Wyndham Lewis's Tarr: An Exploration of Humour Felix Morrison College

Tarr is a novel that describes reality as deplete of an inherent moral code, and Lewis articulates the world as hostile, set in direct opposition to the romantic, Rousseauvian vision of “wild nature and unspoilt man”. Within this world Lewis questions whether ‘the self’ is intrinsic or is built up of the external self we express to others; paradoxically he endorses and criticises the superficiality of the way we present ourselves to others. This questioning of identity is reflected within the genre of the novel itself, which vacillates between comedy and tragedy. Tarr has been described by T.S. Eliot as “terrifying” in its scrutiny of “modern civilisation”, and upon the surface the frequently violent developments in plot - ranging from rape to suicide – are more appropriate to a tragedy. And yet the majority of the novel is written in a darkly comic, sardonic tone that would seem to undermine the seriousness of the events described. Contrary to this apparent tone, Lewis’s own views on humour are conflicted, frequently he claims its effect to be that of a drug - an opiate to null our grip on reality. The treatment of comedy as problematic, or even dangerous is nothing new – Plato argued that taking pleasure in comedy was...