The Black Book, Hamlet, and Lawrence Durrell's Parodic Poetics

Abstract:

The Black Book, Hamlet, and Lawrence Durrell's Parodic Poetics
by
James M. Decker

While critics as diverse as Harry T. Moore and Ian S. MacNiven correctly assert that Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer profoundly influenced the style of Lawrence Durrell's The Black Book, scholars largely ignore the role that Miller's Hamlet correspondence played in Durrell's revisions ofhis third novel. Writing to Miller, Durrell claimed that he had attempted to "demillerizse" The Black Book during his extensive revisions of the narrative (Letters 35). Despite Durrell's efforts, The Black Book remains laden with many of Miller's trademark stylistic devices, such as catalogues, sentence fragments, caricatures, and self-reflexivity. Not so evident, however, is Durrell's appropriateion of the ongoing metaphysical debate between Miller and Michael Fraenkel. Already prone to discuss and write about the "death theme," Durrell eagerly absorbed the letters that Miller and Fraenkel later published under the name Hamlet. In the Hamlet correspondence, Miller and Fraenkel ostensibly attempt to grasp the "Hamlet problem," but end up discoursing on almost every conceivable philosophical topic.

Deus Loci 7 (1999-2000): 101-09.

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