Arash Khoshsafa
Susan Philip
ABSTRACT
This article aims to provide a close-reading analysis of Richard Ford’s Independence Day (1995), the second Frank Bascombe book, preceded by The Sportswriter (1986) and followed by The Lay of the Land (2006), Let Me Be Frank With You (2014) and Be Mine (2023), in the light of Hegel’s theory of self-consciousness. According to the primary definition of Hegelian self-consciousness, one is required to gain their recognition of their self through another individual’s self-consciousness, most preferably an individual in a deep spiritual as well as emotional relationship, of which, in Hegel’s view, one’s family members could serve as the best example. This article argues that one possible reason for Frank Bascombe’s constant feeling of loss and identity crisis in Independence Day might lie in the fact that his divorce from Ann Dykstra, his supposed Hegelian source of self-consciousness as an other, has separated Frank from his only origin (the family union), from which he could gain his self-consciousness through familial love. Thus, this article attempts to offer a Hegelian reading of Frank Bascombe in Independence Day by pinpointing the significance of his family loss, along with proposing a different model for interpreting Bascombe with regard to the importance of Hegelian self-consciousness within the family.
KEYWORDS: Richard Ford, Independence Day, Hegel, self-consciousness, family
Arash Khoshsafa, PhD in English Literature, University of Malaya, Malaysia (arash.khoshsafa@yahoo.com).
Susan Philip, Associate Professor, English Department, University of Malaya, Malaysia (marys@um.edu.my).
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