7/29/2019 Exercise 1 - Modern Short Stories

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UFES/CCHN/DLL/British Literature: from Modernism to theContemporary AgeProf. Mrio Cludio Simes

Student: Andr Heitor Gomes Zabatiero

EXERCISE 1 Read the following excerpt by contemporary writer DavidLodge*.

Modernist fiction, then, is experimental or innovatory in form, displayingmarked deviations from preexisting modes of discourse, literary and non-literary.Modernist fiction is concerned with consciousness, and also with the subconsciousand unconscious workings of the human mind. Hence the structure of externalobjective events essential to traditional narrative art is diminished in scope andscale, or presented very selectively or obliquely, or is almost completely dissolved, inorder to make room for introspection, analysis, reflection and reverie. Modernist prose hasno real beginning, since it plunges us into a flowing stream of experience with

which we gradually familiarize ourselves by a process of inference and association; andits ending is usually open or ambiguous, leaving the reader in doubt as to the finaldestiny of the characters. To compensate for the diminution of narrative structure andunity, alternative methods of aesthetic ordering become more prominent, suchas allusion to or imitation of literary models or mythical archetypes, and therepetition-with-variation of motifs, images, symbols []. Modernist fictioneschews the straight chronological ordering of its material, and the use of a reliable,omniscient and intrusive narrator. It employs, instead, either a single, limited point ofview, or method of multiple points of view, all more or less limited and fallible: and ittends towards a fluid or complex handling of time, involving much cross-referencebackwards and forwards across the chronological span of the action.

*Lodge, D. The Modes of Modern Writing: Metaphor, Metonymy, and the Typology of Modern Literature.London: Edward Arnold, 1993.

Now, analyze either Katherine Mansfields A Cup of Tea or Virginia Woolfs Solid Objectsin the light of the excerpt above. Try to demonstrate how the short-story fits (or not) intothe characteristics of Modern Prose described by David Lodge.

The short story selected for analysis is Katherine MansfieldsA Cup of Tea.

This story begins with what seems to be a regular conversation, a person talking tothe reader and even answering the reader questions in the first line No, you couldn't havecalled her beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces.... But that is not a realbeginning, it does what Lodge describes as plunging us into a flowing stream ofexperience, there are no background descriptions, to introduction, only the descriptionsand point of view being offered mostly from the narrator and Rosemary's voice.

The aspect concerning the focus on consciousness, the subconscious andunconscious workings of the mind can be recognized by the several passages concerningemotions and mental processes, mainly from Rosemary and sometimes the girl, and theclear mental manipulation of Rosemary by her husband to get the girl out of there, usingher childlike jealously instead of his marital authority.

7/29/2019 Exercise 1 - Modern Short Stories

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Rosemary's world-view and childlike mentality are described by several expressionsof cognition and affection, for example:Yes, she liked it very much, she lovedit.;Rosemary admired the flowers.;Rosemary gave no sign.;Rosemary laughed out.;She decided...;She wanted to spare this poor little thing...; She saw a little batteredcreature with enormous eyes...; I hate lilac.. They are all simple descriptions, usingsimple verbs and expressions, of emotions and quick decisions not unlike the whims of a

small child.

Some examples of the girl's mental processes are The girl almost criedout.;...burst into tears showing surprise and maybe gratitude. Examples of the mentalstate of awareness and it's effects on the girl's emotions could be the girl gazed back ather and she felt how simple and kind her smile was.

The narrator point of view is limited, there is no omniscience knowledge of thecharacters mind, past, reasons and beliefs. Everything that the reader gets from thenarrator are the word, gestures and to some point the expressions and emotions from thecharacters colored with images and metaphors from this imperfect narrator. Just like a

story being told by a regular person. Lodge recognize this limit view of the story as amodernist literature characteristic.

The use of images and symbols mostly appears in the description of the characterssuch as Rosemary's description as young , brilliant , extremely modern, exquisitely welldressed, amazingly well read in the newest of the new books ... from with the reader canguess that she is a rich person, even a trophy wife, Her hat, really no bigger than ageranium petal, hung from a branch... is an example of the writer using metaphoricalphrases while describing her hat, the author describing the girl also uses image to makethe reader come to conclusions about the character, for example:...a light , frail creaturewith tangled hair, dark lips, deep lighted eyes,... and ...thin ,birdlike shoulders. that givean image of a weak, starving, undernourished person, confirmed later by the...poor littlething. expression.

Lodge points out that modern endings are very open or ambiguous, leaving theauthor in doubt as to the final destiny of the characters. In this story the most obviousexample of this is the fate of the girl. After Rosemary's fit of jealously the girl simplydisappears! The matter of where she is going to the streets or to another house as a maid,what she is going to do afterwards, she is going to live, to die, to the prison... Everythingunanswered and vague. The reader finish the story with lots of questions, like whatrosemary is going to do now, what the husband is going to do later, etc.