Читайте также:
|
Space in Discourse and Story
On the level of discourse the category of space comprises the spatial dimensions of the medium: the length of the book, the size of the pages, amount of empty space on a page and so on. These aspects are very rarely considered in traditional literary analysis though recent criticism has argued that the spatial and material conditions of a text influences the way this text is read.
On the level of story the category of space or setting forms an important component in the creation and communication of meaning.
Fictional Space and Real Space
In narrative space has to be presented verbally. It thus exists, ultimately, only in the reader’s imagination. Readers create their notions of fictional space from their own experience in the real world. That is to say, a person’s ideas of how houses, gardens, parks, streets, etc. look, is dependent on that person’s actual experience of houses, gardens, parks and streets. In turn, convincing descriptions of spatial dimensions in a narrative serve to increase the narrative’s authenticity, it provides a link to the reader’s reality. Readers tend to imagine the characters moving through ‘real’ space, as they do themselves.
Space and Meaning
Some settings are relatively unimportant. They serve simply as a decorative backdrop helping the reader to visualise the action and adding authenticity to the story. Other settings are closely linked to the meaning of the work: the author focuses on elements of setting to create atmosphere or mood, or the setting plays a major role in shaping the characters' identity and destiny. Thus space and setting in narrative can be not merely a space for characters to move in – since they have to be somewhere – it contributes additional meaning to a narrative by providing either correspondences or contrasts to the plot or the characters. (Broadly speaking, there is a direct ratio between the attention given to the setting and its importance in the total work. If the setting is sketched briefly, we can assume that it is of little importance, or that the writer wishes us to think that the action could take place anywhere and at any time. If, on the other hand, the passages describing the setting are extensive and highly developed, or are written in connotative or poetic language, we can assume that the setting is being used for more profound or symbolic purposes).
Some aspects in particular should be noted:
• atmosphere
• space and character
• space and plot
• symbolic space
The setting can provide a certain atmosphere. Darkness and narrow spaces, for instance, are commonly associated with threatening or restrictive atmospheres. Wide open or sunlit spaces create an atmosphere of freedom. Such atmospheres can then be used to provide a characteristic background for a character. The setting may function as a mirror reflecting a prevailing mood or reinforce the emotions felt by a character; barren landscapes may mirror despair and desperation; stormy weather may provide a suitable backdrop for emotional turmoil. However, the setting may also be ironic or comment on the characters' state of mind or behaviour in an indirect way.
The setting of the story often shapes the characters' identities and destinies – making people what they are. Theories of sociology in the last 150 or so years have suggested that character is determined by social background, by milieu. Novel writers since the later nineteenth century have taken up this concept and have presented characters whose personality is completely formed by their milieu. Someone growing up in an inner city slum is likely to have a different outlook on and approach to life than someone who has grown up in wide open rural spaces, in close contact with nature. Stories sometimes show us characters that are direct products of their environment, reflecting its moods and values. Often, however, stories depict characters who rebel against their restrictive settings and fight to break free of their stifling environment.
The environment in which a character moves can function as a means of characterisation as it does in the following example:
Like as he is to look at, so is his apartment in the dusk of the present afternoon. Rusty, out of date, withdrawing from attention, able to afford it. Heavy broad-backed old-fashioned mahogany and horsehair chairs, not easily lifted, obsolete tables with spindle-legs and dusty baize covers, presentation prints of the holders of great titles in the last generation, or the last but one, environ him. A thick and dingy Turkey-carpet muffles the floor where he sits, attended by two candles in old-fashioned silver candlesticks, that give a very insufficient light to his large room. The titles on the backs of his books have retired into the binding; everything that can have a lock has got one; no key is visible. (Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 10).
This excerpt describes Mr Tulkinghorn’s room. Like his room (the narrator points this out), Mr Tulkinghorn is extremely secretive (dark, muffled, retired, locked), nobody knows how much he knows, he is closely associated with members of the nobility (“holders of great titles”) and he knows their secrets past and present. Tulkinghorn does not arouse much sympathy in the reader mainly because he is not accessible to any emotional appeal. His room also expresses this immovability: It is out-of date, “rusty” and “dusty”, “not easily lifted”, all epithets which suggest that there has not been any movement for some time.
The manner in which a character perceives the setting may tell the reader more about the character and his or her state of mind than about the setting itself. When, for example, an urban landscape is described by a character as 'desolate' and 'ominous', the writer may be telling us more about how the character is feeling rather than accurately describing the setting. The writer is using the outer world setting to give us an insight into the character's inner world.
The setting may also reinforce and clarify the theme of a novel or short story. The physical setting in which the action takes place may symbolically represent the central ideas of the work. A solitary house in bleak, hostile surroundings may reinforce the theme of man's struggle against nature. Many modern novels take place in what are termed 'alien settings', where even the familiar seems unfamiliar. The characters are often exiles, tourists or expatriates, and the inhospitable setting reinforces the theme of loss of roots and loss of home which is common to much modern fiction. The symbolic quality of space is to a large extent culturally determined. In our culture, for instance, a stereotypical association with cities is fashion, a fast and exciting life, but also depravity. In contrast, we often associate country spaces with backwardness, calm life but also with innocence.
Дата добавления: 2015-01-12; просмотров: 206 | Поможем написать вашу работу | Нарушение авторских прав |