Vagaries of a Precarious Centre: Allegory of Erection in William Golding’s The Spire

Abstract

This paper intends to study William Golding’s 1964 novel The Spire as a post-empire novel having tell-tale signature of a colonialist mind at work behind the primary motive of erecting a spire. The novel is fraught with post-Freudian understanding of human psychology of building phallic structures which also carries the colonialist motive of domination and self-aggrandisement. The architectural aspect of colonialism is a symbolic one of imposition and authority. One can interpret the event of 9/11 as a symbolic destruction of hegemony and neo-imperialism, as represented through the destruction of Twin Towers by the third world terrorists. Golding’s novel The Spire can profitably be read against the backdrop of decolonisation and the post-empire hangover of the colonialist mind.