There is no center of sanity in madness: Constructive approach of psychic deconstruction in William Golding's pincher martin

Abstract

The novel Pincher Martin (1956) titled in the American world as Two Deaths of Christopher Martin (1957) incorporates the psychoanalytic approach as depicted through the protagonist Pincher Martin’s two deaths. Martin is a personification of every modern man who is dangling between his conscious and subconscious mind; assists him to construct an illusionary self in this real other world. The narrative themes, forms, and language of the selected text can is the imprint of the writer’s psyche; explores how both psychic and linguistic approaches are interdependent and can examine under a singular shade of deconstructive approach. The shift from Aristotelian to the postmodern era has brought notable changes that help us in the understanding of the constructive approach of linguistic and psychic deconstruction; that works upon the binaries as the center and de-center self and other, mind and body. The famous argument of Rene Descartes “Cogito ergo sum” means “I Think Therefore I’m” de-centralizes Martin’s perishable body and his eternal psychic existence, within the canopy of interdependent aspects of death and life that is de-centralized by the postmodern notion of time that precedes our essence. This paper is an attempt to cope with the notions of psychic and linguistic deconstruction. That guides us towards an unstable center in this centerless world, works upon the doctrine of dualism and pluralism, and the ways to seek a mono-centric center.