Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is a story of Holden Caulfield’s crises with his society. Holden is a teenager who has a lingering position between accepting and rejecting the cultural codes of his decade. In this paper, we intend to analyze Holden’s resistant character based on Fouca...

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Main Authors: Dashti, Sorour Karampour, Bahar, Ida Baizura
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academy Publication 2015
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/1/Resistance%20as%20madness%20in%20The%20Catcher%20in%20the%20Rye.pdf
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author Dashti, Sorour Karampour
Bahar, Ida Baizura
author_facet Dashti, Sorour Karampour
Bahar, Ida Baizura
author_sort Dashti, Sorour Karampour
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is a story of Holden Caulfield’s crises with his society. Holden is a teenager who has a lingering position between accepting and rejecting the cultural codes of his decade. In this paper, we intend to analyze Holden’s resistant character based on Foucauldian concepts of madness, power and resistance. Heading this aim, we explain how society eliminates the resistant individuals in Foucauldian views. Through close reading of the text, we intend to find a relationship between madness, power and resistance. We also hypothesize that in this context Holden’s resistance to disciplinary power is regarded as madness. Moreover, we hypothesize that Holden like a sociologist figure scrutinizes his society to figure out society’s madness by following the cultural codes. However, because of his individuality and resistance, he is considered mad and eventually is sent to a sanitarium to be cured. Furthermore, we observe that Salinger challenges society’s cultural codes through Holden’s crises and presents a new form of resistance to social norms in his novel.
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spelling upm-461562018-05-04T08:10:01Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/ Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye Dashti, Sorour Karampour Bahar, Ida Baizura J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is a story of Holden Caulfield’s crises with his society. Holden is a teenager who has a lingering position between accepting and rejecting the cultural codes of his decade. In this paper, we intend to analyze Holden’s resistant character based on Foucauldian concepts of madness, power and resistance. Heading this aim, we explain how society eliminates the resistant individuals in Foucauldian views. Through close reading of the text, we intend to find a relationship between madness, power and resistance. We also hypothesize that in this context Holden’s resistance to disciplinary power is regarded as madness. Moreover, we hypothesize that Holden like a sociologist figure scrutinizes his society to figure out society’s madness by following the cultural codes. However, because of his individuality and resistance, he is considered mad and eventually is sent to a sanitarium to be cured. Furthermore, we observe that Salinger challenges society’s cultural codes through Holden’s crises and presents a new form of resistance to social norms in his novel. Academy Publication 2015 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/1/Resistance%20as%20madness%20in%20The%20Catcher%20in%20the%20Rye.pdf Dashti, Sorour Karampour and Bahar, Ida Baizura (2015) Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5 (3). pp. 457-462. ISSN 1799-2591; ESSN: 2053-0692 http://www.academypublication.com/tpls/ 10.17507/tpls.0503.01
spellingShingle Dashti, Sorour Karampour
Bahar, Ida Baizura
Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye
title Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye
title_full Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye
title_fullStr Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye
title_full_unstemmed Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye
title_short Resistance as madness in The Catcher in the Rye
title_sort resistance as madness in the catcher in the rye
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/46156/1/Resistance%20as%20madness%20in%20The%20Catcher%20in%20the%20Rye.pdf