Identity and existential loneliness in Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections
Identity and existential loneliness in Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections

Author(s): Daniel Kamenov
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, American Literature
Published by: Пловдивски университет »Паисий Хилендарски«
Keywords: existential loneliness; identity; Jonathan Franzen; Charles Taylor; existentialism
Summary/Abstract: In The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen introduces the reader to the Lamberts: a dysfunctional family of highly individualistic characters whose goals and ideas never intersect. Throughout the course of the novel, the elderly parents and their three grown-up children further degrade their relationships – both within the family and even with reality. They are utterly, self-consciously alone and incapable of creating a stable connection to one another or with anybody else. In the current paper, I shall try to explain their inability to connect to others by using their intrinsic loneliness as a starting point and the manner in which it helps in forming their identity.

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