John Dos Passos: Fixed Moral Principles in a Changing World.

Abstract

The changes in John Dos Passos' politics--from anarchism and socialism to conservatism--have dominated critical appraisal of his work. By analyzing his views on current issues, one can both demonstrate the broad consistency of his political vision and account for many of his contradictory opinions. For deeper insight into his career and especially his post-U.S.A. writings, it is necessary to look beyond his politics and examine his entire mode of thought. Like the eighteenth-century satirists Alex and er Pope and Samuel Johnson, Dos Passos adopted the stance of a moralist; throughout his career he interpreted contemporary issues as providing clear ethical alternatives and defended his political opinions by appealing to his personal moral st and ards. Recognition that a moralistic outlook provides an underlying consistency for Dos Passos' career is valuable not only in assessing his politics but in underst and ing his evolution as an artist and the interplay of his political and literary aims. Because he was even more the moralist than the artist, effecting change in the society he recreated fictionally was his ultimate goal as a writer, especially after he became disillusioned with political activism. Consistent with this goal, during the last three decades of his career, Dos Passos both redefined the artist's purpose and social responsibilities and modified his own literary techniques. The dissertation unfolds his moralistic approach to art and politics by exploring its development and by highlighting the later years of his career when he sought to fulfill his self-appointed role as conscience of the nation. Dos Passos' evolving conception of himself as a moralist is interpreted as the logical outgrowth of his political activism and his experimentation with literary form and technique and is used as the framework for assessing his post-U.S.A. writings. Three of these works--Chosen Country, Midcentury, and Century's Ebb--are significant literary achievements which demonstrate the degree to which Dos Passos integrated his artistic and political goals with his duties as a moralist.