Thomas Hardy, who had perceived life as a logicless riddle, unexplainable by science, reason or s... more Thomas Hardy, who had perceived life as a logicless riddle, unexplainable by science, reason or systematic philosophy, found in myth a way of articulating his puzzlement and wonder, agony and bewilderment at the mystery of human suffering. Often Hardy would evoke a known myth specifically by emphasizing his defamiliarizing twists of departure, and weaving it into a rich pattern of interpenetration with a gamut of other myths and the reality itself. It is Hardy’s way of ‘making it new’ (à la Pound) long before the modernist era, and thereby ‘naming the unnamable’ (Brooke-Rose 1971: 222) mysteries of life and suffering. Hardy uses mythical allusions towards creating an evocative pattern for the narration, – placing the story of individuals’ travails within ever-widening circles of evocations. Sometimes Hardy makes direct allusions to myths and mythical names; sometimes he evokes nuances of mythical events/anecdotes, albeit with his own subtle twists and fine departures from the source...
Hardy's preoccupation with the British folk-ways of a not-so-remote past, which is manifest in th... more Hardy's preoccupation with the British folk-ways of a not-so-remote past, which is manifest in the carnivalesque elements dwelling within the heart of his grim tragedies, is also evident in his fondness for the traditional ballads which have left their mark on the
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