The symbol in Patrick White

This essay has two parts. In the first I will offer some contexts for an understanding of the 'symbol' and how it was used in practice by modernist writers, with specific examples being drawn from Yeats and Joyce. In the second, I will connect this contextual background to a reading of White's The solid mandala and Riders in the chariot. My purpose in doing this is not to elucidate the kinds of symbols White uses; rather I am interested in the function of the symbol in these works. That is, I am interested in what a symbol might be thought to be, and what White does to this object, which, in short, will be identified with the idea of 'the meaningful' itself. I will suggest that White treats the symbol differently from his predecessors, placing a peculiar stress upon it.