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Bharadwaj1
Amity Institute of English Studies and Research
AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH,
INDIA
Seminar I
On
Theme of Feminism in the novels ‘Pulp and Factotum’ by Charles Bukowski.
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Award of Degree of
BA Hons. English
Submitted by: Supervised by:
Aleesha Bharadwaj Dr. Nilisha Yadav
A0706118068 Assistant Professor
Bharadwaj2
AMITY UNIVERSITY
UTTAR PRADESH
AMITY INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH STUDIES AND RESEARCH
DATE: 31-10-2020
In the CERTIFICATE
This Seminar, Theme of Feminism in the novels ‘Pulp and Factotum’ by Charles Bukowski. is
submitted by Aleesha Bharadwaj, A0706118068, of Amity institute of English studies and research,
Amity university, Uttar Pradesh, in particular fulfillments of the requirements for the ward of the
degree of B.A.HONS ENGLISH, is an original work and has not been submitted in part or full, for
award of any other degree or diploma of any university or institution.
This seminar may be placed before the examiner for evaluation.
Dr. Nilisha Yadav Prof. (Dr.) Vineeta Prasad
Assistant professor Head of Institution
Bharadwaj3
AMITY UNIVERSITY
UTTAR PRADESH
AMITY INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH STUDIES AND RESEARCH
DATE:
DECLARATION
I, Aleesha Bharadwaj, student of Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English of amity institute of English
studies and research, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, hereby declare that I have completed the
seminar on the Theme of Feminism in the novels ‘Pulp and Factotum’ by Charles Bukowski in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of Amity institute of English studies and
research, Amity university, Uttar Pradesh.
I declare that this is an original work and has not been submitted so far in part or in full for award of
any other degree or diploma of any other University or Institution.
- Aleesha Bharadwaj
A0706118068
Bharadwaj4
Introduction
Charles Bukowski, the great poet, novelist, and short story writer was a German American poet. Like
every great writer, Bukowski wrote in his works, a great deal of incidents inspired from the social, cultural,
and economic ambience from Los Angeles, his home city. But what made him genuinely great was the
fearlessness of his words and the crudity in depiction of ‘the dirty life’. His works mainly addressed the
relationship of women with the poor Americans and how each one drudged the work they had to do. Due to
his popularity, Adam Kirsch from The New York Times claimed that “the secret of Bukowski's appeal ... [is
that] he combines the confessional poet's promise of intimacy with the larger-than-life aplomb of a pulp-
fiction hero.” Just as he was considered to be great, after his death in March 1994, he became an integral
subject of criticism. Charles Bukowski, if is to be blamed, the sole credit has to go to his childhood. For any
kind of trauma that one faces in his/her adulthood, the best place to look for the wound is in one’s childhood.
This was the theory given by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology. The theory suggests that repression
in the young age of any kind; that is sexual, physical, or abusive can cause the subconscious to create desires
driven by ‘Id’ so strong that one may be a slave to them late in their lives. Now how is this relevant to
Bukowski? As a child, Bukowski had been a prey to a very negligent and an abusive father. His father, who
was a violent person sought to beat him thrice in a week with the help of a razor strop. This caused him to
grow into a shy and an enraged adult. Bukowski in his school years took up journalism and literature with
the sole purpose of becoming a writer. He started reading profusely and writing simultaneously. Just after his
father read a few of his works, he went in a full berserk mode which caused Bukowski to leave his house.
His father destroyed the writings and threw them all out on the lawn which young Bukowski had to mow
every week continuously and was beaten extensively if any of the grass was cut imperfectly.
He had to face the consequences of leaving the house, which were that for adopting the life of a
vagabond, Bukowski had to forsake his college and studies. He went over to Atlanta where he decided to
reside in a shack. He was compelled to return to his house every now and then when he was out of funds or
had nowhere else to go. He took up meaningless jobs all around L.A. and even around the country. He
would go to the public library often and spend his time reading, where he discovered writers like John Fante,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ernest Hemmingway, Franz Kafka, Anton Chekhov who heavily influenced his
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writings. He got a temporary job around Christmas in 1952, at the Post Office which he managed to stick at
for three years. Then in 1955, he was admitted to the hospital for serious cause of a bleeding ulcer in his
stomach. He was advised to stop drinking if he ever wanted to live again. He got married to Barbara Frye,
who published a small poetry magazine. It all started when she wrote a letter to him regarding her congenital
conformity and he responded in return that he would marry her, which of course he did. However, the
marriage could not last for more than two years and Bukowski again in 1958 came back to the post office
not as a carrier, but as a letter sorter. Bukowski’s poetry is to a large extent autobiographical and the
characters describe the lives of men on the brink of madness, lunacy, suicide, and depression. In 1969,
Bukowski decided to quit his job at the Post Office due to his rising popularity and the publishing of his first
novel ‘The Post Office’. Shortly after making $100 per month, he got into a promiscuous relation with Linda
King, a poet and a sculptress who happened to be 20 years younger than him. They both began the
tumultuous relationship which was balanced equally on the terms of sadism and masochism. The
relationship seemed to extend till the mid of 1970s. in 1978, Bukowski is noted to have published his
autobiographical novel ‘Women’, which starred his alter ego: Henry Chinaski. Now the interesting face
about his name is that he has used his real first name while addressing to his alter ego, whereas he prefers to
be called as Charles in reality, to void all connections to the Christian first name as he shared the same name
with his father: Henry Bukowski. He figured that ‘Charles’ was a name that seemed more literary than
Henry. In the book ‘women’, he has portrayed his alter ego as a man who hasn’t had a woman in four years.
The semi-autobiographical novel ‘women’ has had much to do with his sudden appearance in his older age
as a ‘ladies’ man’ due to his involvement in the ‘successful cult figure’. Many people take his alter ego –
Chinaski, and Bukowski himself to be one single identity. But both differ from each other in their essence
and personas. They both might overlap, yes, but they sure are not to be confused as a one single identity.
What is Feminism?
Throughout the history of the world, women have been treated as unequal’s or rather incompetents as
compared to men. Be it socially, economically, or politically. Throughout the ages, women have endured
blatant torments, atrocities, and tortures so much so that there felt to be a revolution. So then what is
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feminism? ‘Feminism’ is referred to as activities that are ideologically, socially, and economically carried
out in order to uplift, define, or establish the personal, economic, political, and ideological equality amongst
the sexes. The theory of feminism states or rather believes that the societies marginalize women against
males by favoring them over economic, social, and political status. The feminist theory also believes to
eradicate all the existing stereotypes against women over their bodies, minds, and the status of their jobs, to
establish a finer education and a world with many more professional activities that hold themselves equal to
those of men. Feminist theory also aims to find out the minor differences that might be there underlying the
roles of gender and politics. As much as the theory pushes to eradicate such differences, meanwhile, it also
works towards emancipation of women in aspects of their interests and rights of women.
Just like any theory, feminist theory too looks at various themes and issues. They are patriarchy,
objectification of women [specially sexually], oppression and stereotyping. The history of feminism and
feminist theory can roughly be categorized into four ‘waves.’ The first one mainly consists of suffragettes
and the suffrage of women in the 19th and the earlier 20th centuries. The second mainly comprised of the
movement of women’s liberation focusing on social equality and legality. This began in the 1960s and about
this wave I will be talking more particularly because the novel ‘women’ was composed during this time.
Furthermore, the year 1992 saw the third wave which mainly focused on diversity and individuality. The
fourth wave circa 2012 used the mediums of social media and plenty of women took the means to fight
against sexual harassment, rape culture, and violence against women. This massive ‘online’ movement was
termed as the Me-Too Movement.
Bukowski himself does not seem to be receptive of the idea of ‘feminism’ and states “Any time
they're willing to work the car washes, get behind the plough, chase down the two guys who just held up the
liquor store, or clean up the sewers, anytime they're ready to get their tits shot off in the army, I'm ready to
stay home and wash the dishes and get bored picking lint off the rug” (Bukowski, Water, 33) . The tone
proposes that the writer does not truly grasp women's activist philosophy; he may have misunderstood it, or
he may have experienced a more radical, conventional department of women's liberation. From our reading
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of his writings, in any case, we accept that he could be an intentionally deriding tone pointed against
feminist development.
Analysis
Coming back to the topic of the novel, Michal Mecner, the author whose text and research I have
used in this thesis claims that even if there are differences between what the author portrays about a
character and about what the character actually is, there always is a fact to be noted that most of the actions
performed by the character are in fact in influence by and of the author. In the thesis I will be using the
names of Germaine Greer and Simone de Beauvoir because after all they are the prominent feminists
prevalent during the 1960s which started the grand era of the second wave of feminism and during which the
novel too was published, that is the 1970s. whenever we talk of feminism, we do bring in light a sub-theme
that goes hand in hand while discussing Feminism. And it is the infamous concept of ‘Misogyny’ . “Women'!
Oh, yes, women, oh yes, of course. You can't write about fireplugs and empty India ink bottles.” “Basically,
women in Bukowski's work mean trouble and two women are said to mean twice as much trouble as one
woman”.
Characterisation of ‘Henry Chinaski’
Henry The character, normally designated as the short form "Hank" by different characters, is the
main individual storyteller in the vast majority of his books. He is a story specialist who additionally takes
an interest in the described occasions. Women (1978) narratives his undertakings after stopping the postal
help and getting fruitful in the scholarly field lastly. The narrations in the novels of Bukowski are narrated in
the flashback, which represents the idea of describing. Genette underlines the significance of the transient
viewpoint over the spatial angle – the "could be" is a higher priority instead of where exactly. This very
spectacle is clearly visible in his literary works as the opening lines from the novel Women reveal the fact
that the author was in fact of the age 50 and had not in four years slept with a woman in the matter of
physicality. He also is seen to mention the fact that his capability to see a woman erotically had vanquished
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and that he merely saw them as another human and not the goddesses of fertility and sex. (Bukowski,
Women, 1978, 7)
The Post Office, Factotum, and Women reveal:
“It began as a mistake. It was Christmas season and I learned from the drunk up the hill, who did the
trick every Christmas, that they would hire damned near anybody, and so I went and the next thing I knew I
had this leather sack on my back and was hiking around at my leisure. What a job, I thought. Soft!”
(Bukowski, Post Office,2002, 13)
“I arrived in New Orleans in the rain at 5 o’clock in the morning. I sat around in the bus station for a
while, but the people depressed me, so I took my suitcase and went out in the rain and began walking.”
(Bukowski, Factotum,2009, 1)
“I was 50 years old and hadn’t been to bed with a woman for four years. I had no women friends. I
looked at them as I passed them on the streets or wherever I saw them, but I looked at them without yearning
and with a sense of futility.” (Bukowski, Women, 2007, 7)
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Ending Note
In my thesis, I have successfully demonstrated the history of the author with respect to various works
established by him as I believe that in order to understand the mysterious works of none other than Charles
Bukowski, one must understand his history. Since most of his writings are a direct reflection of his past
experiences and traumas. I have also talked about the theme of my thesis Feminism in the novels “Pulp, and
Factotum” by Bukowski. Realizing the year in which it was written holds the key to understanding the
essence of the novel. Yes, Bukowski has been challenged with the notion of being a misogynist, and even an
anti-feminist person, and his novel unquestionably do illustrate the holdings of orthodox patriarchal
mentality; but, I unquestionably would like to point out that the past matters the most in the life of a man and
specially if the past is full of torment, resent, and atrocities acted upon the author by none other than his own
father. As Sigmund Freud explored in his thesis of traumas of the past, he emphasized on the fact that a lot
of children grow up hating the shortcomings of the parents but a lot more grow up to be the typical carbon
copies of the hate-filled, and torturous beings. Bukowski is seen to be no different. He did eventually adopt
the crude and cruel ways of his father by being egoistic, alcoholic and a womanizer which all gave credits to
his sudden rise in fame and even the popularity among the women.
Bukowski in his narrations is known for his foul, crude and obscene language in the forms of poetry
and prose which in general are pretty easy to read as Bukowski used to make sure that whatever little he
manages to write, he would write it in such a way that everyone, even the layest man would be able to
understand. As for the structure, it is quite simple and not complex at all. There is little to very less rhyming
as he believed that following a stringent writing style or routine would jeopardize the quality and the free
flow of the natural expressions. His poetry follows the most primitive forms of structure if not any due to his
growing up reading books of authors like Kant, Chaucer, Faulkner, etc. Bukowski’s literary works are
usually seen to be in either first or the third person narrative. He is less seen as the life of the characters and
more as an outside observer as the author and the ‘Chinaski’ depicted in the novels differ yet are the same.
There is just a slight difference between the two which is that most of the life of the protagonist lies within
the threshold of exaggeration and poetic license, unlike the author in real life. This is another reason,
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amongst others already explained why the narrator is not to be trusted. In fact, the author’s work is
considered to be semi-autobiographical in nature. His writings as crude as they may be, reflect decent
amounts of humour, considered to be dark but it still is categorized as humour, as compare to other writers
that were prevalent during his time. His characters can also be classified as vagabonds who are essentially
low in their life with respect to money and keep displacing from one place to the other frequently. Even
though Bukowski is considered to be a great author of the then century, his ways turned him into a meagre
nihilistic and a male chauvinist who had no purpose in the world other than having sex and drowning in
alcohol. The novel explores the heavenly idea that is a dream and a goal for almost every man alive, that is
the bachelorhood or referred to as the life of a single man. In the novel the character stays single till the end
and is seen not to conform against the constraints of the school of marriage.
However, we see that in the novel, the author, Bukowski does not really stand by thee deep rooted male
chauvinism and misogyny, rather he tries to avoid any relation or ties with being a feminist in nature. He is
seen to be adopting this method not because of his long-driven hatred towards any person or ideology but
because he simply did not want to be tagged as a ‘feminist’ because during the rise of writers like De
Beauvoir, it was hard to keep the tag of ‘normal’ into account. Sadly enough, the tag of normal soon changed
into ‘misogynist’ and a ‘male chauvinist’. Lastly, talking about the description of women in the novels of
Bukowski, we see the typicality of the representation of narcotic, druggist and even alcoholic women
surrounding Chinaski. Few others also seem to include prostitutes, working all angles, mad women shouting
and screaming on top of their lungs and even whores. In any of his novels, there is not one decently behaved
woman who aspires to become something other than the headache or a liability for the man, who the man
has to handle every time she lashes out by either threatening them with violence or by hurting their feelings
even more by instituting relations with other morally less women.
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Works Cited
Primary Texts
Bukowski, Charles. Pulp New York: Ecco. 2007 (1994)
Bukowski, Charles. Factotum New York: Ecco. 2002 (1975)
Secondary Texts
Mecner, Michal. Representations of Women in the work of Charles Bukowski. (2008)
Lionen, Laurie. “Magic and Terrible” Female Characters and Characterization in Charles
Bukowski’s Post O#ce, Factotum and Women. (2014)
Korhonen, Jani. “THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN THE NOVELS OF CHARLES BUKOWSKI” (2006)
Bukowski, Charles. ‘Women’ (1978)
References
Bukowski, Charles. Post Office. 2002 New York: Ecco. (1971).
Bukowski, Charles. Ham on Rye. (1982).
Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, (1989).
Bukowski, Charles. Water. (1972).
Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch. London: Paladin, (1972).
Bukowski, Charles. South cfNo North. New York: Ecco, (2003).
Bukowski, Charles. Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin
to Bleed a Bit. New York: Ecco, (2003).
Baxandall, Rosalyn & Gordon, Linda. “Chapter 24. Second-wave Feminism.” In A Companion to American
Women’s History. ed. Hewitt, Nancy A., 414-430. MA: Blackwell. (2002)
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Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (1983)
Harrison, Russell. Against the American Dream. Essays on Charles Bukowski. Santa Rosa, CA: Black
Sparrow Press. (1994).
Harrison, Russell. “Hollywood’s Take on the Working-Class Writer: Filming Bukowski’s
Factotum.” Regional Labor Review 9, 2: 39-41. (2007)
Page, Ruth E. Literary and linguistic approaches to feminist theory. Hound mills: Palgrave
Macmillan. (2006).
Lancer, Susan S. Gender and Narrative. (2013).
Page, Ruth E. Scholarly and Etymological Approaches to Women’s activist theory. (2006).
Cicero, Markus Tullius. Tusculanae Disputationes. (45BC).
Margolin, Uri. 1983. “Characterization in Narrative: Some Theoretical Prolegomena.”
Neophilologus 67, 1-14.
Margolin, Uri. 2014. "Narrator". In: Hühn, Peter et al. (eds.): the living handbook of
narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University. URL = http://www.lhn.uni-
hamburg.de/article/narrator [view date:21 Jan 2014]
Phelan, James & Martin, Mary Patricia. 1999. “The Lessons of ‘Weymouth’: Homodiegesis,
Unreliability, Ethics, and The Remains of the Day.” D. Herman (ed.). Narratologies: New
Perspectives on Narrative Analysis. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 88–109.
Shen, Dan. 2013. "Unreliability". In: Hühn, Peter et al. (eds.): the living handbook of
narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University. URL = http://www.lhn.uni-
hamburg.de/article/unreliability [view date:27 Jan 2014]
Bukowski, Charles. Fakt6tum. Translated by Jan Jai'ab. Praha: Pragma, 2002. Bukowski,
Charles.
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Zopisky staniho prasaka. Translated by Robert Hysek. Praha: Pragma, 1998. Bukowski,
Charles.
Vsechny hte sveta i ta ma. Translated by Josef Rauvolf and Ladislav Senkyi'ik. Praha: Pragma,
1997.
Bukowski, Charles. Erekce, Fjakulace, Exhibice a dalsi pNbehy obycejneho silenstvi. Translated
by Ladislav Senkyi'ik. Praha: Pragma, 2000.
Bukowski, Charles. Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin
to
Bleed a Bit. New York: Ecco, 2003. Bukowski, Charles. Women. Ne\v York: Ecco, 2002.
Bukowski, Charles. Nekdyjste tak sami. a~ to proste dava smysl. Translated by Milan Zacek.
Praha: Pragma, 1993.
Bukowski, Charles. Kapitan odesel na obed a namOl'nici pl’ev: ali veleni. Translated by Jan
Brazda. Praha: Pragma, 2000
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1. 1 en.wikipedia.org 2 Internet
2. 6 quizlet.com 1 Internet
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4. 4 www.npr.org <1 Internet
5. 11 www.psychologytoday.com <1 Internet
6. 9 Talking Points from Books by -1987 <1 Publication
7. 21 Bruce Feiler,Abraham A Journey to the Heart of Three
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