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Universitatea Dunrea de Jos Galai

Facultatea de Litere

COGNITIVE POETICSAND TEXTUAL PRACTICE

(Poetica cognitiv i practica textual)

Conf. univ. dr. Ruxanda Bontil

Galai

2010


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INTRODUCERE

2


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Contents

Foreword (Objectives; Design)........................ 3

1. Introducing the concepts................................4

2. Thinking literature: the novel.........................8

Section A: Student readings...............................8(a) vocabulary comments(b) reflection questions(c) meaning construal (one reading)

Section B: Further activities................................31

3. Self-evaluation questions................................55

Appendix One..65Bibliography..66

COGNITIVE POETICS AND TEXTUAL PRACTICE 2


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Foreword (Objectives; Design)

The present practical course, Cognitive poetics and textualpractice, is dedicated to second year students and is part of a series ofpractical courses for BA students. Knowing to read doesnt mean that youknow how to read to make the most of what you read. Cognitive poeticsteaches us how, why to read, in general, but mostly it helps us see that thestudy of literature is a complex exercise of relating text to context, theoretical

knowledge, personal beliefs and cultural practices. The linguistic dimensionof cognitive poetics helps us engage in detailed and precise textual analysisof style and literary craft. It also demonstrates the continuities betweencreative literary language and creative language in everyday use.

After going through main concepts of cognitive poetics, in the firstsection, the next section comprises exercises in exploring the literary textthrough a careful attendance to the particular details of its language.

Consequently, the present literary practical course aims to: reform students attitude to reading in general, and

reading literature, in particular;

develop students critical/ analytical skills; develop students insights into the creative process as an

inherent human trait.

The evaluation criteria (annex one) will hopefully assist students intheir critical endeavours all along.

The authorl



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Introducing the concepts

1. Introducing the concepts

Cognitive poetics is an applied discipline based on cognitive linguisticsand cognitive psychologyand shares with these the following basic premise:human mind is embodied not just literally but also figuratively. PeterStockwell (2002: 5-6) explains that the notion of embodiment essentially

affects all forms of expression and forms of conscious perception, all beingbound, more closely than we previously realised, in our biologicalcircumstances.

Cognitive poetics is then clearly related to literary criticism and literaryphilosophy as it represents a way of thinking literature, or even better, aradical re-evaluation of the whole process of literary activity. Within thedifferent sub-disciplines of literary criticism, cognitive poetics is most closelyconnected to literary stylistics or literary linguistics which proved theefficiency of investigating the language of literature by using approachesgenerated in the language system in general.

Basic theoretical notions informing textual explorations

The phenomenon of figure and ground/the process of figuringand grounding- the literary critical notion of foregrounding (certain aspects of

literary texts are seen as being more salient than others, e.g.repetition, unusual naming, innovative descriptions, syntacticordering, puns, rhyme, etc.)

- defamiliarisation of the subject-matter (estrangement of thereader from aspects of the world so as to present the world in a

creative and newly figured way)- literariness as the core of a literary work (deviations from theexpected or ordinary use of language that draws attention to anelement, foregrounding it against the relief of the rest of thefeatures of the text)

- the concept of the dominant R. Jakobson, The Dominant, 1935 (the feature that is determined to be the organizing element orseems most striking in a text)

- the concept of attention attractors (those elements ensuring aconstant renewal of the stylistic interest, by a constant renewingof the figure and ground relationship) as opposed to that of

inhibition of return (the loss of attention to static or unchangingelements)



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Prototypes and reading with reference to the idea ofgenre (class,kind)

Idealised cognitive models (ICMs)are the structures with which we organise ourknowledge. Cognitive models consist of relations between categories, set up

socially, culturally, and on the basis of individual experience, as our means ofnegotiating the world and our lives through it. They create our sense of basic

categories and consist of image schemas and propositional structure relatingcertain elements to others. When cognitive models are shared they becomecultural models.

- mode(mode poetry, prose, drama, song - / genre comedy,tragedy, surrealism - / sub-genre war novel, political memoir - /type sonnet, ballad, email - / register reporting language,letter-writing, narrative, lyricism) seems to be the basic genrelevel

- discourse communities represent an interpretative community.

Cognitive deixis [Deixis =


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Cognitive grammarbuilds its conceptual constructs out of languagein its psychological and social circumstances of use.- the standards of textuality ( R. de Beaugrande and W. Dressler,

1992) are all relational in character, and are concerned with howoccurrences are connected to others via: (1) cohesion(grammatical-lexical dependencies on the surface); (2) coherence

(conceptual dependencies in the textual world); (3) intentionality(the attitudes of participants towards the text); 4) acceptability; (5)informativity(the incorporation of the new and unexpected into theknown and expected); (6) situationality (the setting); (7)intertextuality(the mutual relevance of separate texts)

- Bakhtins thesis that any and every utterance is dialogic, in thesense that it engages with itself in the process of engaging withappropriate words and other utterances will be further supportedby research in the field of discourse analysis and pragmatics(Since the 1970s research in this field has led to increasedunderstanding of many kinds of conversational and formalized

interaction and their underlying implicatures).

Schema poetics bases on the notion ofconceptual dependency(i.e.a conceptual structure drawn from memory to assist in understandingutterances is a schema, first called a script)- ways in which a scheme can evolve: accretion; tuning;

restructuring.- types of schema management: knowledge reconstructing;

schema preservation; schema reinforcement; schema accretion;schema disruption; schema refreshment (discourse deviationoffers the possibility for schema refreshment).

Conceptual metaphor is seen as a mappingof properties betweenthe base space (source cognitive model) and focus space (targetcognitive model).- in English, a conceptual metaphor GOOD IS UP underlies many

expressions (e.g. He was over the moon about it; I feel on top ofthe world) asits converse BAD IS DOWN (e.g. I feel so low; Thisis really thepits).

Literature as parabolic projection builds on the idea that stories are

at the heart of cognitive understanding.- the parable recognizes that the cognitive model of the literary textis primarily derived from the text-reading, and has a structure inwhich key features are picked out and foregrounded as beinghighly salient for the reading, or for the reading community asdetermined in the readers mind.

- the blending of various input spaces (such as the parts of anarrative text, the readers experience, sociocultural knowledge,or literary allusions) is meant to form a generic space, whichwhen occurring within a parable takes on a life of its own. So newrelations become apparent in the blend (composition), without

recourse back to the input spaces. Readerly schematicknowledge connects aspects of the blend to wider concerns, andthe blend contributes to the whole parable in its ongoingelaboration (Stockwell, 2002, p.126).



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- blendingcan also be applied to the way intertextuality operates inliterary works. Literary texts lift characters, plots, settings andthemes out of their original environments and place them into newblended spaces where an emergent structure developsindependently.

Reflect and vent your views

1. What is the main function of literature?

2. List the ways in which a text might encourage or cue particularpatterns of attention and inhibit others.

3. How far do you think your literary training up to now has alteredyour capacity for attention?

4. List the ways in which you decide whether a text counts as

literature or not; and those in which you decide to which genre itbelongs.



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Appendix One: Textual analysis evaluation criteria

2. Thinking literature: the novel

Section A: Student readings

Extract One

The following extract is the opening of Chapter one (pp. 35-36, PenguinBooks, 1985) from Charles Dickenss Great Expectations (1860-61); thefragment sets the main narrative co-ordinates: narrating vs. narrated

instance, location, narrating and narrated time, character presentation.Check for the ways in which Dickens, like no other author, achievesdefamiliariasation of character/ events/ perspective and thus opens newhorizons of expectations for the reader.

My fathers family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, myinfant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicitthan Pip.(1) So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. (2)I give Pirrip as my fathers family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister Mrs Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith.(3)As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeliness of

either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs),my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonablyderived from their tombstones.(4) The shape of the letters on myfathers, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man,with curly black hair.(5) From the character and turn of the inscription,Also Georgiana Wife of the Above, I drew a childish conclusion that mymother was freckled and sickly.(6) To five little stone lozenges1, eachabout a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row besidetheir grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universalstruggle I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they

had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and never taken them out in this state of existence.(7)Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the riverwound, twenty miles of the sea.(8) My first most vivid and broadimpression of the identity of things, seems to me to have gained on amemorable raw afternoon towards evening.(9) At such a time I foundout for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles2 was thechurchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgianawife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander,Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of theaforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness

beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates,with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the lowleaden3 line beyond, was the river; and that the distant savage lair from



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to the readers anchoring in the textual world at different levels ofunderstanding (temporal, spatial, sensitive).

5. Read the last paragraph (12-14) and see how the authors interventionin the world of representation may point to a new auctorial paradigm,one in which objective authorial omniscience frays, giving way to

subjective limited perspective.

Meaning construal (one reading)Cognitive grammar and spatial processing

Our present contention is that by a constant interplay betweenopenness of meaning and strategies of foregrounding, the reader is beingprepared to witness both the illusory trajectory the narrator-writer projects ofhis life and the life proper he lives as a narrated-hero. The distance achievedin the sentence So, I called myself Pip and came to be called Pip (2) which

can be read as narrator conscious of narrating himself, represents the maindevice of foregrounding meaning Dickens employs of in the excerpt. The factthat the narrator Pip is telling us his life-story long after the events lived bythe narrated Pip, will bring about a quantitative as well as qualitative changein perspective, which will become all important for the thematic design of thewhole novel. Dickenss major talent then consists in the way he controls theextent to which a reader empathizes with a character, by manipulatingnarrative distance. From the very beginning we are not encouraged toexperience with the young Pip but we are encouraged to look at him from theoutside, experiencing rather with the older, narrating Pip and sharing hishumorous view of the events from his childhood. Towards this end, while the

writer employs of an addresser-based rhetoric, he is simulating spontaneous,impromptu speech, which will function against itself to the purpose ofreducing immediacy and distancingthe reader from the childs experiences.The exercise of memory which deep down represents the theme of the wholenovel is prefigured by the rhetorical principle of memory, applying to speakerand hearer alike, on which discourse seems to be built. Language tends tobe extremely loose in as much as it employs mostly of trailing constituents;parenthetical constructions, dislocated from the context (4, 7); hypotaxisdisguised as parataxis (10); and syntactic parallelism on the principle of bothstaircase (climax) (10) and prose rhyme (4). What is also peculiar isgraphological style, such as the use of extrapunctuation: hyphen (7) andsemi-colon (10), which gives a more emphatic stress to the topicalized items.Another effect of creating narrative distance is that of, paradoxically, makingthe reader imagine for him/herself what the experience involved must havebeen like, which is very much like the cinematic device of dissolving presentidentity into past identity. To this purpose, use of direct speech for the firsttime functions as a most startling return to the past narrated events. (11)

Our further contention is that although Dickens employs in GreatExpectations (even the titlemay be read as depersonalized, i.e., not referringspecifically to a person but rather revealing a broader and deeper responseto the human predicament beyond one heros implicit ideology) of first-person

narrator, the reader will hardly commit him/herself to experiencing with theyoung hero, and even less seldom with the mature narrator-writer. Theconsciousness required for transcending particulars in this case iseverywhere in general and nowhere in particular. There is a constant play



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with the readers peeping into the permanently floating network of humanrelationships in the novel. This very unsettled experience of the readerbecomes the principal means of recognizing meanings and effectsassociated with the text. The unemotional tone of the opening chapter as areflection of techniques of distancing and reducing immediacy will set thetone of non-involvement for the whole novel. The tragicomic overtones as a

result of mature Pips descriptions of his childish imaginings of his father,mother and little brothers (4); (5); (6); (7) as well as the marshes and thegraveyard (8); (9); (10) constitute the pips of the later more hideous andmysterious adventures of the hero. If we agree that Dickens is interested inengaging the readers anxiety irrespective of what means, he has certainlysucceeded in arousing great expectations by this opening to his novel.

Extract Two

The following two excerpts are from Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights(1847): first from Chapter 4 (pp. 74-76); second from the end of chapter 7(pp. 101-103, Penguin Books, 1965).

With the former, we enter for the first time Nelly Deans narrative told tothe ailing Lockwood. With the latter, we take a narrative pause in the flow ofNelly Deans narration which she has interrupted after retelling about littleHeathcliffs wretchedness at Wuthering Heights Grange.

Check for the ways in which Emily Bront achieves defamiliariasationof character/ events/ perspective, thus opening new horizons of expectationsfor the reader.

What vain weather-cocks we are!(1) I, who had determined to holdmyself independent of all social intercourse, and thanked my stars that,at length, I had lighted on a spot where it was next to impracticable, I,weak wretch, after maintaining till dusk a struggle with low spirits, andsolitude, was finally compelled to strike my colours; and, under pretenceof gaining information concerning the necessities of my establishment, Idesired Mrs Dean, when she brought in supper, to sit down while I ateit, hoping sincerely she would prove a regular gossip, and either rouseme to animation, or lull me to sleep by her talk.(2)You have lived here a considerable time. I commenced; did you notsay sixteen years?(3)

Eighteen, sir; I came, when the mistress was married, to wait on her;after she died, the master retained me for his house-keeper.(4)Indeed.(5)There ensued a pause. (6) She was not a gossip, I feared, unless abouther own affairs, and those could hardly interest me.(7)However, having studied for an interval, with a fist on either knee, and acloud of meditation over her ruddy countenance, she ejaculated - (8)Ah, times are greatly changed since then!(9)Yes, I remarked, youve seen a good many alterations, Isuppose?(10)I have: and troubles too, she said.(11)

Oh, Ill turn the talk on my landlords family! I thought to myself. (12) Agood subject to start - and that pretty girl-widow, I should like to knowher history; whether she be a native of the country, or, as is more



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probable, an exotic that the surly indigenae will not recognize forkin.(13)With this intention I asked Mrs Dean why Heathcliff let ThrushcrossGrange, and preferred living in a situation and residence so muchinferior. (14)Is he not rich enough to keep the state in good order? I enquired. (15)

Rich, sir! she returned. (16) He has, nobody knows what money, andevery year it increases. (17) Yes, yes, hes rich enough to live in a finerhouse than this; but hes very near - close handed; and, if he had meantto flit to Thrushcross Grange, as soon as he heard of a tenant he couldnot have borne to miss the chance of getting few hundreds more.(18) Itis strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in theworld!(19)He had a son, it seems?(20)Yes, he had one - he is dead.(21)And that young lady, Mrs Heathcliff, is his widow?(22)Yes.(23)

Where did she come from originally?(24)Why, sir she is my late masters daughter; Catherine Linton was hermaiden name. (25) I nursed her, poor thing! I did wish Mr Heathcliffwould remove here, and then we might have been together again.(26)What, Catherine Linton! I exclaimed, astonished. (27) But a minutesreflection convinced me it was not my ghostly Catherine. (28)Then, I continued, my predecessors name was Linton? (29)It was. (30)And who is that Earnshaw, Hareton Earnshaw, who lives with MrHeathcliff? are they relations? (31)No; he is the late Mrs Lintons nephew. (32)

The young ladys cousin, then? (33)Yes; and her husband was her cousin also one on the mothers, theother on the fathers side Heathcliff married Mr Lintons sister. (34)I see the House at Wuthering Heights has Earnshaw carved over thefront door. (35) Are they old family? (36)Very old, sir; and Hareton is the last of them, as our Miss Cathy is of us- I mean, of the Lintons. (37) Have you been to Wuthering Heights? Ibeg pardon for asking; but I should like to hear how she is. (38)Mrs Heathcliff? she looked very well, and very handsome; yet I think,not very happy.(39)Oh dear, I dont wonder! (40) And how did you like the master? (41)A rough fellow, rather, Mrs Dean. (42) Is not that his character? (43)Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone! (44) The less youmeddle with him the better.(45)He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such achurl. (46) Do you know anything of his history?(47)Its a cuckoos sir I know all about it; except where he was born, andwho were his parents, and how he got his money, at first (48) AndHareton has been cast out like an unfledged dunnock (49) Theunfortunate lad is the only one, in all this parish, that does not guesshow he has been cheated!(50)

Well, Mrs Dean, it will be a charitable deed to tell me something of myneighbours -(51) I feel I shall not rest, if I go to bed; so be good enoughto sit and chat an hour.(52)



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Oh, certainly, sir! (53) Ill just fetch a little sewing, and then Ill sit aslong as you please. (54) But youve caught cold; I saw you shivering,and you must have some gruel to drive it out.(55)The worthy woman bustled off, and I crouched nearer the fire: my headfelt hot, and the rest of me chill: moreover, I was excited, almost to apitch of foolishness through my nerves and brain. (56) This caused me

to feel, not uncomfortable, but rather fearful, as I am still, of seriouseffects from the incidents of today and yesterday. (57)She returned presently, bringing a smoking basin, and a basket of work;and having placed the former on the hob, drew in her seat, evidentlypleased to find me so companionable.(58)Before I came to live here, she commenced, waiting no further invitationto her story; I was almost always at Wuthering Heights; because mymother had nursed Mr Hindley Earnshaw, that was Haretons father,and I got used to playing with the children (59) I ran errands too, andhelped to make hay, hung about the farm ready for anything thatanybody would set me to. (60) (chapter 4)

Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and proceeded to layaside her sewing; but I felt incapable of moving from the hearth, and Iwas very far from nodding. (61)Sit still, Mrs Dean, I cried, do sit still, another half hour! (62) Youvedone just right to tell the story leisurely. 63) That is the method I like;and you must finish in the same style. (64) I am interested in everycharacter you have mentioned, more or less. (65)The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir. (66)No matter Im not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours. (67)One or two is early enough for a person who lies till ten. (68)

You shouldnt lie till ten. (69) Theres the very prime of the morninggone long before that time.(70) A person who has not done one half hisdays work by ten oclock, runs a chance of leaving the other halfundone. (71)Nevertheless, Mrs Dean, resume you chair; because to-morrow I intendlengthening the night till afternoon. (72) I prognosticate for myself anobstinate cold, at least.(73)I hope not, sir. (74) Well, you must allow me to leap over some threeyears; during that space, Mrs Earnshaw (75)No, no, Ill allow nothing of the sort! (76) Are you acquainted with themood of mind in which, if you were seated alone, and the cat licking itskitten on the rug before you, you would watch the operation so intentlythat pusss neglect of one ear would put you seriously out oftemper?(77)A terribly lazy mood I should say.(78)On the contrary, a tiresomely active one. (79) It is mine, at present,and, therefore, continue minutely. (80) I perceive that people in theseregions acquire over people in towns the value that a spider in adungeon does over a spider in a cottage, to their various occupants;and yet the deepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation ofthe looker-on.(81) They do live more in earnest, more in themselves,

and less in surface change, and frivolous external things.(82) I couldfancy a love for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever inany love of a years standing one state resembles setting a hungryman down to a single dish on which he may concentrate his entire



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appetite, and do it justice the other, introducing him to a table laid outby French cooks; he can perhaps extract as much enjoyment from thewhole; but each part is a mere atom in his regard andremembrance.(83)Oh! here we are the same as anywhere else, when you get to knowus, observed Mrs Dean, somewhat puzzled at my speech. (84)

Excuse me, I responded; you, my friend, are a striking evidenceagainst that assertion. (85) Excepting a few provincialisms of slightconsequence, you have no marks of the manners which I amhabituated to consider as peculiar to your class. (86) I am sure youhave thought a great deal more than the generality of servants think.(87) You have been compelled to cultivate your reflective faculties, forwant of occasions for frittering your life away in silly trifles.(88)Mrs Dean laughed. (89)I certainly esteem myself a steady, reasonable kind of body, she said;not exactly from living among the hills, and seeing one set of faces, andone series of actions, from years end to years end: but I have

undergone sharp discipline which has taught me wisdom; and then Ihave read more than you fancy, Mr Lockwood. (90) You could not opena book in this library that I have not looked into, and got something outof also; unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of French and those I know one from another, it is as much as you can expect of apoor mans daughter. (91)However, if I am to follow my story in true gossips fashion, I had bettergo on; and instead of leaping three years, I will be content to pass to thenext summer the summer of 1778, that is, nearly twenty-three yearsago.(92) (chapter 7)

Vocabulary comments

1. weather-cock( = weather vane in the form of a male chicken)2. kin ( = family group; blood relation; class)3. flit( = move from place to place; be briefly present or visible)4. whinstone ( = a hard, dark, fine-grained rock, e.g. basalt or chert)5. dunnock ( = a woodland and garden bird distinguished from the

house sparrow by its thin beak and gray head and breast;Romanian: brumria de pdure)

6. sewing(n

a piece of material that somebody is sewing)7. bustle off ( = to work or behave in an ostentatiously hurried andenergetic way

8. run errands ( = everyday jobs; household tasks; odd jobs)9. fritter( = to break, cut, or tear something into small pieces or shreds

Reflection questions

1. The world of the above literary text consists of several deictic fields.Try to identify the deictic elements which contribute to the readersanchoring in the textual world at different levels of understanding

(temporal, spatial, and sensitive).

2. If you were to find opposite pairs in the novel (as in the aboveexcerpts), who would you associate Lockwood with? Is he a hero or



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anti-hero/opposite vortex, necessary to transform melodrama intopassion?

3. Check for the ways in which E. Bront carefully builds Lockwoodsdream-consciousness so as to make his receptivity creativelyinstrumental.

4. The above writing is part of Lockwoods diary. What features of diarywriting/keeping seem to have been flouted?

5. Find examples of phrases/utterances that may justify the say thatliterature is always parabolic.

6. See how punctuation may help (re)create possible worlds andmental spaces in the text above.

Meaning construal (one reading)

Text content and text type

As we know, most first person narratives are written after the event froma position of teleological retrospect, i.e., they know which aspects of the storyare of significance in the light of their final outcome. The perspective of thediary is different, i.e., each diary entry is retrospective, but written withoutknowledge of the next entry which gives the narrative a fracturedchronological perspective. Our contention is that Lockwoods fake diaryperspective is the reflection of his inability of appropriating the story forhimself, inability of storytelling or even worse, pleasure at appropriatingothers storytelling. The looker-on (81) perspective, Lockwood definitelyprefers, is apparently facilitated by choice of medium of writing; but, while adiary form yokes the reader to the diary authors perspective, in the aboveextract we are yoked with an abysmal perspective: Lockwoods telling thestory of how he makes Nelly Dean tell the story, he (Lockwood) has neitherknowledge nor power/skill of telling himself. This reading has been inducedby the opening paragraph establishing the mood of pretence (2) Lockwoodconfesses in framing the story. It eventually turns out that both protagonistsengage in a game of pretending whose arch-beguiler is the writer/reader inwriting/reading the episode as a moral fable: the weak wretch (2) and vainweather-cock (1), as Lockwood confesses to, will try to talk Mrs. Dean into

rousing him to animation or lulling to sleep by her gossiping talk about theoccupants of both establishments. Soon it becomes obvious that theassumed trapped gossiper is herself trying to trap the tenant into listening toher story, Oh, certainly, sir! Ill just fetch a little sewing, and then Ill sit aslong as you please.(54) In the beginning the two pretenders make both useof the passing over technique, whereby pretending to focus exclusively onthe point at issue they bring in side issues which serve each persuaderspurpose. (3-52) Thus, Mrs. Dean is definitely willing to play ball with thetenant, while making him believe the very opposite: There ensued a pause.She was not a gossip, I feared, unless about her own affairs, and those couldhardly interest me. (7) She even drives him to dramatize his own thoughts,

which he quotes as if somebody else had put there. (12-14) This may alsobetray indiscrimination from the part of the narrator as to who is manipulatingwho, in terms of our moral fable. Moreover the confusing temporalperspective introduced in narration when the narrator refers at once



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proleptically and analeptically to lived events, but rather fearful, as I am still,of serious effects from the incidents of today and yesterday (57), stressesthe narrators unreliabilitywhich we have suspected all along.

Although a counterfeit journal, it still preserves some qualities of thegenre: an inherently self-referential form as representing the idiom of self-consciousness, an apparently readerless self-rumination in which it is

conventional to contemplate the act of self-analysis as writing (M. Currie in J.Wolfreys and W. Baker, Literary Theories. A Case study in CriticalPerformance, 1996: 64). Lockwood, for instance, makes evaluations aboutthe method of storytelling, [Youve done just right to tell the story leisurely.That is the method I like; and you must finish the same style. I am interestedin every character you have mentioned, more or less. (63; 64; 65)] andkeeps digressing, first about the cat (77), next about spiders (81) and lastabout the feeding/feasting parable (83); they all function metadiscursively asthey are meant to pass on judgments about aforementioned events andpeople. The last narrative stroke of genius in the fragment comes again notfrom Lockwood, whose writing we seem compelled to read, but from Mrs.

Dean, whose style can hardly be separated from Lockwoodswhich is extraevidence that Lockwood deals in appropriation[However, if I am to followmy story in true gossips fashion, I had better go on; and instead of leapingthree years, I will be content to pass to the next summer the summer of1778, that is, nearly twenty-three years ago.] (92)

Lockwoods condescending address to Mrs. Dean (85-88) is met withironic rebuke (90-91) we contend the rebuked misses. This could be anotherproof in favour of reading Lockwoods pretence of companionship as hismajor inability to narrate himself and others.

Extract Three

The excerpt is from the third chapter, entitled Dr. Jekyll Was Quite atEase of Stevensons novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1886) [pp. 56-8, A Signet Classic, 1987]. By this chapter, the simple,suspense plot has only imperceptibly advanced into revealing its centralsecret about Dr. Jekylls double identity (in turn Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Itpartakes of the first narrative in the sequence of three narratives (authorialnarrative; Dr. Lanyons Narrative; Henry Jekylls Full Statement of the Case),all meant to reveal more and more about the strange case, but still leavingthe Jekyll/Hyde dualism if not unexplained, unresolved.

A FORTNIGHT LATER, by excellent good fortune, the doctor gave oneof his pleasant dinners to some five six old cronies, all intelligent,reputable men or and all judges of good wine; and Mr. Utterson socontrived that he remained behind after the others had departed. (1)This was no new arrangement, but a thing that had befallen manyscores of times. (2) Where Utterson was liked, he was liked well. (3)Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit awhilein his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their mindsin the man's rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety. (4) To

this rule, Dr. Jekyll was no exception; and as he now sat on theopposite side of the fire a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty,with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and



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kindness you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr.Utterson a sincere and warm affection. (5)"I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll," began the latter. "You

know that will of yours?" (6)A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; butthe doctor carried it off gaily. (7) "My poor Utterson," said he, "You are

unfortunate in such a client. (8) I never saw a man so distressed by mywill; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he calledmy scientific heresies. (9) O, I know he's a good fellow you needn'tfrown an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him;but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant. I wasnever more disappointed in any man than Lanyon." (10)"You know I never approved of it," pursued Utterson, ruthlesslydisregarding the fresh topic. (11)My will? Yes, certainly, I know that," said the doctor, a trifle sharply."You have told me so." (12)"Well, I tell you so again," continued the lawyer. "I have been learning

something of young Hyde. (13)The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, andthere came a blackness about his eyes. (14) "I do not care to hearmore," said he. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop."(15)"What I heard was abominable," said Utterson. (16)"It can make no change. (17) You do not understand my position,"returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. (18) "I ampainfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange a verystrange one. (19) It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended bytalking." (20)"Jekyll," said Utterson, "you know me: I am a man to be trusted. Make

a clean breast of this, in confidence; and I make no doubt I can get youout of it.(21)"My good Utterson," said the doctor, "this is very good of you, this isdownright good of you, and I cannot find words to thank you in. (22) Ibelieve you fully; I would trust you before any man alive, ay, beforemyself, if I could make the choice; but indeed it isn't what you fancy; it isnot as bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, I will tell youone thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.(23) I give youmy hand upon that; and I thank you again and again; and I will just addone little word, Utterson, that I'm sure you'll take in good part: this is aprivate matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep."(24)Utterson reflected a little, looking in the fire. (25)"I have no doubt you are perfectly right," he said at last, getting to hisfeet. (26)"Well, but since we have touched upon this business, and for the lasttime I hope," continued the doctor, "there is one point I should like youto understand. (27) I have really a very great interest in poor Hyde. (28)I know you have seen him; he told me so; and I fear he was rude. (29)But I do sincerely take a great, a very great interest in that young man;and if I am taken away, Utterson, I wish you to promise me that you willbear with him and get his rights for him. (30) I think you would, if you

knew all; and it would be a weight off my mind if you would promise."(31)"I can't pretend that I shall ever like him," said the lawyer. (32)



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"I don't ask that," pleaded Jekyll, laying his hand upon the other's arm;"I only ask for justice; I only ask you to help him for my sake, when I amno longer here." (33)Utterson heaved an irrepressible sigh. "Well," said he, "I promise." (34)

Vocabulary comments

1. crony( = a close friend, especially one of long standing)2. contrived( = not natural and spontaneous; artificial)3. dry lawyer ( = somebody who is witty in a shrewd, subtle, or

sarcastic way; but also plain and without unnecessaryornamentation)

4. unobtrusive ( = not conspicuous, blatant, or assertive)5. make a clean breast of ( = to confess or admit to something,

especially something previously denied or withheld)


1. What do you make of Stevensons assertion: let him [the writer]bear in mind that his novel is not a transcript of life, to be judged byits exactitude; but a simplification of some side or point of life, tostand or fall by its significant simplicity. (A Humble Remonstrance,1884; my italics)

2. Reflect on Stevensons stand from his essay A Gossip onRomance (1882):

There is a vast deal in life and letters both which is not immoral,but simply a-moral; which either does not regard the human will atall, or deals with it in obvious and healthy relations; where theinterest turns, not upon what a man shall choose to do, but onhow he manages to do it; not on the passionate slips andhesitations of the conscience, but on the problems of the body andof the practical intelligence, in clean, open-air adventure, theshock of arms, or the diplomacy of life []; it is possible to build,upon this ground the most lively, beautiful, and buoyant tales. (myitalics)

3.There is a long tradition of the theme of the double [doppelgnger =] inliterature ever since Plato and ancient myths; Otto Rank, in DonJuan. Une tude sur le Double, 1932 [trans.Dublul. Don Juan,Institutul European Iasi, 1997], traces the problematics of thedouble in culture (literature, psychology, religion, folklore andscience). V. Cunningham considers that the Doppelgngerfiction isa great moral leveller on the ground that what happens in thisexchange is not only moral chastening for the ostensibly goodperson, but rather general moral confusion (In the Reading Gaol.Postmodernity. Texts and History, 1994: 245). Provide your own

examples treating of the double in literature/ film/ photography.

4. Check for how deictic elements (modals; tenses; pronouns) help ussee things virtually from the perspective of the character or narrator



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inside the text-world, fact which creates coherence across theliterary text.

5. In light of the knowledge that conceptual metaphor is seen as amapping of properties between the base space (source cognitivemodel) and focus space (targetcognitive model), give your reading

of Jekylls say: "I am painfully situated, Utterson; my position is avery strange a very strange one. It is one of those affairs thatcannot be mended by talking." (19-20)

Meaning construal (one reading)Literature as allegory

We shall argue our strange case of Stevensons Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by regarding the above-mentioned chapter as anexemplification of the process of doubling as an objectification of theseparation of what Foucault calls the interiority, that is the self, and

exteriority, that is composed of words. Although built on the familiarnineteenth-century trope of the Doppelgnger, what we consider as strangestof all is the multi-layered doubleness in the novel. (1) We have theeponymous heros split personality; (2) we have recurring images, reflections in wine, mirrors, cheval-glass, in the fire, in the moonlight; (3) we havetextual doubles: (a) narrative-within-a-narrative of the two letters, which,besides being explanatory, may be considered a doubling of the original text;(b) the present version of the work-as-allegory as a double of the first draftpresenting Jekylls transformations into Hyde only for the purpose ofdisguise; (c) the writers own relation to his fictions (i.e., the mirroring ofevents from the authors life in the novelStevensons heroic struggle

against illness is part of the RLS legend as the title of his novel is part of thecommon language now naming both a person and thing, a mixture ofcontrasting elements, some respectable, others not, switching between twosuch elements); (d) a stylistic double of a detective, or even better, mysterystory.

Stevensons significant simplicity works its way through embeddedambivalence at the level of language, thus forwarding meaning more directlyand sharply than any other devices. From the very title, Dr. Jekyll Was Quiteat Easesome confusion is at work, substantiating the moral dilemma of Mr.Utterson, the lawyer and executor of Dr. Jekylls will. Are we to read quite,(1) completely or (2) fairly/ rather? The first connotation is more consonantwith a party-entertainer in the company of intelligent, reputable men and alljudges of good wine (1); Mr. Utterson, the dry lawyer (4) plays the part of adouble for all those old cronies, light-hearted, and loose-tongued as theywere, bestowing his rich silence (4) upon his friend and client. However, thesecond meaning forces itself as soon as Mr. Hydes name is dropped, (13-16). The result is a double rough sketch (14) of the equally sketched-portraitof Dr. Jekyll at the beginning of the chapter (5). The process of hinting atthings as dual entities is earnestly carried on when Jekylls resistance tobeing helped is voiced by the latter: You do not understand my position,returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. I am painfully

situated, Utterson; my position is very strange - a very strange one. It is oneof those affairs that cannot be mended by talking (18-20). The doctor hasalways already made a clean breast of this in full textual confidence, onlyhe and the alert reader can understand. The incoherency the narrator



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speaks about becomes obvious at the level of discourse when the doctorclearly contradicts himself: I would trust you before any man alive, ay beforemyself, if I could make the choice;as compared to the moment I choose, Ican be rid of Mr. Hyde. (23) Uttersons cogitation while looking in the fire (25)brings about the theme of the split ego/personality, the strange case isabout. The sentence, I think you would, if you knew all (31), addressed by

Dr. Jekyll to Utterson, functions as a moral leveller: besides its crypticnature, it reflects Dr. Jekylls already-established belief in the contaminablecharacter of human nature. Dr. Jekylls very great interest in poor Hyde (28,30) insinuates both understanding and sympathy, suggestive of theimplacable inseparability he/one can only admit to. This certainly goes bothways: Once Jekylls moral self-priding reduced, the collapse of his moral self-esteem is counted on for reducing the reader/ Uttersons abhorrence of poorHyde which is indeed one of those affairs that cannot be mended bytalking. (20)

The economy in narrative and mostly commentary is part of the writersstrategy to typify his stories, which lies nearer to poetry than prose fiction, as

one critic once said.

Extract Four

The following extract is from chapter VI (Everyman, London, 1996, pp.175-179) of Charles Lutwidge Dodgsons book for children, Through theLooking-Glass (1871), a pendant to Alices Adventures in Wonderland(1865), both published under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll. Originallymade to amuse the little daughter of the Dean of Christ College, Oxford,where Carroll taught mathematics and logic, the two books rapidly becamerequired reading, for adults and children alike, in spite of their incompatibilitywith the standard Victorian attitude towards writing for children. It is thesubversive technique of a childs point of view that confers these two booksThe-Child-is-Father-to-the-Man aura. Moreover, as always already part of awhole cultural consciousness, their reading gave scope to innumerablephilosophical and linguistic interpretations.

In that case we start afresh, said Humpty Dumpty, and its my turn to choosea subject - (He talks about it just as if it was a game!' thought Alice.) 'Sohere's a question for you. How old did you say you were?' (1)Alice made a short calculation, and said 'Seven years and six months.' (2)'Wrong!' Humpty Dumpty exclaimed triumphantly. 'You never said a word like

it!'(3)'I thought you meant "How old are you?" Alice explained. (4)'If I'd meant that, I'd have said it,' said Humpty Dumpty. (5)Alice didn't want to begin another argument, so she said nothing. (6)'Seven years and six months!' Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. 'Anuncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked my advice, I'd have said "Leaveoff at seven" - but it's too late now. (7)'I never ask advice about growing,' Alice said indignantly. (8)'Too proud?' the other enquired. (9)Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. 'I mean,' she said, that onecan't help growing older.' (10)'One can't, perhaps,' said Humpty Dumpty; 'but two can. With properassistance, you might have left off at seven.' (11)'What a beautiful belt you've got on!' Alice suddenly remarked. (They had hadquite enough of the subject of age, she thought: and, if they really were to take



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turns in choosing subjects, it was her turn now.) 'At least,' she correctedherself on second thoughts, 'a beautiful cravat, I should have said - no, a belt.I mean I beg your pardon!' she added in dismay, for Humpty Dumpty lookedthoroughly offended, and she began to wish she hadn't chosen that subject. 'Ifonly I knew,' she thought to herself, which was neck and which was waist!'(12)Evidently Humpty Dumpty was very angry, though he said nothing for a

minute or two. When he didspeak again, it was in a deep growl. (13)'It is a - most - provoking- thing,' he said at last, 'when a person doesn't knowa cravat from a belt!' (14)'I know it's very ignorant of me,' Alice said, in so humble a tone that HumptyDumpty relented. (15)'It's a cravat, child, and a beautiful one, as you say. It's a present from theWhite King and Queen. 'There now!' (16)'Is it really?' said Alice, quite pleased to find that she had chosen a goodsubject, after all. (17)'They gave it me,' Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully, as he crossed oneknee over the other and clasped his hands round it, 'they gave it me - for anun-birthday present.' (18)'I beg your pardon?' Alice said with a puzzled air. (19)'I'm not offended,' said Humpty Dumpty. (20)'I mean, what is an un-birthday present?' (21)'A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course.' (22)Alice considered a little. 'I like birthday presents best,' she said at last. (23)'You don't know what you're talking about!' cried Humpty Dumpty. 'How manydays are there in a year?' (24)'Three hundred and sixty-five,' said Alice. (25)'And how many birthdays have you?' (26)'One.' (27)'And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five, what remains ?' (28)

Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.' (29)Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. Id rather see that done on paper,' he said.(30)Alice couldn't help smiling as she took out her memorandum-book, andworked the sum for him:

3651

364Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at it carefully. (31)'That seems to be done right he began. (32)'You're holding it upside down!' Alice interrupted. (33)'To be sure I was!' Humpty Dumpty said gaily, as she turned it round for him.

'I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems to be done right though I haven't time to look it over thoroughly just now and that showsthat there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents ' (34)'Certainly,' said Alice. (35)'And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!' (36)'I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said. (37)Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. Of course you dont till I tell you. Imeant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"' (38)'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected. (39)When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it meansjust what I choose it to mean neither more nor less.' (40)

'The question is,' said Alice, 'Whether you can make words mean so manydifferent things.' (41)'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'Which is to be master that's all.' (42)



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Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute HumptyDumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them particularly verbs:they're the proudest adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what Isay!' (43)'Would you tell me, please, said Alice, 'what that means? (44)'Now you talk like a reasonable child, said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much

pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject,and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as Isuppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.' (45)'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.(46)'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I alwayspay it extra. (47)Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark. (48)'Ah, you should see em come round me of a Saturday night,' Humpty Dumptywent on, wagging his head gravely from side to side, 'for to get their wages,you know.' (49)(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I cant tellyou.) (50)'You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice. (51)'Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called "Jabberwocky"?'(52)'Let's hear it,' said Humpty Dumpty. 'I can explain all the poems that ever wereinvented and a good many that haven't been invented just yet.' (53)This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:

"Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe.(54)

Vocabulary comments

1. relent( = give in; concede; yield; surrender)


1. Possible world theory was developed by philosophers and logiciansin order to deal with logical problems, such as the truth value ofpropositions and the ontological status of non-actual entities. Thetheory can help with the internal description of the fictional world too.

Can you differentiate between the worlds in the above fragment?Which of the worlds (knowledge world; obligation world; wish world;fantasy world) is more conspicuous?

2. Can you perceive any conflict between some of the worlds thatmake up the textual universe? Alices reactions spell outpredictability or its opposite?

3. How do you read Wordsworths famous line The Child is father ofthe Man which opens Ode. Intimations of Immortality fromRecollections of Early Childhood?

4. Can you make any connection between the parabolic function ofliterature and the game of words/worlds in this fragment/book?



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5. Does defamiliarization or literariness teach us something? If itdoes, what is it? Does it relate to human natures propensity forasking questions, rather than looking for definite answers?

6. What is your position in the question/answer debate? You

ask/address/issue questions so as to get/receive/obtain answers. Doyou want all your questions answered?

7. Through the looking glass is a conceptual metaphor which reflectsand refracts our desires and our fears in equal measure. Agree ordisagree with my estimation.

Meaning construal (one reading)The world of the story, the actual world, and genre

Our interpretation cannot avoid touching upon such issues as

developed by Bertrand Russell, and later, Ludwig Wittgenstein, regardingpower and language; epistemology and language; reason and belief. Therhetoric of play which infuses the chapter, as the whole book, is ever moreperceptible since our access to the (non)represented world of the book isthrough Alices stance and perspective: Lewis Carroll is one of the few writersto have tried to recover or to re-conceive the childs point of view(Penelope Lively, Introduction, 1993[1996]). Ever since this book, we areconscious of an ideology of play at work, setting up a kind of topography ofliterary play which finds its full meaning especially when juxtaposed withludic thought about language. The strange case of games is more forcefullyput in this book since they are perceived as partaking of the deadly serious

adult reality: a chaotic and irrational place, in which the rules of behaviourand the codes of expression are circumstantially applied. Alice is given thetask of every child, faced with the bewildering variety of physical world andthe perverse requirements of grown-ups. She has to ask rational questionsand try to tease out some kind of sense and order; she has to go aboutthings in the right way: to address people or whatever, correctly and conformwith the bizarre circumstances with which she is faced, as in the abovechapter. The brilliant game-like exchange [He talks about it just as if it wasa game! thought Alice (1)] between Alice and Humpty Dumpty is reasonenough to give rise to philosophical and linguistic interpretations on thepower of language and the language of power. From beginning to end whathappens here is playing with and against language, which urges to createother games, physical games that engage language in its material as well asits conceptual being. The two conversationalists engage themselves in apower struggle over and through language/words, in which they wrestle theirbrains out. Each tries to outmaneuver the partner but they only manage tochange places in their relation of power: first round (1-6) is won by HumptyDumpty; second round (7-10) almost by Alice; third one (11) by Humpty; withthe fourth round, the ball is in Alices court, but she again is about to lose it,this time as others, the language power of flattery almost failing its purpose:If only I knew, she thought to herself, which was neck and which was waist!

(12) The power of anger is ruled out by the power of political influence (15-6),to lead the way to the power of faulty reasoning used by Humpty Dumpty inhis propaganda campaign of persuading Alice of the value of unbirthdays(18-36). But the glory (36-38) only now comes when the power of economy



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subtly takes over the political (first by Alices allusive reference to Humptysability to make words mean so different things (41), and afterwards, whenHumpty Dumpty speaks about his masteringwords: Theyve a temper, someof them particularly verbs: they are the proudest adjectives you can doanything with, but not verbs however I can manage the whole lot of them!(43), which also means that he has to pay it extra.(47) The parenthetical

narratorial intrusion, under the form of direct address to the reader (50),partakes of the rhetoric of persuasion by using such tricks or ploys asconferring and referring this is another game by the author of drawingattention on who the focalizer is and who the teller is (an extratextual powerrelationship). The Jabberwocky poem (54), Alice wants explained byHumpty Dumpty, may conclude the argument on power relationship, but in avery inconclusive way. However, this small-scale Finnegas Wakereflectiveof the nonsense verse in the epoch, may very well anticipate, by some onehundred years, the forceful argument of deconstructivists on the infinite playof meaning as well as meaning as play. In Derridas version of the book aschessboard, it becomes a field of infinite substitutions in the closure of a

finite ensemble for which is no center that might arrest the freeplay ofsubstitutions. Difference ascribes an infinite play to meaning in language; it isa process of infinite deferring and differing that refuses any arrest to the playof meaning. (Derrida, Structure, Sign and Play, 1972)

Extract Five

The following excerpt is from Phase the Fifth, chapter XXXV (PenguinBooks, 1994, pp.291-293), of Thomas Hardys novel Tess of the

DUrbervilles (1891; in Graphic), presenting the narrative well advanced inthe zigzag of its plot. We witness the aftermath of Tesss confession to Angel,which fulfils what the quirks of fate prevented from being fulfilled two chaptersearlier (the-letter-hidden-under-the-carpet motif).

HER narrative ended; even its re-assertions and secondaryexplanations were done. Tess's voice throughout had hardly risenhigher than its opening tone; there had been no exculpatory phrase ofany kind, and she had not wept. (1)But the complexion even of external things seemed to suffertransmutation as her announcement progressed. (2) The fire in the

grate looked impish-demoniacally funny, as if it did not care in the leastabout her strait. (3) The fender grinned idly, as if it too did not care.(4)The light from the water-bottle as merely engaged in a chromaticproblem. (5) All material objects around announced their irresponsibilitywith terrible iteration. (6) And yet nothing had changed since themoment he had been kissing her; or rather, nothing in the substance ofthings. (7) But the essence of things had changed. (8)When she ceased the auricular impressions from their previousendearments seemed to hustle away into the corners of their brains,repeating themselves as echoes from a time of supremely purblindfoolishness. (9)

Clare performed the irrelevant act of stirring the fire; the intelligence hadnot even yet got to the bottom of him. (10) After stirring the embers herose to his feet; all the force of her disclosure had imparted itself now.



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(11) His face had withered. (12) In the strenuousness of hisconcentration he treaded fitfully on the floor. (13) He could not, by anycontrivance, think closely enough; that was the meaning of his vaguemovement. (14) When he spoke it was in the most inadequate,commonplace voice of the many varied tones she had heard from him.(15)

Tess!' (16)Yes, dearest.' (17)Am I to believe this? From your manner I am to take it as true. O youcannot be out of your mind! You ought to be! Yet you are not.... My wife,my Tess nothing in you warrants such a supposition as that? (18)I am not out of my mind,' she said. (19)And yet ' (20) He looked vacantly at her, to resume with dazedsenses: 'Why didn't you tell me before? (21) Ah, yes, you would havetold me, in a way but I hindered you, I remember!' (22)These and other of his words were nothing but the perfunctory babbleof the surface while the depths remained paralysed. (23) He turned

away, and bent over a chair. (24) Tess followed him to the middle of theroom where he was, and stood there staring at him with eyes that didnot weep. (25) Presently she slid down upon her knees beside his foot,and from this position she crouched in a heap. (26)'In the name of our love, forgive me!' she whispered with a dry mouth.(27) 'I have forgiven you for the same!' (28)And, as he did not answer, she said again-(29)'Forgive me as you are forgiven! I forgive you, Angel.' (30)'You-yes, you do.' (31)But you do not forgive me? (32)O Tess, forgiveness does not apply to the case! (33) You were one

person; now you are another. My Godhow can forgiveness meetsuch a grotesque prestidigitation as that!' (34)He paused, contemplating this definition; then suddenly broke intohorrible laughteras unnatural and ghastly as a laugh in hell. (35)'Don't-don't! It kills me quite, that!' she shrieked. (36) 'O have mercyupon mehave mercy!' (37)He did not answer; and, sickly white, she jumped up. (38)'Angel, Angel! what do you mean by that laugh? she cried out. (39) 'Doyou know what this is to me?' (40)He shook his head. (41)I have been hoping, longing, praying, to make you happy! (42) I havethought what joy it will be to do it, what an unworthy wife I shall be if I donot! (43) Thats what I have felt, Angel! (44)I know that.' (45)I thought, Angel, that you loved me me, my very self! If it is I you dolove, O how can it be that you look and speak so? (46) It frightens me!(47) Having begun to love you, I love you for ever in all changes, inall disgraces, because you are yourself. (48) I ask no more. (49) Thenhow can you, O my own husband, stop loving me?' (50)I repeat, the woman I have been loving is not you. (51)'But who? (52)

Another woman in your shape.' (53)She perceived in his words the realization of her own apprehensiveforeboding in former times. (54) He looked upon her as a species ofimpostor; a guilty woman in the guise of an innocent one. (55) Terror



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was upon her white face as she saw it; her cheek was flaccid, and hermouth had almost the aspect of a round little hole.(56) The horriblesense of his view of her so deadened her that she staggered; and hestepped forward, thinking she was going to fall. (57)Sit down, sit down,' he said gently. (58) 'You are ill; and it is natural

that you should be.' (59)

She did sit down, without knowing where she was, that strained look stillupon her face, and her eyes such as to make his flesh creep. (60)

Vocabulary comments

1. exculpatory( = tending to prove that somebody is free from guilt orblame; formal)

2. complexion ( = the quality and color of the skin, especially of theface;the character of something or the way it appears)

3. impish ( = mischievous; wicked in a playful way, without causingserious harm)

4. strait( = difficult situation)5. fender( = fireguard)6. grin ( = to smile broadly, usually showing the teeth)7. purblind( = offensive term; lacking understanding)8. intelligence ( = secret information)9. vacantly( = lacking expression; vacant stare)10. prestidigitation ( = aberration; illusion)11. apprehensive ( = fearful; formal)12. foreboding( = premonition; bad omen; ominous)13. strained( = tense; not natural)14. creep ( = shiver with disgust)


1. Read the following statements about art Thomas Hardy makes.Does his stand anticipate any critical concept cognitive poetics alsodiscusses?

Art consists in so depicting the common events of life as to bring out thefeatures which illustrate the authors idiosyncratic mode of regard: makingold incidents and things seem as new.

Art is a changing of the actual proportions and order of things, so as tobring out more forcibly than might otherwise be done that feature in themwhich appeals most strongly to the idiosyncrasy of the artist.

Art is a disproportioning - (i.e. distorting, throwing out of proportion) - ofrealities, to show more clearly the features that matter in those realities,which, if merely copied or reported inventorially, might possibly beobserved, but would more probably be overlooked. Hence realism is notArt.(qtd. in M. Wheeler, English Fiction of the Victorian Period, 1990; my italics)

2. Check for how deictic elements (modals; tenses; pronouns) help ussee things virtually from the perspective of the character or narratorinside the text-world, fact which creates coherence across theliterary text.



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3. Ruskin (1856) is responsible for having coined the term patheticfallacy,which is a form of personification that is, ascribing humanfeelings to the inanimate. Originally it was considered a derogatoryterm because it applied, Ruskin said, not to the true appearances ofthings to us, but to the extraordinary, or false appearances, when

we are under the influence of emotion of contemplative fancy. Canyou see any connection between this rhetorical device and the wayHardy figures out his characters?

4. The novel (as the above fragment) explores gender relationships atdifferent levels of representation. When you read such a novel howdo you refer to the issue of gender? What evaluating standards doyou apply?

5. The narrative gives Tesss perspective of things most often. Can youfind examples of sentences which clearly show in whose interest-

focus they are formulated? Can you identify a voice in the narrativewhich differs from that of the narrators?

6. Do you feel manipulated when reading such forceful demonstrationspacked with ethical/moral dilemmas? Do they help you tounderstand yourself or life better?

Meaning construal (one reading)Figuring and grounding

Our contention is that any other solution than the authors huge ellipsis

of story telling by Tess would have spoiled the text, which otherwise remainsas the diamond on her neck giving sinister wink like a toads. The greattextual emotion is aroused exactly by how detailed scenic presentations arelinked by such abrupt spatio-temporal jump or aporia, which, apart frombeing an act of grace and honour from the part of the author, anticipatesmodernist fiction. Writing in the pathetic fallacy mode is definitely Hardysspecialty. The result is pathopoeia which gives value to the narrative (theauthors and Tesss). The merging of the two voices (authors and Tesss) isanother asset of the text which contributes to the aforementioned pathos.Consequently, the highly controversial sub-title, A Pure Womanmetamorphoses into The Woman Pays, alluding to the wide range ofconcepts of change and development as the central idea in the book. ThatTess is the central reflector and refractor of events is made obvious oncemore by the pathetically fallacious rendering of surrounding environment(animation of natural phenomena; inanimate nouns used as actors of verbsof motion; motive and feeling attributed to inanimate nature, 2-8): All materialobjects around announced their irresponsibility with terrible irritation. And yetnothing had changedsince the moments when he had been kissing her; orrather, nothing in the substance of things. But the essence of things hadchanged (6-8, my italics). Protean change, spiritual transfiguration, andbiological transmutation are all encoded in the discourse by way of minute

description of protagonists reactions (Clares,10-13; 21; 24; 35; 41; Tesss,24-26; 56-57; 60); some authorial intrusions (9; 14; 23); and narrative reportof Tesss thought acts (15; 54-55). The characters congenital weaknessesare even better revealed by the authors quoting direct speech which entails



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a complex rhetoric of punctuation (mainly hyphenation, meaningful both atthe phonological and the semantic level). O Tess, forgiveness does notapply to the case! You were one person; now you are another. My God how can forgiveness meet such a grotesque prestidigitation as that!

He paused, contemplating this definition; then suddenly broke intohorrible laughter an unnatural and ghastly as a laugh in hell. (34-35)

Angels horrible laughter as a laugh in hell can very well be Hardysown reaction to his art of disproportioning which has turned his taste forlifes little ironies and fascination with the grotesque into a deeply pessimisticvision of universal pain and alienation. Or, cant it be the ache of modernismto come?

Extract Six

The following excerpt is taken from Dickenss novel Hard Times (1854),Chapter 2 (pp. 50-52, Penguin Books, 1988), entitled Murdering the

Innocents. The three persons, whose identity is progressively revealed, areThomas Gradgrind, the addresser in the first chapter and the beginning ofsecond chapter the schools founder , a school inspector, the addresser inthe text below, and a probationer teacher, called MChoakunchild, theschoolmaster.

The third gentleman now stepped forth. (1) A mighty man at cutting anddrying, he was; a government officer; in his way (and in most otherpeoples too), a professed pugilist; always in training, always with asystem to force down the general throat like a bolus, always to be heardof at the bar of his little Public-office, ready to fight all England. (2) Tocontinue in fistic phraseology, he had a genius for coming up to thescratch, whenever and whatever it was, and proving himself an uglycustomer. (3) He would go in and damage any subject whatever withhis right, follow up with his left, stop, exchange, counter, bore hisopponent (he always fought All England) to the ropes, and fall upon himneatly. (4) He was certain to knock the wind out of common-sense, andrender that unlucky adversary deaf to the call of time. (5) And he had itin charge from high authority to bring about the great public-officeMillennium, when Commissioners should reign upon earth. (6)Very well, said this gentleman, briskly smiling, and folding his arms. (7)

Thats a horse. (8) Now, let me ask you girls and boys, Would youpaper a room with representations of horses? (9)After a pause, one half of the children cried in chorus, Yes, sir! (10)Upon which the other half, seeing in the gentlemans face that Yes waswrong, cried out in chorus, No. sir! as the custom is, in theseexaminations. (11)Of course, No. (12) Why wouldnt you? (13)A pause. (14) One corpulent slow boy, with a wheezy manner ofbreathing, ventured the answer, Because he wouldnt paper a room atall, but would paint it. (15)You mustpaper it, said Thomas Gradgrind, whether you like it or not.

Dont tell us you wouldnt paper it. What do you mean, boy? (16)Ill explain to you, then, said the gentleman, after another and dismalpause. why you wouldnt paper a room with representations of horses.



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(17) Do you ever see horses walking up and down the sides of rooms inreality - in fact? (18) Do you? (19)Yes, sir! from one half. (20) No, sir! from the other. (21)Of course no, said the gentleman, with an indignant look at the wronghalf. (22) Why, then, you are not to have anywhere, what you donthave in fact. (23) What is called Taste, is only another name for

Fact.(24) [....]You are to be in all things regulated and governed, said the gentleman,by fact. (25) We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composedof commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people offact, and of nothing but fact. (26) You must discard the word Fancyaltogether. (27) You have nothing to do with it. (28) You are not to have,in any object of use or ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact.(29) You dont walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walkupon flowers in carpets. (30) You dont find that foreign birds andbutterflies come and perch upon your crockery. (31) You never meetwith quadrupeds going up and down walls; you must not have

quadrupeds represented upon walls. (32) You must use, said thegentleman, for all these purposes, combinations and modifications (inprimary colours) of mathematical figures which are susceptible of proofand demonstration. (33) This is the new discovery. (34) This is fact. (35)This is taste. (36)

Vocabulary comments

1. bolus (= large pill, round mass)2. fistic(= pugilistic)3. up to the scratch (= of or up to a satisfactory standard, informal)4. counter (= contradict or oppose something; do something in

opposition)5. wheezy(= panting; gasping; puffing)6. crockery(= tableware; cutlery; bowls; plates; dinner service)


1. Sowing, Reaping, and Garnering reminds one of the biblicalwords, As ye sow, so also shall ye reap. When facing educationalproblems, Victorian families used many biblical references to

conclude an argument. The One Thing Needful (the subtitle tochapter 1) also carries biblical allusions as it refers to Jesus answerto Martha who was complaining about Marys idling her time away,while she was carefully listening to Jesus (Luke 10:42). Murderingthe Innocents (the subtitle to chapter 2) points to The NewTestamentand refers to the slaughter of all male infants at the timeof the birth of Christ. What about the Romanian parents? How oftendo they refer their children to biblical teachings?

2. V. Cunningham admits that One of the major discernible overt

functions ofHard Times is that its written to undermine the literal,

the factual, the metonymic, the purely worldly way of reading theworld, and to urge in place of any such harsh vision or practice thecounter-importance of the fanciful, the figurative, the metaphoric, thefictional mode of seeing (In the Reading Gaol. Postmodernity, Texts



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and History, 1994: 133). Can you account for Cunninghamsstatement?

3. V.Cunningham considers that in Hard Times, Dickens is labouringhard to effect a transformation of the factual, even the metonymic,into the metaphor world of the Circus, and is succeeding, hands

down, in his textual battle inside the textual domain. (1994: 141)Does the critics evaluation help you understand the text better, or itencrypts it even more?

Meaning construal (one reading)Literature as allegory

That Dickenss style is infused with surplus meaning hardly needs anyfurther argumentation: It reads as The One Thing Needful(subtitle to Chapter1). We feel however tempted to add a sub-subtitle to the above fragment:Horses for courses (the dictionary explanation is: each racehorse will do

best on a certain course which peculiarly suits it; used figuratively for peopleas well). The phrase also triggers its opposite, what the Romanians call caiverzi pe peretiwhich is the mental scheme we are to fit the text into.

Irony is ubiquitously present ever since the very title: Hard Times (hardtimes was a vernacular phrase, the same with tickle times, weary times,bad times, common in folksongs especially between 1820 and 1865)whichbecomes the telos, the meaning of the text in every possible way. If we addto it the sub-titles Sowing, Reaping, Garnering, we can shut the book, as thepicture is complete. But, how much we would miss! So, lets open it againwhile thinking of the religious teaching the book might convey. It is as if theauthor spells out, translates while writing, deferring meaning all the time, as

Derrida would say. Dickenss narrative combines competing discursiveintents in the sense that factual type of discourse is engulfed, enmeshed bypoetic, metaphoric, allegorical discourse which functions metadiscursively:first as comment/ annotation on the factual, and second, as erasure/removalof previous comment. What begins as a precise, factual description of themighty third gentleman (1) turns out to be mighty discourse at cutting anddrying, mimicking the human type aforementioned. In an unexpectedlyintimate way, the intrusive, authorial voice of the narrator grandiloquentlyunfolds impromptu speech characteristics, rendering his discourse extremelyloose [e.g., disregard of end-focus principle and use of nucleus-fronting (2);use of verbless sentences (2); parenthetical constructions (2, 4); parataxis (1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6)]. The feeling of improvisatory flow of speech functions counterthe wished-for cutting and drying effect the gentleman was proffering. Thepugilistic type of discourse, to continue in fistic phraseology (3) will knockout the factual by its double-edged effect (metonymic and metaphoric)throughout the paragraph. If the sign-posts of double talk in the descriptiveparagraph (1-6) are numerous and obvious [e.g., always in training; readyto fight all England, (2); damage any subject whatever, (4); knock the windout of common-sense and render that unlucky adversary deaf to the call oftime, (5); bring about the great public-office Millennium, whenCommissioners should reign upon earth, (6)], beginning with the next

paragraph, which gives the Commissioners peroration on representation,neither imagination/ metaphor nor fact/ metonymy is properly saved. Thefactual address of the factual-minded Thomas Gradgrind to the corpulentslow boy who ventured an answer to his question [Would you paper a room



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with representations of horses?(9)] is proof of the extremely dialogic qualityof discourse. The same gentlemans say [You mustpaper it, said ThomasGradgrind, whether you like it or not. Dont tell us you wouldnt paper it (17)],although an imposition or obligation by the speaker, connotatively,represents an invitation of abolishing reality and anchoring in the realm ofimagination/fancy, whether you like it or not. This is to say that, by the end

of the gentlemans argument, the little vesselsin anticipation of SaintExuprysLittle Prince, their brother from the futurewill be dreaming of allthe forbidden fancies, horses, flowers, etc., within the mathematical figures,however susceptible of proof and demonstration they might be! So, we canrightfully say that language rises against Gradgrindery, Bounderberism, andall the promised commissioners of fact (26). A direct consequence of thecompetition of discourses is the subtle humour Dickenss discoursereplenishes with. Dickens is the master of humour as ethical barometer whichcomes out from an understanding between the beguiler and the beguiled. Heis a virtuoso of the rhetoric of humour, especially in a covert way, minglinghorror, laughter, loss, irony as to show that our circus condition bespeaks a

much richer, although inarticulate truth about things than our littleunderstandings can have within this world.

Section B: Further activities

Prompts for reflection

In order to solve the following tasks, consider the subsequent promptsfor reflection:

(a) What distinctive spoken/written mode features you detect in thefollowing writing? What kind of audience does the text assume? Whatshared knowledge does the text count on?

(b) Come with clear arguments which, according to you, have informedchoice of tense and aspect in the text (think of: author/readerrelationship; topic intricacy; evaluation of topic/agency/degree ofinvolvement; focalization; focus-shift).

(c) Comment on the (un)predictability of textual prominence devices(grammatical patterning, register type; informativity; deviance;

clustering; clefts; intertextuality; etc.)

(d) Identify textual devices informing the writers decisions as to howsome things may be made prominent or left as background. Check for:cohesive links; word-order; tense; aspect; reference pointing; cleftconstructions.

Task One

The excerpt below is the beginning of Chapter 2 from Charles Dickenss

David Copperfield, sub-titled, I Observe. Work through it and attempt ananalysis, paying special attention to voice/representation/characters. Alsoconsider the relation author/reader in the text; discuss it in terms of thelexico-grammar of the determinate and pre-existent context.



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THE first objects that assume a distinct presence before me, as I lookfar back, into the blank of my infancy, are my mother with her pretty hairand youthful shape, and Peggotty with no shape at all, and eyes sodark that they seemed to darken their whole neighbourhood in her face,and cheeks and arms so hard and red that I wondered the birds didn't

peck her in preference to apples. (1)I believe I can remember these two at a little distance apart, dwarfed tomy sight by stooping down or kneeling on the floor, and I goingunsteadily from the one to the other. I have an impression on my mindwhich I cannot distinguish from actual remembrance, of the touch ofPeggotty's forefinger as she used to hold it out to me, and of its beingroughened by needlework, like a pocket nutmeg-grater. (2)This may be fancy, though I think the memory of most of us can gofarther back into such times than many of us suppose; just as I believethe power of observation in numbers of very young children to be quitewonderful for its closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most

grown men who are remarkable in this respect, may with greaterpropriety be said not to have lost the faculty, than to have acquired it;the rather, as I generally observe such men to retain a certainfreshness, and gentleness, and capacity of being pleased, which arealso an inheritance they have preserved from their childhood. (3)I might have a misgiving that I am 'meandering' in stopping to say, this,but that it brings me to remark that I build these conclusions, in partupon my own experience of myself; and if it should appear fromanything I may set down in this narrative that I was a child of closeobservation, or that as a man I have a strong memory of my childhood, Iundoubtedly lay claim to both of these characteristics. (4)

Looking back, as I was saying, into the blank of my infancy, the firstobjects I can remember as standing out by themselves from a confusionof things, are my mother and Peggotty. What else do I remember? Letme see. (5)

Task Two

The fragment below is the beginning of Ch. 2 from R. L. StevensonsKidnapped. The story is set in Scotland at a perilous time just after theJacobite Rebellion of 1745. Sub-title, I Come to My Journeys End. Very

early in the narrative, the narrator-protagonist, David Balfour, a lad of sixteen,discovers his origins (the letter motif) after his parents death, and sets out fora journey to find out more about the famous House of Shaws, he seems tobe a descendent of. Focus on significant artistic conventions in order torender psychological and ideological particularities of the narrator-focalizer.

ON the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I saw thecountry fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midst of thisdescent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln.There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored inthe firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, I could distinguish

clearly; and both brought my country heart into my mouth. (1)Presently after, I came by a house where a shepherd lived, and got a

rough direction for the neighbourhood of Cramond; and so, from one to



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another, worked my way to the westward of the capital by Colinton, till Icame out upon the Glasgow road. And there, to my great pleasure andwonder, I beheld a regiment marching to the fifes, every foot in time; anold red-faced general on a grey horse at the one end, and at the otherthe company of Grenadiers, with their Pope's-hats. The pride of fifeseemed to mount into my brain at the sight of the red-coats and the

hearing of that merry music. (2)A little farther on, and I was told I was in Cramond parish, and began tosubstitute in my inquiries the name of the house of Shaws. It was aword that seemed to surprise those of whom I sought my way. At first Ithought the plainness of my appearance, in my country habit, and thatall dusty from the road, consorted ill with the greatness of the place towhich I was bound. But after two, or maybe three, had given me thesame look and the same answer, I began to take it in my head therewas something strange about the Shaws itself. (3)The better to set this fear at rest, I changed the form of my inquiries;and spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of his

cart, I asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called thehouse of Shaws. (4)He stopped his cart and looked at me, like the others.(5)'Ay,' said he. 'What for?' (6)'It's a great house?' I asked. (7)'Doubtless,' says he. 'The house is a big, muckle house.' (8)'Ay,' said I, 'but the folk that are in it?' (9)'Folk?' cried he. 'Are ye daft? There's nae folk there - to call folk.' (10)'What?' says I; 'not Mr Ebenezer?' (11)'Oh, ay,' says the man, 'there's the laird, to be sure, if it's him yourewanting. What'll like be your business, mannie?'(12)

'I was led to think that I would get a situation,' I said, looking as modestas I could.(13)'What?' cries the carter, in so sharp a note that his very horse started;and then, 'Well, rnannie,' he added, 'it's nane of my affairs; but ye seema decent-spoken lad; and if ye'll take a word from me, ye'll keep clear ofthe Shaws.' (14)The next person I came across was a dapper little man in a beautifulwhite wig, whom I saw to be a barber on his rounds; and knowing wellthat barbers were great gossips, I asked hi