Allegories of freedom
Individual liberty and social conformity in Ken Kesey's one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20156820 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Foley (University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 31-57 |
| Publication date | 2001-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387 |
| Publisher | Unisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02564710108530273 |
| OpenAlex | W2024653367 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
This article examines Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Overthe Cuckoo's Nest (1962), not as a straightforward allegory, but as a complex series of allegories of freedom. These allegories are seen as exploring and articulating the cardinal democratic principle of individual liberty ‐ and testing its limits ‐ in the face of the restrictive demands of social and moral authority and conformity. The article demonstrates how the novel draws on numerous sources from the fields of politics, psychology, mythology and religion as background theories, or symbolic frameworks, or inter‐textual narratives, in order to clarify and amplify its central thematic preoccupations. These sources include liberal democratic political philosophy; the humanist psychological paradigm, the psychological theories of Freud and Jung; the myth of the waste land and the legend of the Fisher King; and the story of Christ. They serve in a mutually reinforcing way not only to broaden the narrative perspective but also to affirm the validity of the book's fundamental vision and message
Aesthetics · Allegory · Art · Conformity · Democracy · Epistemology · Humanism · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Storytelling · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |