John Hawkes
Encyclopedia
John Hawkes, born John Clendennin Talbot Burne Hawkes, Jr. (August 17, 1925 – May 15, 1998), was a postmodern
American
novel
ist, known for the intensity of his work, which suspended the traditional constraints of the narrative.
, and educated at Harvard University
, Hawkes taught at Brown University
for thirty years. Although he published his first novel, The Cannibal, in 1949
, it was The Lime Twig
(1961
) that first won him acclaim. Thomas Pynchon
is said to have admired the novel and thought Hawkes an unmatched stylist. His second novel, The Beetle Leg (1951
), an intensely surrealistic western set in a Montana landscape that T. S. Eliot
might have conjured, came to be viewed by many critics as one of the landmark novels of 20th century American literature.
Hawkes died in Providence, Rhode Island
.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist, known for the intensity of his work, which suspended the traditional constraints of the narrative.
Biography
Born in Stamford, ConnecticutStamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, and educated at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Hawkes taught at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
for thirty years. Although he published his first novel, The Cannibal, in 1949
1949 in literature
The year 1949 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Arthur C. Clarke becomes Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts.*Bertrand Russell receives the Order of Merit....
, it was The Lime Twig
The Lime Twig
The Lime Twig is a classic short novel or novella by experimental American writer John Hawkes.-Plot:This highly elliptical novel, set in England after World War II, deals with a sedate, bored lower-class couple -- Michael and Margaret Banks -- who are lured into fronting a racehorse scheme...
(1961
1961 in literature
The year 1961 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*First English production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui*Michael Halliday publishes his seminal paper on the systemic functional grammar model....
) that first won him acclaim. Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
is said to have admired the novel and thought Hawkes an unmatched stylist. His second novel, The Beetle Leg (1951
1951 in literature
The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.*Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus....
), an intensely surrealistic western set in a Montana landscape that T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
might have conjured, came to be viewed by many critics as one of the landmark novels of 20th century American literature.
Hawkes died in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
.
Quotations
- "For me, everything depends on language."
- "I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained."
- "Like the poem, the experimental fiction is an exclamation of psychic materials which come to the writer all readily distorted, prefigured in that inner schism between the rational and the absurd."
- "Everything I have written comes out of nightmare, out of the nightmare of war, I think."
- "The writer should always serve as his own angleworm —and the sharper the barb with which he fishes himself out of blackness, the better."
Works
- Charivari (1949)
- The CannibalThe Cannibal (novel)The Cannibal is a 1949 novel by John Hawkes , partially based on Hawkes' own experiences in the Second World War.-Plot:The novel is divided in three parts. The first and the last are set in 1945, in an imaginary small German town ravaged by the war, Spitzen-on-the-Dein...
(1949) - The Beetle Leg (1951)
- The Goose on the Grave (1954)
- The Owl (1954)
- The Lime TwigThe Lime TwigThe Lime Twig is a classic short novel or novella by experimental American writer John Hawkes.-Plot:This highly elliptical novel, set in England after World War II, deals with a sedate, bored lower-class couple -- Michael and Margaret Banks -- who are lured into fronting a racehorse scheme...
(1961) - Second SkinSecond Skin (novel)Second Skin is a 1964 novel by John Hawkes.-Plot:The story is told by a 1st-person narrator, a fifty-nine-year-old ex-naval lieutenant whose name is Edward, though other characters usually call him Skipper or Papa Cue Ball...
(1964) - The Innocent Party (plays) (1966)
- Lunar Landscapes (short stories) (1969)
- The Blood Oranges (1970)
- Death, Sleep, and the Traveler (1974)
- Travesty (1976)
- The Passion Artist (1979)
- Virginie Her Two Lives (1982)
- Humors of Blood & Skin: a John Hawkes reader (1984)
- Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade (1985)
- Innocence in extremis (1985)
- Whistlejacket (1988)
- Sweet William (1993)
- The Frog (1996)
- An Irish Eye (1997)
Awards and Award Nominations
- 1962 - American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award.
- 1965 - National Book AwardNational Book AwardThe National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
nomination for Second SkinSecond Skin (novel)Second Skin is a 1964 novel by John Hawkes.-Plot:The story is told by a 1st-person narrator, a fifty-nine-year-old ex-naval lieutenant whose name is Edward, though other characters usually call him Skipper or Papa Cue Ball... - 1973 - Prix du Meilleur livre étrangerPrix du Meilleur Livre ÉtrangerThe Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger is a French literary prize created in 1948. It is awarded yearly in two categories: Novel and Essay for books translated in to French.- Prix du Meilleur livre étranger — Novel :* 2010: Gonçalo M...
for The Blood OrangesThe Blood OrangesBlood Oranges is a 1997 erotic drama film directed by Philip Haas. This was Haas’s third feature film, which is based on the 1972 erotic cult novel by John Hawkes .-Cast:*Sheryl Lee Fiona*Charles Dance Cyril*Colin Lane Hugh... - 1986 - Prix Médicis étrangerPrix MédicisThe Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux. It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent."...
for Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade - 1990 - Lannan Literary Award.