understanding (immanent) of the textual structure, as well as the explanation (transcendent) of this through its inclusion in wider significant structures, such as the historical and cultural context and the author's social class, as well as the literary field in which his work has reached canonization.             As a result of our investigation we will confirm, in Salinger's work, the presence of a world view we call "relegating", which maintains a homology relation with the American illustrated bourgeoisie of the fifties: the world view present in Salinger's work is a consequence of the confrontation between the author and the society of his time, confrontation that can only be solved through the building of a new world view that deals with social and identity problems of the fifties and the Second World War consequences

Keywords : Bananafish; Spiritual Search; Identity Crisis; For Esmé; Goldmann; War; Salinger.