Abstract

This paper evaluates the nature and significance of Nigel Foxcroft’s current research into the worldview of the late Modernist writer, Malcolm Lowry by considering the latter’s search for new ways of understanding the world, based on his ideas relating to the soul. In considering various influences on his life and work, it highlights the theme of shamanism and the relationship between Lowry’s creative mind and the cosmological concepts held by the indigenous peoples of Mexico, such as the Aztec and Zapotec civilizations. The different planes of reality in Under the Volcano are considered, as are Surrealist influences emanating from Edward Burra and Diego Rivera. Lowry’s interest in Russian literature - for example in Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Lev Tolstoy is discussed. Gogol’s novel, Dead Souls is deemed as being particularly influential in its interface with the Day of the Dead Festival in Mexico