“Where we are in America”: Unlocking the Political Unconscious in Harry Crews' Car

Abstract

This article discusses the political implications of Harry Crews' 1972 novel Car. Like all superstructures, Crews' novel is a reflection of a self-divided base, often appearing ambivalent towards the dominant mode of production behind its form. Using the symbol of the automobile as a mastercode, I demonstrate how Car utilizes a carnivalesque literary mode to disrupt the power of consumer capitalism encoded within its pages. To substantiate this claim, I facilitate a diologic between Fredric Jameson's Political Unconscious and Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the carnivalesque. Following Jameson's interpretive apparatus, I discuss the implications of Crews' novel from the perspective of class (ideologemes), modes of production, and literary modes (ideologies of form). In addition, I discuss the limitations of all symbolic acts as they become commodities under capitalism. Ultimately, I hope to demonstrate the ongoing relevance of Marxism as an illuminating force in both literature and in society.