The Practice of Reading The Practice of Reading Interpreting the Novel DerekAlsop and ChrisWalsh ©D.K.AlsopandC.J.Walsh1999 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionof thispublicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedor transmittedsavewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewith theprovisionsoftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988, orunderthetermsofanylicencepermittinglimitedcopying issuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency,90TottenhamCourt Road, LondonWIP9HE. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedact inrelationtothis publicationmaybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivil claimsfordamages. The authorshaveassertedtheirrighttobeidentifiedastheauthors ofthisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright,Designsand PatentsAct1988. First published1999by MACMILLANPRESSLTD Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS andLondon Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld ISBN 978-0-333-68351-4 ISBN 978-1-349-27437-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27437-6 Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefrom theBritishLibrary. This bookisprintedon papersuitableforrecyclingandmadefrom fullymanagedandsustainedforestsources IO 987654321 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaby ST.MARTIN'SPRESS,INC., ScholarlyandReferenceDivision 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,N.Y.IOOIO ISBN978-0-312-22156-0cloth ISBN978-0-312-22157-7paper ForAngela and Linden with love However muchthouart readin theory,ifthouhastno practicethou art ignorant. Muslih-al-DinSheikh Sa'adi, Gulistan(258), trans. James Ross Thisbookisnotdirectedtoacademics, becauseonlyasmall remnant ofthemstillreadforthe loveofreading. HaroldBloom,TheWestern Canon (994) What Ihave beensayingisthatwhatevertheydo,itwillonlybe interpretationinanotherguise because,likeitornot,interpretationis the onlygame intown. StanleyFish,IsThereaTextin ThisClass?(980) Anovelisalivingthing,allone andcontinuous,likeany other organism, andinproportionasitliveswillitbe found,Ithink, thatin eachofthe partsthereissomethingofeachofthe otherparts. HenryJames, 'TheArtofFiction' (884) Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements xiv Listofeditionsused xv 1 ReadingandInterpretation 1 2 The RoleoftheReader:Tristram Shandy 28 3 The ProcessofReading: PrideandPrejudice 51 4 The ExperienceofReading:GreatExpectations 76 5 DeconstructionandReading:DanielDeronda 96 6 ReadingasRevelation:APortraitoftheArtistasaYoungMan 119 7 ReadingtheSelf:Beckett's Trilogy- Molloy;Malone Dies; The Unnamable 140 8 PostmodernistReadings:Possession 163 Conclusion 184 Notes 192 Select Bibliography 207 Index 216 vii Preface Aprefaceisagood place to tellreaderswhatto expect - andwhatnot to expect - in a book. Although, in this book, the challenging and flouting of expectations are shown to be an important part of the novel-reading experience, it would be a trifle perverse were we to require ourreaders to proceed to the followingchapters in uncertain anticipation oftheircontents. Sowhat kind ofbook is The Practiceof Reading: InterpretingtheNovel?Andwhatkind ofbookisitnot? First, this book is notan introductory surveyor synopsis of estab lished theoretical and critical approaches. Neither does it attempt to help readers catchup with the latestdevelopmentsin accountsofthe reader in current literary theory. The present proliferation of intro ductory books is partly the response to a certain feeling of helpless ness we all experience when faced with so many new, and often complex, theoretical books. GeoffreyBennington has aptly acknowl edged the shared 'recognition of the need to "gain time" . . . allow[ingJ readers to make conversation . . . about thinkers whose worktherehas notbeentime to read'.1ThePracticeofReading, inthis sense, will not save readers much (ifany) time. In our references to influential critical thinkers of the late twentieth century, we do not attempt to provide aconcise survey oftheirachievements, or abroad outline of their careers and summaries of their contributions to current thinking. Although we do hope that readers will find many informed points of departure for their own further reading of criti cism, the main aim ofour book is to encourage a return to the close readingofnovels.Our use oftheoryinthe pages thatfollowiseclectic; our aim is always the elucidation of the experience of reading the novels selected, and the revelationofthe problems- and pleasures! which reading entails. Therefore, there is no single favoured critical discourse: we are interested in all theories which offer insights into reading novels. Far from offering a short-cut, we aim to celebrate the pleasures ofcareful, detailed attention, and ifthis volume belongs to ix x Preface any tradition it might be best placed alongside those texts (whatever their critical persuasion) which demonstrate a commitment to close reading. However, this isnottosaythatthis bookhas no introductory qualities:thoseunfamiliarwith theories ofreadingwillfind arange of approachesexplainedandapplied.Wedo notassumepreviousinten sive critical reading on the part ofourreaders, and so do not take for granted complex technical issues. Our aim is to be lucid about the helpfulness of certain ideas and perspectives in defining the impor tance ofthe reader's role in the productionofmeaning.Todo this we must at times simplify, butwe aim not to oversimplify;we use termi nology when it is helpful, not because it is fashionable. This book is not written as a reaction against theory: we do.not, for instance, lamentthe excesses ofpostmodernism.Neitherdowewish to provide a critique aimed at exposing the weaknesses of particular theoretical approaches. But nor do we pay lip-service to current critical ortho doxies.Ultimately, we are muchmoreinterestedin readingsofnovels thaninthe use ofnovels tovalidatepreferredtheories. The Practice ofReading has a few, simple premises: that reading novels demands the skills of careful textual analysis; that no thor oughgoinganalysis ofthe novel can ignore those theoretical develop ments, from reception aesthetics to poststructuralism and beyond, which have placed the activity of reading at the centre of critical debate; and that the best way to examine theoretical concepts is throughthe practiceofreading. Most importantly,behindeveryclaim made in the following pages is the governing idea that reading is a creative, interpretational activity with profound and transforming implications.Wehopethis bookconveys oursenseofthe urgencyand the intensity of the reading experience. Aswe willsee, though, what wecall'theexperienceofreading' isinfinitelycomplex.Wewillnotbe suggesting that there issome simple 'experience' to be valued above andbeyondmoresophisticatedreflectionson reading. Itisthe nature and quality of the experience which matters, not the mere fact that whenwe readwe inevitablyhave somekind ofexperience.Our aim is to return the readerto the practice ofclose reading in the light ofthe various issues and questions which any detailed consideration of reading inevitably raises. With its emphasis on practice, the book explores acts ofinterpretationin termsofthe dynamicsofthe reading process. It is no accident, though, that the book opens and closes by refer ring to the thrill ofreading, asexpressedbycommentatorsasdifferent Preface xi as Richard RortyandA. S.Byatt.Weagree with Rorty (and his critical practice never oversimplifies the matter) that 'books should make a difference', and ourtreasured memories ofthe experience of reading are,likeByatt's, thosewhich'makethe hairs on the neck ... standon end'. It is worth stressing here that wherever critics express their commitment to reading there is likelyto be some virtue. To take an examplefrom Chapter2:althoughwehave reservationsaboutMelvyn New's view of Tristram Shandy,his idea that 'our interpretations are our lives' suggests that we have more in common with his approach thanwith the approaches ofothersforwhomcriticism has nothingto dowithvalues. Weought, perhaps, in this preface, to remarkon the methodwhich takes one major novel per chapter (or, in the case of Chapter 7, a major trilogy of novels) to illustrate particular aspects of the reading process. Most important, here, is the assumption throughout that reading is an intertextual activity. To read Tristram Shandy is to be told (explicitly,by Tristram) to 'read,read, read', and no close atten tion to Sterne's novel could leave the reader without the strongest sensethatthe novel owes muchofits textual existenceto the writings of others, and that its indebtedness has a convoluted intertextual history. According to Derek Attridge, in a statement with which we entirely agree, we can never read Joyce for the first time: his texts intersect with all aspects of our reading culture. Similarly, Byatt's novel Possession, with which we end our discussion, has the final word on the intertextual nature of the reading experience, with its impressive collection of interpolated texts, merging a fictional recre ation ofthe pastwith the threads ofactual literaryhistory.The range ofnovels we have chosento discuss exemplifies the diverse nature of textual relationsandinterrelations. We have also chosen these novels because they are themselves books which highlight the significanceofreading:they offerplentyof particular instances of reading proper (for example, Elizabeth Bennet's crucial reading of Darcy's letter, or Pip's profoundly self consciousreadingofanotetelling him to 'Pleasereadthis, here'); and they are more generally suggestive about the formative connections betweenreadingandotherexperiences. The novels selectedallowus to introducearange ofcomplexissues arising from ouroverarchingemphasison the practiceofreading. The choice of novels allows us to differentiate between the various kinds of issues which reading experiences raise, and the individual works