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8 - A Man and His Things

Bruce Chatwin’s Utz

from Part II - In Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

Vera J. Camden
Affiliation:
Kent State University, Ohio
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Summary

A close reading of Bruce Chatwin's novel, Utz, illuminates the tangled relationships between man and his material things in his physical environment, thereby illustrating the rich reciprocity of psychoanalytic approaches to literature. The eponymous protagonist of Utz is obsessed with his valuable collection of Meissen figurines, shutting himself off from the external world and retreating to a world populated by material things – objects he can buy, sell, and manipulate. Utz is interpreted as a fictional proxy for its author, a former director at Sotheby’s, who had an intense relationship to the antiquities and artifacts that he collected, yet would periodically leave his home, loved ones, and collections to travel abroad. Chatwin’s Utz affords a model for the conflicts inherent in man’s relationships to things, which variously operate as symbols and trophies; as dehumanized substitutes for human relationships; as markers of domination and control; and as agents of self-creation. (148)

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • A Man and His Things
  • Edited by Vera J. Camden, Kent State University, Ohio
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108763691.010
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  • A Man and His Things
  • Edited by Vera J. Camden, Kent State University, Ohio
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108763691.010
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Man and His Things
  • Edited by Vera J. Camden, Kent State University, Ohio
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108763691.010
Available formats
×