TRABAJO

FIN DE GRADO

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES: LENGUA, LITERATURA Y

CULTURA

ANTIHEROS AND GROTESQUES: JOHN KENNEDY TOOLE´S A

CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES AS SOUTHERN GOTHIC

CLAUDIO FEDERICO PASTRANA DIAZ

CPASTRANA8@ALUMNO.UNED.ES

TUTOR ACADÉMICO: María Magdalena Garcia Lorenzo.

LÍNEA DE TFG: Literatura Norteamericana de los siglos XX y XXI

FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA

CURSO ACADÉMICO: 2017- 2018 - Convocatoria: Junio

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TRABAJO DE FIN DE GRADO
Fecha: 02/05/18
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DNI: Y1439207L

Hace constar que es autor/a del trabajo:

Antiheros and Grotesques: John Kennedy Toole´s A Confederacy of

Dunces as Southern Gothic

Y manifiesta su responsabilidad en la realización del mismo, en la
interpretación de datos y en la elaboración de conclusiones. Asegura
asimismo que las aportaciones intelectuales de otros autores utilizados en
el texto se han citado debidamente.
En este sentido,

DECLARA:
ü Que el trabajo remitido es un documento original y no ha sido
publicado con anterioridad, total o parcialmente, por otros autores.
ü Que el abajo firmante es públicamente responsable de sus contenidos
y elaboración, y que no ha incurrido en fraude científico o plagio.
ü Que si se demostrara lo contrario, el abajo firmante aceptará las
medidas disciplinarias o sancionadoras que correspondan.

Fdo.
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Abstract

John Kennedy Toole´s A Confederacy of Dunces is considered a comic masterpiece. Even

though there is a general consensus about this point, the ascription of this novel to a

determined genre or literary school is not so clear-cut. The objective of this essay is to explore

if there is any kind of literary kinship between Ignatius Reilly´s tour-de-force and the

Southern Gothic genre.

Keywords

John Kennedy Toole — A Confederacy of Dunces — Southern Gothic — American

Literature — The Grotesque

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Index

1. Introduction

I) Rationale…………………………………………………………………………Page 5

II) Objectives……………………………………………………………………….Page 6

III) Methodology and Resources…………………………………………………...Page 7

2. A Confederacy of Dunces, a peculiar book

I) Synthesis………………………………………………………………………….Page. 8

II) The Large Road to Publication…………………………………………………..Page. 9

III) Some previous Critical Work on the Subject…………………………………...Page10

3. Southern Gothic, a Problematic Genre

I) Origins, Development and Main Features………………………………………..Page 13

4. A Confederacy of Dunces as Southern Gothic

I) Setting…………………………………………………………………………….Page 17

II) The Grotesque…………………………………………………………………...Page 20

III) Social Critique…………………………………………………………………..Page 25

IV) Dark Humour…………………………………………………………………...Page 29

5. Conclusions...……………………………..……………………………………...Page 38

6. Works Cited………………………………………………………………………Page 40
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Introduction

I) Rationale

Would it be a mistake to claim that the main reason behind the selection of A

Confederacy of Dunces as subject for this essay are the countless hours of laughter that John

Kennedy Toole´s book provoked on me? Perhaps that would be the case if amusement was

the only reason, but aside from its trenchant hilarity, Toole´s work comprises multiple layers

of meaning that make it suitable for in-depth analysis. How can, then, A Confederacy of

Dunces be described? It can be argued that it is a collection of comical episodes featuring an

inadequate character that fails to adapt to its surroundings. It can be also contended that is a

caustic parody of American society or a lively portrait of bizarre characters hovering over a

decadent New Orleans. Moreover, Toole´s novel can be also considered as a “lengthy

indictment against twentieth century” (Toole pos. 149).

These manifold definitions display the complexity of the subject. Following this

multifaceted nature, among the various paths we could trace when examining A Confederacy

of Dunces, one of the most baffling it is its ascription to genre. The novel has been labelled as

a satire, a picaresque, an allegory and a grotesque. All these definitions are valid and highly

enlightening but generate a new path of analysis. Would it be also possible to establish

connections between A Confederacy of Dunces and literary trends of its own age?

John Kennedy Toole composed A Confederacy of Dunces during the early sixties, a

period of agitation and turmoil in America. It was the decade that witnessed the outburst of

the Beatnik generation and the emergence of postmodern writers. It was also the time of

consolidation of a somewhat neglected style traditionally rooted on the American South: The

Southern Gothic. In their narrative, Southern Gothics authors include (among other traits)

transgressive thoughts and desires, dark humour, freakish characters and a sense of alienation
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which evidence a questioning of the society. It sounds like a genre that might suit Ignatius

Reilly´s adventures.

In the Introduction to The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic, editors Susan

Castillo and Charles L. Crow appeal to the image of a crossroad in their attempt to depict the

current state of the studies in the field (pos. 316). There is still much debate over the

boundaries of a genre that it is indeed problematic. Under the Southern Gothic label it is

possible to find novels that use modernist techniques, as in the case of William Faulkner´s

The Sound and the Fury, vampire stories such as Anne Rice´s Interview with the Vampire and

even theatre plays like A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams.

Taking into consideration its uniqueness, and the fact that remains as the sole

production of an author (or at least the only writing he was willing to publish) deceased at an

early age; A Confederacy of Dunces can also take up his place at a crossroad of its own. Thus,

its liminal position with regards to genre and style make it a compelling subject for detailed

scrutiny.

II) Objectives

The aim of this essay then is to explore if (and how) John Kennedy Toole´s appraised

novel can be included within the Southern Gothic canon. The scope of this paper does not

leave aside the concern with genre. The first stage will involve an examination of the

Southern Gothic origins and development. The second analysis will aim at identify Southern

Gothic features inside A Confederacy of Dunces and estimate if their presence makes the

novel a suitable candidate to be included within this genre.

It is equally important to note that Southern Gothic has been neglected in the syllabus

of the Grade of English Studies of the UNED and especially in the American literature

subjects. Nevertheless, this is not a questioning on how the course is designed, but an
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opportunity to expand this challenging field. The topic might as well be relevant as a chance

to approach writers (perhaps with the exception of Faulker), which are still widely unknown

among Spanish readers.

III) Methodology and resources

In spite of its heterogeneous nature, the Southern Gothic phenomenon presents some

core features. Thus, as a baseline, the delimitation of the traits that can support the main idea

of this essay will be carried out. Among the features examined to get a grasp on the genre we

can enumerate its settings, its deprecation of society and its appeal to the Grotesque.

In order to delimitate the Southern Gothic, a collection of critical essays like The

Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic (Street and Crow, Eds. 2016) might be useful. In

this line, the compilation Reflections in a critical eye: essays on Carson McCullers (Whitt, Ed

2008), will also help us understand the convergence of the Gothic and the Grotesque.

Likewise, on this account, the essay “Some aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”, by

Flannery O´Connor will be essential. In addition, there were websites that contributed in this

research like the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Literature

(http://literature.oxfordre.com). A webpage devoted to Carson McCullers (http://carson-

mccullers.com/) was also useful.

Regarding the second stage. The first step would be a close reading of A Confederacy

of Dunces, followed by a search of critical work focused on its influences. Also, the

biography of John Kennedy Toole, Butterfly in the Typewriter, by Cory MacLauchlin, could

provide an interesting insight into the author´s life. The citation style used for this essay

follows the guidelines of the MLA Handbook (8th ed.)

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A Confederacy of Dunces, a Peculiar Book

I) Synthesis

The narration is located in New Orleans during the sixties. It mainly follows Ignatius

Reilly, a lazy jobless scholar in his thirties who is willingly secluded from the world. He

despises modern society and, in line with his Medievalist Studies, praises that age´s

worldview and primarily, Boethius, a Roman philosopher whose work Consolation of

Philosophy became one of the most influential works during the middle Ages.

Supported economically by his mother, Irene, with whom he lives, Ignatius leads a quiet life.

He enjoys going to the movies and drinking Dr Nut. At the beginning of the story he is

composing a paper which he considers will became the ultimate indictment against modern

life, until a minor car accident generates a substantial debt for the family. This financial strait

will force him to search for a job, but since he is neither comfortable nor prepared to face

society, every single one of his ventures will end in disaster.

First, Ignatius will find a position as a clerk in the decadent garment factory Levy

Pants. After a few days of unproductive work he is fired, not for his poor performance but for

his attempt to lead the black employees at the production lines into a revolt against patronage.

In his next job, as hot-dog vendor, he is bounded to push a hot-dog wagon by the streets of the

French Quarter. As a vendor he probes to be equally inefficient and, of top of that, he eats

more than he sells. His third enterprise it is just as much as nonsensical: He plots to infiltrate

the Army and the Government with homosexual men in order to achieve world peace. To

scheme this plan he manages to get invited to a gay party at the French Quarter but after a

quarrel with some of the guests he is expelled.

At the same time, Irene Reilly, Ignatius´ mother, and whom he constantly desecrates,

carries out a subplot that will eventually converge with Ignatius’ progress. As the story
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unfolds, Irene’s lady friend, Santa Battaglia, tries to convince her of confine her son to a

mental Institution. After an embarrassing incident at the Night of Joy, a low class cabaret,

Irene decides to institutionalize Ignatius. But his mother´s suspicious behaviour makes him

foresee her plans. When it seems that there is no way out from confinement, the appearance in

extremis of Ignatius´ lady friend Myrna Mirkof, whom up to that point was living in New

York, provides Reilly an escape route. The novel ends with Ignatius and Myrna heading

towards New York City.

Even thought Ignatius is the point of attention, the narration also take heed of other

odds characters which crosses paths with Reilly: Patrolman Mancuso, a goofy undercover cop

who wears ridiculous disguises while trying to catch suspicious figures; Lana Lee, the

dictatorial owner of the nightclub “Night of Joy” and model for pornographic pictures; Burma

Jones, a black character bounded to accept a low paid job as a porter in that cabaret to prevent

been arrested for vagrancy; Dorian Greene, a picturesque member of the New Orleans gay

community; the aforementioned Myrna Mirkoff, an anti-establishment student which is

Ignatius’ solely acquaintance in the outer world, and other personages which render an

impressive collage of the city.

II) A large road to publication

Toole finished the novel in 1964 and send it to senior editor Robert Gottlieb, who had

Tomas Pynchon and Joseph Heller as clients. They sustained a lengthy exchange of letters

regarding the novel, but they never reach an agreement, “The book does not have a reason”,

Gottlieb observed on a letter to Toole (McLauchlin pos. 3038). The rejection had a deep

impact on Toole, a brilliant student and, according to many sources, an inspirational

professor. Extremely disappointed, he put the novel (and his writing efforts) aside and

continued working as English lecturer for the next five years. But on March 26th of 1969, he
 10

decided he had had enough. He stopped his car outside Biloxi, Mississippi and committed

suicide. He was 31 years old. As a result of familiar and financial problems, in his final years

he faced some mental issues.

In the car he left a suicide note for his family. The only person who had access to it

was his mother, Thelma, who never gave a detailed account of its contents. Confident in

John´s talent, Thelma kept trying to publish the novel. She was rejected over and over, until in

1976 she managed to reach novelist Walker Percy.

Percy himself in the foreword to the novel renders the rest of the story. In his own

words, when he first read it, he though that “it was not possible that it was so good” (Percy

pos. 8). But Percy´s approval was not enough to publish the work. Three more years were

needed to get a small 2.500 copy printing supported by Louisiana State University Press. The

book was finally released in 1980 and both public and critics immediately appraised it as a

comic masterpiece. One year later, Tooled was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Fortuna had spun towards success, but unfortunately he was not there to witness.

III) Previous critical work on the subject

Scholars have been often inclined to read A Confederation of Dunces in relation to

both Medieval and Renaissance literature. This is by no means illogical: There is no need to

go beyond the book´s cover to be pointed in that direction. “When a true genius appears in the

world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him”, is

the quote that inspired the novel´s title. The quote belongs to Jonathan Swift´s Thoughts on

various Subjects, Moral and Diverting. Swift was one of the greatest satirist of the eighteen-

century. Walker Percy´s foreword maintains this approach. This well-known southern writer

actively supported Thelma Toole´s efforts to publish the novel and can be termed as the

“critic zero”. In the preface (Percy pos. 8-35), and although he claims that Ignatius Reilly
 11

lacks “progenitor in any literature I know of”, he brings forth Toole´s debt with Cervantes,

Thomas Aquinas and Shakespeare. Moreover, he describes the novel as a “gargantuan

tumultuous human tragicomedy”.

The links with Rabelais, Shakespeare, Cervantes and, especially, Swift were also

noted by Jonathan Simmons. By means of the comparison with Swift´s Tale of a Tub,

Simmons (p. 37) discusses how Ignatius Reilly embodies the concept of Grotesque. In a

similar vein, David McNeil (p. 33) analyses the novel´s debt to satire, tracing back its

influences to Mark Twain´s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur´s Court, American Colonial

literature, Swift and the English Renaissance.

Robert Rudnicki focuses on the construction of Ignatius character, and especially, in

his affected speech style. Rudnicki (p. 282) stresses the sway of English Renaissance

playwright John Lyly over Ignatius´ flamboyant discourses. Nevertheless, Rudnicki also

acknowledges the links between Toole and Flannery O´Connor (p. 281), considered a capital

figure in the Southern Gothic tradition. This connection will be further discussed later.

Elizabeth Bell keeps the Middle Ages in sight. She concentrates on the several ties between A

Confederacy of Dunces and medieval types such as the picaresque, the parody, the

pilgrimage, the quest and, chiefly, the allegory. According to Bell (p. 15), Toole has drawn

from the artistic fabric of that age to comment on the contemporary world. Coincidentally,

this distrust about the modern age was analysed by Peter McCluskey (p. 8) in relation with

Henry Thoreau´s Walden. According to this scholar, the forced insertion of Ignatius into the

workforce parallels and, at the same time, inverts the chronicles of the voluntary withdrawal

from the society written by Thoreau.

Taking into consideration the body of work analysed up to here, scholarship on this

novel walk through the same paths over and over again. If we focus on the critical work
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scrutinized so far, it seems to be very few trails connecting A Confederacy of Dunces with the

Southern Gothic. But as unlikely as it may sound, there are some.

We mention the work´s debt with Percy. In addition, some critics sustain that this is not the

only link between the two writers. In “Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy: Fiction and

Repetition in A Confederacy of Dunces”, Richard Keller Simon (p. 100) analyses the multiple

relations between Binx Bolling, the main character in Percy´s 1962 novel The Moviegoer, and

Reilly. Even though, Percy was largely considered as a Catholic Writer, some of his work was

analysed in relation with the Gothic tradition. Chiefly Lancelot, a novel that according to

Charles Crow (p.158) employs many themes of this genre such as the declining family, the

forlorn Mansion, a genealogical secret and murder.

The impact of Flannery O´Connor, considered as one of the more outstanding representatives

of the so-called Second Wave of Southern Gothic, on Toole it is also well documented.

According to Rudnicki (p. 281), the author of Wise Blood, “became one of Toole´s heroes

during his short life”. There is still another central feature, also pointed out by Rudnicki, in

which these two writers converge: The Grotesque.

In the essay “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”, O´Connor herself deals by

and large with the subject. Her definition of Grotesque, and especially what has been termed

as Southern Grotesque, seems more than adequate to harbour claims regarding the belonging

of A Confederacy of Dunces as part of the Southern Gothic. According to O´Connor, both

Southern Gothic characters and its creators “are typical Don Quixotes, tilting at what is not

there”(O,Connor par. 11). This observation, linking Ignatius Reilly and Alonso Quijano´s

stands against the world, seems valid enough to start a discussion on the matter.
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The Southern Gothic, a problematic genre

I) Origins and development

As Castillo and Crow acknowledge, the task of defining the Southern Gothic is

certainly “not for the faint of heart”(pos. 316). Moreover, when we face this genre and its

complexities, the image of a crossroad does not seem to fit as much as one of a labyrinth. And

it is easy to get lost. Issues of otherness, gender and race are mixed with forlorn states,

haunted houses and supernatural beings. Dark humour is blended with aimless violence.

Heroes with Monsters.

To start discussing this genre is necessary to look back to the 18th century.

Southern Gothic evolved from American Gothic, which in turn emerged from the British

Gothic, initiated in 1764 by Horace Walpole´s Castle of Utranto. The English Gothic tradition

“challenged Enlightenment principles by giving voice to irrational, horrific, and transgressive

thoughts, desires, and impulses, thereby conjuring an angst-ridden world of violence, sex,

terror, and death” (Ærvold Bjerre p. 2). To question its age, the Gothic dwelt on the past.

Gothic settings are usually medieval castles and dark landscapes. Moreover, to challenge

reason it appealed to the supernatural and to the unknown. The Gothic became extremely

popular between the 18th and in the 19th century. Novels like Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein,

Bram Stoker´s Dracula and Ann Radcliffe´s The Mysteries of Udolpho arise from this literary

strain.

In 1798, Charles Brockden Brown´s Wieland established the basis for the genre´s

development in America. The American Gothic presents some distinct features that spring

from the particularities of the American newborn society. In addition to its lack of confidence

in the power of reason and progress, Gothic authors question the American Dream narrative.

Nineteenth century gothic writers like Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar
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Allan Poe explored subjects predominantly American like race, the frontier and the Puritan

legacy.

By all accounts, Poe is considered the forefather of the Southern Gothic. In his

writings he performs a “powerful gothic critique of nineteenth century society, its values,

contradictions and myths” (Wright in Street and Crow pos. 484). Moreover, in some of his

work he renders his concern with issues that will become pervasive in the forecoming

Southern Gothic like familial decay and racial fanatism (Wright in Street and Crow pos. 484).

Some of Poe stories like The Fall of the House Usher are not placed in any recognizable

southern setting but in placeless nightmarish aristocratic landscapes that were likely to be

found in the American South. In this fashion, he was the first to establish the link between

region and genre.

In the twentieth century, William Faulkner became the most outstanding

representative of the Southern Gothic. This author tackled typically Southern themes like the

memory of slavery past and class differences. In addition, through the fictional county of

Yoknapatawpha he clearly sets his narrative in the South. Faulkner deals with uneasy subjects

like necrophilia (A Rose for Emily), rape (Sanctuary), suicide (The Sound and the Fury) and

incest (Absalom, Absalom). The treatment of these controversial issues, not only by Faulkner

but also by other writers inscribed in this trend, lead scholars to belittle this mode of writing.

In fact, the term Southern Gothic was coined in 1935 by novelist Ellen Glasgow. On her

article, entitled “Heroes and Monsters”, she criticizes the genre´s “disturbing aimless

violence” (Glasgow p. 3). Other academics referred to this literary mode as “peopled by

monsters and sub men” (qtd. in Ærvold Bjerre p. 7), while termed some of its most prolific

authors as “merchants of death” (qtd. in Ærvold Bjerre p. 7).

In the second half of the 20th century, and in spite of the academics deprecation, the

genre maintained his vitality among southern writers. Authors like Carson McCullers,
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Flannery O´Connor, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote are considered

to be part of the Southern Gothic tradition, in occasions even against their will, like in the

case of Welty´s famous remark, “don´t call me that!” (qtd. in Donaldson p. 567).

The Grotesque, one of the most recognizable (and at the same time maligned) features

of the Gothic, can be identified in the works of several of its renowned writers. This

convergence leaded critics to refer to their productions as Southern Grotesque. The Grotesque

relies heavily in freaks, physically deformed and marginal figures that are placed outside the

so-called “normality”. Handicapped characters like the cripple Hulga Hopewell in Flannery

O´Connor´s Good Country People and the mute John Singer in Carson McCullers’s The

Heart is a Lonely Hunter, or transvestites such as Randolph in Truman Capote´s Other

Voices, Other Rooms pervade this mode of writing. To our purpose we will follow Charles

Crow clarification about the juxtaposition of Gothic and Grotesque, considering that the latter

“is a quality that overlaps with the Gothic, but neither is necessary or sufficient for the other”

(Crow p. 129).

The Southern Gothic also includes supernatural horror that, in most cases, make

visible the past sins of the region, especially slavery. Vampires, zombies and ghosts inhabitate

this imagined space. In Interview with the Vampire, Ann Rice uses a Louisiana plantation

during the 18th century as background for the stories of the undead Louis and Lestat, thus

connecting the vampires with the slavery system (Gelder in Castillo and Street pos. 9374).

Similarly, in Barry Hannah´s Yonder Stands Your Orphan, zombies walk among regular

people signalling “a reemergent memory of slavery” (Ellis p. 50).

The concern with gender and sexuality is also recognizable on Southern Gothic

authors. Browsing among its productions is not unlikely to find characters that does not

adequate to the generic role expected of them. The androgynous Mick Kelly in Carson

McCullers´ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or the eccentric Emily Grierson in Faulkner´s A
 16

Rose for Emily, they both subvert the social fabric of the region in the first half of the 20th

century. Dorothy Allison´s Bastards Out of Carolina transports this particular topic to the

edge of the new millennium by establishing as a central theme the “imprisonment and

vulnerability of women within structures purportedly designed for or devoted to their safety,

especially the family home” (Bailey p. 95).

In the last years, and in parallel with a renewed interest of the academics, the genre

has become more and more popular. Contemporary Southern Gothic authors like Cormac

McCarthy, Tom Franklin and Colson Whitehead are among the more acclaimed writers of its

generation.

The Southern Gothic has even jumped to a different language with considerable success:

Films and series draw heavily on its contents. Movies like No Country for Old Men (2005),

The Road (2006) (both of them based on McCarthy`s novels) and TV series like True Blood,

True Detective and The Walking Dead present unsettling atmospheres and bloodthirsty

characters situated in recognizable Southern Locations.

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At the Crossroad, A Confederacy of Dunces as Southern Gothic

“For the contemporary period, you should study some selected comic books. I

recommend Batman especially” (Toole pos. 4311), Ignatius counsels dilettante Dorian Green

during their exchange in the French Quarter. The allusion to the most gothic of superheroes is

by no means irrelevant to our purposes. The pun (comic books both as serial magazines and

funny novels) is making the Southern Gothic and the comical converge, thus supporting the

thesis of this essay. But, it is possible to consider this particular humoristic novel as part of

the Southern Gothic?

Perhaps the main reason behind the shortage of studies connecting A Confederacy of

Dunces and the Southern Gothic is that the former lacks the gloomy atmosphere generally

associated with the Gothic. There are no pointless murder, unleashed violence or howling

ghosts in Ignatius’ story. Conversely, there are Southern Gothics themes like confinement, an

indulgent glimpse towards the past and a distrust of the modern age. There is also an

outstanding parade of freaks and queer characters. And last but not least, is New Orleans, the

quintessential Southern Gothic city.

I) Setting

Toole´s choice of New Orleans as a setting for his novel had to do in large part with

his extensive knowledge of the city and his people. Whether or not he considered himself a

Gothic or a Grotesque writer is not the concern of this paper, but his choice for place (along

with his Southern idiosyncrasy) support the claim that he was highly influenced by this

tradition.

“Within the South, it is difficult to imagine a city with more potential as a gothic site

than New Orleans”, reflects Sherry Truffin in her essay “New Orleans as Gothic Capital”. She

identifies the city as a place of excess, masquerade and trickery. She also stresses the presence
 18

of issues like the chronic transgression of sexual and social taboos and the replacement of

moral with aesthetic values (Truffin in Street and Crow pos. 4593).

Ignatius would have agreed at a great extent with Truffin description of the city. Early

in the novel he scorns its excesses and disreputable moral, “This city is famous for its

gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts,

fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs, and lesbians,” he argues when

approached as a “suspicious character” (Toole pos. 84). The selection of a low class cabaret

as site for the story´s denouement reinforces the sense of transgression in the novel. In the

narrative, disheartened because of his failure at raising an army of gay men, Ignatius hurries

towards the Nigh of Joy, where he expects to meet Southern Belle, Miss Harlett O´Hara, but

he becomes instead the victim of a Latin B-girl, a cockatoo and a streetcar in that order.

The omnipresent humour does not prevent the narration to be permeated by Southern

Gothic traits. Even if Toole´s renders a satiric vision of the city, he still draws from typical

locations of the genre. As a matter of fact, forlorn mansions and decaying plantations have a

counterpart in the novel.

The decadence of Constantinople Street mirrors Ignatius’ derelict house. “It was a

neighbourhood that had degenerated from Victorian to nothing in particular, a block that had

moved into the twentieth century carelessly and uncaringly – and with very limited funds”

(Toole pos. 640). The outside of the Reilly´s household is presented as a barren place. “There

were no shrubs. There was no grass. And no birds sang” (Toole pos. 640). In addition, the

presence of a dead tree and a Celtic cross, signalling a dog´s burial place transforms the yard

into a graveyard. The deterioration is equally exhibited indoors and, in addition, a darkness

descends all over the ambience, “Like every room in the house, it was dark; the greasy

wallpaper and brown wooden mouldings would have transformed any light into gloom, and

from the alley very little light filtered anyway” (Toole pos. 684).
 19

With regards to Levy Pants, another important location in the novel, two major points

are worth mentioning. On top of its characterization as a declining, old fashion building, the

Factory also exhibits a threatening image that, at some point, might even remember a

Concentration Camp.

It was two structures fused into one macabre unit. The two smokestacks that rose from

the factory´s tin roof leaned apart at an angle that formed an outsized rabbit-eared

television antenna that received no hopeful electronic signal from the outside world

but instead discharged occasional smoke of a very sickly shade. Levy Pants huddled, a

silent and smoky plea for urban renewal. (Toole pos. 1399)

In addition to the menacing outside, the production line composed of Negro workers

mostly (and aside from ironic remarks) resembles Ignatius of slavery work:

The scene which met my eyes was at once compelling and repelling. The original

sweatshop has been preserved for posterity at Levy Pants. It is a scene which

combines the worst of Uncle Tom´s Cabin and Fritz Lang´s Metropolis. It is

mechanized Negro slavery; it represents the progress which the Negro has made from

picking cotton to tailoring it (Toole pos. 2017).

The comic elements are ubiquitous and Truffin is aware of it, in fact she terms A

Confederacy of Dunces both as a picaresque and a satiric tragicomedy. Nevertheless she

acknowledges the novel´s gothic sensibility (Truffin in Street and Crow pos. 4687).

Furthermore, she recognises in Ignatius “a character fated to alienation, madness and

confinement” (Truffin in Street and Crow pos. 4782). Her depiction of Ignatius concurs with

another of the Gothic qualities that she identifies in New Orleans: Its geographical isolation

and its position surrounded by swamps along with an oppressive weather (Truffin in Street

and Crow pos. 4593).

 20

Ignatius voluntary seclusion has to do with his reluctance for the outdoors. He does

not want to leave his room and neither his city. In fact, he constantly recalls his trip to Baton

Rouge as “a pilgrimage through the swamps” (Toole pos. 2041) and later he describes that

journey as an “abysmal sojourn into the swamps to the inner station of the ultimate horror”

(Toole pos. 3566). Aside from its obvious hyperbolic purpose, the quote strengthens the

gothic mood of both the location and the character. The last big joke, ironically, is that to

avoid institutional confinement, Ignatius must flee from his secure place. In fact, he does not

seem contrived to head towards a crepuscular and industrial New York City and hurries

Myrna: “The scent of soot and carbon in your hair excites me with suggestions of glamorous

Gotham. We must leave immediately. I must go flower in Manhattan” (Toole pos. 6425).

II) The Grotesque

To explore the Grotesque in the Southern Gothic is, at a great extent, to focus on its

bizarre antiheroes. According to Spiegel (p. 428), “the grotesque refers to a type of character

that occurs so repeatedly in contemporary Southern novels that readers have come to accept

— indeed, expect — his appearance as a kind of convention of the form". Characters with

physical deformities like the hunchback Lymon in Carson McCullers´ The Ballad of the Sad

Café, Criminals like The Misfit, the murderous villain in Flannery O´Connor´s A Good Man

is Hard to Find or effeminate teenagers such as Joel Knox in Truman Capote´s Other Voices,

Other Rooms support Spiegel´s analysis and provide a good example of the genre´s

inclination towards odd figures.

A Confederacy of Dunces presents itself as a catalogue of suspicious characters as

well. In that manifold crowd, Ignatius Reilly stands out, an Antihero as well as a Monster. In

the narration, Ignatius is presented almost as half-human, with abnormal “blue and yellow

eyes”(Toole pos. 57). Words like “elephantine” (pos. 57), “mammoth” (pos. 98) and “huge
 21

paws” (pos. 133) are used to describe his striking physical appearance. The protagonist´s

constant references to his mysterious anatomy, and specifically his pyloric valve which seems

to have prophetic powers (Truffin in Street and Crow pos. 4782), boost the idea of Ignatius´

monstrous nature, a condition traditionally related with the Gothic.

Interestingly, another memorable grotesque character of the Southern Gothic shares

some of Ignatius’ traits. In Carson McCullers’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter we are

introduced to mute Spiros Antonapoulos, an “obese and dreamy Greek” (McCullers p. 7) with

“huge buttocks”(McCullers p. 10). Although the Greek lacks Ignatius´ wit and eloquence,

they are both depicted as extremely overweighed and dishevelled. Antonapoulos wears a

“shirt stuffed sloppily into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind” and a “shapeless

grey sweater” (McCullers p. 7). The description resembles Ignatius sloppy outfit. As an

instance, during his first appearance in the novel, in front of D.H. Holmes department store,

he wears “voluminous tweed trousers” and a “plaid fennel shirt” (Toole pos. 57). Moreover,

they are both rendered as ravenous: “Except drinking and a certain solitary secret pleasure,

Antonapoulos loved to eat more than anything else in the world” (McCullers p. 8). Ignatius is

likewise constantly depicted as greedy, “You give Ignatius a few bottles of Dr. Nut and plenty

bakery cakes, and he’s satisfied” (Toole pos. 4430), Irene Reilly confess to her suitor, Mr.

Robichaux. There is even a similarity in those two characters gestures after they have finished

eating, and while the Greek “slowly lick over each one of his teeth with his tongue”

(McCullers p. 8), Ignatius will “send his flabby pink tongue over his moustache to hunt for

crumbs” (Toole pos. 402). In addition to this, they both display an inability to cope with the

so-called normality of everyday life and little care for polite manners, a behaviour that will

not be tolerated by society. And while Ignatius narrowly escapes institutional confinement,

the Greek will be sent to an insane Asylum. Finally, the previous mention to Antonapoulos

“certain solitary secret pleasure” has also a counterpart in Ignatius taste for masturbation, “He
 22

had almost developed it into an art form, practicing the hobby with the skill and fervour of an

artist and a philosopher, a scholar and a gentleman” (Toole pos. 552).

However, Ignatius sexual preferences are as bizarre as it gets, after he is presented as prone to

give himself pleasure while having fantasies with his dead dog:

Ignatius manipulated and concentrated. At last a vision appeared, the familiar figure of

a large and devoted collie that had been his pet when he was in high school. “Woof!

Arf!” Rex looked so lifelike. One ear dropped. He panted. The apparition jumped over

a fence and chassed a stick that somehow landed in the middle of Ignatius´s quilt. As

the tan and white fur grew closer, Ignatius´ eyes dilated, crossed, and closed, and he

lay wanly back among his four pillows, hoping that he had some Kleenex in his room.

(Toole pos. 552)

While Ignatius onanism requires isolation, this particular preference for loneliness

relates him with another Southern Gothic Grotesque figure like Hulga/Joy Hopewell, the

protagonist of Flannery O´Connor´s Good Country People. Hulga, a character with a wooden

leg, is a graduate woman on her thirties, which still lives with her mother. Hulga resembles

Ignatius not only upon her penchant for solitude but also because of her gigantic size and

appalling appearance. She is described as “large hulking Joy” (A Good Man p. 220) and

“bloated, rude, and squint-eyed” (A Good Man p. 226). She also shares Ignatius’ attitude of

deprecation for her mother and the rest of the town, “Had not been for this condition, she

would be far from these red hills and good country people. She would be in a university

lecturing to people who knew what she was talking about” (A Good Man, p. 226).

The mention to O´Connor is highly relevant since she wrote a substantial body of

critical work addressing this particular subject. In "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern

Fiction" she makes a case for the genre and provide some insights worth mentioning in

relation with Toole´s novel. She connects the Grotesque with the Southern Gothic by
 23

asserting that at some point the latter merges with the uncanny and the mysterious, one of the

Gothic´s main features. In this vein, and referring to a prototypical grotesque writer she

contends that,

His kind of fiction will always be pushing its own limits outward toward the limits of

mystery, because for this kind of writer, the meaning of a story does not begin except

at a depth where adequate motivation and adequate psychology and the various

determinations have been exhausted. Such a writer will be interested in what we don't

understand rather than in what we do. He will be interested in possibility rather than in

probability. He will be interested in characters who are forced out to meet evil and

grace and who act on a trust beyond themselves, whether they know very clearly what

it is they act upon or not. To the modern mind, this kind of character, and his creator,

are typical Don Quixotes, tilting at what is not there. (“Some aspects” par. 11)

The absurdity of Ignatius behaviour is, from this point of view, completely reasonable.

Ignatius is a character who acts on a trust beyond himself. He may not have chivalric

romances but the medieval philosophy of Boethius instead. He might not attack windmills but

will try to destroy capitalism by raising an army of gay men. Ignatius fixation with the past

links him with a lunatic Don Quixote and, at the same time, signals the character´s Gothic

sensibility.

Nevertheless, as essential as Ignatius Reilly is to the story, he is not the only

Grotesque figure wandering around the novel´s pages. Bizarre outfits spread through the

narration, from Ignatius´ pirate disguise during his time as hot-dog vendor up to Darlene´s

Southern Belle nightdress, Timmy´s sailor outfit and even Dorian Greene lady´s hat.

However, the main carnivalesque character is slow-witted police officer, Angelo Mancuso,

who forced by his superior, deploys an impressive inventory of ludicrous costumes in order to

arrest suspicious characters, namely:

 24

A - “Patrolman Mancuso was walking slowly down Chartres Street in ballet tights and a

yellow sweater, a costume which the sergeant said would enable him to bring genuine, bona

fide suspicious characters” (Toole pos. 488).

B - “A police motorcycle in the block was an event, especially if its driver wore shorts and a

red beard” (Toole pos. 653).

C - “George looked at the monocle and the beard at his elbow” (Toole pos 3207).

D - “Lana Lee looked at the silk suit, the hat, the weak insecure eyes. She could spot a safe

one, a soft touch all right. A rich doctor? A lawyer? She might be able to turn this little fiasco

into a profit” (Toole pos. 5583).

Precisely Lana Lee embodies grotesque femininity (Lansky p. 62), a concept referring

to the lack of the signs and practices of conventional femininity. Although the term was

coined in relation with Miss Amelia Evans, the androgynous protagonist of Carson

McCullers´ The Ballad of the Sad Café, it might be useful to explore how Toole introduces

abnormal gender performances to contravene social. Lee, owner of The Night of Joy, a dark

and gloomy cabaret, is described as a “statuesque woman” with a body “covered with a black

leather overcoat that glistened with mist” (Toole pos. 429). While the term statuesque

deprives her of her femininity and even of her humanity, it also hints to a symbol of both the

Grotesque and the Gothic: The gargoyle. The black leather outfit and the mist that surrounds

her apparition suggest that she is another figure heavily linked with the Gothic: The seductive

and dangerous vamp. In addition, her dominant attitude and his dictatorial manners makes her

a masculine figure that resembles a plantation manager, a resemblance that Burma Jones

brings out early in the novel, “For twenty dollar a week, you ain running a plantation in here”

(Toole pos. 1208).

 25

Moreover, she is also depicted, through Ignatius hyperbolic lens, as a Nazi, “Ignatius said ‘Is

the Nazi proprietess of this cesspool around here every night?’ ‘Who? Miss Lee? No’ Jones

smiled at himself” (Toole pos. 5000).

The fact that she is model for pornographic pictures does not make her a victim of

patriarchy but instead, been herself in charge of selling the goods at the best offer, the one

who takes the advantage of this illicit activity. In this fashion she performs the figure of the

outlaw, another recurrent type in the Southern Gothic.

III) Social Critique

If the European Gothic drew on the uncanny to challenge Enlightenment ideals,

Southern Gothic engage with the Grotesque and the uncanny in order to question mainstream

ideology and the dominant status quo of a repressive south. By using queer characters and

bizarre situations, Southern Gothic writers addressed, and at the same time subverted, the

region´s official narratives of mainstream gender and sexual roles and established social

hierarchies.

Southern Gothic brings to light the extent to which the vision of the idyllic South rests

on massive repressions of the region’s historical realities: slavery, racism, and

patriarchy. In this way, Southern Gothic texts mark a Freudian return of the repressed:

the region’s historical realities take concrete forms in the shape of ghosts or grotesque

figures that highlight all that has been unsaid in the official version of southern

history. (Thomas Ærvold Bjerre p. 4)

Even though is true that Ignatius Reilly’s critique is not directed specifically towards

the region injustices and inequalities but to the entire history of mankind since the fifteen

century, he is nevertheless questioning dominant ideologies. In his paper, a vindication of

Middle Ages entitled Journal of a Working Boy, he overtly condemns Renaissance and
 26

Enlightenment, “Merchants and charlatans gained control of Europe calling their insidious

gospel ‘The Enlightenment’” (Toole, pos. 511). Later, when he organizes his political rally

with Dorian Greene he refers to the necessity of, “skip the Renaissance and the

Enlightenment”, which is according to him, “mostly dangerous propaganda” (Toole pos.

4295).

Thus, in addition to his Gothic fixation with the past, Ignatius reveals a critical eye for

the present. Moreover, he not only scorns modernity but also commits with social change. As

preposterous and selfish-driven (their only goal is to scandalize Myrna Minkoff) as they are,

his initiatives are directed towards righteous ends, namely, get better work conditions for the

workers of Levy Pants by organising a revolt and achieve world peace by infiltrating the

Army and the Government with gay men.

In his Journal of a Working Boy he also repudiate modern day Capitalism. “What had

once been dedicated to the soul was now dedicated to the sale”(Toole, pos. 517), he writes.

Pages later, as an echo of this statement, Lana Lee perform a parody of a Mass celebration in

her cabaret. Her god is profit.

Lana started making sound, like the imprecations of a priestess, over the bills that the

boy had given her. Smoke like incense rose from the cigarette in the ashtray at her

elbow, curbing upwards with her prayers, up above the host which she was elevating

in order to study the date of his minting, the single silver dollar that lay among her

offerings. Her bracelet tinkled, calling communicants to the altar, but the only one in

the Temple had been excommunicate from the Faith because of his parentage and

continued mopping. (Toole pos. 1261)

Granted that Ignatius constant discredit of the modern age has comical purposes, it is

also evident that the author, by using humour, is challenging the system. However, in stark

contrast with Ignatius´ pompous declamations against the ills of our age, the author inserts
 27

other, perhaps more subtle, critiques by exposing the harmful circumstances of the more

deprived layers of society. As an instance, Toole appeals to Mrs Trixie impossibility to get

her retirement. On the surface, Mrs Trixie suffering is presented as an annoying (and

hysterical) whim of Mrs Levy, but underneath it might hint to how scant the pensions for the

elderly are and their necessity to keep working once their time to retire is due. Toole was

familiar with this situation since his parents depended on a scarce allowance to subsist. In

fact, their income was so insubstantial that in several occasions he had to help them

financially (McLaughlin pos. 2179).

Burma Jones, another member of a minority group, is also pertinent on this account.

This Afro-American figure, described by Percy as “a superb comic character of immense wit

and resourcefulness” (pos. 21), acts, in a way, as privileged witness of the story´s

development. His trenchant comments and his vernacular speech infuse the narration with a

unique comical dynamism. Nevertheless, Jones also plays the part of the victim since he is

practically forced to get a low-paid job under penurious work conditions. In his case, he is

driven towards exploitation by forces both inside and outside the law, the police force and

Lana Lee. “This was really a deal, like a present left on the doorsteps. A colored guy who

would get arrested for vagrancy if he didn´t work. She would have a captive porter whom she

could work for almost nothing, It was beautiful” (Toole pos. 580). The black porter also

notices the bargain he becomes for Lee, “ ‘Yeah’ Jones answered, ‘She ain exactly hire me.

She kinda buying me off the auction block’”(Toole pos 609).

But Ignatius is not the only anti-establishment figure on the story, Myrna Minkoff,

Ignatius’ acquaintance from graduate school, is constantly committed with social change.

And, although Ignatius maintains a vigorous postal exchange with her, he despises her more

up-to-date questioning of American society, “Her logic was a combination of half-truths and
 28

clichés, her worldview a compound of misconceptions deriving from a history of our nation

as written from the perspective of a subway tunnel” (Toole pos. 2130).

The allusion to the history of the nation as written from the “perspective of a subway tunnel”,

is clearly directed to hint her engagement with the unofficial version of the story by referring

to the Underground Railroad, the secret network of white men, that during the early to mid-

19th century, helped African slaves to escape from captivity in the South to the free states in

the North.

The figure of Dorian Greene, whose name is a brilliant homage to gay Irish writer

Oscar Wilde (and to the central figure of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which, by the

way, has an unequivocal gothic flair), is also central in the author´s idea of questioning the

established gender roles, an issue profusely explored by the Southern Gothic school. In the

examination of, once again, Carson McCullers´s fiction, Rachel Adams, addresses this

particular topic. She contends that, “Freaks and queers suffer because they cannot be

assimilated into the dominant social order, yet their presence highlights the excesses,

contradictions, and incoherences at the very heart of that order” (p. 552). Greene does not

seems to be suffering in account of his sexual inclinations, but in accordance with Adams´

statement, his presence, along with his troupe of gay friends, endows the narration with an

iconoclastic flavour. It is important to bear in mind that, in the early sixties homosexuals were

not as tolerated as they are in present day. In fact, the Gay Liberation Movement only

emerged towards the end of that decade. To understand how provocative was the topic, only

in 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed "homosexuality" from the diagnostics

manual of mental illness.

If we take into account that Toole´s first novel The Neon Bible also dealt with this

controversial topic, is not unlikely to estimate that he was, from his early years, interested in

the realities of those strange characters that decided to live outside the mainstream social
 29

norms or failed to adapt to the status quo. Toole wrote The Neon Bible in 1953 and submitted

to a literary contest that he lost. The story renders the story of David, a boy growing up in a

small Mississippi community during the late 1930´s to early 1950´s. Even when

homosexuality is not the main subject of the story, through the main character lens we witness

life in small-town American South, a life contrived by religious conservatism and social

hypocrisy. Remarkably, when both of the character´s parents fail to become a strong figure

for him, he ends up idealizing one of his school teachers: Mr Farney, a character that the

author suggests is homosexual.

Although David never mentions that Farney is gay, he is such a clichéd queer—

interested in poetry, music, design, and fashion—that only the most obtuse reader

would not recognize it. One of the first descriptions of Farney is that “[h]e walked

more like a woman who swayed her hips. You could always tell Mr. Farney by his

walk”. The next is: “He could recite anything in the line of a poem or something from

a famous book, and no one else in town even read poems or many books. Sometimes

he wrote poems himself”. The stereotype continues in another description: “Mr.

Farney . . . liked violets more than anything else because he told us they were shy and

delicate”. (Hardin page. 61)

In this fashion, Toole´s early efforts with the The Neon Bible foreshadows his concern

with social critique by “exposing hypocrisy in a few of the many forms it commonly takes:

religious bigotry, intellectual narrowness, social intolerance, egocentrism, ethnocentrism,

xenophobia, sexual deceit, physical aggression, and family dysfunction” (Rudnicki p. 292).

IV) Dark Humour

Several comic devices, some of them already addressed as satire and parody, infuse

the narration with an all-pervading dark humour. Closely related with social criticism, this
 30

subversive kind of humour is another theme that links Toole´s novel with Southern Gothic

literature. Rudnicki (p. 281) contends that dark humour, along with the aforementioned

Grotesque, are, “paths that have been applied with success to A Confederacy of Dunces” by

scholars like Michael Kline and Jonathan Simmons. For Rudnicki, Toole´s evolution from

The Neon Bible to A Confederacy of Dunces has to do, at a large extent with his discovery of

humour, “Trading the tragic vision for the comic universe, the backwater town for the

Bacchanalian city, the innocent narrator for the experience one, Toole perhaps learned that

Satire and outright burlesque were better suited to his literary talents and goals” (Rudnicki p.

293). In this fashion, the more mature Toole of A Confederacy of Dunces realized that

“bigotry, hypocrisy, and zealotry are best-illustrated through the eyes of bigots, hypocrites

and zealots” (Rudnicki p. 292). Thus, dark humour, with his irreverent, sometimes offensive,

style is one of the best ways Toole found to attack fundamental Institutions of society like

University, Church and Family.

With the description of Dr. Talc, Ignatius and Myrna’s British History professor at

Tulane, Toole mocks University life. As the name suggests, while this character enjoys a

reputation of eloquence, underneath this facade he is utterly unprepared to teach, “Dr. Talc

was renowned for the facile and sarcastic wit and easily digested generalizations that made

him popular among the girl students and helped to conceal his lack of knowledge about

almost everything in general and British history in particular” (Toole pos 2193). The fact

that he had five years of unreturned essays accumulated in his drawer implies his laziness.

Moreover, his lack of moral it is also hinted by rendering his disreputable intentions with his

students, “Talc´s voice was important, pedantic. Should he invite this charming creature to

have a drink with him?”(Toole pos. 395).

Students are also part of Ignatius´ scorn. His position as lecturer in that very

University ended, like every one of his ventures, in disaster,

 31

There was even a small demonstration outside the window of my office. It was rather

dramatic. For being such simple, ignorant children, they managed quite well. At the

height of the demonstration I dumped all of the old papers – ungraduated of course –

out of the window and right onto the students´ heads. The college was too small to

accept this act of defiance against the abyss of contemporary academia. (Toole pos.

910)

The anecdote concludes with a harsh twist, a signature of his dark humour, “I also told

the students that, for the sake of humanity´s future, I hope that they were all sterile” (Toole

pos. 910).

There are several slanders against the religious establishment as well. In addition to

the aforementioned Lana Lee´s mock celebration of a Mass to consecrate money inside her

Cabaret, it is possible to find a recurrent vilification of the clergy, “I do not support the

current Pope. He does not at all fill my concept of a good, authoritarian Pope” (Toole, pos.

895), explains Ignatius to his mother. Later, when he reprimands her by the car accident, he

will round up his idea, ”If he is my type of priest, the penance will no doubt be rather strict.

However, I have learned to expect little from today´s clergyman” (Toole pos. 924).

The disadvantages of excessive devotion are also explained by Irene Reilly with an evil

(largely unintentional on her account) pun:

“You ought look on the bright side”, Patrolman Mancuso said.

“I guess so”, Mrs Reilly said, “Some people got it harder than me, I guess. Like my

poor cousin, wonderful woman. Went to mass every day of her life. She got knocked

down by a streetcar over on Magazine Street one morning while she was on her way to

Fisherman´s Mass. It was still dark out”. (Toole pos. 762)

 32

Finally, the morbid origins of Ignatius´ quarrel with the Church add up to the pervasive

gallows humour. Here again, a very thin line separates the comic and the tragic:

“Ignatius is got the dog laid out in his momma´s front parlor with some flowers stuck

in its paw. That´s when him and his momma first started all that fighting. To tell you

the truth, I think that´s when she started drinking. So Ignatius goes over to the priest

and ax him to come say something over the dog. Ignatius was planning on some kinda

funeral. You know? The priest say no, of course, and I think that´s when Ignatius left

the Church. So big Ignatius puts on his own funeral. A big fat high school boy oughta

know better. You see that cross?” Mr. Levy looked hopelessly at the rotting Celtic

cross in the front yard”. (Toole pos. 6019)

While this excerpt sheds new light to understand Ignatius and Irene dispute, it signals

another issue profusely explored thought the author´s cynical eye: Family relations. Irene is

constantly depreciated by his son, as an instance, in account of her lack of education and her

vernacular speech:

“Ignatius graduated smart”

“Graduated Smart”, Ignatius repeated with some pique. “Please define your terms.

Exactly what do you mean by graduated smart?”.

“Don´t talk to your momma like that” Darlene said.

“Oh, he treat me bad sometimes” Mrs. Reilly said loudly and began to cry.

(Toole pos. 407)

Ignatius also makes sardonic remarks regarding her taste for liquor, a habit, the author

implies, helps Irene cope with her pitiful circumstances. The image of a dysfunctional family

is completed by Ignatius´ attacks to her mother´s poor judgement and, in addition, by his

disregard for the memory of his dead father:

“I made up my mind. You gonna go out and get you a job”

 33

“I see” Ignatius said calmly. “Knowing that you are congenitally incapable of arriving

at a decisions of this importance, I imagine that that mongoloid law officer put this

idea into your head”.

“Me and Mr. Mancuso talked like I used to talk to your poppa. You poppa used to tell

me what to do. I wish he was alive today”

“Mancuso and my father are alike only in that they both give the impression of being

rather inconsequential humans”. (Toole pos. 845)

Toole used several details of his own life to compose A Confederacy of Dunces. The

mention to Ignatius´ father as insignificant mirrors Toole´s own father who, according to their

biographers, developed a neurosis that eventually fester into a full-blown mental illness, that

relegated him to the back room of the Reilly´s home (MacLauchlin pos. 546). In this manner,

Toole was placing himself and his family as target. There was no safe ground to avoid been

satirized.

It is also noteworthy how, like several Southern Gothic writers, Toole resorts to dark

humour to render human experience. In A Confederacy of Dunces, is possible to find evidence

of this connection, mainly O´Connor´s, whose stories are permeated with a caustic, at times,

irrational kind of humour. According to Eric Savoy, “O´Connor fictions are packed with

moments that are oddly unsettling in their hilarity” (Savoy in Street and Crow pos. 3388). His

analysis of O´Connor fiction is highly relevant to our means:

There is always something vertiginous in O´Connor comic scenes: they turn on an

image or a detail that is grossly incongruent and out of place, and yet that “thing” is, at

the same time, ironically and inevitably in its place. The comic is unsettling not only

because it finds itself poised between laughter and unease, but also because it points to

the eternal capacity for error. (Savoy pos. 3388)

 34

The description might fit like a glove in the opening scene of Toole´s novel: Huge

sloppy blue-and-yellow-eyed Ignatius stands out from the crowd outside D.H. Holmes. No

wonder he attracted the “two sad covetous eyes”(Toole pos. 84) of the police officer

Mancuso. Ignatius is out of place, not only in that scene but also in the whole story, and that

is perhaps one of the main sources of laughter in the novel. But at the same time, he belongs

to New Orleans. It is almost impossible to imagine him somewhere else other than, of course,

New York. Moreover, the novel is full of these incongruent images like the ones addressed by

Savoy. Images that both amuse and disturb: Mancuso, in disguise, bounded to the lavatories

of the bus station, a decrepit Mrs. Trixie “working” in the office of Levy Pants, Timmy

disguised as sailor shackled and chained to the wall, Darlene performing her ludicrous erotic

act with the cockatoo and so on.

In Savoy´s analysis there is still another feature of O´Connor that can be applied to

Toole´s, “O´Connor traces her characters´ movements through a series of comic

misadventures – generated by their wilful blindness – toward a traumatic accident that is as

contingent as it is inevitable” (Savoy in Street and Crow pos. 3414). A Confederacy of

Dunces is abundant in this “wilful blindness”, since many of the characters fail to recognize

how their actions will be counter-productive for themselves. As an instance, Lana Lee´s

eagerness to make profit at all cost will blind and, eventually, backfire on her: First by hiring

Jones, who will sabotage her; Second, giving Darlene permission (even against her own

instincts) to perform her wicked show with the cockatoo and, in the end, trying to seduce

undercover officer Mancuso.

Another example is Mr. Gonzalez, the Office Manager at Levy Pants. He appraises

Ignatius work attitude, in spite of the many signs of his poor performance. His unawareness of

Ignatius’ intentions will end up in a workers´ demonstration against Levy Pants. The irony is

brilliant and devastating at once:

 35

The impossible had happened: life at Levy Pants had become even better. The reason

was Mr. Reilly. What fairy godmother had dropped Mr. Ignatius J. Reilly on the worn

and rotting steps of Levy Pants? He was four workers in one. In Mr. Reilly competent

hands, the filing seems to disappear. (Toole pos. 1831)

And while the manager is exultant in account of Ignatius efficiency, he does not

realize that he is making the files “disappear” because he is tossing them to the garbage can.

Gus Levy can be part of that catalogue of sightlessness as well. His deliberate

negligence concerning everything related with his factory, nearly resulted in a harmful legal

suit against the company. Ignatius threatening reply to a minor claim of a buyer for a wrong

order of trousers will became a source of great distress for Mr. Levy.

The letter, composed and mailed by Ignatius without supervision, is one of many hilarious

moments of the novel but is worth mentioning in order to introduce another of the features

that links Toole´s novel with the Southern Gothic universe: Violence. For our purposes we

will focus on the last paragraph,

We do not wish to be bothered in the future by such tedious complaints. Please

confine your correspondence to orders only. We are a busy and dynamic organization

whose mission needless effrontery and harassment can only hinder. If you molest us

again, sir, you may feel the sting of the lash across your pitiful shoulders.

Yours in anger, (Toole pos. 1523)

It might seem a mistake to claim that A Confederacy of Dunces is packed with

violence. It is true that violent actions, like those performed by The Misfit in A Good Man is

Hard to Find, Popeye in Sanctuary or Stanley in A Streetcar named Desire do not take place

in the story. However, while there is no real violence, there is, though, a lot of repressed
 36

violence. The last sentence in the above paragraph, “You may feel the sting of the lash across

your pitiful shoulders”, is only a sample in Ignatius´ long list of violent intentions, namely:

A - By referring to Patrolman Mancuso: “In my private apocalypse he will be impaled upon

his own nightstick” (Toole pos. 865).

B – By referring to Myrna Mynkoff: “This liberal doxy must be impaled upon the member of

a particularly large stallion” (Toole pos. 3634).

C - When he was leading the Crusade for the Moorish Dignity: “Attack! Attack! Ignatius

cried again, even more furiously.” And “Someone must attack Gonzalez” he surveyed the

warrior´s battalion, “The man with the brick, come over here at once and knock him a bit

about the head” (Toole pos. 2442)

D - When he was watching Television: “The children on that program should all be gassed”

(Toole pos. 714).

E - In his missive to Dr. Talc: “Your total ignorance of that which you profess to teach merits

the death penalty” (Toole pos. 2192).

F - When he refuses to sell a hot-dog to George, the pornographic pictures delivery boy:

“Now get away from me before I run over you with this cart” (Toole pos. 2740).

Whilst these outbursts can be understood as part of Ignatius´ medieval mind-set, arisen

from his more strict and authoritarian worldview, they are signs of his impotency to cope with

life. From that point of view he becomes a pathetic figure, which generates laughter and at the

same time disturbs. This seemingly paradoxical effect was likewise explored from

aforementioned writers like O´Connor and McCullers. O´Connor argued that the grotesque

production “is going to be wild, that it is almost of necessity going to be violent and comic,

because of the discrepancies that it seeks to combine” (Some Aspects par. 14). These

conjunctions of dissimilar characteristics trace us back to Carson McCullers, who,

coincidentally, was concerned with the theoretical behind the fictional. In her 1940 essay,
 37

“The Russian Realists and Southern Literature”, she stresses a similar creative tension, “The

technique is briefly this: a bold and outwardly callous juxtaposition of the tragic with the

humorous; the immense with the trivial, the sacred with the bawdy, the whole soul of a man

with a materialistic detail” (qtd. in Gleeson-White page. 109).

Thus, in this manner, the kind of humour displayed in the novel reinforces, once again, the

circuit of influences between Southern Gothic and A Confederacy of Dunces.

 38

Conclusions

In the beginning of this essay, we resorted to the image of a crossroad to illustrate how

A Confederacy of Dunces defied classification. After the analysis, would it be right to support

the idea that John Kennedy Toole´s novel belongs to the Southern Gothic genre?

Yes, because the several connections made visible between the Southern Gothic and A

Confederacy of Dunces might help us consider at least a sustained presence of the essential

traits of that genre in the novel.

Yes, since after the examination of multiple critical work analysing Southern Gothic

works in terms of race, gender and setting to name a few, that analysis can be, without

hesitation, applied to Toole´s writing.

Yes, since when contrasted with two of the most outstanding Southern Gothic writers

like O´Connor and McCullers, the literary kinship with Toole seems inevitable.

Yes, because the novel draws on many of the conventions of the literary Grotesque, a

characteristic deeply intertwined with the Southern Gothic.

Still, in spite of this evidence, it would be a mistake to define A Confederacy of

Dunces solely as Southern Gothic. As stated in the prefatory chapter, the novel can also be

catalogued as picaresque, an allegory and a satire. After an exhaustive exploration of its

contents, the only certainty is that its network of allusions and influences is endless. And to

apply a tag on A Confederacy of Dunces would be to narrow the several examination paths

still to be found. At this point, the expression coined by Richard Simon to describe the work

as “a playful and devious tour of literary history that puts into question the traditional

distinctions we make between life and literature, and enlarges our understanding of the

relationships between texts” (Simon p. 99), seems more than appropriate.

 39

Nevertheless, and returning to the relation between the work and the genre, we can

only hypothesize which were John Kennedy Toole´s intentions with A Confederacy of

Dunces. Did he feel part of the Southern Gothic School? His visit to the home of Flannery

O´Connor shortly after his demise might suggest he feel somehow connected with her.

Or perhaps he draw from Southern Gothic in order to subvert the genre by heighten its

extravagance with a bigger-than-life character like Ignatius Reilly.

No matter which the answers to these questions might be, one fact is unquestionable;

the path between A Confederacy of Dunces and Southern Gothic lies there. And while, John

Kennedy Toole has long decided which way to go and Ignatius lingers at the crossroad, for

the rest of us: scholars, students and readers there is a new line of analysis waiting to be

explored.
 40

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