01.PDF Narrative Preface

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Reading Peo ple, Reading Plots


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Reading People,Reading PlotsCharacter, Progression, and theInterpretation of Narrative

James Phelan

The University of Chicago PressChicago and London


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James Phelan is associate professor of English at Ohio StateUniversity. He is the author of Worlds from Words: A Theory ofLanguage in Fiction, published by the University of Chicago Press.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 1989 by The University of ChicagoAll rights reserved. Published 1989Printed in the United States of America98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 54321

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataPhelan, James.Reading peop le, reading plots.

Includes index.1. English fictionHistory and criticismTheory,etc. 2. Characters and characteristics in literature.3. American fictionHistory and criticismTheory, etc.I. Title.PR830.C47P47 1989 801'.953 88-20840ISBN 0-226-66691-3ISBN 0-226-66692-1 (pbk.)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimu mrequirements of the American National Standard for InformationSciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,ANSI Z39.48-1984.


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for Katie and Michael,two characters who wonderfully complicatethe progression of my life


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Contents

Preface ixIntroduction: Character, Progression, and theRhetorical Interpretation of Narrative 1Part I The Mimetic-Thematic Relationship and theThematizing of Narrative

1 Character, Progression, and Them atism:The Cases of 1984 and Pride and Prejudice 272 The Thematic Function and Interpretin g byCultural C odes: The Case of"The Beast in the Jung le" 61Part II Incorp orating the Synthetic Function :Reexamining Audiences and Progression3 The Function s of Character and the Relationsof Audien ces in The French Lieutenant's Woman 834 Progression and the Synthetic SecondaryCharacter: The Case of John Wemm ick 1075 Foregro unding the Synthetic: Calvino's"Re ader" and the Audiences of Narrative 133Part III Evalua ting and ResistingCharacter and Progression6 Evaluation and Resistance:

The Case of Cath erine Barkley 165Conclusion: Extensions and Reconsiderations 189Notes 213Index 231


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Preface

A myth of origin and evolution: In the beginning, I set out to write abook about character in narrative. It seemed to me that from HenryJames through E. M. Forster and Walter J. Harvey down to most recent narratologists, the study of character had always gotten toomixed up with discussions of plot or action (the what-is-character-but - the - determin ation - of - incident? - what - is - incident - but - the-illustration-of-character? syndrome). I intended to isolate the element, analyze its nature, and report my findings to a breathlesslywaiting critical world. As the title of this book indicates, however, Itoo have ended by mixing up the study of character with the study ofplotwhat is here called progression. I have ended this way, ofcourse, because the events of the middle of my story pushed me inthis direction. The more I tried to isolate the species, the more I became convinced that the task was impossible: the only way to capture th e species' dazzling variety was to link it to the chief influenceon that varietythe larger context of the whole narrative created bythe p rogression.Once I adopted a double focus on character and progression, thestudy also became implicated in many other kinds of questions aboutthe interpretation of narrativequestions about thematizing, audience, cultural codes, narrative structure, and resistant reading. Sincevirtually all these questions applied to every narrative I would treat,and since my conviction ab out the variety of character required me totreat numerous narratives, I could not reach the end of my story untilI found some means to balance the investigation of the various questions against the demands of treating the numerous narratives. Ifound my way to a (re)solution through a strategy for managing theprogression of my own argum ent.

The introduction seeks to acquaint the reader with the main principles of my rhetorical approach to narrative and to explain the various terms that I employ to discuss character and progression. TheIX


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x Prefacechapters in the main body of this study then take on a double task:each investigates a question about the relation between character andprogression in a specific narrative, and each explores the connection samong that question, m y proposed answer, and a broader theoreticalissue in the interpretation of narrative. Thus, for example, Chapter 1looks at character and progression in 1984 an d Pride and Prejudice inconnection with an orthodox neo-Aristotelean attack on thematicinterpretations, while Chapter 6 examines those elements of A Fare-well to Arms in connection with the feminist critique of the novelpresented by Judith Fetterley. There are two features of this organizational schema that have especially important consequences for theprogression of the whole argument. (1) Some concepts, e.g., thoseabout the multiple audiences of narrative, that are employed early onwithout much comment get examined at some length in later chapters. (2) The later chapters not only build on the work of the earlychapters but they also continually recontextualize the conclusions ofthose early chapters.As a result, the later explorations frequently have implications forthe earlier ones. For example, after the theoretical discussion of progression in Chap ter 4, there is a lot more to say about the progressionof Pride an d Prejudice than I say in Chapter 1; similarly, after the discussion of evaluating character in Ch apter 6, there is a lot more to sayabout every narrative I examine. In order not to overtax the patienceof my reader, however, I typically press on with the forward movement of the argument rather than repeatedly circling back to supplement discussions that purport to have closure if not completeness. Inother words, although many of the argumentative strands of the earlier chapters are picked up in the later ones, numerous retrospectiveimplications of the later ones are left as implications. Still, the recontextualizing effect of that forward progression is designed to reinforce one of the implicit claims of the whole study: the rhetoricaltransactions offered by sophisticated narratives have a complexitythat m any of our existing interpretive practices fail to recognize.This last claim is closely related to a feature of the argument that isvery much in evidence from the outset: this study employs a lot ofterms and distinctionssome original with me, some notas it goesabout its work. I am no t yet in Gerard Genette's league as a coiner ofappropriately high-sounding, scientific, and expensive termsa "mimetic function" or a "local instability" cannot even afford the entryfee to compete in the same league as a "homodiegetic narrator"or a "heterodiegetic analepsis"but I am aware that at times mymore humble inventory may itself seem overstocked. The apparentgrounds for prosecution, however, are also the grounds of my defense: wh en I try to shave the terminological beastie with a razor bor


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xi Prefacerowed from Ockham, I find it to be more clean and smooth thanshaggy and rough. The defense rests, in other words, on the claimthat analytical entities are not multiplied beyond necessity but areproduced by the task of doing justice to the complex rhetorical transactions offered by skillfully told narratives.I have called this narrative of origin and evolution a myth partlybecause it omits so much of the lived version of the story. It leavesout the indispensable help of numerous students at the Ohio StateUniversity who helped me work out my ideas about character andprogression, especially Jane Zinman, Steve Jensen, Amy Goodwin,and Steve Busonik; it fails to acknowledge the provocation and goodadvice of colleagues at Ohio State and elsewhere w ho read all or partsof the manuscript at different points, especially Ralph Rader, WalterDavis, David Riede, David Richter, and Peter Rabinowitz. My simplified narrative does not account for the important influence of myfriend, Jamie Barlowe Kayes, who listened and constructively responded to my harangues about m ost of what I say here and w ho inturn instructively harangued me about Fowles. The myth shamelesslyneglects the pervasive influence on my thinking exerted by my colleague, James Battersby, who responded to numerous versions of myideas with wisdom, generosity, and an active pencil, and who has engaged me in a decade-long conversation about literature, interpretation, an d critical argum ent from which I have profited immensely. Toall of these people, I want to express my gratitude for making thestory of this project too complicated to narrate. The g reatest omissionin the my th is the role of Betty Menagh an, my pa rtner in love and logistics, wh o directly and indirectly shared and feltall the prog ressions and regressions of the writing (and the waiting). To her, I amgrateful beyond wordseven beyond narrative.Some of the material in this book has appeared earlier in somewhatdifferent form. Portions of the Introduction are to be found in "Thematic Reference, Literary Structure, and Fictive Character: An Examination of Interrelationships," Semiotica 49 3- 4 (1984): 345-65 , and in"Narrative Discourse, Character, and Ideology," Reading Narrative:Form, Ethics, Ideology, ed. James Phelan (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1988), pp . 1 32-46 . This latter essay also contains a smallpart of Chap ter 6. A portion of Chapter 1 appe ared in "Character,Progression, and the Mimetic-Didactic Distinction," Modern Philol-lology 84 (1987): 282-99. And some of Chapter 2 is to be found in"Character in Fictional Narrative: The Example of John Marcher,"Henry James Review 9 (1988): 105 -13.1 gratefully acknow ledge permission to reprint this material.


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