CHANGES IN THE NARRATIVE STRUCTUREOF THE ENGLISH MODERN NOVEL Lector univ. MARIANA – RODICA PIOARIU Univ. "1 Decembrie 1918", Alba Iulia For two centuries the dominant form of narrative literature has been the novel, the most flourishing of the literary forms. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a novel is a "fictitious prose narrative or a tale of considerable length in which characters and actions representative of the real life of past or present times are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity" 1. In his book entitled The Nature of Narrative, Robert Scholes says: "By narrative we mean all those literary works which are distinguished by two characteristics: the presence of a story and a story-teller. A drama is a story without a story-teller; in it characters act out directly what Aristotle called an "imitation" of such actions as we find in life. A lyric, like a drama, is a direct presentation in which a single actor, the poet (...) sings or muses, or speaks for us to hear or overhear... For writing to be narrative no more and no less than a teller and a tale are required"2. The novel is a narrative. In other words it is in some sense a "telling" rather than an "enacting" and this distinguishes it from the drama, although novels can contain very dramatic scenes, and often the reader may forget that what we learn of characters and events is not direct, but mediated through a particular telling, a narrative source. If we examine the evolution of narrative along centuries we'll see that the story was the main concern of the writers in the eighteenth nineteenth centuries, while the story-teller became the main preoccupation of the writer in our age. Robert Scholes makes a very important distinction between two main antithetical modes of narrative: the empirical, whose primary allegiance is to the real and the fictional, with allegiance to the ideal. The empirical narratives subdivide into history, which is true to fact, and what the author calls "mimes", or "mimetic" which is true to experience, to sensation and environment, i.e. a mode of narrative which reflects reality. Fictional narratives subdivide into two main components: the romantic and the didactic, or romance and allegory. In the fictional narratives there is a distance that the author assumes from reality, in favour of the abstract, the mythological or the philosophical. While empirical narratives aim to one or another kind of truth, fictional narratives aim to either beauty or goodness. One of the finest books devoted to the study of the narrative tradition was Clara Reeve's The Progress of Romance through Times, Countries and Manners. The author already distinguishes the romance from the novel, without prejudice to either form, her distinction being still preserved today. "The Romance is a heroic fable, which treats of fabulous persons and things. The Novel is a picture of real life and manners, and of the times in which it is written. The Romance in lofty and elevated language, describes what never happened nor is likely to happen. The Novel gives a familiar relation of such things, as pass every day before our eyes, such as may happen to our friend, or to ourselves: and the perfection of it, is to represent every scene, in so easy and natural a manner and to make them appear so probable, as to deceive us into a persuasion (at least while we are reading) that all is real, until we are affected by the joys or distresses of the persons in the story, as if they were our own"3. 69 when it first sprang into vigorous life. constitutes its value.in art. in the middle of the eighteenth century.no limit to his possible experiments. form and design that every great art possesses. The novel as a genre meant to reflect truth . The first writer to discuss the theoretical aspect of the novel was Henry Fielding.. at the end of the th 19 century. A number of writers. to begin with.) suspended in the chamber of consciousness and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue. that we speak as critics. unless there is freedom to feel and say. But within a year or two. the result of choice and comparison. there have been signs of returning animation . a direct impression of life: that. and to depict reality and the problems of the average man. H. or experience. as well as the torment and responsibility of the novelist is that there is no limit to what he may attempt as an executant . The advantage. good-humoured feeling abroad that a novel is a novel. the form.social. and achieved content. and therefore no value. Consequently. a form differing from comedy as the serious epic from tragedy.) it takes to itself the faintest hints of life. Among the "fin de siècle" novelists. of being the expression of an artistic faith. From the time of Smollett and Sterne in the 18 th century to Henry James. Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford sought to give the novel the beauty of structure. success"6. both contributing to the bettering of the narrative mode. And later: "Experience is never limited and it is never complete: it is an immense sensibility. Henry James brought to the novel aesthetic refinement and an elaborate artistry.. But. Many young creating writers have been deeply influenced by the critical standpoint adopted by such American critics as Mark Schorer. and merely meant to entertain. James brooded intensely upon the theoretical aspects raised by the practice of his craft. It had no air of having a theory. He called the novel "a comic epic poem in prose"... He pointed out that to express truth as it appears to the creative temperament. which is greater or lesser according to the intensity of the impression. themes and vocabulary gave the novel the air of authority. In his essay The Art of Fiction he commented upon the new era lying ahead of the novel as follows: "Only a short time ago it might have been supposed that the English novel was not what the French call DISCUTABLE. it converts the very pulses of the air into revelations"7. to elevate the novel into an art form. is technique"4.. discoveries. Noting that "the only reason for the substance of a novel is that it does attempt to represent 8 life" we may conclude what the imitation of life and the aspiration towards "vraisemblance".. or the 70 . Henry James.) During the period I have alluded to there was a comfortable. but of experience. a conviction. two things were necessary: freedom and experience. against the idealized here and his chivalrous deeds. in his Preface to Joseph Andrews. (. the novel got along without a literary theory. the work of art as a work of art. a pudding is a pudding. efforts. It is the very atmosphere of the mind and when the mind is imaginative (. For him the novel was "the best form of art to express the truth of life". a kind of huge spider-web (. economic or spiritual .the era of discussion would appear to have been a certain extent opened"5. who writes in his essay Technique as Discovery: "Modern criticism has shown us that to speak of content as such is not to speak of art at all. and that this was the end of it. a "poetics" of its own or a coherent set of literary principles. It is the most suitable literary genre to report the changes in society and in the spiritual life of people.. But there will be no intensity at all. improvements had taken place in the technique of story-telling and an ever more competent handling of plot. Approaching the art of fiction with a profound respect and with scrupulous literary care. a consciousness of itself behind it. and that is only when we speak of the achieved content. the luxury. for some reason or other.From the standpoint of the modern reader we may say that there is a certain fusion between the two modes. such as Flaubert. or art.. The difference between content. "A novel is in its broadest definition a personal. the status of the novel was still undefined. and an actor-narrator. changing points of view. In order to keep it he replaces the omniscient writer by an observer. Thus his characters are introduced not by a straightforward presentation but by gradual unfolding. And at its best. It has led to emphasis on the proper choice of "point of view" 12. They are against the rendering of reality within the traditional plot and its having a definite ending. Conrad increased the illusion of verisimilitude by abandoning the omniscient narrator. that in each of the parts there is something of each of the other parts"13. of a passage of description that is not in its intention narrative. They are only tremulations on the ether.. In his Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus he said: "My task is to make you hear.H. a passage of dialogue that is not in its intention descriptive. like any other organism. One of the effects of a more self-conscious attitude to the narrator's art has been the tendency of critics to judge all novels by post-jamesian standards. A novel is a living thing. I think. In the Art of Fiction Henry James writes: "I cannot imagine composition existing in a series of blocks nor conceive in any novel worth discussion at all.10 Referring to the narrative techniques James attacks Anthony Trollope. a course of dessert and ices and the artist in fiction is regarded as a sort of meddlesome doctor who forbids agreeable aftertastes" 9. of the so-called "illusion of life" constitute the fundamental vocation of the novel. It must aspire to the plasticity of sculptures.. Lawrence says the following: "The novel is one bright book of life. and in proportion as it lives will it be found.. to make you feel-it is before all to make you see". an art that deals very directly with life .that first and that always". In other words the rise of the modern novel coincides with the rise of the psychological novel. all one and continuous. usually stands above the action and plays the part of an intelligent witness or reporter. to be man alive. James called that "a terrible crime" that destroys the "illusion of reality". and the mind of a protagonist is projected without the author's comment or explanation. Books are not life. revealed from the inside. In his essay Why the Novel Matters D. who in a digression tells the reader that his characters are only "making believe". The above passage suggests the inadequacy of studying the novel simply through an analysis of plot and character. to the color of painting and to the "magic suggestiveness of music". can help you" 14.rendering of the truth of existence. but it opens for infinite possibilities of interpretations. He abandoned the linear development of plot and the chronological order of events in favour of the multiply-told story and of the apparently chaotic structure which requires the reader's constant cooperation in the deliniation of a story. This led them to insist on the importance of objectivity and absence of authorial comment. a touch of truth of any sort that does not partake of the nature of incident. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble. In the modern novel. an eye-witness of the events 71 .. These remarks help us understand that the art of the novel is primarily a narrative one. as John Colmer has pointed out in his essay: Form and Design of the Novel.the life of man in society or as an isolated individual. "The "ending" of a novel" . a character whose function is to reflect the doings of the others and to comment upon them. the experience described does not close at the end of the novel. "a central reflector" or a "commanding center". the novel supremely. the modern novel is concerned with the psychological reality of the mind. and "admits that the events he narrates have not really happened and that he can give his narrative any turn the reader may like best" 11.e. to be whole man alive: that is the point. by introducing various observers. i. But whereas the traditional novel was concerned with presenting especially external realities in a logical plot and typical characters.states Henry James in The Art of Fiction – "is for many persons like that of a good dinner. To be alive. For Joseph Conrad fiction must be an "impression conveyed through the senses". but it also reveals the difficulties of discussing critically such a complex organism as a novel. as Ford Madox Ford remarked. as represented by Henry James and Joseph Conrad. an approach summed up in Ford Madox Ford's statement: "The first thing the novelist has to learn is self-effacement . Joyce brought to its height this tendency that the novel should go deeper and deeper inside one's consciousness or mind. but dark and sombre in its depths. so that one may not escape illusion and vraisemblance. Thus music and narrations are alike. minutely depicted in light touches with a dreamy benevolence and a hidden anxiety. Thus the demain of the "rhetoric of fiction" comes into life. Woolf and especially J. life seen from inside. Set against the traditional realistic fiction. contribute to enrich the filed of modern fiction with a new world outlook and new means of artistic expression. as a result of the multiple mutations undergone by the novel the need for a theory of the literary experiment becomes compulsory and inescapable. time is the medium of music: music divides. a "semitransparent envelope" the novel should explore the "darker zones of human psychology" by recording "the myriads of impressions which fall upon the human mind in the order in which they appear". Virginia Woolf claimed that in order to come closer to real life seen as a "luminous halo". In her critical essay Modern Fiction. as a succession in time. Virginia Woolf. together with new concepts of time influenced by William James's view of the "spacious present" representing the continuous flow of the "already" into the "not yet. and can shorten it yet enhance its value. measures. thus projecting them in the natural flow of time and memory. In the 20th century the novel has been affected by the ever more penetrating developments in science.(Marlow). which both meet in humor"17. and sentiments brought about a break away from the aims. which could be achieved by means of the interior monologue technique or the stream of consciousness technique. the "new novel". In fact this unusual emphasis on the thematic importance of time is one of the distinguishing features of modern literature. as such. The novelist's concern gradually shifts from outside events to inner life. Mann. by virtue of its poetics . We borrowed the term of "rhetoric" from the 72 . In the second half of the 20th century. a prismatic view of things. both at once. "Can one tell ..the poetics of the hidden logic. metaphors) characteristic of poetry. Similarly. Both are inextricably bound up with it. In Albérès`s opinion "the art of the novel in England ended by becoming the art of the English novel: inner and soft sensibility.. especially in psychology and linguistics. as inextricably as are bodies in space. the interest in the story diminishes and the inner consciousness of the author becomes the most important fact. as it is the medium of life. time itself. Thus V. or William Faulkner . Thomas Mann. Shifts in time. for its own sake? That would surely be an absurd undertaking. The demolition of traditional concepts of plot. In this respect the new psychoanalytical science initiated by Freud and Jung is such felt in the novel. in his novel The Magic Mountain gives us a profound and subtle meditation on the theme of time. of rhetorical management and symbolism gave us a new art of the novel. Therefore a lot of changes occur not only in the novel's subject-matter but also in its form. results in an effect of greater truthfulness.that is to say. A multiplicity of angles. attitudes and techniques or realism. This recording of impressions did away with the logical sequence of words and suggested a temporal. profoundly affected by the structural and formal progress in the art of fiction. in that can only present themselves as a flowing. character. of retrospect into anticipation. By effacing himself from the scene of the action. the novel becomes extremely elastic: the material of life is systematically disorganized. colourful on the surface. and Henry Bergson`s concept of durée of time which affected the modern novelist especially in his handling of plot structure. In the hands of James Joyce. Instead of the external observation of reality the writers are tempted by the psychological reality and by the mystery of individual existence 16. from the whole world to a "slice of life". the use of contra punctual technique borrowed from music as well as other devices (symbols. an alter-ego of the author himself. asserts Th. the tactics and orders of point of view and rhythm. as one thing after another"15. "For time is the medium of narration. who comments on the events while unfolding them. narrate time. articulates time.". subjective presentation of events. the writer places the reader into direct contact with facts and characters and lets him judge for himself.the greatest innovators in literary technique. He defines rhetoric as "the art of communication with readers" or "the transfer of ideas. rather than he is hearing an author talk about people. besides characters. It is. So. The literary work is not only an "imitation" but also "recreation" or "re-presentation". The artist does not imitate servilely. reader and rhetoric. We should consider them in their interdependence. intentions from one mind to another". of his ideas and feelings. one or several narrators. In fact. because art refines nature. The stress laid on the narrative techniques in our age proves literature's high degree of selfconsciousness. an expression of his inner world and the embodiment of an emotion. author. the four main points mentioned above. The novelist uses rhetoric. to make us see things as he sees them. respectively. the expressive theory. a code and a receiver corresponding. artist and audience (reader).American critic Wayne Booth who considers that the rhetorical dimension of literature is inescapable18. An important requirement of the new art is that the reader should be drawn into the story. By using an objective point of view an author can make himself unobtrusive. noticing changes not only from chapter to chapter. to reality. by being given the sense that he is overhearing people. In analysing the novel one should have in mind Abram`s generic model for the literary work. whether he comments directly on his characters or tries to disappear exercises a tight control over his readers` responses. can force the reader to draw his own conclusions from what is seen and heard and can (by recording much dialogue) push the story in the direction of a play. in any act of communication there is a referent. with three basic points of reference: "reality. combination and transition. In conclusion. Every novelist. since he is not only transposed into the fictional universe. but even within the same scene or sentence. due to the inescapable rhetoric interference. but he actually takes part in the creation of that universe. The work of art is at the same time the expression. we may assert that the process of narrative transmission is extremely complex and there aren't very strict rules separating the basic narrative situations. lying inside or outside the space and having large and multiple perspectives over the same problem. an arsenal of "artistic expression techniques that will make the literary work accessible in the highest degree possible" 19. at the same time. NOTES CHAPTER 1 1 73 . The novel is thus conceived as a field or space in which act directly or implicitly. he recreates reality and presents it to us in a fashion in which we see its essence. the art of persuasion. on the part of the reader. Accessibility is conceived as an emotional participation as an implication in the substance of the work and an agreement to its system of values. the reader's importance as a re-creator of the text in the process of reading it. Consequently we may speak of four main theories which define the status of the literary work: the mimetic or imitative theory. is much emphasized. or that of the linguistic medium should be added"20. If has an effect and it is achieved through a linguistic medium. to which the rhetoric dimension. a sender. But rhetoric also reflects to the ensemble and techniques by which a narrative is communicated to the reader and to their effects on him. motifs. the pragmatic and the rhetoric one21. Albérès.. Bucureşti. 1987. 1968. 92. p.cit. Character and the Novel.84. 4.cit. ed..4.cit. John Colmer. 1975. 9.1. Henry James. pp.f. Jeremy Hawthorn. 15.f. p.89. Ibidem. p. by Oliver and Boyd. p. Robert Kellog. New York. op. Virgil Stanciu. p. the Viking Press.327..cit. c.325. p. 8. p.cit.. 1985. p. 11. London.325. pp.4. Ibidem. Studying the Novel. W. Editura pentru literatură universală. 1976.9.4.. 20 Heinrich F. 3. Henry James. 1981. 6. The Art of Fiction in American Literature Survey.3. in Ileana Galea. p.J. Cluj Napoca. Ştiinţa textului şi analiza de text. 2. 13. c.M. cf. Plett. Henry James. New York. 177. 323-324.100..cit. 12. London.329. 17. Editura Univers.. Ileana Galea.1. London. 5. 6-7. p. op. p. Approaches to the Novel. Robert Scholes. by Edwards Arnold Publishers. A History of English Literature. p. p.8. Ibidem. Ileana Galea. 14. 19. op. 1965. Oxford University Press. op. Ford Madox Ford: Towards a New Theory of the Novel. Henry James. John Colmer. in Studies in the English Novel of the First Half of the Twentieth Century. Wayne Booth. 21. op. op. R. p. p. 18. The Nature of Narrative. Istoria romanului modern. ed. op. 16. Cluj Napoca. Bucureşti. p. op. p. See John Colmer. 74 .112.cit. 1966. Harvey.7. Retorica romanului. 10.. p.88.cit. Virgil Stanciu. 7. p. Ibidem.