From Heresy to Internalization ―Robert Graves's Biblical Story, My Head ! My Head !―

Abstract

The histories and parables contained in the Bible have tempted many fiction writers to retell them in their own fashions. Some of them neglected a fact of the Bible as Holy Scripture, and imposed their own prejudiced views and ideas on other people, fiddling with indelicate as well as imprudent words. On the other hand, however, there are not a few cases in which the reconstruction of the Bible is made in unison with the authors' inner "réalité", and the stories retold by R. Graves seem to belong to this group. Graves himself began his interaction with the Bible with heretical scepticism toward the Bible and then excelled it through his mysterious internalization of these heretical and sceptical ideas. When we speak of internalization of something in the mind of a poet, we ought to first clarify the parameters that functioned for the fundamental changes that occurred in the poet. This task, in my view, can be possible by an inquiry into the mental process of the authors' story-faking. I took Graves's first Biblical story, My Head ! My Head !, and attempted an explanation of these parameters through close reading of the text and detailed study of relevant references.