John Fante: Difference between revisions

In 2023, a master's thesis entitled: "The Construction of the Self: An Existentialist Reading of John Fante's ''The Bandini Quartet"'', was presented at the Faculty of Arts of UFMG <ref>{{ |url=https:// repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/68956 |title=The Construction Of The Self: An Existentialist Reading Of John Fante's "The Bandini Quartet" |date=2023 |periódico=UFMG INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY |last=Guizzardi |first=Edvalda Torres Paes}}</ref> and included Professor [[Stephen Cooper]] on the defense bench. In addition to writing the first biography of John Fante, Stephen Cooper is the main scholar and critic of the Fantiana work. In the thesis in question, the author draws parallels between various instances in the life of the protagonist Arturo Bandini and the main premises of the philosophers who most contributed to the existentialist movement: three of them being theists and three declared atheists. It begins with [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegardian]] despair in the face of existence, clearly seen in Bandini's suffering and his non-acceptance of himself.It then goes through the troubled self-analysis [[Fiódor Dostoiévski|Dostoievskiana]] as narrated in ''[[Notes From The Underground|Notes from the Underground]].'' The dissertation also discusses the anti-Christian rebellion of [[Übermensch]] [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], which is demonstrated and clearly explained by Bandini mainly in ''Road to Los Angeles'' and ''[[Ask the Dust]]'', the second and third volumes of the tetralogy where he fights fiercely to become an atheist, but his [[Companhia de Jesus|JesuitJesuits]] and deeply Catholic background prevents him. Another point analyzed is the state of contingency of human existence which, according to [[Martin Heidegger|Heidegger]], can transcend its “facticity”; This point is also clearly experienced by the character.The [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartrian]] concept of bad faith and the desire to be God are themes also present in Fantiana's work. Last but not least, the author addresses perseverance and acceptance of life even in the face of absurdity, as conceived by [[Albert Camus]] in the ''Myth of Sisyphus''.The dissertation examines how the protagonist's repeated failures and disappointments fuel his anguish in the face of the arbitrariness of existence. Fante uses humor and irony as a narrative strategy to deal with distressing existential issues to avoid an excessively dark or victimistic tone. All these elements justify a reading of Fantiana’s work in an existentialist light.