Spenglerian Echoes and the Decline of Englishness in Under the Volcano

Abstract

Spengler’s Decline of the West is a major intertext of Under the Volcano and its influence is often underestimated. The paper first underlines the essential echoes between the two works, which both portray the voyage of a lost Faustian soul across real and imaginary Mexico. One crucial geographical landmark is that of the barranca, which is omnipresent both literally and figuratively, as it stands for the ultimate symptom of a dying civilisation, Western civilisation. There is a parallel reflexion on the decline of British identity and political choices, which turns out to be nothing more than a simple façade, a dead-end where sterility and hollowness prevail, a tight rope over a gaping abyss, which is very similar to Conrad’s heart of darkness or Eliot’s wasteland. So, instead of a positioning relative to his British origins, the Consul explores the ethical dimension of margins, precarious balance, and a final plunge downhill, into the barranca.

Keywords

• Under the Volcano
• Malcolm Lowry
• Conrad
• Eliot
• Spengler
• chasm