Aestheticizing Violence: Paul Bowles’ Prolific Partnership with His Motiveless Villain in The Delicate Prey

Many critics have regarded the violence in Bowles as “meaningless” or “motiveless.” By defining the connection between motive and act, this article tackles the indefinite nature of violence in Paul Bowles’ collection of short stories, The Delicate Prey. To this end, a study of the typical Arab character in Bowles is offered. Also, the motive behind Bowles’ villain is defined in the light of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s term “motiveless malignity.” It is discussed that the contextless violence of Bowles has an estrangement effect on the victim; and his detached narration technique, together with the excessive occurrences of violence, leads to an aesthetic experience on the reader. “Aesthetic experience” is explained based on Slobodan Markovi?’s definition of the term. It is concluded that Bowles’ maneuvers over the subject of violence should be viewed in the light of a modernist aesthetic tradition based on violence rather than praxeological humanistic chain reactions.