THE ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMERICAN SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE WORKS OF SHERWOOD ANDERSON

Abstract

The article examines the artistic interpretation of the relationship between the individual and society in the prose of Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941). The novelty of the study lies in treating the writer’s social criticism not as a thematic statement but as a structural factor operating at the level of plot construction, character system and narrative manner. The material comprises Windy McPherson’s Son (1916), Marching Men (1917), Winesburg, Ohio (1919), Poor White (1920), Beyond Desire (1932) and Kit Brandon (1936), together with the author’s memoirs and reportage, A Story Teller’s Story (1924) and Puzzled America (1935). The analysis proceeds along three lines: the erosion of communal ties under industrialisation; the mechanism by which an isolated individual turns into a grotesque; and the social meaning of the departure motif. The study concludes that in Anderson’s work the relation between individual and society is interpreted not as a simple opposition but as mutual conditioning, and that the impact of social structure upon the individual is shown primarily through communicative rather than economic loss.