Bergson: The Theme of the Panoramic Vision of the Dying and Juxtaposition
Georges Poulet
PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America March 1, 2011 DOI: 10.1632/pmla.2011.126.2.483 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 4 |
| Key points | Argues that McCarthy's The Road challenges the 'life review' cliché: its protagonist holds that 'the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril,' so a person in crisis focuses on survival, and only when survival is exhausted does consciousness flood with lifetime memories, as Bergson posits. The essay traces Bergson's developing thought on this, illustrated with literary, historical, and philosophical examples. |
Abstract
Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer prize–winning novelthe road(2006) addresses the cliché that at the moment of death the endangered individual experiences a “life review” during which his life “flashes before his eyes.” McCarthy's protagonist intuits that “the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and death” (18). Thus, in the view of McCarthy's unnamed hero, during a crisis one must focus on survival, escape, sustenance, or the successful execution of a plan. However, once all possibilities of survival are exhausted, the dying person will experience either an intense acceleration of cognition due to panic or a slackening of interest due to the acceptance of death. In either of these two scenarios, Henri Bergson posits, all the memories of the individual's lifetime will rush into consciousness. The following essay by Georges Poulet analyzes the development of Bergson's thought on this issue, supplementing Bergson's notions with examples from literature, history, and philosophy.