Anonymity and Death: The Fiction of B. Traven by Donald O. Chankin (review)

avoids slang and levity even in the chapter whose tide would indicate its inclusion. My other contention is with her solution. She concludes that : ... it is no longer possible to ignore a growing body of evidence that the particular way in which the New World has been symbolized as feminine in American thought and writing bears out a consistent correlation between that set of linguistic images and certain psychological patterns that became codified in our literature and acted out in our history. And having concluded this, she says that man's ultimate creative act would be "to pick and choose among the.image systems available to him at any one time and to make of them, periodically, a new reality." This solution approaches the early naivete of Dr. Johnson in his goal to "fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance" produce. Language reflects, as much as it creates, attitudes. Kolodny, however, never seems ready to make the corollary simplistic statement: when we treat women as equals rather than as objects, then perhaps our attitude toward the land that we view as female will reflect that treatment. MIMI R. GLADSTEIN Mimi R. Gladstein teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso. She was selected "Woman of the Year in Education" by the El Paso Women's Political Caucus and is currently chairperson of the Feminist Criticism Section of RMMLA. ANONYMITY AND DEATH: THE FICTION OF B. TRAVEN BY DONALD O. CHANKIN (University Park and London : The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975. 142 pages, $950.) Anonymity and Death: The Fiction of B. Traven by Donald O. Chankin is the first book-length critical study of B. Traven's fiction to appear in English in the United States. As such, it contributes to a rapidly growing body of American criticism of die mysterious writer, B. Traven. Chankin primarily employs die psychoanalytical method in his examination of the author's identity and his fiction. In Chapter 1, "Traven Torsvan, Hal Croves, and B. Traven: 1 The Man, the Agent, and the Writer," ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW127 Chankin probes Traven's "insistence both on multiple identities and on anonymity." Chankin formulates the hypothesis that B. Traven had an intense problem of identity and fear of death that manifested itself repeatedly in his fiction. The critic's book, therefore, is very much in the tradition of Edmund Wilson's The Wound and The Bow. Based on his research in Mexico (including conversations with Señora Rosa E. Lujan, Traven's widow) and his correspondence with Rolf Recknagel , B. Traven's East German biographer, Chankin boldly jumps into the murky waters surrounding the identity problem of an author who may go down in history as the most successful ever at remaining anonymous in life— and perhaps—in death. Chankin's focus on Traven's so-called neurotic compulsions to write of themes of anonymity and death may be open to challenge. Indeed, future critics will undoubtedly raise questions about his biographical method covered with a heavy layer of Freudianism. However, the critic's approach is most evocative in his remarks on The Death Ship (Chapter 2) and The Treasure of The Sierra Madre (Chapter 3). The subsequent chapters on The Bridge in The Jungle (Chapter 4), The Jungle Novels (Chapter 5), and the Short Stories (Chapter 6) are less substantial criticism. Chankin's method seems to burn itself out in the first two chapters. His treatment of the large body of works set in Southern Mexico is cursory. There is still a need for much good criticism on Traven's "Jungle novels." Chankin writes in a clear, concise style. He poses fascinating "possible" motives for Traven's themes, and he respects Traven's high art—although he is quick to assert that it is the product of a neurotic personality. The limitations of Anonymity and Death include its occasional slavish use of Freudian terminology (the name Pippip is "phallic," a drowned Indian boy is found in the "fetal position," a trip into a mine is a "descent into the womb"), its sketchy treatment of the Jungle novels, and its failure to explore more fully social, esthetic and mythic modes of...