Reading Novels

Preface

xi Preface This is a book about analysis of the novel in English. It started off, however, from discussions with teachers of French literature, in the course of which I became aware that interesting things were going on in France, particularly among a generation of academics who have absorbed the work of Gérard Genette and begun to build on it in new ways. As I came to understand it, this was not a theory of literature that was being developed , it was a methodology of analysis—a basic methodology usable by any competent reader of literary texts. What seemed particularly promising to me was that the methodology encouraged readers to develop their own autonomous readings. It showed how to do so in a convincing and rigorous way that could be communicated to others. In short, this was a way of helping people to talk coherently about literature. I should like to express my thanks for the inspiration I gained from these early discussions with friends and colleagues, particularly Agnès Disson (who first showed me how things might work in practice), Patrick Rebollar, and Guillaume Marbot, as well as fellow participants in colloques at Cerisy-la-Salle, and members of the Graal reading group at the University of Tokyo. My interest in what I encountered led me to explore the work of Gérard Genette, as well as other critics who cover similar territory, such as Paul Ricoeur, reading novels xii Philippe Hamon, Jean-Michel Adam, André Petitjean, Sylvie Durrer, and Claude Duchet. I was much helped by some writers with a pedagogic focus, particularly Yves Reuter and Dominique Maingueneau. I should like to express here my appreciation for this body of writings, and my general indebtedness to it. It was exciting to find that the methodology gave a new clarity and cogency to my own readings of English novels. I came also to see with pleasure that others in the field of English or comparative literature had been over this path already, often starting from different directions; it will be obvious from references in the book how much I have profited from the writings of Dorrit Cohn, Meir Sternberg, and Michael Riffaterre. I am, moreover, conscious of many debts to specialist works in the field of narratology and linguistics, by Mieke Bal, Ann Banfield, Seymour Chatman, Monika Fludernik, Raymond W. Gibbs Jr., and Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, as well as to the impressive work on narrative and film theory by David Bordwell. It has been encouraging to find so many colleagues in Japan receptive to the ideas this book contains. I should like to thank Kazuhisa Takahashi and Takaki Hiraishi, who have both given me warm and constant support. Kazumi Watanabe was an expert colleague while I was writing the book, and managed to find me every obscure text I thought I needed. Masanori Toyota and Yoshifumi Saito argued about language with me, set me right on important matters, and kindly invited me to address the Japanese branch of the Poetics and Linguistics Association. Yoshiki Nishimura steered me around issues that I find difficult in linguistics. And I am very grateful to Mariko Yamaguchi, who gave me last-minute guidance over the philosophical problem of fictional names. Valerie Sanders, Graham Law, Jon Spence, and Stephen Clark all kindly read parts of the manuscript and gave me their comments on it. Their reactions to the early drafts were invaluable, and I am profoundly grateful for their encouragement and criticisms. Members of my graduate seminar at Tokyo University also read parts of the book as it was being written, and gave me helpful advice. I should like to thank in particular Akiko Kawasaki, Reiko Nakagami, Akemi Yoshida, Yukiko Morita, Taichi Koyama, Yuko Ashitagawa, and Li Jiang for tactful hints and corrections. I have long-standing debts in my study of the novel to the late Patricia Thomson, to Janet Burroway, and to Sybil Oldfield (who first drew my attention to the bad reading habits of Mrs. Linnet in “Janet’s Repentance ”). These three excellent teachers made the study of English litera- preface xiii ture a pleasure and a challenge for me. I hope this book communicates some of the enthusiasm for the field that they once instilled in me. Finally, Clair Hughes has throughout encouraged my work, commented, read, criticized, and suggested new ideas. Through her research on Henry James I have come to understand his importance in new...