Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural (1952) bears striking similarities to Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), specifically to the Grettis saga. Like Grettir the Strong, Roy Hobbs is a larger-than-life heroic figure—strong, brave, and ‘natural’, but also flawed, leading to his ultimate downfall.

Paper long abstract

Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural (1952) seems like a ‘natural’ subject for a conference that engages with ‘essentialist notions of the natural’. Although the novel itself is not a folk narrative strictly speaking, it very deliberately utilizes many elements of myth and legend. The path of the novel’s protagonist Roy Hobbs largely conforms to the archetypal patterns of folk heroes, as delineated by Otto Rank, Lord Raglan, Edward Tylor, Joseph Campbell, and others. Moreover—and perhaps more appropriate for the conference setting in Reykjavik—there are solid connections to the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), specifically to the Grettis saga.

Like Grettir the Strong, Roy Hobbs is a larger-than-life heroic figure—strong, brave, and ‘natural’, but with deep flaws that lead to his ultimate downfall. Further similarities between the two narratives are the inevitability of fate, in which both heroes seem trapped in tragic cycles of betrayal and failure, as well as a literary tone that seems deliberately understated, restrained, and stoic amid the highly dramatic confrontations of the story lines.

This paper will explore these connections, particularly to better understand the physical and spiritual ‘notions of the natural’ that emerge fully in both Malamud’s novel and the Grettis saga. The paper will also consider the 1984 film version of The Natural starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, which adheres closely to both the novel and saga until the end, when presumably Hollywood conventions must inevitably overcome the doom and gloom of traditional folk narrative.