Percyscapes

by Robert W. Rudnicki

In Percyscapes, Robert Rudnicki probes the works of Walker Percy to diagnose a fundamental but till now unrecognized aspect of southern fiction of this century. The fugue state - a form of hysterical dissociation marked by temporary amnesia and physical wandering - expresses, Rudnicki argues, the existential conflict of wanting to both integrate with the world and escape it. He offers compelling evidence that the pattern of amnesia and escape rife in Percy's fiction and nonfiction is connected to the author's absorbing interest in language. And that relationship, he shows, provides a conceptually powerful schema for interpreting Percy's literary predecessors as well as other contemporary southern novelists who make use of the literal or figurative fugue state.