The “Me Decade”: Textual and figural narcissism in Robert M. Pirsig’s motorcycle narrative Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: An inquiry into values (1974)
- Authors
- Type
- Published Article
- Journal
- Frontiers of Narrative Studies
- Publisher
- De Gruyter
- Publication Date
- Aug 08, 2017
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 105–121
- Identifiers
- DOI: 10.1515/fns-2017-0007
- Source
- De Gruyter
- Keywords
- License
- Yellow
Abstract
Robert Pirsig’s motorcycle narrative Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: An inquiry into values (1974) revels in narcissism. It is both shaped by the culture of narcissism from which it emerged and, like many other works of motorcycle literature since World War II, it shapes a culture of narcissism in America that goes hand in hand with a widespread desire to turn inward and away from a shared sense of community, identity, and responsibility. Drawing on Linda Hutcheon’s seminal study Narcissistic narrative (1980), narcissism is used as an interpretive framework for understanding narrative. Narcissism understood in this way is a literary phenomenon. But besides a high level of diegetical self-awareness, on a cultural level the narrative displays a narcissism that is embodied by a self-involved character who lacks empathy. In order to arrive at a nuanced understanding of narcissism understood as a literary and cultural phenomenon, it is necessary to think the two forms of narcissism – textual and figural – together and to draw on insights from literary studies as well as cognitive and cultural studies. Such an interdisciplinary approach makes it possible to define narcissism as an inherent dimension of all motorcycle narratives.
