"Covert Progression" and Dual Narrative Dynamics

In many fictional narratives, the plot development exists in tension with a "covert progression" in the shape of a powerful hidden dynamic, which is essentially different from previously investigated deeper-level meanings and which complicates readers' response in a distinct way. The overt and covert progressions parallel each other throughout the text. The plot development in itself may be interpreted from various angles, and the parallel covert progression further complicates the picture in conveying contrastive or even opposing thematic significance, character images, and aesthetic values, thus arousing or having the potential to arouse more complicated response from readers. The ways the two kinds of dynamics interact with each other are diversified, ranging from harmonious complementation to drastic subversion. In those narratives containing such dual dynamics, readers paying attention only to the plot development—no matter how many angles critics try to approach it—will result in a partial or false picture of the thematic import, character images, and aesthetic values. Since Aristotle, investigations of narrative fiction have focused on the plot development. In order to uncover and to account for the "covert progression" and dual dynamics, we need to break free of the bondage of the long critical tradition and to extend or transform the relevant theoretical concepts and models not only in narratology, but also in stylistics and translation studies.