Anonymity and Death: The Fiction of B. Traven [signed]

The first full length study in English of B. Traven's major fiction, this book vividly depicts Traven's explorations into modern problems of identity. In The Death Ship the problem takes the form of a sailor's struggle to prove his nationality; in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre it is the paranoid disintegration of a personality; and in the six Jungle Novels it is the rebellion of Indian debt laborers who feel deprived of their dignity and identity as human beings. Dr Chankin argues convincingly that Traven's fiction is comparable in theme and stature to that of Melville and Conrad.Anonymity and Death examines the development and resolution of Traven's intense preoccupation with the mystery of personal identity and nationality. Although the book is a blend of psychological, social, esthetic, and mythic criticism, the method used to unravel this mystery is primarily psychological. Psychology offers the most appropriate method, as is clear from the opening chapter, which is an engrossing examination of the contradictions arising from the facts of Traven's life-culminating in his insistence both on multiple identities and on anonymity. These contradictions are then investigated in the next five chapters, which deal, respectively, with his three major novels, the six Jungle Novels, and finally his stories with Gales as protagonist. In the concluding chapter the pseudonymous author is related to the deathless role of 'Skipper,' which he created for himself within his family.