‘A study, in a way, of self-destruction’: The Driver’s Seat and the Impotent Gaze

2021 ◽  
pp. 142-170
Author(s):  
James Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Male Gaze ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Divine Omniscience ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Limited Perspective ◽  
Material Studies

This chapter extends the preceding chapter’s discussion of The Driver’s Seat to offer a thorough reassessment of its largely one-sided critical reception, as well as its nuanced approach to the inextricable relationship between gender, narrative perspective and epistemological power. It argues that the novel – which has been read predominantly as Spark’s most starkly drawn parable of human fallibility versus divine omniscience – is concerned instead with that which escapes and thus destabilises the exacting, investigative and emphatically male gaze of its narrator. Through a critical framework which combines critical commentary on the nouveau roman, previously unexamined archival material, studies of metaphysical detective fiction, and theory related to narrative point of view, the chapter shifts focus from existing readings of the protagonist, Lise, as the hopeless object of a godlike narrative viewpoint, and considers her instead as a captivating figure who, even after death, confronts and commands the epistemologically limited perspective of her hopelessly fascinated narrator-voyeur. Spark’s description of The Driver’s Seat as ‘a study, in a way, of self-destruction’ can thus be seen to relate not only to Lise’s determined drive to death, but to the subversive unravelling of the narrating ‘self,’ tormented and undone by the novel’s perennially unknowable subject.

scholarly journals Text Fragmentation in the novel “Troubled Blood” by Robert Galbraith

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Tatiana Osadchaya ◽  
Galina Lushnikova
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Special Role ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Detective Novel ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
Puzzle Solving ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Literary Devices

The article examines specifics of fragmentation in contemporary works of fiction. Identifying elements that connect heterogeneous episodes or fragments can reshape readers’ experience and serve as a key for interpretation. The analysis of the detective novel “Troubled Blood” by R. Galbraith has demonstrated that fragmentation is realized at different text levels and in different compositional and stylistic forms, namely, within the categories of temporality and locality, in the development of plot lines, within the categories of description and reasoning, in dialogues, polylogues, internal monologues. The category of intertextuality plays a special role in the fragmentation of the novel under study. Non-linear narrative, intended lack of chronological and psychological sequence serve to effectively introduce the main focus of detective fiction – suspense and puzzle-solving; these literary devices also contribute to its unique narrative perspective.

DISTANT VIEWS:DANIEL DERONDA, ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL BOOKS, AND THE SPECTRE OF PALESTINE

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-606
Author(s):  
Jessica Duffin Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Male Gaze ◽  
Daniel Deronda ◽  
Political Perspective ◽  
Travel Books ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
New Nation ◽  
Woman's Body

George Eliot'sDaniel Deronda(1876), a novel that spurred Zionism in Palestine, opens with a scene of watching and thus moves from a male gaze on a woman's body to a project of envisioning a new nation in a distant land. The national drama of the novel turns on the ideological meaning of gazing at landscape, as Daniel Deronda replaces one political perspective with another. Indeed, Mordecai's political dream of a Jewish national future involves “Looking towards a land” (454; bk. 6, ch. 42): his nationalist vision transpires as a gaze upon a far-off place. Colonial ambition itself can be understood as an ideological view of landscape as open to possession, a gaze on the territory of others that insists often violently on itself, to the exclusion of other political perspectives. Motivated not by sex but by moral and political domination, this colonial gaze nationalizes viewership, and makes the landscape it imagines real. For Deronda himself, nationality itself is a kind of viewership. He wants to study abroad, because, he says, “I want to be an Englishman, but I want to understand other points of view” (155; bk. 2, ch. 16). Being an Englishman is a “point of view,” a perspective to claim, to the possible exclusion of other nationalized ways of seeing landscapes both domestic and distant.

scholarly journals The Illusion of Magic Realism as a Stratagem in the Hound of the Baskervilles

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Moslem Ahmadi ◽  
Mosleh Ahmadi
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Magic Realism ◽  
Detective Novel ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Freedom Of Action

The focus of the current research is on the relationship between detective fiction and the art of magic. Such a study is important in order to bring into surface a hidden aspect in one of the most popular novels of detective fiction, i.e., The Hound of the Baskervilles and to reconsider this novel from a new and different point of view. The research approach adopted in this paper includes reconsidering the antagonist of the novel as a professional illusionist rather than a mere villain. The findings from this research provide evidence that adopting an illusionist’s position can provide the antagonist of the novel with concealment and more freedom of action. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that resort to the art of magic on the antagonist’s part can become a great challenge to a detective in a detective novel. This paper recommends that all the antagonists of detective fiction assume hidden roles for achieving their goals not yet known by the readers.

Persuasion: Fellow Creatures

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pam Morris
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Class Relations ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
Class Hierarchies ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Porous Boundaries

Persuasion overtly foregrounds the self as embodied: physical accidents and sickness are recurrent. Sir Walter Eliot’s belief in the time-defying bodily grace of nobility is subject to Austen’s harshest irony. The transition from vertically ordered place to horizontal space in Persuasion is more extreme than in any other of the completed novels. Anne Elliot’s movement from social exclusiveness to socially inclusive possibility allows Austen to challenge gender and class hierarchies traditionally held to be inborn. Her writerly experimentation expands the possibilities of narrative perspective to encompass the porous boundaries of the physical, the emotional and the rational that constitute any moment of consciousness. Her focalisation techniques in the text look directly towards Woolf’s stylist innovations. A chain of references to guns and shooting gathers into the novel contentious contemporary discursive networks on class relations, notions of masculinity and the nature of creaturely life.

KONSEP DIRI “ I “ DAN “ME” TOKOH HIROKO DALAM NOVEL NAMAKU HIROKO KARYA NH.DINI

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Social Customs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.

Wacana Kolonial dalam Novel Max Havelaar: Sebuah Kajian Poskolonial

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 411
Author(s):  
Abu Bakar Ramadhan Muhamad
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Voice

AbstrakHegemoni kolonialisme dalam budaya poskolonial merupakan alasan penelitian inikemudian mengkaji wacana kolonial dalam novel Max Havellar (MH) khususnya dampakditimbulkannya. Dampak dimaksud adalah posisi keberpihakan pemikiran tersirat darikarya tersebut. Hasil pembahasan menunjukkan, secara temporal maupun permanen MHmenyuarakan ketidakadilan dalam kondisi-kondisi kolonial menyangkut penindasan sangpenjajah terhadap terjajah. Hanya saja, upaya mengatasnamakan atau mewakili suarakaum terjajah terbukti mengimplikasikan ciri ideologis statis kerangka kolonialisme(orientalisme); yakni cara pandang Eropasentris, di mana “Barat” sebagai self adalah superior,dan “Timur” sebagai other adalah inferior. Dalam konteks poskolonialisme, MH dengan sifatkritisnya yang berupaya “menyuarakan” nasib pribumi terjajah, justru menampilkan stigmapenguatan kolonialitas itu sendiri secara hegemonik. Artinya, “menyuarakan” nasib pribumidimaknai sebagai keberpihankan kolonial yang kontradiktif, di mana stigma penguatankolonialitas justru lebih terasa, ujung-ujungnya melanggengkan hegemoni kolonial. Tidakmembela yang terjajah, tetapi memperhalus cara kerja mesin kolonial.AbstractThe hegemony of colonialism in the culture of postcolonial society is the reason this studythen examines the colonial discourse in the novel Max Havellar (MH) in particular the impactit brings. The impact in question is the implied position of thought in the work. The resultsof the discussion show that, temporarily or permanently, MH voiced injustice in the colonialconditions regarding the oppression of the colonist against the colonized. However, the effort toname or represent the voice of the colonized has proven to imply a static ideological characterin the framework of colonialism (orientalism); ie Eropacentric point of view, in which “West” asself is superior, and “East” as the other is the inferior. In the context of postcolonialism, MH withits critical nature that seeks to “voice” the fate of the colonized natives, actually presents thestigma of strengthening coloniality itself hegemonicly. That is, “voicing” the fate of the pribumiis interpreted as a contradictory colonial flare, where the stigma of strengthening colonialityis more pronounced, which ultimately perpetuates the hegemony of colonialism. No longerdefending the colonized, but refining the workings of the colonial machinery.

Tanggapan dan Horizon Harapan Pembaca terhadap Le Petit Prince Karya A. De Saint-Exupery: Tinjauan Resepsi Sastra

Metahumaniora ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Tania Intan ◽  
Trisna Gumilar
Keyword(s):  
Research Data ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Reading ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Research Type

AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk (1) mendekripsikan tanggapan pembaca terhadap novel Le Petit Prince (2) mendeskripsikan horizon harapan pembaca terhadap novel Le Petit Prince, dan (3) mendeskripsikan faktor-faktor penyebab perbedaan tanggapan dan horizon harapan pembaca. Penelitian ini termasuk jenis penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Data penelitian berupa teks yang memuat tanggapan pembaca novel Le Petit Princeyang terdiri dari 20 orang, sedangkan sumber datanya berupa artikel dan makalah yang dimuat di media massa cetak dan elektronik termasuk internet. Instrumen penelitian berupa seperangkat konsep tentang pembaca, tanggapan pembaca, dan horizon harapan. Teknik pengumpulan data dengan cara observasi dan data dianalisis dengan menggunakan teknik deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian yang didapat sebagai berikut. (1) Seluruh pembaca menanggapi atau menilai positif unsur tema, alur, tokoh, latar, sudut pandang, gaya bahasa, teknik penceritaan, bahasa, dan isi novel Le Petit Prince. (2) Harapan sebagian besar pembaca sebelum membaca novel Le Petit Prince sesuai dengan kenyataan ke sembilan unsur di dalam novel Le Petit Prince, sehingga pembaca dapat dengan mudah menerima dan memberikan pujian pada novel Le Petit Prince. (3) Faktor penyebab perbedaan tanggapan dan horizon harapan pembaca selain perbedaan stressing unsur yang ditanggapi juga karena perbedaan pengetahuan tentang sastra, pengetahuan tentang kehidupan, dan pengalaman membaca karya sastra.Kata kunci: tanggapan pembaca, horizon harapan, Le Petit PrinceAbstractThis study aims to (1) describe reader’s responses to the novel Le Petit Prince (2) to describe the reader's expectations horizon of Le Petit Prince's novel, and (3) to describe the factors causing differences in responses and the horizon of readers' expectations. This research is a descriptive qualitative research type. The research data consist of a set of paragraphs that contains readers' responses to Le Petit Prince's novel, while the data sources are articles and papers published in print and electronic mass media including the internet. The research instruments are a set of reader concepts, reader responses, and expectations horizon. The technique of collecting data is observation and data are analyzed by using qualitative descriptive technique. The results obtained are as follow: (1) All readers respond and valuethe theme elements,plots, characters, background, point of view, language, titles, storytelling techniques, language, and extrinsic novel Le Petit Prince positively. (2) The expectations of most readers before reading Le Petit Prince's novels are in accordance with the nine facts in Le Petit Prince's novel, so readers can easily accept and give prise to Le Petit Prince's novel. (3) Factors causing differences in responses and horizon of readers' expectations other than the stressing differences of the elements being addressed also due to the differences in knowledge of literature, knowledge of life and literary reading experience. Keywords: readers responses, expectations horizon, Le Petit Prince

Miasto jako labirynt. Obraz Tel-Aviwu-Jaffy w „Piotrusiu” Leo Lipskiego

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-341
Author(s):  
Beata Tarnowska
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
Narrative Perspective

Summary This article examines the urban themes in Leo Lipski’s micro-novel Piotruś: An ApocryphalTale from 1960. The narrative relies on both traditional realism (for the most part) and the 20thcentury subjective point-of-view technique to represent urban space, which in this case belongs to be a well-defined geographical location. The use of personalized narrative perspective turns the urban space of Tel Aviv-Jafa - heterogeneous and subject to differing assessments - into a labyrinth, closed, dense, expanding horizontally, chthonic, and alien.

PROBLEMS OF EQUIVALENCE AND ADEQUACY IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE NOVEL “NAVOI” BY AYBEK

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 153-160
Author(s):  
Elmurod Tursunov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Alternative Translation

Some inappropriatenesses and defects on the issue of equivalence and adequacy in the translated version of the novel “Navoi” by Aybek are revealed in this article. These inappropriatenesses and defects are described in great detail with the help of examples and alternative translation variants are suggested, the problems of equivalence and adequacy in translation studies are researched from the scientific point of view, as well as, views and comments of the Uzbek and foreign translators and scientists are provided on theissue of the two concepts

L’absence chez Michel Butor. L’Emploi du temps et Degrés

2012 ◽  
pp. 66-80
Author(s):  
Michał Mrozowicki
Keyword(s):  
Human Memory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Michel Butor ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Narrative Mode ◽  
The City

Michel Butor, born in 1926, one of the leaders of the French New Novel movement, has written only four novels between 1954 and 1960. The most famous of them is La Modification (Second thoughts), published in 1957. The author of the paper analyzes two other Butor’s novels: L’Emploi du temps (Passing time) – 1956, and Degrés (Degrees) – 1960. The theme of absence is crucial in both of them. In the former, the novel, presented as the diary of Jacques Revel, a young Frenchman spending a year in Bleston (a fictitious English city vaguely similar to Manchester), describes the narrator’s struggle to survive in a double – spatial and temporal – labyrinth. The first of them, formed by Bleston’s streets, squares and parks, is symbolized by the City plan. During his one year sojourn in the city, using its plan, Revel learns patiently how to move in its different districts, and in its strange labyrinth – strange because devoid any centre – that at the end stops annoying him. The other, the temporal one, symbolized by the diary itself, the labyrinth of the human memory, discovered by the narrator rather lately, somewhere in the middle of the year passed in Bleston, becomes, by contrast, more and more dense and complex, which is reflected by an increasinly complex narration used to describe the past. However, at the moment Revel is leaving the city, he is still unable to recall and to describe the events of the 29th of February 1952. This gap, this absence, symbolizes his defeat as the narrator, and, in the same time, the human memory’s limits. In Degrees temporal and spatial structures are also very important. This time round, however, the problems of the narration itself, become predominant. Considered from this point of view, the novel announces Gerard Genette’s work Narrative Discourse and his theoretical discussion of two narratological categories: narrative voice and narrative mode. Having transgressed his narrative competences, Pierre Vernier, the narrator of the first and the second parts of the novel, who, taking as a starting point, a complete account of one hour at school, tries to describe the whole world and various aspects of the human civilization for the benefit of his nephew, Pierre Eller, must fail and disappear, as the narrator, from the third part, which is narrated by another narrator, less audacious and more credible.

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