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DIRECCION Elena de Prada CreO (Universidad de Vigo) SUBDIRECCION Cristina Larkin Galinanes (Universidad de Vigo) Beatriz Figueroa Revilla (Universidad de Vigo) COMITE DE REDACCION Enrique Alcaraz Varo (Universidad de Alicante) Carlos Bujan Lopez (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) Jose Luis Chamosa Gonzalez (Universidad de Leon) M! Angeles de la Concha Munoz (UNED Madrid) Francisco Garrudo Carabias (Universidad de Sevilla) PedroGuardia Maso (Universidad de Barcelona) Ramon Lopez Ortega (Universidad de Extremadura) FeIix Martin Gutierrez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) Manuel Miguez Ben (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) RafaelMonroig Casas (Universidadde Murcia) Catalina Montes Mozo (Universidad de Salamanca) Patricia Shaw (Universidad de Oviedo) Jose Siles Artes (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) Eduardo Varela Bravo (Universidad de Vigo)

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BABEL-AFIAL N° 7; Otono de 1998 EDITA Serviclo de Publicacl6ns da Universidade de Vlgo Campus Lagoas-Marcosende 36200 VIGO, Espana IMPRIME Aroprlnt

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ISSN 1132 - 7332 DEP. LEGAL C - 1539 - 1997 ,i

Indice The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System Reyes Estevez Fomeiro...............................................................

The Well of the Saints Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles.................................................. 21

Ulysses y la Politica de Estilo Stuart McNicholls....................................................................... 39 Tom Sharpe's Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

Cristina Larkin Galiiianes

.-........

Bases para la Comprension del Genero Relato Breve como Modelo Narrativo Especifico de representacion del Tiempo Ma Jesus Hemaez Lerena............................................................ 73 Parents, Dowries, and Incomes: Dealing with Marriage in Aphra Behn's Novels Jorge Figueroa Dorrego............................................................... 99 An Approach to Women's Social Situation in SeventeenthCentury England Cristina Mouron Figueroa.......................................................... 111

Der Tor und der Tod de Hugo von Hofmannstahl: Estudio de un Drama Decadente M!l Jesus Barsanti Vigo 123

Reyes Estevez Forneiro The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge's The Playboy of the Western World Reyes Estevez Forneiro Universidad de Vigo

En Irlanda, los efectos del intenso contacto entre la lengua irlandesa y la lengua inglesa han sido acumulativos y, en consecucncia, han detenninado una nueva reorganizaci6n de los paradigmas linguisticas. Hibcma-Ingles (Hibema-English, HE) es la denaminaci6n par la que se conace al dialecta ingIes hablado cn Irlanda. Muchas de las caracteristicas hiberno-inglesas que dificrcn radicalmente del ingl6s cstandar (Standard English, St.E.) proccden dc dialectos inglescs llevados a Irlanda, y otras, aqucllas que mas 10 caracterizan, procedcn exclusivamentc del irlandes. El presentc articulo prctende examinar 10s rasgos morfosintacticos hiberno-ingleses en la obm The Playboy ':lthe Western World del dramaturga irlandes John Millingtan Syngc.

Synge's use ofHE has been attacked and defended: 'The language of Synge's plays is not the language of the peasants, inasmuch that no peasant talks consistently as Synge's characters talk; it is the language of the peasants, in that it contains no word or phrase a peasant did not actually use' (STRONG, 1941: 81-2). However Synge never attempted to defend that the language in The Playboy was realistic, furthermore he wrote in the Preface to the play on 21 January 1907: 'In writing The Playboy of the Western World, as in my other plays, I have used one or two words, that I have not heard among the country people ofIreland'. It is not the purpose of this paper to censure the realism ofSynge's language. In this study we shall concentrate on those HE structures that have been accurately imitated in Synge's The Playboy of the Western World.

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofio de 1998

MORPHO-SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

Several features ofthe morphology and syntax ofthe Irish language explain some ofthe non-standard expressions in The Playboy. Some other HE features have their origin in Elizabethan English. However, in most cases HE morpho-syntactic system owes at least as much to Old English as to interference from Irish. 1. Irish basic word order is Verb-Subject-Object ( cheannaigh me ch6ta 'I bought a coat', literally 'bought I acoat'), however when some constituent of the sentence is to be emphasised it is placed first, with the copula "is" before it, and the rest of the sentence occurs as a relative clause. Although, unlike Irish, HE basic word order is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), the use of the Irish copula is reproduced in HE clefting. Introductory expressions such as 'It is', 'It's', 'Is it', and so on, translate the Irish copula into HE, and as in Irish, any element which needs to be emphasised may be fronted. This is a recurring feature in Synge's The Playboy. It's above at the crossroads he is meeting Philly Cullen... (76) and I'm thinking it's a queer daughter you are... (78) Another type ofclefting construction in HE speech is the so-called there-clefts. As in S1. E, they may be divided into 'stressed focus clefts' and 'informative-presupposition clefts' (FILPPULA, 1986). There-clefts in HE may be interchanged by it-clefts in many contexts, nonetheless usually 'stressed focus clefts' follow the standard function of 'existential presentation' (FILPPULA, ibid.: 255). These examples illustrate my point, and there is Shaneen has long speeches for to tell you now. (103) for there's Shaneen thinks she wouldn't suit you ... (104) Watch him taking the gate. There's riding. (116) 2. Synge's use of the dialect is quite homogeneous in dealing with

HE indirect questions. Following the Irish model, HE indirect questions may retain question inversion and unlike the standard pattern, the St.E. conjunctions ifand whether are frequently omitted. I stood a while outside wondering would I have a right to pass on or to walk in and see you, .. (75) Andyou never went near to see was he hurted or what ailed him at all? (77) ... and none to ask were you a murderer or what at all. (110)

Reyes Estevez,Forneiro The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

3. HE speakers are lik~ly to use rhetorical devices. Sometimes they correspond to what has been defined by Oratory as 'High style' but in most cases HE rhetoric utterances correspond to 'Plain style'. As the examples below illustrate, rhetorical questions do not expect an answer and here there's a sort of implied agreement between the speaker and the listener. There s her boots now, nice and decent for her evening use, and isn't it grand brushes she has? (94) Didn't I know rightly.. ? (94) Oh, isn't he a holy terror, and isn't it true for Father Reilly, that .. ? (130) 4. Another characteristic of HE is the optional omission, not just ofobject relatives, but ofsubject relatives. As a result we find the existence of co-ordinate constructions where a subordinate relative clause could have been used. Alison Henry (1995) argues that sentences with the subject omitted 'are not true relative clauses'. According to her, this type of sentences contributes to the strongly topical nature of HE. The contexts in which the relative pronoun is omitted in The Playboy are the following, 1. Within sentences with existential there. there wasn't a person in Ireland knew the kind I was, ... (88) 2. Within 'it-clefts' sentences. And asking your pardon, is ityous the man killed hisfather?(95) It was my own son hit me, ... (107) ... 3. Followed by clauses whose verbs introduce individuals into the discourse. I'm telling you, and he a man never gave peace to any, ... (89) I'd be afeard to be jealous ofa man did slay his da? (122) 5. As a derivation ofthe Irish language, we find a variety ofphrasal constructions corresponding to $t.E. single wh-forms, such as, )C. HE what! what way for St.E. 'why'. . And what way weren~you hanged, mister? (84) What ails you, or what is it you're wanting at this hour of the night? (90) 2. HE what way for St.E; 'how'. when I'm asking only what way I'll pass these twelve hours of dark, ... (77) . And what way are you feeling, mister? (114)

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofio de 1998 . .

6. The form of the imperative is one of the most significant differences between HE and St. E.. HE speakers distinguish typically two forms within the imperative mood, Le. the form with let, followed by simple or continuous verbal forms, and the continuous form. In St.E. imperatives, the first and third person pronouns may occur with let in 'jussive' or 'optative' sentences. The second person pronoun is only implicit. However, in HE imperatives with let, we usually find an explicit form of the second person pronoun. One of the many controversies that has occupied scholars of HE (VANHAMEL, 1912; BLISS, 1972) is that ofthe origin ofHE imperative withlet. Bliss (ibid.) after analysing some possible retentionist explanations based on the confusion between let, leave and its Old E. distinctive form leve, states that the solution to the problem should be found in the Irish idioms.. Studying Irish idioms such as biodh deoch agat!, literally 'let there be a drink at you!', he establishes the HE usage. When Irish speakers want to adapt this idiom to English, they render the Irish third person imperative as let, and the second person explicitly expressed by Irish agat as you. Thus, let you have a drink. The contexts in which let you is used as imperative in The Playboy are the following, 1. Followed by a positive infinitive. Let you stretch now by the fire, youngfellow. (86) and let you go offtill you 'djind a radiant lady... (123) letyou give us your blessing and hear her swear herfaith to me, ... (124)

2. Followed by a negated infinitive. let you notforget the sports and racing ... (99) Let you not take it badly, mister honey... (104) 3. Followed by a continuous form in negative. Let you not be tempting me, and we near married itself.. (79) Let you not be putting him in mind ofhim, ... (114)

Reyes Estevez Forneiro

The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

In addition to the aforemeritioned imperative constructions, HE speakers are likely to use continuous fonns preceded by don't in negative imperatives. The continuous fonn in the positive imperative, which was rather common in Elizabethan English, is still used by HE speakers, however the expanded fonn in negative imperatives is by far the most common in the dialect, 'including among those who aspire to be accepted as users of Standard English' (DOLAN, 1984: 54). It comes from the Irish structure Na bi ag in sentences such as Na bi ag insisnt dom, translated into HE Don J be telling me. The two examples cited below are some of the many continuous imperative constructions in Synge's play. Don J be talking. and wefooled today... (95) Don't be letting on to be shy, ... (97) 7. The HE construction 'for to + infinitive' seems to be a literal translation of the Irish 'chun + verbal noun'. Contrary to this view many scholars, such as Bertz (1987) and Harris (1993) argue that this HE construction is a retention of the older English usage jor to + non-finite complement'. Generally speaking,for to in such a construction corresponds to St.E. 'to'. Alison Henry (op.cit.) offers two different translations for this construction, i.e. 'in order', 'in order to' and 'to' infinitive marker. In the following examples from The Playboy, for to is used in the sense of 'in orderto'. the way she'd have a sup ofgoat s milkfor to colour my tea. (95) I'm abroad 011 the hillsidefor to seek Pegeen. (105) You're blowingfor to torture me. (129) 8. The Irish language has two structural fonns ofthe present tense. These are the simple present whereby synthetic verbal fonns express person and number, and the compound present whereby the verb remains uninflected within the fonnula 'ta + noun / pronoun + ag (St.E. 'at') + verbal noun'. Ta se ag scriobhadh (St.E. 'he is writing') is an example of

the second analytic type. The aspectual distribution of the Irish present fonns equals the St.E. distribution between iterative or simple present and continuous or progressive present. However, the Irish periphrastic fonn is more frequent and subject to less restrictions than its St.E. counterpart. Irish progressive is used 'to state what is actually taking place' (VAN HAMEL, op.cif.: 275); the iterative present, on the other hand, is used to indicate habitual action.

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofto de 1998

As a result of the Irish influence, HE speakers show much greater preference for the periphrastic form than St.ÂŁ. speakers. In most cases, HE progressive forms are used where St.E. would have used simple ones.

Isn ~ it long the nights are now, Shawn Keogh, to be leaving a poor girl with her own self... (76) It s a queer thing you wouldn t care to be hearing it ... (100) Well, it's a story I'm not understanding at all ... (102) 9. Unlike St.E., Irish does not mark the distinction between thentime and indefinite anterior by grammatical means, it uses a simple past form in both cases. In the Irish language, tense is indicated either by suffixation or stem change. However, the simple past tense is not marked by suffixes, but by lenition of the initial consonant preceded by the clitic do. In HE there is a tendency to retain the old English usage, employing many of the old English strong past forms and usually, by a process of analogy, creating new solecistic ones. As Harris (op.cit: 151-3) describes, there have been two consecutive processes before the establishment of present-day St.ÂŁ. distinction between strong and weak verbs. In the Old E. period the strong verb system was characterised as a complex and extensive system. However from that time to the eighteenth-century, there was a tendency to shift into the weak category. The second movement was a reversal one, and the result is that modem St.E. has a more complex strong verb system than non-standard dialects, including HE. However, sometimes in the dialect it is not completely clear whether we are dealing with solecistic forms or with different functions ofstandard forms. There are many examples of preterite forms with participial function, and vice versa, participial forms with preterite function, e.g.,

Well, I never seen to this day a111(Jn with a looking-glass held to his back. (96) I'm thinking I seen him. (l08) . . Didyou never hear tell ofthe skulls they have in the city ofDublin, ... ?(l12) . Well, I never seen to this day a man with a looking-glass held to his back (96) may be considered as a non-standard form or a present form functioning as a preterite one. Accorqing to the first interpretation "see"

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofio de 1998

for instanceta se (St.E. 'he is'), bidheann se (St.E. 'he usually is'). The function ofthe consuetudinal fonn is to express iterative or durative aspect. The Irish consuetudinal present tense is rendered in HE by the use of be and do be, inflected for tense and person: be and do be for the plural, first and second person, and bees and does be for the third person singular. Is if often the polis do be coming into this place, master of the house? (81) There s harvest hundreds do be passing these days for the Sligo boat. (106) they'd be the like o/the holy prophets, I'm thinking, do be straining the bars 0/ Paradise. (119)

In the aforementioned examples, the consuetudinal present and past is used in progressive constructions. Again, we find this type of constructions in Irish, e.g. bion se ag obair, which translates HE he does be working.

. The origin of HE be(es) has been explained by Bliss (op.cif. 1972: 78) on the basis of the Irish consuetudinal fonn bi(dh). This fonn is identical in pronunciation toSt.E. 'be'. Early HE speakers just added the English third-person singular-ending '-s' when they needed to express iterative or durative actions, giving place to the HE consuetudinal fonn as we know it today. However, many different explanations have been suggested to the origin of the consuetudinal do be (and its variants). Among the many reasons given, I shall discuss Sullivan's, Bliss's and Kallen's. Following o 'Donovan (1845: 151), Sullivan (1976: 119) affinns that be and do be as consuetudinal markers were introduced in HE due to the need of Irish speakers to express the Irish distinction in English Although he considers them to be translations of the Irish consuetudinal, he does not explain the origin of the HE fonns. Bliss (op.cit. 1972: 75) disregards the Irish consuetudinal usage as the source of HE do be. He bases his explanation in the fact that Irish verbs, other than the substantive 'be', lack a distinctive consuetudinal present. In Bliss's account (op.cif. 1979: 293), the usage of do as a consuetudinal auxiliary comes from an association between this verb in English negative and interrogative sentences, and the Irish present ending '-(e)ann' employed in equivalent contexts. When the use of '-(e)ann'

Reyes Estevez Forneiro The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

could be a 'survival from old English' (JOYCE, 1991) and according to my second interpretation, it could be seen as an example ofKallen's 'extended present-perfect' (1994: 182). 10. As Greene (1966: 48) notes the Irish language has no specific lexical entries for the St.E. verb to have and therefore, there is no perfect tense correspondingto the St.E. one. Nevertheless, the St.E. perfects may be rendered in Irish by means oftwo periphrastic constructions, i.e. 'ta + ag' and 'tti + tan!is '. Both constructions refer to the completion of the action. However the 'ta + tan!is ' construction adds the meaning ofrecency. â&#x20AC;˘ PI: The 'ta + tareis' construction (i) Ta se treis leWr a scriobh. (literally 'He's after writing a letter') This construction follows the formula: 'ta + subject + tareis + (object +) verbal noun'. A natural constraint on PI, as its corresponding construction in St.E., is that it cannot be used in negations. The Irish periphrastic form corresponds to St.E. 'subject + have + just + past participle (+ object)', thus (i) above may be translated into StEas 'he has just written a letter'. There is complete agreement in relation to the origin of the HE 'after perfect'. For most scholars (BLISS, 1979: 302-3) this construction is no doubt derived from the Irish idiom 'ta + tareis'. 'After perfects' have been termed with different labels. Thus, for instance, Harris uses the label 'hot news PI' (HARRIS, 1984: 308) on the basis of Green's PI 'ta + tareis', and KaIlen refers to them under the title 'perfects with after' (KALLEN, op.eit.: 182). HE 'after perfects' refer to actions recently accomplished, equivalent in St.E. to the present perfect with just. Among the many characteristics of HE that have been commented on, the use of' after perfect' constructions is one of the most favoured to illustrate the influence of the substratum in the dialect. From The Playboy I have selected the following: Aren't we after making a good bargain, ... (76)

and I'm after feeling a kind offellow above in the furzy ditch, ... (77)

Didn ~ a lad see them and he after coming from harvesting in the Liverpool boat? (112) 11. In Irish the substantive verb be distinguishes between the punctual presenttense ta and the consuetudinal present tense bi(dh). Thus,

Reyes Estevez Forneiro

The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

was applied to affirmative sentences, the auxiliary do started to be used also in affirmative sentences. Kallen (1985: 107-9) bases the model do be on earlier English. At this time do started to be used, as a marker denoting habitual or generic actions and it often co-occurred with adverbs indicating regular frequency, such as usually, regularly. Nonetheless, he suggests that the Irish language 'may have provided the conceptual basis on which bilingual speakers looked for an habitual marker in English' (KALLEN, ibid.: 107). Like many issues relating to the origin of HE distinctive features, it is sometimes difficult to know whether they may be explained on an Irish-substratum basis, or on an English-retentionist basis. Both sources can be considered to explain the origin of HE consuetudinal do be. However, what is significant here is that unlike St.E., present-day HE retains this form. Hence again, another argument pointing to the conservative nature of HE. 12. In HE a plural subject noun phrase may occur with a verb containing the -s third person singular ending. Again the Irish language should be analysed to explain this phenomenon. Irish co-ordinate nouns appear with third person singular verbs when the nouns are nominative. The only cases in which the verb agrees with its nominative are when both the verb and the nominative are third person singular, and when a plural noun or a third person plural pronoun occur with a verb in third plural (JOYCE, op.cit.: Ill). Therefore the use of singular verbs with plural subjects in Irish is much less restricted than in St.E.. In Henry's account (op.cit. 1995: 23), the occurrence of the -s singular ending is ungrammatical in the dialect when the pronominal subject is nominative. Nonetheless there are some utterances in Synge's play which contradict Henry's restrictions. Thus, for instance,

and the men is coming above;... (77) the peelers in this place is decent, ...(85)

Are you thinking them s his boots? (94) What in glory has you here at this hour ofday? (96) From the Principles and Parameters framework, -s verb ending is the unmarked fonn of the verbal paradigm showing only tense inflection, and therefore likely to be attached to any present verbal form. However, from a substratumist point of view, the HE use of singular verbs with

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tooo de 1998

plural subjects should be explained in connection with the verb to be in Irish, i.e. ta, since as I have already pointectout Ir. ta may be translated in St.E. as singular is or plural are. 13. HE amn 't corresponds to St.E. contracted form 'am not'. It is also reproduced in the dialect as amment(TANIGUCHI, 1972: lll). and amn 't I a great wonder to think. .. ? (I 06) Amn 't I after seeing the love-light ... ? (109) Alternatively, expletives and some idioms reflect the HE speaker's tendency to express himself negatively. Among the many HE expletives expressing negation, devil (pronounced in HE as divil) is the most common. Devil is generally followed by the definite or indefinite article and the resulting construction may be situated 'before any part of the speech' (HENRY, 1960-61). The idiom with devil is found in 'England as early as 1508' (QED), however in HE it reflects the Irish idiom in expressions such as diabhal duine, translated in the dialect as devil a one (St.E. 'noone'). Qdlin (1995) argues that HE idioms with devil have Celtic origin on the grounds that 'devil negation' is not as productive in English dialects as in Celtic areas, and that idioms with 'devil' followed by an article are scarcely used in areas other than the Celtic lands. -Was it bailiffs? -The divil a one. -Agents? -The divil a one. (82) and he the divil a robber. .. (106) -Not working at all? -The divil a work..(107) 14. In the realm of deixis, another difference with St.E. is the common usage of them for St.E. these, and in some cases for St.E. 'those' (HARRIS,op.cit. 1993: 145-6). This may be due to the confusion between this and that by HE speakers, e.g., Are you thinking them s his boots? (94) .I'd like herse!fto see me in them tweeds and hat. (104) for them lads caught a maniac one time andpelted thepoor creature till he ran out, ... (11 7) 15. The use of prepositions in HE is a vast issue. HE prepositions and prepositional phrases express meanings that in St.E. are communicated by other prepositional forms. The main root ofthis phenomenon lies again in the Irish language.

Reyes Estevez Forneiro The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge ~...

1. HE with for St.E. 'by'. Van Harnel (op.cit.: 283-4) shows that this usage denotes 'the agent or cause, with passive verbs' arid that it comes from Irish, unlike Henry (op.cit.) who observes that it is a retention of the Shakespearean use. and not to take my death with the fear. (77) and my own teeth rattling with the fear. (78) 2. HE offor St.E. 'from'. And you went asking money ofhim, ... (97) 3. HE on for St.E. 'of'. In Irish the preposition ar (St.E. 'on') is always used to express disadvantage, 'both bodily and mental' (CHRISTIAN BROTHERS, 1960). Following the Irish model, the use of the preposition on as a 'dative of disadvantage' (BLISS, 1984: 149) is a commonplace in HE. In the majority of cases HE on is followed by a pronoun which literally translates the Irish prepositional pronouns: arm, art, etc. The contexts in the peasants in The Playboy make use ofon in contrast to the standard are the following, 1. Equivalent to St.E. expression 'to the disadvantage of'. and what would the polis want spying on me, ... (81) for you should have a thin stomach on you, ... (96) 2. In relation to the preceding use, on is often used in curses and benedictions. I'll get the curse ofthe priests on you, ... (79) Oh, St Joseph and St. Patrick and St Brigit and St James, have mercy on me. (79)

3. Equivalent to St.E. notion of possession. I'll have a soft lovely skin on me ... (94) with a limping leg on her. .. (97) 16. Conjunctions are not as varied in Irish as in St.E.. The verbal noun undertakes a great deal of their functions. There are a few simple conjunctions in Irish (STENSON, 1981: 32): agus ('and'), ach ('buf), no ('nor'), and na ('nor') and the subordinating conjunctions nuair ('when'), suI ('before') and ce ('although'). HE makes a large use ofand and many others HE conjunctions differ in meaning from the standard pattern.

1. HE AND. Agus is heard far more frequently than the others in both co-ordinate and subordinate constructions. Irish adverbial subordinate clauses with agus consist of'agus + the subject of the dependency clause + ag + ver-

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofio de 1998

bal noun' (HARRIS, op.cit. 1984: 305). The Irish model has become an intrinsic part of both rural and urban HE (FILPPULA, 1991: 57). Apart from connecting simultaneous events, like in St.E., the conjunction and in HE can be applied to join a finite clause with a nonfinite clause or verbless clause, and it is pronounced 'as a single breath group with a unified intonation pattern' (HARRIS, op.cit. 1993: 149), e.g., It's time surely, and I a seemly fellow with great strength in me ... (89) She wouldn't suit you, and she with the divil's own temper ... (104) Bearing in mind that there are no clear boundaries in the distribution of the functions of and, I shan classify the subordinate clauses in which and occurs in the play under consideration here as fonows, 1.1. Temporal clauses: for St.E. 'when', 'while'. I stood a while outside wondering would I have a right to pass on or to walk in and see you, and I could hear the cows breathing and sighing in the stillness ofthe air. .. (75) 1.2. Cause clause: for St.E. 'because'. for I'll not have him tormented, and he destroyed travelling since Tuesday was a week (91) 1.3. Concessive clause: for St.E. 'although', 'however'. Never a one of them, and I walking forward facing hog, dog, or divil on the highway ofthe road ... (84) It's a queer thing you wouldn't care to be hearing it and them girls after walkingfour miles to be listening to me now. (lOO) 1.4. Conditional clause: for St.E. 'if'. he'll be having my We, and I going home lonesome in the darkness ofthe night. (80) How would you see him and it dark night this half-hour gone by? (75)

1.5. Relative clause: for St.E. 'which', 'who', 'that'. Don't tell yourfather and the men is coming above; ... (77) 1.6. And is also frequently prefixed to questions. Here it may be considered as a clincher. And isn't it a great shame when the old and hardened do torment the young? (l07) Glory be to God? And who hit you at all? (113)

Reyes Estevez Forneiro

The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

2. HEfor for St.E. 'because'. what name will we call you,for we'd like to know? (85) but it s his own they are, surely, for I never seen the like ofthem for whitey mud, ... (95) For I'm thinking he would liefest wreak his pains on me. (129) 3. HE till for St.E. 'so'. Sometimes a subordinating conjunction carries the meaning it has in Irish into HE. A good example of this feature is till, representing Irish go for St.E. 'so', as in,

he was taken with contortions till I had to send him in the ass-cart to the females' nurse. (108) Let me out, the lot ofyou, till I have my vengeance on his head today! (116) 17. Ap'art from the reflexive use of itself, there are another typical HE meaning of the pronoun, i.e. 'so' and 'even' (VAN HAMEL, op.cit.: 287). The use of itself as St.E. 'even' also derives from Irish. This is a very common feature of the dialect in Synge. Let you not be tempting me, and we near married itself. (79)

I'll give you the whole ofthem, and my blessing, and the blessing . ofFather Reilly itself路路路 (103) Ifyou are a wonder itself, you'd best be hasty, ... (117)

18. The diminutive suffix -een from the Irish diminutive suffix -in 'no doubt comes from Irish' (HOGAN, 1934: 100). This diminutive suffix expresses affection or contempt, and HE speakers had to incorporate it into their dialect since the standard language does not own an equivalent form. Where now will you meet the like ofDaneen Sullivan ... (76) 'It isn ~ fitting', says the priesteen, ... (90) and let you drink a supeen with your arms linked ... (98)

and I with my little houseen above where there'd be myselfto tend

you ... (110) and I'll slip down the boreen, and not to see them so. (117) 19. In the English ofIreland there also exists the possibility of locative adverbs to be used as prepositions. This use is shared by Irish and HE with regard to the cardinal points. North, South, East, and West

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofio de 1998

are frequently heard among HE speakers to express locative relations. Hogan (op.cit.: 100) who relates these locative adverbs to Shakespearean English contradicts Van Hamel (op.cit.: 288-9) who gives them an Irish origin. In HE we find the following pairs of synonyms: above and northwards, below and southwards, over and eastwards, and back and westwards. In Irish one word is used for each member of the pair, hence for example, Ir. siar (St.E. 'westward') opposed to Ir. thiar (St.E. 'west' location-), and Ir. suas (St.E. 'up', 'upward') opposed to Ir. thuas (St.E. 'up' -location-). As St.E. lacks this formal distinction, HE speakers use . the same word to convey both meanings. He gave me a drive with the scythe, and 1 gave a lep to the east. Then 1 turned around with my back to the north, and 1 hit a blow on the ridge ofhis skull, ... (98) 1 was passing below, and 1 seen your mountany sheep eating cabbages in Jimmy'sjield. (103) Take the loy is on your western side. (123) .20. Another typical HE feature is the redundant use of clinchers,

in both initial and final positions. Some of them have an assertive and emphatic function as in the case of all, at all, sure, but others such as like are unstressed and besides idioms such as y 'know keep the conversation going. The Playboy also contains at all used as a clincher. to see was he hurted or what ailed him at all? (77) ifit's the truth you're seeking one at all. (84) Who is he at all? (115)

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse some of the typical features of Hibemo-English reproduced in The Playboy of the Western World by Synge. As we have seen, the differences between Standard English and Hibemo-English are historically deep-rooted, and there路 is no reason to consider the HE morpho-syntactic system as substandard or arbitrary. HE has its own grammar, even if this grammar sometimes differs from the English standardised grammar. As regards the allegations against the speech ofSynge's characters, although many expressions are literal translations from the Irish spoken

Reyes Estevez Forneiro

The Hiberno-English Morpho-Syntactic System in Synge s...

â&#x20AC;˘

in the Aran Islands and many others are far from being actually used by HE speakers, we may conclude that his work encouraged Irish writers to include the Anglo-Irish tradition and the HE language in their works.

REFERENCES CITED

Bertz, Sigfried (1987), 'Variation in Dublin English', Teanga 7, pp. 35-53. Bliss, Alan J. (1972), 'Languages in Contact: Some Problems of Hibemo-English', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy LXXII, pp. 63(82. _ _ _ _ _ _ (1979), Spoken English in Ireland: 1600-1740, Dublin, Dolmen Press. _ _ _ _ _ _ (l984),'English in the south ofIreland', in Language in the British Isles, edited by P. Trudgill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp.135(151. , Christian Brothers (1960), Graimear Gaeilge na mBniithre Criostai, Baile Atha Cliath, M.H. Mac anGhoill agus a mhac. Dolan, Terence P. (1984), 'Samuel Beckett's Dramatic Use of Hibemo-English', Irish University Review 14, pp. 46-56. Filppula, Markku (1986): Some Aspects ofHiberno-English in a Functional Sentence Perspective, Joensuu, University of Joensuu. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (1991), 'Urban and rural varieties of Hiberno-English', in English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, edited by J. Cheshire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 51(60. Greene, David (1966), The Irish Language, Dublin, The Three Candles. Harris, John (1984), 'Syntactic variation and dialect divergence', Journal ofLinguistics 20, pp. 303(327. ----'(1993), 'The Grammar ofIrish English', in Real English. The Grammar ofEnglish Dialects in the British Isles, edited by J. Milroy and L. Milroy (London: Longman), pp. 139(186. Henry, Alison (1995), Belfast English and Standard English: . Dialect Variation and Parameter Setting, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

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Henry, P.L. (1960-1961), 'The Irish Substantival System and its Reflexes in Anglo-Irish and English', Zeitschriftfur Celtische Philologie 28, pp. 19(50. Hogan, U. (1934), Outline ofEnglish philology, chieflyfor Irish students, Dublin, Educational Co. ofIreland. Joyce, Patrick Weston (1991), English as We Speak it in Ireland (with an introduction by Terence P. Dolan, Portmarnock, County Dublin: Wolfhound Press. [First edition 1910]). Kallen, Jeffrey L. (1985), 'Bilingualism and the Genesis of Hiberno-English syntax', Teanga 5, pp. 107(109. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (1994), 'English in Ireland', in The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vo!. V, edited by R. Burchfield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 148(196. o 'Donovan, J. (1845),A Grammar ofthe Irish Language, Dublin, Hodges and Smith. Odlin, Terence (1995), 'A Series ofThree Lectures: (i) 'HibernoEnglish: Pidgin, Creole, or Neither?', (ii) 'Causation in Language Contact: A Devilish Problem', (iii) 'Sorrow Penny fee Payedfor My Drink: Taboo, Euphemism, and a Phantom Substrate'. Held at Trinity College, Dublin, Centre for Language and Communication Studies, [Unpublished papers]'. Stenson, Nancy (1981), Studies in Irish Syntax, Tiibingen, Giinter Narr Verlag. Strong, L.A. G. (1941), John Millington Synge, London, AlIen and Unwin. Sullivan, James P. (1976), 'The Genesis of Hiberno-English: A Socio-Historical Account' (Unpublished PhD. Thesis), New York, Yeshiva University. Synge, John Millington (1987), 'The Playboy of the Western World' [First Published in 1907, Dublin, Maunse1 and Co.], in The Playboy of the Western World and Two Other Irish Plays, introduced by W. A. Armstrong (London: Penguin), pp. 69-134. Taniguchi, Jiro. (1972), A Grammatical Analysis of Artistic Representation ofIrish English, Tokyo, Shinozaki Shorin [First edition 1955]. Van Hamel, A.G. (1912), 'On Anglo-lrish syntax', Englische Studien XLV, pp. 272-292.

Francisco Javier Torres Ribel/es The Well afthe Saints: Synge andYeats

"The Well ofthe Saints: Synge and Yeats" Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles University of Alicante

El prop6sito de este articulo es doble: por un lado, demostrar que se deberia conceder un lugar mas destacado a The Well of the Saints en la creaci6n de Synge; por otro, reconsiderar la relaci6n estetica de Yeats y Synge a la vista de esa pieza. El estudio comienza examinando el valor que da Yeats al teatro de Synge como opci6n altemativa, de mas peso que las obras ibsenianas, al drama victoriano. A continuacion pasa a analizar la interpretacion que hace Yeats de The Well ofthe Saints como texto simbolista. El articulo define tres niveles en la relacion de los seres humanos con el mundo, segun se aprecia en esta obra, como paso previo a la discusi6n de la existencia de un cuarto nivel, superior a los anteriores, que, de acuerdo ,con todos los indicios, pas6 desapercibido a Yeats. Tambien propone el articulo la hipotesis de que The Well of the Saints pudiera haber sido la respuesta critica de Synge a la pieza teatral de Yeats The Shadowy Waters. El estudio finaliza defendiendo la idea de que la reacci6n de Yeats al realismo de Synge fue parcial.

In spite of the significance that The Playboy ofthe Western World has in Synge's career, The Well ofthe Saints should also be considered a milestone in his development. Besides, The Well of the Saints is an extremely important point of reference when defining Yeats's evolution as well as his relationship with Synge, one of the most interesting issues of Irish literature, and the beginnings of Modernism in the English language. According to extant manuscripts, Synge worked intensely on The Well ofthe Saints in 1903 and especially in the first four or five months of the following year. The play was finished in the first half of 1904, as on 11th May he told Lady Gregory that he was revising and improving it, and on 17th June it was read to the company. It was immediately accepted for performance, as Synge says to Stephen Mackenna two days later (CLS: 86,87,89; cf. ibid.: 70-71, Carpenter, 1974: 160; abbreviations are

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indicated under each title in 'Works cited'). Rehearsals began in July, and it was staged on February 4th, 1905 in the Abbey Theatre, which had opened on 27th December, a little more than a month before (Robinson, 1951: 42-46). This shows that, in spite ofthe fact that they did not foresee great success for it, Synge's text was welcomed by Yeats and most members ofthe dramatic society which he led, perhaps because Synge was the besv find of the movement and his new play proved that Riders to the Sea arid The Shadow ofthe Glen were not the outcome of artistic luck I. But Yeats also had a vested interest in Synge's new text, as it epitomized qualities which he was himself trying to perfect in his own work. This can be seen in the preface he wrote for Synge's play. The opening lines of the introduction which Yeats wrote for The Well ofthe Saints shortly before its first performance are dedicated to his first meeting with Synge in Paris in December 1896. Emphasizing his own role in Synge's artistic development, Yeats relates how he urged Synge to abandon his idea of criticising French works, and how he adviseditifu to change his style radically and go to Aran in order to find a new means of literary expression. Yeats says that Synge's mediocre and exiguous production was based on a debilitated, exhausted language which had been widely used by many artists at the end of the nineteenth century (El: 298; cf. ibid.: 325). There can hardly be any doubt that Yeats's influence was paramount, for Synge did eventually travel to Aran, and only after Yeats rejected his first play, When the Moon Has Set, did he change radically and write his great works for the stage. Yet the first lines of the preface to The Well oftHe Saints are especially important because Yeats recognizes that his own situation in the days when they first met was similar to Synge's. Although Synge was no more than an apprentice-writer and he was himselfa widely recognized first-rate poet, Yeats openly states in 1905 that their problem at the end of 1896 was basically the same, namely, how to find an alternative to the literary language in fashion, which he found artificial after finishing The Secret Rose (El: 298-99). This cardinal coincidence underlies the rest ofthe preface, which he mostly devotes to contrasting Synge's theatre with Ibsenian drama. There is clear evidence that, in the years before 1905, Yeats had quite earnestly tried to dispense with the languid, ethereal language of most poems included in The Wind Among the Reeds in 1899, as well as

Francisco Javier TorresRibel/es The Well of the Saints: Synge and feats

the aesthetic, sometimes obscure style of the short stories in The Secret Rose, especially «Rosa Alchemica», and The Tables ofthe Law and the Adoration ofthe Magi, both published in 1897. In In the Seven Woods a change can be perceived in the poems written after 1901; the version of Hanrahan's short stories published in 1905 is also rather different from that included in The Secret Rose; and, as in that new version, Yeats also included dialect in his new plays, most abundantly in The Pot ofBroth. However, the exuberant and vigorous discourse of The Well ofthe Saints, which is primarily based on a profusion of dialectal features and longer speeches ofthe characters2, makes Synge's progress from the language of the nineties greater. Besides, according to the preface to the Well ofthe Saints, by using his peculiar language Synge has managed to achieve Yeats's other fundamental aim in those years, the expression of the individual, which Yeats closely relates to the delineation of characters; and that achievement links Synge's theatre to the great universal dramatic tradition, something that, for Yeats, does not happen with Ibsenian drama.

r,;

In the early nineties, Yeats already thought that the drama of the Victorian age was poor both artistically and technically, and should be substituted with a new type of theatre. Therefore, he wrote verse plays with a Pre-Raphaelite flavour. Yet, with the turn ofthe century, he tries to find a more satisfactory form ofexpression, which is, at the same time, an alternative to the new realistic theatre, Ibsenian drama, unsatisfactory, for him, mainly because ofits language. The preface to The Well ofthe Saints and Samhain reveal that Yeats thinks that an individual's personality is closely related to his language, and that the predominant materialism has radically changed linguistic expression. As he says in the preface, live language, based on «words and rhythms varying from man to man», has been replaced with «the impersonal language that has come, not out of individual life, nor out of life at all, but of necessities of commerce, of Parliament, ofBoard Schools, of hurried journeys by train» (El: 300-302, S, 1904: 16). And that, for Yeats, is the language used in Ibsenian drama. Therefore, although he recognizes that some Ibsenian plays may have some interesting qualities, such as the delineation of well-defined characters in Ibsen, he also thinks that Ibsenian playwrights, including Ibsen himself, cannot shape exuberant, individual characters because they use a mediocre, powerless language (S, 1904: 25-27). However, Yeats

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thinks that Synge's theatre is characterized by the opposite virtues, which are those virtues which he himself is striving for with his own new works. . On the one hand, Synge generates a rhythm favouring escape from physical constrictions, «for it perfectly fits the drifting emotion, the dreaminess, the vague yet measureless desire». It is a rhythm that «blurs definition, clears edges, everything that comes from the will [and] turns imagination from all that is ofthe present [and] makes the people of his imagination a little disembodied» (El: 300-30 I). On the other hand, in Yeats's opinion, Synge's peculiar dialect stems from purer times in the historic cycle, since he creates it by selecting a vocabulary «from the time of Malory and of the translators of the Bible, but its idiom and its vivid metaphor from Irish» (El: 299). Like the great masters of the past, Synge has created «abundant, resonant, beautiful, laughing, living speech», something which is even clearer, for Yeats, when he comes to know The Well ofthe Saints. The way he defines Synge's relationship with those great playwrights fits that play better than Riders to the Sea or even The Shadow ofthe Glen, which very well fulfil Yeats's reflections upon the dreamlike quality of Synge's theatre. Yeats's interest in the way Synge's characters express themselves is also related to two issues which can be seen as the two sides ofthe same virtue, and which greatly contribute to separating Synge's theatre from . Ibsenian drama: Synge does not defend any specific ideology, and his protagonists have no materialistic worries. However, in comparison with Synge's plays, modem drama moves, according to Yeats, in a vicious circle. On the one hand, it is based on an impoverished language, the product of utilitarianism; on the other, it focuses on a society in which material questions are most important. Because of these two reasons, Ibsenian plays do not express «hopes and alarms common to every man that ever came into the world, but politics or social passion, a veiled or open propaganda» (El: 301-302). As a consequence, it is difficult for the individual to appear in those plays. Typically, in Ibsen's texts «even the most momentous figures are subordinate to some tendency, to some movement, to some inanimate energy, or to some process ofthought whose very logic has changed it into mechanism» (El: 301-302, 304; cf. S, 1904: 13-14). Perhaps one should consider that when Yeats wrote these lines or when he said that Synge «has no wish to change anything, to reform anything», the controversy over Synge's plays had renewed, and that Yeats

Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles The Well o/the Saints: Synge and feats

may have been trying to eliminate any social content from Synge's plays and to assert the political independence of the dramatic movement culminating in the newly open Abbey Theatre, as in the issue of Samhain published in December 1904 on the occasion of the event (El: 300, S, 1904: 13; cf. CW Ill: xxiv)3. One could also consider that it is doubtful that Synge's theatre lacks critical intent, since he quite clearly attacks materialism and religion. However, this does not mean that he aims at specific social refonns like those defended in Ibsenian drama; and Yeats finds a clear coincidence with his own theatre, as Synge's main characters yearn for a very different, non-materialistic world, a feeling similar to that ofYeatsian protagonists, such as those in The Shadowy Waters, Where There is Nothing or The Land ofHeart s Desire. The tension of ideas expressed in The Well of the Saints is particularly interesting in the clarification of the aesthetic relationship between Synge and Yeats. In this respect, a comparison with The Shadow ofthe Glen is very useful, since the text finished by Synge in 1904 can be considered a complex development of the opposition of nature and imagination versus materialism and constrictions, one ofthe main themes in the play written two years before. The Well ofthe Saints is not merely an example of the struggle between reality and unreality, typical of the Celtic personality, as Bourgeois and others claim (1965: 193, Worth, 1986: 130). A more accurate view ofthe play is that proposed by Gerstenberger, who says that ÂŤthe power of imagination to create and to destroy, and the compromises men make with reality, are the central concern of The Well ofthe SaintsÂť, but only if her definition is taken to its limits (1964: 55). By making his approach in The Shadow ofthe Glen much more complex, Synge now presents three different ways of understanding life, which, at first sight, correspond to three possible stages of perfection in the relationship ofhuman beings with the world. Each one ofthose levels can be said to be symbolized by a character, in this order, Timmy, the Saint and Martin Doul himself. The first way of understanding reality in The Well of the Saints, which is represented by the ironsmith, restricts existence to the material level. For Timmy, work also has an extraordinary importance, and he prefers a comfortable, sedentary life inside a house and separated from nature. This level is, therefore, equivalent to that symbolized by Dan Burke

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in The Shadow ofthe Gren (cf. Saddlemyer, 1968: 22-23). However, there is an interesting difference in relation to that play. The female component, Molly Byme, now reacts in a different way to the life which the male offers to her. Whereas'the heroine in the earlier play, Nora Burke, suffers her husband and everything that he represents, and eventually manages to escape in search of a ,more promising and intense life, Molly Byme consolidates what Timn'W represents by marrying him. Molly can then be taken as a complement to what happens in The Shadow ofthe Glen. Her union with the blacksmith, an official ceremony vividly contrasting with the pagan rite in When , the Moon Has Set, is the previous, necessary step leading to an existence similar to Nora's mediocre, unsatisfactory life, as can also be guessed in the diatribe Mary and Martin dedicate to Molly (CW Ill: 121, 162, 177, Skelton, 1971: 18; cf. Gerstenbenger, 1964: 60, O'Brien Johnson, 1982: 44). That Timmy represents a restricted relationship with the world should be evident as soon as the knowledge ofthe world that it provides is compared to that ofthe blind couple, which is more refined in/spite of their blindness (cf. Gerstenberger, 1964: 6061). However, a superficial examination of The Well ofthe Saints may not reveal Synge's 'attitude to Timmy and Molly, since his criticism is channelled almost exclusively through Martin Doul, and the setting of the play may ,also contribute to veiling it. The action takes place in «some lonely mountainous district in the east ofIreland, one or more centuries ago»; that is, the environment is hardly affected by progress, which makes it more difficult to detect Synge's onslaught on materialism. Besides, the fact that this level is represented by a blacksmith may also conceal Synge's attack. An ironsmith may be regarded as an early representative of industrialism,, but on the other hand, he is also an important figure in Irish folklore, holding magic powers and linked «with the powers ofdarkness», as Syngehimself says in relation to the play (CW Ill: 90). Nevertheless, a careful analysis ofthe text immediately reveals that this level is presented as a negative one, which agrees with what Synge expresses more clearly in other works, such as When the Moon Has Set, The Aran Islands, «The Vagrants of Wicklow» or The Shadow ofthe Glen itself. This means that . Corkery's conclusion that Timmy and Molly are mere supports for the plot is unacceptable, as they fulfil a well-defined symbolic role (1947: 173). ,

Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles The Well ofthe Saints: Synge and Yeats

In comparison with the materialistic vision of the blacksmith and his future wife, the Saint's attitude is not as superficial, and, at first sight, he represents a higher leveL He penetrates the barrier of the senses and is perfectly conscious of the spirit lying under the appearance of things. However, though he apparently'sees beyond what Timmy sees, his approach is equally restricted, as he takes the opposing stand and perceives only the spiritual side ofthe world. He defends the idea that it is necessary to leave physical interests aside and lead a life of asceticism and prayer that makes it possible to find «the splendour of the Spirit of God» in every element of nature (CW Ill: 101). His approach can then be labelled as pantheism. Yet it is acosmistic rather than atheistic pantheism, as he understands the world as just a derivation of divine reality. His strong tendency to see God everywhere makes him regard men simply as an expression ofthe divine image. Nor is he interested in women, an attitude even more exaggerated in the drafts of the play, where he sees them as , mere objects and considers them «a thing of weakness and sin». It is no wonderthat Martin also rejects the Saint, while criticizing his physical weakness and the fact that he mortifies himself (CW 111:88, 89, 139, 149). Therefore, The Well ofthe Saints can be seen as another example of Synge's denunciation of religion, a central issue in When the Moon Has Set, though now much more subtly expressed. The third option presented by Syngein The Well ofthe Saints is portrayed in Martin Doul's reaction to Timmy's materialism and the Saint's extreme spirituality. A little before the end, the protagonist makes his answer explicit in a sort of moral by which he distinguishes the three levels possible for him in the relation with the universe: if it's a right some of you have to be working and sweating the like ofTimmy the smith, and a right some ofyou have to be fasting and praying and talking holy talk the like of yourself, I'm thinking it's a good right ourselves have to be sitting blind, hearing a soft wind turning round the little leaves of the spring and feeling the sun, and we not tormenting our souls with the sight of the grey days, and the holy men, and the dirty feet is trampling the world (CW lIl: 149). Passionately opposing the constrictions that the other two alternatives imply, Martin defends a more intense communion with nature , I , ' ;

,I· "

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0toiio de 1998

through imagination, which must also enhance the senses • His final escape with his wife to a more satisfactory, open-air life contrasts with Timmy and Molly heading a procession into the church to be married by the Saint -an ending which, as Q'Brien Johnson well remarks, Synge preferred to the one he had thought of in the first drafts, where the play ended with Timmy's invitation «to the green below for the piper has come and we'll have dancing till the fall of night» (CW III: 150, Q'Brien Johnson, 1982: 36). The wedding of Timmy and Molly by the Saint shows that both extremes of the dichotomy of materialism and spirituality are in fact interdependent and evenjoin to conjure threats. As often happens in Yeats's plays, in Synge's theatre, those who are different are rejected by society, which is what happens to Nora and the tramp in The Shadow ofthe Glen. Although it looks as if she took the decision to leave home, the truth is that she is expelled from it. And that is what happens to Martin and Mary, who are rejected by the people, led by the Saint. However, in contrast with the lives of those people, Martin and Mary's decision to continue being blind, and their departure towards the south can be considered a regeneration similar to that at the end of The Shadow of the Glen. The sense of renovation contrasting with the rejection is even reinforced by the fact that the action develops through the three seasons leading to regeneration of nature: the first act takes place in autumn, when Martin and Mary really begin to know a world which will not satisfy them at all; the second act in winter, when, in spite of having recovered his sight, Martin's sensorial faculties have diminished and he also feels extremely miserable; and the last act takes place «at the beginning of the spring», when Martin and Mary decide to regain their original happiness (CW II/: 55, 57, 68, 145). So far, the thought underlying The Well of the Saints coincides remarkably with Yeats's philosophy in the first years of the new century, which he had developed in the nineties. The separation of matter and spirit, which for Yeats is the negative outcome of the expansion of rationalism and modem religion, results in two main departures from a balanced condition. From the moment he became a writer he had rejected one of them: materialism. But, from the mid-nineties he also becomes aware of the opposite danger, that is, extreme spirituality. This can be perceived quite clearly in «The Tables of the Law», where Aheme, the main character, epitomizes that capital defect (SR: 150-51, 153-58;

Francisco Javier Torres Rihelles The Well a/the Saints: Synge and Yeats

Whitaker, 1964: 44, 60; Good, 1987: 106; Wilson, 1969: 171). As O'Driscoll says, all the evidence indicates that Yeats's answer to the problem is to consider symbolism as the balanced solution (1975: 75-76, 1979: 161-62). In other words, Yeats proposes in his works the recovery of the spiritual part lost by materialistic humankind through symbols, as well as to develop refined senses and imagination. This corresponds with the three-fold distinction which Synge presents in The Well ofthe Saints. Martin's rejection of both the existence proposed by Timmy, namely materialism, and that proposed by the Saint, immoderate spiritualism, is equivalent to Yeats's denunciation of those two extreme philosophies. Therefore, Martin's declaration at the end of The Well ofthe Saints can be regarded as a manifesto of the symbolism defended by Yeats in the first years of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, this interpretation of The Well of the Saints may appear simplistic, and even more so ifwe consider the fact that it is Martin himselfthat makes it formally explicit. Corkery identifies him withSynge (1947: 169), but it is evident that Martin's relationship with the universe is also biased. On the one hand, although he recovers his refined senses when he decides not to avoid becoming blind again, those senses are partial, and he will not be able to experience a very important part of the world. On the other hand, his interest in nature is limited to its agreeable side. He rejects as ugly what he does not like, or else he beautifies it by altering reality according to his inclinations (CW llI: 141). Therefore, Martin's final choice is nothing other than another incomplete way of understanding the world. As Sidnell suggests, when Martin rejects the water offered to him by the Saint, he becomes similar to the holy man, since he will nurture himself exclusively on the images created by his own mind (1979: 57). It is, then, advisable to add a fourth level to the three considered so far, and conclude that, according to The Well of the Saints, in a perfect relationship with the world, one should also accept the unpleasant aspects of the universe, rather than limiting oneself to the pleasing part as Martin does when he decides to become blind again and escape to the south. This interpretation also agrees with the thought underlying the other major texts written by Synge, Riders to the Sea, The Shadow ofthe Glen and The Aran Islands, as well as When the Moon Has Set. In one of the drafts of When the Moon Has Set, he attacks religion because of the defect shown by Martin in The Well ofthe Saints, namely,

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looking at the world through rose windows: «there is another world [...] the real world which we are learning to look at with white light and in it we have rain and wind and snow but we see all things and experience all things» (CW II1: 280); As in The Shadow of the Glen, in his new play, Synge again demands an intensified union with the world. Imagination and refined perception are extremely important in that union, but always subordinate to an intense contact with reality, which is, precisely, the main quality of the life overtly praised in The Aran Islands. The fourth level which I propose may not be easy to discern for two main reasons. First, the harsh side of the world presented in the play may be regarded just as a form of pathetic fallacy. The landscape and Martin Doul's allusions to the ugliness of the world might be understood as the literary projection of his frustration. Secondly, in spite of the fact that some irony can be perceived, Synge presents the blind couple «more sympathetically than the villagers», as Thornton says (1979: 131), by expanding an observation by Corkery (1947: 162; cf. O'Brien Johnson, 1982: 33)5. However, this does not necessarily mean that Martin can be considered Synge's mouthpiece. The whole work indicates that Synge was aware of the implications of his text, and that he delineated his characters ironically, a conclusion also defended by Gerstenberger although she sees this as a defect ofthe play (1964: 55,6 I). It is, therefore, doubtful that the thought underlying The Well of the Saints exactly corresponds with Yeats's ideas. A balanced relationship with reality is a main aesthetic concern for Yeats in the first years ofthe twentieth century. By 1904, when Synge finishes The Well of the Saints, Yeats is well aware that the exclusive pursuit of the essences contained in the beauty of the world is not a satisfactory objective in art, since it is too close to extreme spiritualism and results in weak artistic expression. Therefore, he thinks that he must move towards reality in order to overcome his previous exaggerated spiritualism and strike a balance between extreme spiritualism and materialism, which makes it possible for the imagination to find symbols. The change in his attitude towards the tangible world can be perceived in some of the poems in The Wind Among the Reeds, although it becomes clearer in the book of poems which he publishes in 1903, In the Seven Woods. Yet, by criticizing the predominant use of imagination in the

.,. .

Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles The Well ofthe Saints: Synge and Yeats

•

relationship with the physical universe in The Well ofthe Saints, Synge goes beyond Yeats, as the obvious implication is that art must primarily focus on the whole of reality. Also', The WeIIdfthe Saints can be taken as Synge's counterpoint to The Shadowy Waters, a play belonging to Yeats's previous period, but staged in January 1904; and not only can Synge's new play be considered a criticism ofart that escapes from the real world, but a veiled criticism ofYeats himself too. As happens with Forgael and Dectora, Martin and Mary Doul personify man's capacity to transform himself and escape from reality. Both women also play a decisive role in, that transformation. Dectora is an almost spiritual ideal incarnating Forgael's yearnings, whereas Mary greatly contributes to creating a different world that satisfie's her husband's inclinations (cf. Duke Elkins, , 1993: 91-93). The two blind people in Synge's play can be seen as a parody of Yeats's couple, and therefore they can also be. considered a parody of artists trying to erect a personal universe beyond the physical world, based on abstraction and beauty, by using a language of symbols, which is the case not only of Forgael, the symbol of that type of art, but also Yeats himself'. In this regard, it is extremely interesting to compare a fragment written by Synge in 1908 with a letter that he wrote to his close friend Stephen MacKenna in June 1904, in which he tells him that he has finished The Well of the Saints and that the play has been accepted for perfonnance. In the fragment which he wrote in 1908, he distinguishes two kinds ofpoetry, «the poetry ofreal life [...] and the poetry ofa land of the fancy»; but he adds that «in all the poets the greatest have both these elements». And he concludes that «Mr. Yeats, one of the poets of the fancy land, has interests in the world and for this reason his poetry has had a lifetime in itself, but A.E., on the other hand, who is of the fancy land only, ended his career in poetry in his first volume» (CW II: 347-48). Four years before, in June 1904, when he writes to MacKenna, Synge already attacks A.E. ruthlessly in relation to an article that A.E. publishes in Dana, a new magazine. Yet the most interesting point in his letter to MacKenna is that he derogatorily alludes in passing to Yeats, when criticizing rational, pedantic art, represented forSynge on that occasion by John Eglinton, the editor ofDana: «after all it is better to rave after the sun and moon as Yeats does than to be as sane as [Eglinton]» (CLS: 88). This means that, although Synge praises Yeats in 1908 because he combines the world and imagination, in contrast with A.E., who is stuck in the style of the nineties, his view of Yeats's work in 1904 is completely "

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different. The fact that, at the time when he has just finished The Well of the Saints, he poses Yeats's uses as what is, in the end, a negative example, proves that in those days Synge believes that it is necessary to relate reality and imagination in order to create high art, and that Yeats does not comply with that requisite. With logical reservations, it is, therefore, possible to propose the hypothesis that in The Well of the Saints, Timmy, with his common sense and his superiority, is a figure close to pedantic, sane artists, as happens to be the case of Eglinton (cf. note 5), whereas the Saint is similar to AE., and Martin Doul to Yeats. The relationship between The Well ofthe Saints and The Shadowy Waters seems even more plausible if one remembers that Yeats's dramatic poem was staged in Dublin on 14th of January, 1904 by «The Irish National Theatre Society», and that only some days later, on the 28th, Synge sends a letter to Stephen MacKenna, the draft of which says: I do not believe in the possibility ofa 'purely fantastic, unmodem, ideal, breesy [sic], springdayish, Cuchulainoid National Theatre.' We had the 'Shadowy Waters' on the stage last week, and it was the most DISTRESSING failure the mind can imagine, -a half .empty room, with growling men and tittering females. Ofcourse it is possible to write drama that fits your description and yet is fitter for the stage than the S. Waters, but no drama can grow out of anything other than the fundamental realities oflife which are never fantastic, and neither modem, nor unmodem, and as I see them rarely spring-dayish, or breezy or Cuchulainoid! (CLS: 76; the capitals are Synge's). The definitive version of the letter is softened, as the allusions to The Shadowy Waters have disappeared; but the essence of the message remains, especially the idea that it is necessary to commune with the whole of reality, a notion that has become fundamental in Synge's poetics. He emphasizes that, although a specific work may be «fantastic or springdayish», «Ireland will gain if Irish writers deal manfully, directly, and decently with the entire reality oflife» (CLS: 74; my italics). However, Yeats's preface to The Well ofthe Saints shows that, in spite of his interest in Synge's language and characters, he considers the. play a metaphor ofthe rejection ofmaterialism and a defence ofsymbolist art. For Yeats, Martin and Mary Doul'sdecision to become blind again in

I I

Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles The Well ofthe Saints: Synge and Yeats

order to achieve their dream, univocally reflects Synge's aesthetic ideas. Yeats's interpretation is clear at several points of his preface, especially when he says that «those two blind people [...] are so transformed by the dream that they choose blindness rather than reality. [Synge] tells us of realities, but he knows that art has never taken more than its symbols from anything that the eye can see or the hand measure» (El: 304). Two related conclusions which will be extremely important to define Yeats's own evolution and his attitude to Synge's creation, can, then, be drawn from his reaction to The Well ofthe Saints. In the first place, it is obvious that, to a large extent, materialism and the physical world are still the same thing for Yeats in 1905. In 1896 he says to Synge that his scarce· production was not related to the real world, and advises him to go to Aran and express the islands' reality; on several occasions, he also accuses modem society of rejecting the physical faculties, as can be seen in the preface to Synge's work and in the issue of Samhain published in December, 1904; and in the plays which he writes from 1900 to 1905 there are attempts to connect art and reality. Yet, under Yeats'sdeclarations that it is necessary to express the individual and fashion an authentic language rooted in specific environments, there is a latent, prevailing idea: although art must feed on reality it has no other aim than escaping from it (El: 302-303, S, 1904: 5-6). This indicates that in 1905 Yeats's theories about the existence of a supernatural sphere constantly struggling with the visible world still rule his view ofartistic creation. Rather than delving into the complexity of Synge's characters, Yeats just remarks that they are overwhelmed by emotions that they cannot understand. Without doubt, his interpretation is limited and even obviously related to his own notion of «moods» as incarnation of immortal beings in human beings, which decisively conditions his works in the nineties (El: 195,304-305, S, 1904: 17,27-28; SR: 31; VP: 749; Wilson, 1969: 169). The second conclusion that can be drawn from the preface which Yeats writes for The Well afthe Saints is closely related to the first one. Only a month before he alludes in Samhain to Synge's works as «those curious ironical plays ofhis». Yet in the preface he does not even mention the existence of irony in the play, and he does not even contemplate the possibility that, apart from defending imagination and a revitalization of the senses, Synge may also be demanding a more intense contact with

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reality (S, 1904: 21). This amounts to saying that Yeats adapts Synge's ideas to his own. Yeats offers a biased interpretation of Synge's poetics by restricting his analysis to specific questions, which are, in fact, more interesting for himself, such as the dreamlike quality of the text, or the overpowering impulse forcing Martin to find a better existence. Although he recognizes that reality plays a role in Synge's work, in 1905 Yeats does not realize how important that role is, as happened with The Aran Islands not long before (El: 326-27). It is also evident that he does not even consider the possibility that The Well of the Saints may be the expression ofSynge's reaction to texts ofhis own, especially The Shadowy Waters. The importance ofThe Well ofthe Saints is undeniable. The present study shows that it is highly significant both to define Synge's ideas and his relationship with Yeats, which is much more complex than may appear at first sight. The above considerations show that Yeats's interpretations ofSynge's personality and work should not be taken lightly or for granted. Although Yeats's commentaries are very useful, they should be contrasted meticulously with the works in question. In the present case, although there are points of coincidence between the two authors, everything indicates that Yeats misinterpretated Synge's thought and that he adapted it to his own ideas, thus decisively contributing to deforming, or at least, obscuring Synge's poetics.

NOTES

1. Edward Stephens underlines the fact that WiIIiam Fay feared that the constant bad humour of the characters would create a similar feeling in the audience (Carpenter, 1974: 172, 167-68; cf. Fay and CarsweII, 1935: 167-68). In spite of the welcome, there were some difficulties, as with every play by Synge. On the first days of September 1904, Synge complains to Lady Gregory thatthe actors seem to beginto reject his new play, and he even mentions Padraic Colum, who does not consider it a satisfactory play ÂŤbecause the Saint is really a Protestant!Âť (CW Ill: xxii). 2. The following fragment clearly illustrates this idea. It is part of the dialogue between Martin and Molly in the second act, which Synge

Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles 35

The Well ofthe Saints: Synge and Yeats

defines as «love current», and labels as «TraPoetical». Martin's tendency to express himself through sentences not linked to each other is, on this occasion, very likely reinforced by his strong feelings: «You'd do right, I'm saying, not to marry a man is after looking out a long while on the bad days of the world, for what way would the like of him have fit eyes to look on yourself, when you rise up in the morning and come out of the little door you have above in the lane, the time it'd be a fine thing ifa man would be seeing, and losing his sight, the way he'd have your two eyes facing him, and he going the roads, and shining above him, and he looking in the sky, and springing up from the earth, the time he'd lower his head, in place of the muck that seeing men do meet all roads spread on the world» (CWIII: 117,264; cf. ibid.: 97, 98, 115). 3. Little before the performance ofSynge's new play in February 1905, Arthur Griffith again attacked The Shadow ofthe Glen in The United Irishman, questioning its Irish nature. Apparently impelled by Yeats, Synge eventually sent a letter to the newspaper with the folkloric tale of the unfaithful wife included in The Aran Islands, which Pat Dirane had told him in 1898, as he says in that book (CLS: 106, cf. CW 11: 70-72; cf. Robinson, 1951: 36). However, fulfilling the ominous expectancies, the first performance of The Well of the Saints was not welcomed by the press, and the play was accused ofnot being truly Irish (Fay and Carswell, 1935: 141, 168-69, Corkery, 1947: 160, Carpenter, 1974: 173). •

4. It is evident that Synge wanted to emphasize Martin's special sensorial faculties, which allow him to perceive what the others do not notice. For instance, Martin says in a draft that he can hear «the swift crying things do be racing in the air», but the subject of the sentence becomes «the swift flying things» in the final version (CWIII: 140, 141). 5. Instructing the company before the first performance, Synge wrote: «If it is possible -Timmy, Molly should be got to show that in all their relations with Martin & Mary -friendly as they are- they feel their own superiority» (CWIII: xxiii). 6. It is curious that the initials of the main words in both titles, The Shadowy Waters and The Well ofthe Saints, are the same, though in contrary order, and that Synge's play centres on water. The magic sea in Yeats's

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tofio de 1998

text has become a holy well in Synge's; and it is now the characters, Martin and Mary, rather than the waters, that are in shadow.

WORKS CITED

A1spach, R.K., ed. 1989. The Variorum Edition of the Plays of WB. feats. London: Macmillan. [VP]

B1oomfie1d, RC., ed. 1970. Samhain: October 1901-November 1908. Edited by WB. feats. London: Frank Cass.. [S, 1904]

Bourgeois, M. 1965 (facsimile, 1913).John Millington Synge and the Irish Theatre. London: Benjamin Bloom. Carpenter, A., ed. 1974. My Uncle John: Edward Stephen sLife of J.MSynge. London: Oxford University Press.. Corkery, D. 1947. Synge and Anglo-Irish Literature. Oxford: Blackwe11. Duke Elkins, 1. 1993. «»Cute Thinking Women»: The Language ofSynge's Female Vagrants» in Dillon, T., ed.,Eire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, XXVIII, 4: 86-99. Fay, w.G. and Carswell, C. 1935. The Fays ofthe Abbey Theatre: An Autobiographical Record. New York: Harcourt and Brace. Gerstenberger, D. 1964. John Millington Synge. New York: Twayne. Good, M. 1987. W.B.feats and the Creation ofa Tragic Universe. London: Macmillan. Marcus, P.L., Gould, W. and Sidnell, M.J., eds. 1981. The Secret Rose, Stories by WB. feats: A Variorum Edition. Ithaca: Comell University Press. [SR]

O'Brien Johnson, T. 1982. Synge: The Medieval and the Grotesque. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. O'Driscoll, R. 1975. Symbolism and Some Implications of The Symbolic Approach: WB. feats during the Eighteen-Nineties. Dublin: The Do1men Press. ----~-1979. «Yeats's ConceptionofSynge» in Bushrui, S.B., ed. A Centenary Tribute to John Millington Synge 1871-1909: Sunshine and the Moon's Delight. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe; 159172.

Francisco Javier Torres Ribelles The Well afthe Saints: Synge and Yeats

Price, A., ed. 1982. J.M.Synge: Collected Works, vol. 11. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. [CW II] Robinson, L. 1951. Ireland s Abbey Theatre: A History, 1899-1951. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. Saddlemyer, A. 1968. J.M.Synge and Modern Comedy. Dublin: The Dolmen Press. - - - - - - ed. 1982. J.M.Synge. Collected Works, vol. Ill. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. [CW IIIJ - - - - - - ed. 1983. The Collected Letters of John Millington Synge. Volume I, 1871-1907. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [CLS] Sidnell, M.l 1979. «The Well ofthe Saints and the Light of This World» in Bushrui, S.B., ed.A Centenmy Tribute to John Millington Synge 1871-1909: Sunshine and the Moons Delight. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe; 53-59. Skelton, R. 1971. The Writings ofJ.M.Synge. Indianapolis: BobbsMerriIl. Thomton, W. 1979. J.M.Synge and the Western Mind. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. Whitaker, T.R. 1964. Swan and Shadow: Yeats s Dialogue with History. Chapell Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Wilson, EA.C. 1969. Yeats s Iconography. London: Methuen. Worth, K. 1986. The Irish Drama ofEuropefrom·Yeats to Beckett. London: The Athlone Press. Yeats, W.B. 1985. Essays and Introductions. London: MacmiIlan. [EIJ

Stuart McNicholls Ulysses y la politica del estilo

UIysses y la politica del estilo Stuart McNicholls Universidad de Vigo

Don't talk politics [...] The only thing that interests me is style. James Joyce a su hermano Stanislaus' This paper is an attempt to illustrate how style in Ulysses works to subvert the idealogical basis ofmodern patriarchal society, offering the possibility of constructing a more emancipated alternative to its readers. The novel is read as Joyce's textual realisation of Stephen's intention to escape the nets 'of nationality, language, religion' (PAYM 307) and forge in the smithy of [his] soul the uncreated consciousness of [his] race (PAYM 360). In this light Joyce's preference for style over politics is interpreted as evidence that far from being an apolitical artist he is rather one who is profoundly aware of the relation between style and ideology, the former a novelistic expression ofthe latter, and that this awareness informs the novel throughout.

Ulysses destaca en el panorama de la literatura del siglo veinte como obra que a la vez instituye y es instituida por cambios profundos en la representacion de la realidad. Aparecida en un momento en que certezas politicas ypsicologicas se desmoronaban bajo la influencia de Marx y Freud, llegandose a demostrar incluso la discontinuidad de la realidad fisica (Pearce 12), la obra de Joyce explora el imaginario social instituido a traves del lenguaje como construccion contingente: a micro and macrocosm ineluctably constructed upon the incertitude of the void. (U 572) Lohace desde el punto de vista de un irlandes de principios de siglo que comparte con sus compatriotas razones para cuestionar el orden instituido en un pais empobrecido y lastrado por la dominacion fisica e ideologica de la iglesia catoliqa y el imperio britanico. Una carta a su compafiera sentimental, Nora Barnacle, manifiesta las rakes personales de sucombatividad frente al establecimiento:

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My mother was slowly killed, I think, by my father's ill-treatment, by years of trouble, and by my cynical frankness ofconduct. When I looked on her face as she lay in the coffin a face grey and wasted with cancer, I understood that I was looking on the face ofa victim and I cursed the system which had made her a victim. (SL 25) Se vislumbra aqui el reconocimiento implicito de que el 'sistema' no es solamente un ente externo, encarnado en toda la obra de Joyce por los representantes del estado y iglesia, como los que aparecen esparcidos por el texto de Ulysses, sino que se refleja en el comportamiento y la actitud de personas que inc1uyen al autor tambien. De alli el gesto de Stephen cuando indica la manera de veneer los poderes facticos sin recurrir a la violencia fisica contra sus representantes, los dos soldados britanicos que le estan amenazando: (he taps his brow) But in here it is I must kill the priest and king. (U 418)

Ya que el sistema esta presente en cada individuo en la medida que participa en su discurso, es alas frentes de sus compatriotas y contemporaneos a donde Joyce quiere llevar una lucha ideol6gica y no violenta. Las instituciones politicas y religiosas de su dia se apoyan en un discurso hist6rico a la vez teleol6gico e interesado (All human history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God. (U 28) dice el director de colegio Deasy a su empleado Stephen) que no sirve para iluminar sino para oscurecer los problemas de la condici6n humana, de modo que Joyce, 2 el comentador politico, asocia la historia con la negaci6n de la realidad mientras el autor se propone reescribir la historia, aprovechando el efecto parallax, desde un punto de partida periferico con respecto al poder. Rechaza la posibilidad de alinear la voz narrativa con otros discursos de autoridad como los de la iglesia, el estado 0 las academias can6nicas de ciencia 0 arte, ofreciendo en su lugar una representaci6n donde se quiebra deliberadamente el discurso del narrador omnisciente abriendo el paso a un discurso polif6nico y descentralizado cuya atracci6n radica en el papel activo que otorga a la lectora implicita, a la que pide colaboraci6n en la creaci6n novelesca de un mundo mejor. En el contexto de Ulysses, vemos como el estilo de las distintas voces narrativas haee de la novela un vehiculo Hterario de una eontraideologia emancipadora. De modo que la politica que Joyce rechaza: For God's sake don't talk politics. I'm not interested in politics. The only thing that interests me is style. (Ellmann 710)

Stuart McNicholls Ulysses y la politica del estilo

se entiende como la politica en su sentido mas estrecho de luchas de poder contemporaneas, mientras que por estilo se refiere alas modalidades discursivas disponibles y las implicacionesideologicas de las mismas. El genero novelesco ha guardado estrecha relacion desde sus principios con el establecimiento de la burguesia como clase dominante (Watt) y con el auge del imperialismo (Said), 10 cual sugiere que participa a menudo en el discurso ideologico dominante 0 que, como dice Christopher Prendergast, la novela como genero: embodies a whole social way of seeing; ... the insertion of the Novel into the circuit ofcommunication within which is instituted the 'natural attitude' of society is one of the major facts of modem cultural history (Prendergast 263) Bajo esta luz podemos discemir hasta que punto la escritura de Joyce constituye una praxis subversiva. El deseo pomposo de Stephen de: forge in the smithy of [his] soul the uncreated consciousness of [his] race (PAYM 360) es la manifestacion ironica del proyecto joyciano, donde se intenta articular la historia y la esperanza de su pueblo en una vision restauradora. Al apropiar el vehiculo de la ideologia dominante, hace de la novela un caballo de Troya literario, aprovechando una apariencia de realismo (el estilo inicial de la novela, ver abajo) para entrar en el bastion ideologico del imperio y luego desenmascarar la idee recue de la realidad como ilusion una vez dentro. En un principio, el Dublin de Ulysses se nos presenta a traves de los ojos y oidos de sus protagonistas, empezando con la torre de Martello, el aula y la playa refractadas por la focalizaci6n de Stephen para seguir con el dormitorio, la calle Eccles, la camiceria y el cementerio como Bloom los experimenta: no hay ningun punto de vista narrativo explicito que va mas alla del de sus protagonistas, retomando Joyce la consigna, aludida en el Portrait (PAYM 320), que habia dado uno de sus mentores literarios, Gustave Flaubert, en una carta a Louise Colet: The author in his work should be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere (Scholes & Kain 247) El estilo inicial de la novela, combinaci6n del estilo indirecto libre de Flaubert (narrativa en tercera persona del pasado contagiada par los pensamientos 0 sentiinientos del protagonista), estilo directo libre (primera persona del presente) y el mon6logo interior de Dujardin (represen-

BABEL-AFIAL, 7/0tono de 1998

taci6n literaria del flujo de conciencia 0 asociaci6n libre de pensamientos no hablados) es un dispositivo formal con el que se sugiere el movimiento desde un puntode vista publico y consensuado hasta otro mas privado e idiosincnitico. La utilidad de esta tecnica de realismo psicol6gico es comentado por Joyce, en 10 que parece una identificaci6n metaf6rica del autor con el guerrero homerico que es el contrapunto mitol6gico de su protagonista: it hardly matters whether the technique is ÂŤveraciousÂť or not: it has served me as a bridge over which to march my eighteen episodes, and, once I have got my troops across, the opposing forces can, for all I care, blow the bridge sky-high (Ellmann 543) De hecho es Joyce el que hace volar el puente estiIistico que habia tendido al introducir cada vez mas elementos discordantes con respeto a la tradici6n realista. Primero en Proteus hay el trompe-I' oei! literario de la visita de Stephen a su tia que no occurri6 (U 32-4), luego la irrupci6n en el texto de unas campanadas que parecen reirse de Bloom: Heigho! Heigho! . Heigho! Heigho! . Heigho! Heigho! (U 57) El narrador, esta vez si omnisciente, de Wandering Rocks ofrece una vista de pajaro de las actividades de los habitantes de Dublin delimitada sutilmente por el dominio temporal de la iglesia: The superior, the very reverend John Conmee S.l reset his smooth watch in his interior pocket (U 180) Yel dominio espacial del estado: The viceroy, on his way to inaugurate the Mirus bazaar in aid of funds for Mercer's hospital, drove with his following towards Lower Mount Street (V 209) Aea/us se organiza tipognificamente con comentarios par6dicos que parecen titulares de peri6dico y que sirven para minar la ilusi6n de realismo al romper, a la Tristram Shandy, con la convenci6n noveIistica de no lIamar la atenci6n sobre la artificiaIidad de la ficci6n. Sirens se presenta como si fuera una partitura musical que la lectora debe interpretar mas que leer. En Cyclops, el nacionalismo agresivo del Ciudadano se parodia mediante una voz narrativa aItemativa, responsable de los ejemplos de 'gigantismo' (p.e. el matrimonio de arboles, la ejecuci6n, el panuelo sucio como simbolo de la historia irIandesa, etc), que hace resaltar los excesos de un punto de vista monosc6pico y asimetricamente nacionalista del mundo. El proceso de desintegraci6n del argumento realista

Stuart McNicholls

Ulysses y la politica del estilo

culmina en Circe, un psicodtamasurrealista eh el que la voz narrativa parece estar alucinando bajo los .efectos del alcohol consumido por los protagonistas, de modo que en las palabrasdeParrinder: we see not Bloom and Stephen as they 'really' are but Bloom and Stephen transformed by the power of universal obsessions (Parrinder 179) La alucinaci6n de la memoria textual se completa con la reaparici6n de personajes y fantasmas conocidos anteriormente en el texto, la atribuci6n del habla a objetos inanimados y a animales y la metamorfosis 3 fisica de personas, animales y objetos. En el climax del episodio, la maldici6n de Joyce sobre el 'sistema' que mat6 a su madre se materializa, justo despues de la aparici6n del fantasma de la madre de Stephen, en el acto iconoclasta de este rompiendo un candelabro: (He lifts his ashplant high with both hands and smashes the chandelier. Time oS livid final flame leaps and, in the following darkness, ruin ofall space, shatteredglass and toppling masonry.) (U 475) Aqui se escenifica dramaticamente no s610 el derrumbamiento de las construcciones ideol6gicas del tiempo cat6lico y el espacio imperial, cuyos representantes ya se han visto en Wandering Rocks, sino tambien el de su portavoz cultural, la novela realista. La tercera parte de la novela empieza en Eumaeus con la visi6n no fiable de la realidad en las fabulaciones y medias verdades del supuesto marinero D.B.Murphy ofCarrgaloe (U510), reproducidas en un realismo cansado y enmarai'iado atribuible a Bloom, a punto de caerse al final del dia. Ithaca abandona el punto de vista inmediato de Bloom y Stephen para exponer, como si desde una gran distancia, un revoltijo de informaci6n 'objetiva' sobre los dos hombres y el tiempo que pasanjuntos en el numero 7 de la calle Eccles. La intenci6n de Joyce es que: not only will the reader know everything and know it in the baldest coldest way, but Bloom and Stephen thereby become heavenly bodies, wanderers like the stars at which they gaze (SL 278) Al haber remitido de este modo a los dos hombres a la etemidad, Joyce completa su reescritura de la epica homerica dandole la ultima palabra a Molly, la mujer del protagonista, enPenelope. Su discurso toma la forma de un mon610go interior libre y directo, caracterizado por la perspectiva exclusiva de la primera persona y la ausencia de maytisculas y puntuaci6n, en un intento de representar el fluir de una mente semi-consciente que prefigura la experimentaci6n linguistica radical de Finnegans

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Wake. La implicaci6n es que la voz de Molly ha desalojado a las voces, no por impersonales menos masculinas, que han dominado el texto hasta ahora, logrando imponer una aproximaci6n a un discurso femenino alternativo al que Joyce se referiria en el Wake coma: gramma's grammer (FW 268.17). Al hablar, casi por primera vez, Molly devuelve la pelota a los hombres que han contado chismes sobre ella durante la novela, y se libra de su visi6n limitadora y peyorativa (French 251-2). Empezando en el punto de partida de su propia subjetividad ofrece una evaluaci6n a veces cariiiosa a veces caustica de 10s hombres que han participado en su educacion sentimental, ejerciendo de portavoz de su sexo para minar el engreimiento de los hombres en general: because theyre so weak and puling when theyre sick they want a woman to get well ifhis nose bleeds youd think it was 0 tragic [...] but ifit was a thing I was sick then wed see what attention only of course the woman hides it not to give all the trouble they do (U 608)

e incluso abogando por el derrocamiento del sistema patriarcal: itd be much better for the world to be governed by the women in it you wouldnt see women going and killing one another and slaughtering (U 640) Su afirmacion final, que implica la victoria del Ulises moderno sobre los pretendientes, se dirige a su marido y a los hombres coma el que se acercan al discurso femenino planteado por la escritura de Penelope en su rechazo a la violencia y proclamaci6n del potencial del amor coma respuesta al orden del dia ideal6gico. En conclusion, Ulysses trabaja para demostrar no la futilidad de las construcciones ideol6gicas de la sociedad sino su relatividad y contingencia, que se disfrazan coma el 'orden natural' de status quo. Subvierte los pilares discursivos del patriarcado modemo, invitando a sus lectores a romper con el sistema y construir un mundo donde rija, en vez de la violencia, el amor, palabra conocida por todos los hombres (U 161), la palabra de la Otredad excluida del poder. Y al conjugar multitud de estilos en relaci6n ambivalente desvela la naturaleza ilusoria de 10 que el 'sentido comun' nos propone coma realidad y abre la puerta a interpretaciones del mundo informadas por la politica del estilo.

Stuart McNicholls Ulysses y la politica del estilo

NOTAS Ellmann 710 2 History or the denial of reality for they are two names for the same thing. (CW 81) 3 Hay elementos que sugieren una influencia en Circe delAlchimie du Verbe de Rimbaud, que segun la evidencia de Stephen Hero '" He read Blake and Rimbaud on the values of letters and even permuted and combined the five vowels to construct cries for primitive emotions. (SH34) - Joyce parecia conocer y en el que el poeta reflexiona sobre la pesadilla de sus alucinaciones artificialmente inducidas: . les monstres, les mysteres; un titre de vaudeville dressait des epouvantes devant moi (Rimbaud 230) (monstruos, misterios; un titulo de vodevil erguia horrores ante mi). I

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BIBLIOGRAFIA

PRIMARIA SH - Stephen Hero, London, Granada Publishing, 1977 PAYM - A Portrait ofthe Artist as a Young Man, Salamanca, Ediciones Colegio de Espafia, 1995 U - Ulysses, (Gabler edition) Hannondsworth, Penguin, 1986 FW - Finnegans Wake, London, Faber & Faber, 1975 SL - Selected Letters ofJames Joyce, ed. EIImann, London, Faber & Faber, 1975 CW - Critical Writings ofJames Joyce, ed Mason & EIImann, London, Faber & Faber, 1959 SECUNDARIA EIImann, R.: 1979, James Joyce, New York: OUP. French, M.: 1982, The Book As World, London, Abacus. Parrinder, P.: 1984, James Joyce, Cambridge: CUP. Pearce, R.: 1991, The Politics ofNarration, London: Rutger University Press. Prendergast, C.: 1981, Flaubert: Quotation, Stupidity and the Cretan Liar Paradox, in French Studies, Volume 35, No.3, July. Rimbaud, A.: 1966, Oeuvres, Paris, Gamier. Said, E.: 1994, Culture and Imperialism, London: Vintage. Scholes, R. & Kain, R.M.: 1965, The Workshop ofDaedalus: James Joyce and the Raw Materialsfor A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Evanston: Northwestern UP. Watt, I.: 1964, The Rise ofthe Novel, Berkely: University of California Press.

Cristina Larkin Galiiianes

Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

Tom Sharpe's Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis Cristina Larkin Galiiianes Universidad de Vigo

Es muy dificil definir las causas del exito - 0 fracaso - de un chiste ode cualquier otra manifestacion humoristica. Sin embargo parece claro que los actos comunicativos de este tipo dependen intimamente para su funcionamiento de factores extra-textuales 0 extra-linguisticos que son tanto sociales y culturales como situacionales. Esto hace que el humor sea particularmente apto para el amilisis pragmatico, que nos ofrece una forma de estudiar la comunicacion y el significado que tiene en cuenta los factores extra-linguisticos que gobieman la utilizaci6n de la lengua en situaciones de uso concretas. En este articulo, por 10 tanto, intentamos analizar desde el punto de vista de la Pragmatica como el narrador de Riotous Assembly manipula allector para lograr fines perlocutivos especificos, estableciendo a traves de actos ilocutivos indirectos un sistema de significaci6n que ellector percibe como . humoristico, pero tambien como fundamentalmente critico y sat!â&#x20AC;˘

nco.

The suitability of humour as an object of pragmatic analysis is something that jumps immediately to mind. That humour is a type of communication that depends fundamentally on communicative context is something that has been stressed by speculators and theorists from Plato and Aristotle until today. Both social-behavioural theories ofhumour and cognitive-perceptual ones lay emphasis on this. While the fonner stress the importance of taking into account and sharing positive and negative identification groups in the creation of humour, the latter extend the idea into the field of semantics by emphasising the importance of shared semantic scripts for its appreciation. Also, if, as is commonly agreed, humour is based on incongruity - social, moral, or aesthetic - then it seems obvious that an awareness ofincongruity must be based on a corresponding awareness ofthe congruous, of the acceptable and accepted, and therefore on what we could broadly tenn social contextual considerations, be these of whatever type. The successful production and transmission of humour, therefore, depends on a process of negotiation between joker and receiver working

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on common ground which lends itself perfectly to pragmatic analysis, which in turn provides a way ofstudying meaning which takes into account not only its physical vehicle (the linguistic structures in which it is encoded) but also those principles which govern the use of language in communication, that is to say, the conditions which determine the use of specific utterances produced by specific speakers in specific communicative situations and their interpretations by their receivers. My purpose in this article, therefore, is to make a pragmaticallyorientated analysis of the intentionality of the text of Sharpe's Riotous Assembly as it is appreciated by the reader, and ofhow its narrator tries to negotiate with his audience conditions propitious to the desired perlocutionary effects, not only humorous, but also critical. My thesis is that Sharpe here tries to establish a meaning system which transcends the humorous or farcical, employing them for satirical purposes and winning the reader to his point of view through a series of illocutionary acts which quite clearly, though indirectly, implicate his meaning. Of course, I am aware ofthe fact that my concern with such elements as illocutionary acts and implicature puts me in the danger ofreducing my work into an exercise in subjective interpretation. But both the appreciation ofimplicatures and that of humour are based on the receiver's experience and encyclopaedic knowledge - as is on the other hand inevitable in any type of critical commentary. As Jaines F. English remarks, «contemporary approaches to the comic bear a marked resemblance to reader response approaches to literature. Both enterprises rely on a theory of communication whose 'ground plan', as W.Iser expresses it, is formed by the poles of text and reader [or joke and laugher], together with the interaction that occurs between them» (1986, 132). Riotous Assembly has an extradiegetic, heterodiegetic narrator, and opens on the level ofinteraction narrator-reader with two categorical and definitely omniscient statements: «Piemburg is deceptive. Nothing about it is entirely what it seems to be» (7). Since we have no context in which to interpret otherwise we must take the propositional content of the utterance at face value. As we read on we find that Piemburg is described on two planes: that of its present state, which is described, in fact, in the first paragraph in the Present Tense, and that of its past history. On the level ofthe present the initial proposition is confirmed and reinforced by

Cristina Larkin Galiftanes Tom Sharpe 50 Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

a series of locutions which underline the theme of false appearances through a series ofverbs which implicate the narrator's lack ofcommitment to the propositions he is proferring. Thus the narrator tells us that Piemburg is «a tiny town that seems to have died and been embalmed». It is «by popular accounts quite dead. Sleepy Hollow they call it. ... And certainly at a first glance the city's lack ofanimation seems complete.» The comment that it is «Half the size of New York Cemetery and twice as dead» is attributed to «an American visitor» (7) who in his condition as such would also be a dupe to appearances. Another salient characteristic ofPiemburg, implied by all these locutions is that it is dead. However, the image of a dead Piemburg is tied to the theme offalse appearances, and the remarks which the narrator himself makes categorically implicate something quite different; Piemburg is not dead, but asleep. It is «huddled among the foothills ofthe Drakensberg and crouching at the feet ofa great flat-topped hill» and «it lies curled in its valley under the African sun and sleeps» (7). Of these two metaphors the second is repeated almost literally, with only a little more elaboration, at the end of the chapter, after the intervening section on the town's history: «Piemburg fell asleep. Like a replete puffadder coiled and bloated it lay under the African sun and dreampt of its brief days of glory» (9). These metaphors have strongly salient characteristics and therefore high organizing power, making strong implicatures I. The verbs employed all suggest an animal; «crouching» suggests a lying in wait, while «curled under the African sun» already implies the image of the snake which is explicitly confirmed later. The implicature here is that Piemburg is not dead, but merely asleep, and, if . wakened, potentially dangerous. The narrator confirms this explicitly, taking us back to the puff-adder: «Piemburg's mediocrity was venomous and waited gently on events>l. The narrator thus prepares the reader ominously for action, creating quite specific expectations as to what sort of thing is going to happen. Simultaneously, however, he also creates expectations of humour. The propositional content of the first paragraph contains a description of Piemburg which the reader's encyclopaedic knowledge, and his awareness of genre makes him situate in the category of the traditional, romantic travel book. Thus we have the city's geographical situation picturesquely described (through the metaphors already alluded to), as well as its more

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outstanding characteristics: «its red iron roofs and wrought-iron balconies bespeak a distant age oflong-forgotten enterprise. Its roads are lined with jacarandas and its gardens are lush with flowering dark verandahs.» The traveller is specifically mentioned: «Travellers whose trains to Johannesburg stop ... beneath the rusting sheet-metal gingerbread of its station roof, or who whisk past on the National Highway ...», and the narrator, once he has given a brief physical description, which is done in the present Tense, as befits the genre, proceeds to provide the reader with a historical account of the city3: «The capital of Zululand, it sprang up with the British Empire's conquest of the Zulu nation. In the first flush of that resounding victory, Piemburg was transformed from a tiny settlement long deserted by its Afrikaaner founders into a capital city. Civic buildings multiplied in a rash ofcolonnade and red Victorian brick. The Governor's mansion bloomed with Italian marble floors, Venetian glass and all the trimmings of Imperial splendour. The railway station, a paragon of metal fretwork and faience,provided a suitable staging post for the Viceregal trains that passed through Piemburg on their way to farther and less attractive Imperial dominions in the hinterland of Africa.» (7) Throughout the paragraph historical «fact» is blended with a discourse replete with locutions implicating superlatives in a combination which is typical ofits genre. There is at first nothing in the discourse or in its context to indicate any deviant attitude at all. However, at the end of the paragraph the reader is abruptly confronted with a deviation from the expectations created in him by the narrator's discourse up to this point. After all the talk ofconquest, resounding victory, Imperial splendour, and Viceregal trains, we find that the «august burden» carried by «the great· steam engines» go to an early death not in battle or valiant deeds, as we would expect from the tenour of the discourse thus far, but «by tsetse fly or malarial mosquito», and that «monocled and moustached men would gaze serenely down on the capital of Zululand and murmur, 'A gem, a gem set in a green and yellow ring', and then turn back to study the wholly inaccurate survey maps of their new territories» (8). The Cooperative Principle is here flouted by the narrator in that, having engaged the reader in a discourse which carries strong implicatures as to genre, he proceeds . to give information which is incongruous in the context, not only becuse

Cristina Larkin GaliTianes Tom Sharpe :\' Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

of the information in itself, but also because the propositional content of his utterance calTies generalizing implicatures which counteract the heroic connotations of what has gone before 4 , Again we are dealing here with discourse which makes strong implicatures by virtue of the fact that these reinforce each-other. Thus in case the reader is not sufficiently startled by the tsetse flies and malarial mosquitoes, the narrator repeats the incongruity with the image of the monocled and moustached men whose serene gaze evokes Queen Victoria, as does their comment about the gem and the ring 5 , and who then go back to the inaccurate survey maps. On the level of micro-structure this last incongruity presents a pattern which the reader immediately applies to the macro-structure of all the passage sUlTounding it. It also provides a good example of the joke as understood by Victor Raskin and other theorists on the cognitive functioning of humour. The «punch-line», or point of greatest deviation from the reader's expectations comes at the end with the narrator's mention of the «wholly inaccurate survey maps of their new territories» which the «august characters» are bent on studying. There is no ambiguity in the locution itself here, as would seem to be required by Koestler etc, quite the opposite, but the propositional content of the utterance is such as to implicate that the nature of the illocutionary act which has preceded it is totally different from what it appeared to be on first appearances. The reader is therefore made to go back over what has been said thus far, and to solve the problem of this apparent anomaly by reinterpreting what the nalTator has implied. The Viceregal characters are now seen as duped fools, and the whole set-up of Piemburg and its garrison as based on ignorance (not only not knowing, but also ignoring) of the real situation it is built on 6 • The humour of this initial passage of Riotous Assembly, therefore, is based on the gap which exists between the narrator's loeutionary act and his illocutionary act, between sentence meaning and the speaker's meaning as revealed in the context by the presence of incongruous elements. Apart from humour, of course, we also have irony present in that the narrator may be said to employ the type of thought attributed to a specific geme dissociating himselffrom it with ridicule and possibly also with scorn 7• The effect ofthe tsetse flies and the survey maps is decisive for the reader's interpretation of all that follows 8• It indicates the narrator's attitude

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and marks his text for humour and irony, bringing the Cooperative Principles into effect in a new context. So that when the narrator describes how the Viceregal characters pass through Piemburg station on the way to their destinies and a few months later pass back in a «coffin borne in a carriage draped in black and drawn by a locomotive draped in wreaths», and immediately adds «and in the intervals between Imperial progress and Imperial retreat, the capital of Zululand would adorn itself with new bandstands and botanical gardens and the amusement of a tiny metropolis» (8), the reader does not hesitate to interpret «Imperial progress and Imperial retreat» on two levels which produce humour because of their incongruity. In other words, on the one hand he takes the propositional set of entailments included in the utterance (the sentence meaning), and on the other he makes these entailments interact with the set ofpropositions available in the context, coming to the conclusion that what the narrator is really referring to is the coming of live and going of dead Viceroys. A similar technique to that which has already been described above as having such a decisive and sweeping effect on the communicative content of the opening paragraphs of Riotous Assembly is employed on a minor scale in many jokes in the paragraphs which follow. The narrator continues to play with the genre originally evoked, constantly deviating from it, and undermining its literary, grandiose style with very down-toearth details which cause laughter and draw the reader's attention by their incongruity. Thus he describes how in the «great parade ground» at Fort Rapier «Thousands of putteed legs would stamp or turn about, and the glittering bayonets would eddy to and fro across the brilliant square» (8), and immediately adds,»In the town itself the streets were prickly with waxed moustaches. Blanco and brass polish stood high on the list oflife's necessities.» In this way he juxtaposes the prickliness of the moustaches with the bayonets, and the brilliance ofmilitary life with Blanco and brass polish, on which, it is implied, it very much depends. The Imperial Hotel, also, with its mornings and afternoons made «liquid among potted plants and wicker chairs with the music ofa Palm Court orchestra» is immediately juxtaposed on Sam Browne belts, whalebone waist-pinchers and the whine of violins. Strange collocations are also used to create humour and implicate irony. The shires and parishes of England are recalled «with thankful melancholy» by Piemburg's officers and their wives. The incongruous collocation of adjective and noun here, all the more forceful

Cristina Larkin Galilianes Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

by virtue ofthe oddness ofsuch a combination, is explained a little further on by the narrator's account of where these people proceed from: «the terraced suburbs and semi-detached houses ofSouth London», from which the ladies have been swept «to the grandeur of the lawns and shrubberies of Piemburg by the surpising good fortune of having married husbands ...» and the reader expects to see something like «of particular talent», or valour, or money, or anything that would be generally considered good fortune; but no, the narrator continues «whose mediocrity won for them the reward of being posted to this distant sliver of the Empire»9. The narrator's intention is, to say the least, critical. It constitutes a very defined point ofview and a very defined attitude, the fictional world ofthe novel being seen principally through his eyes. Though the characters themselves also act as focalizers on many occasions, Kommandant van Heerden being the chief of these, they are seen constantly by the reader through a lens coloured by the narrator's very explicit stance, which is shared, at least in the first instance, by none ofthem. In this case, therefore, the narrator forms an identification group with the reader which is not shared fully with any of the characters 10, but which is nonetheless very much present, and from which the humour ofthe novel is to be appreciated. The narrator's attitude to his characters may be well exemplified by his presentation of his main character, Kommandant van Heerden. This character is not presented at the beginning ofthe novel as is the case in all those novels in which a character is to act as the main focalizer, but at the beginning of the second chapter, the first chapter being devoted entirely to the narrator, which, in the general framework for this type of novel, goes to confirm our former statement as to the importance ofthe narrator's viewpoint. The Kommandant is, however, the first of the characters presented, and the one to whom most space is devoted, so that the reader is immediately made to conclude that he is to be the protagonist. Chapter Two thus opens with the following statement, which is the amply elaborated on by the narrator: «Kommandant van Heerden had few illusions about himself and a great many about everything else.And it was thanks to these illusions that he found himself in charge of the Police station in Piemburg»(10). r

The narrator then launches into an intercrossing network ofironies and incongruities which makes for a discourse richly textured as to humour.

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The fact that the narrator is not going to recruit the reader's sympathy for his protagonist is indicated by the external point ofview from which he is treated: «it had been felt at Police Headquarters in Pretoria that, while Kommandant van Heerden's appointment might push the city's crime rate up, it would at least serve to lower the waves of violence and theft that had followed his posting to other more enterprising towns. Besides, Piemburg deserved the Kommandant»(lO). The narrator implies that Kommandant van Heerden, who is supposed to be in charge of the maintaining oflaw and order, causes waves of violence and theft. This is obviously incongruous and causes a problem for the reader, who however, in the light of the previous chapter, now knows that he is working within a humorous genre, so that things are not necessarily to be taken literally, since double interpretations, irony, etc must be allowed for. However, the following proposition proferred by the narrator, that van Heerden is imposed on Piemburg as the Goverment's revenge for continuing to fly the Union Jack from the town hall, seems to reinforce rather than solve the incongruity. Van Heerden, therefore, is considered a menace by his superiors. He, in his turn, being a man with «few illusions about himself», thinks that he has· been sent to Piemburg because he has a deep understanding of the British, with whom he believes he has something intimately in common so that ifhe could «have chosen his place of birth, its time and nationality, he would have plumped for Piemburg in 1890 and the heart of an English gentleman». Given what we have already been told about the inhabitants of Piemburg, and putting together the narrator's proposition and the context, the implicatures about Van Heerden, and his illusions are fairly obvious. He has no illusions about himself because if he thinks he is like the colonial British of Piemburg (i.e. conventional, mediocre, middle class, snobbish and stupid), he is, it is implied, quite right. But he has a great many illusions about other things in that obviously, his admiration for the British, though based on a sense of identification, cannot be based on the same judgement as that of the narrator, which ifwe follow the novel with humour, is ours at least for the course of its duration. Therefore the very first proposition in the chapter constitutes an ironic and humorous illocutionary act since it does not entail as it usually does an internal approach to a character, but rather a completely external narratorial judgement. We do not realise this, however, until we have appreciated to the full the implicatures provided later in the chapter, which make us go back and reinterpret what we have already readll •

Cristina Larkin Galifzanes Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

In any case, as usual in humorous literature, we are dealing with strong implicature, so that it is difficult that the reader should miss the implications intended by the narrator. Thus van Heerden is called stupid . and inept at least three times, discounting the first, when we do not yet know the reasons for his bosses' evidently bad opinion of him and are puzzled by the fact that a police officer should send up the crime rate, and each time we laugh. Another one of the reasons for van Heerden's appointment to Piemburg is «the reputation of his grandfather, Klaasie van Heerden, who had served under General Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg and had been shot by the British for refusing to obey the order of his commanding officer to surrender»(IO). Again, this appears incongruous when put with Police Headquarter's other reasons for sending him to Piemburg, and also when considered in the context of the Kommandant's love and admiration for the British. This incongruity, however, is solved by yet another as this «patriotic» deed is further described;'«He had instead stayed put in a hole in the bank ofthe Modder River and shot down twelve soldiers of the Essex Regiment who were relieving themselves there some forty-eight hours after the last shot had been fired»(lO). The narrator's slight change of register here from the formal, almost heroic one in which the previous proposition has been expressed to the more colloquial one of «stayed put in a hole» already signals the fact that the previous statement is not to be taken at face value, and this is confirmed by the specification that the deed of valour has consisted in shooting twelve soldiers who «were relieving themselves». The scatological element brought in here belongs clearly to the comic repertoire so amply employed by Sharpe. The effect is rounded off by the explanation that Klaasie had in fact been asleep during the battle, and therefore knew nothing about the order to cease fire, a fact which «was discounted by the British during his trial and by later generations of Afrikaans historians. Instead he was accounted a hero who had been martyred for his devotion to the Boer Republics and as a hero he was revered by Afrikaans Nationalists all over South Africa»(ll). Here we find a classical joking structure based on the word «discounted» which is given a double meaning by its context so that both semantic connotations are suggested simultaneously and incongruously; on the one hand the term means held as of no excuse when referred to the British, and on the other held as of no importance when referred to the Afrikaans.

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«It was this legend,» the narrator tells us, «that had helped Kommandant van Heerden to his present rank. It had taken a long time for his incompetence to live down the reputation for cunning that had been bequeathed him by his grandfather, and by that time it was too late for Police Headquarters to do anything about his inefficiency except put him in command of Piemburg»(ll). In this way the incongruity of Pretoria's third reason for the Kommandant's posting is fully solved through a series ofpropositions that implicate an attitude ofdetached and multiple irony on the part of the narrator, as well as the fact that van Heerden's incompetence is carried in his genes. The legend of cunning and heroism which surrounds his grandfather is based on an episode of dire ineptitude. Van Heerden's grandfather was a bungler and he is too. The implicatures entailed in the narrative up to this point are almost exclusively based on the narrator's omniscience. Though he now turns to his protagonist's point ofview the texture ofthe discourse reveals that the narrator's stance continues to be omniscient, and, above all, ironically detached: «The Kommandant believed that he was one ofthe few Afrikaaners who really understood the English mind.... There was something about their blundering stupidity that appealed to him. It called out to something deep within his being. He couldn't say exactly what it was, but deep called to deep .... If he had one regret, it was that his own mediocrity had never had the chance to express itselfwith anything like the degree ofsuccess that had attended the mediocrity and muddleheadedness of the rulers of the British Empire. Born an English gentleman in Victorian Britain he might well have risen to the rank of field-marshal. His military ineptitude would surely have been rewarded by constant and rapid promotion.»(ll) The propositions expressed here, we must conclude from our knowledge ofhuman nature, cannot possibly really translate van Heerden's point of view, however few illusions he has about himself, and however much he is aware that «his appointment was not due to his success in the field ofcriminal investigation»(1 0). This is an implicature which is easily derived from the interplay and juxtaposition of unexpected and incongruous elements such as mediocrity/success, mediocrity and

Cristina Larkin Galiiianes

Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

muddleheadedness/rulers of the British Empire, military ineptitude/ rewarded by constant and rapid promotion, as well as by the more explicit statement about the blundering stupidity of the English calling out to something deep (blundering stupidity) within van Heerden. The humour here lies in the incongruity between the Kommandant's point ofview and that of the narrator, and, in turn, between the former's view of the matter, (ironically quite correct, it is implied by the narrator), and the latter's, as well as in the implied comment on van Heerden. The narrator's external point of view is embedded in the Kommandant's internal one, and the implicatures reach not only the latter, but also, again, the nature ofBritish colonialism as a whole. In this way the reader is made aware of the fact that, though van Heerden may serve as a focalizer, and though he may be, in effect, the principal character in the novel, the point ofview will not be his, but that of the narrator. Riotous Assembly contains none of the palpable reference to everyday life and normal experience present in other humorous novels such as the Wilt series, or most of those written by Kingsley and Martin Amis, or WilIiam Boyd, to name a few examples. Its relation to reality is totally different, being based on the reader's acquaintance with an external context rather than on the internal context created by the novel itself. In Lucky Jim or Wilt, for example, the reader is gradually manipulated through the interaction of textual and external contexts into arriving at a series of conclusions about possible external references and criticism or comment on the part ofthe implied author. It is the context provided by the discourse in its development which guides the reader to make a series ofconnections . and deductions which situate it in relationship with his life and experience. The narrator's wish to have the reader make these connections is constantly indicated in the discourse itself. Hence, for example, his adherence to one only point of view in Lucky Jim, and his constant reference to easilyrecognisable situations and elements ofexternal reality in both this novel and in Wilt.

In Riotous Assembly there is no pretence at this sort of realism. Its connection with reality is established at the beginning through implicature, together with the narrator's attitude. The knowing reader is given a great many hints which help him to recognise the external situation the narrator is referring to - the historical circumstances and recent political situation

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of South Africa - and it is this background, initially established, that gives meaning to the novel and to the extreme distortion that characterises it. A specific distance, as well as specific bonds with reality are established by centering the plot on the fictional Piemburg, which is, however, connected by rail to Johannesburg, and by history to British colonial expansion and the Boer War. Both this distance and these bonds are representative of those which are maintained throughout the novel. The narrator presupposes from the beginning that the implied reader knows what he is talking about, and is aware of the political situation reigning in South Africa until very recently, and will therefore be capable of making the immediate connections with the real situation implied in the attitude of his characters towards «blacks», for example, or in Verkramp's anti-communist witchhunts for the Bureau of State Security in Pretoria and Van Heerden's fear of falling under his suspicions. All this, of course, gives the narrator leeway for a treatment of character and plot in which all resemblance to «reality» is utterly distorted by means ofgross exaggeration and caricaturisation. The reader is plunged in a surrealistic world of violence and extreme incongruity in which all considerations of the possible or probable are left aside. It is, indeed, we think, this total absence of«realism», together with the narrator's attitude ofcritical detachment, that allow the reader the distance necessary to laugh at many of the distinctly gory and objectively horrifying passages in the novel. As Heather McDonald writes, «the three major police figures in Riotous Assembly represent generalised fixations - all destructive. The thoughts and actions ofall three represent perverted, instinctive obsession, for van Heerden is blindly Anglophilic, Verkramp remains a 'knee-jerk' anti-communist, and EIs is simply a sadistic and murderous racist»( 1993, 21). As in the case of Kommandant van Heerden, already commented on, most of the characters are first presented through description by the omniscient narrator, who has established his authority on the performative level in the first chapter of the work. This authority and the initial descriptions are thereafter confirmed by the implicatures generated through the words, actions, thoughts and reactions of the characters throughout the novel. The plot, triggered off by a telephone call from the elderly, British Miss Hazelstone ofJacaranda Park to say that she has just murdered Fivepence, her Zulu cook, leads to a series ofsituations which often border on farce through the narrator's extremely liberal use of incongruous and

Cristina Larkin Galifianes Tom Shmpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

utterly improbable factors. Hence, for example, situations such as that of EIs' fight with Miss Hazelstone's Dobermann Pinscher, described as a battle of equals: «The dog, which had at first bitten Konstabel EIs' ankle to the bone, had transferred its attentions to his groin and once there had developed all the symptoms oflockjaw. EIs, conservative as ever, and having nothing else to bite on except the Dobermann's backside, was applying his knowledge, gained in several thousand interrogations of Africans, of what he cheerfully called 'ballbashing' but which in the autopsy reports on some of his patients was termed severe contusions to the testicles».(22-23) The two are eventually separated, but only by the application of ammonia to their snouts, and it is EIs who first loses his hold, the dog continuing in his «attachment to EIs' groin», to the accompaniment of «the agonized screams of [the] assistant». To these the Kommandant turns a deafear, and immediately orders EIs «to retrieve the remains ofFivepence from the lawn and from what was clearly an unscaleable blue gum, an order which the Konstabel tended to dispute on the grounds that he was in need ofimmediate and prolonged hospital treatment for multiple and severe dog bite, not to mention battle fatigue and shell shock»(25). However, despite the Konstabel's protests, he obviously carries out the orders, for when van Heerden shortly afterwards looks to see what he is doing, he has «regained his head for heights, not to mention Fivepence's, and had somehow managed to reach the ground where he was busily seeking promotion by kicking the Indian butler into collecting the scattered remains of the Zulu cook and putting them into a pillowcase»(31). The narrator's recreation in violence, incongruity, and sheer improbability here need hardly be commented on. In Riotous Assembly, indeed, the narrator's discourse is charac-

terised by an exploitation of violence and destruction well symbolized by the dire effects ofthe late Judge Hazelstone's elephant gun 12, and adorned by an abundance of incongruous detail often created by the description of minor contingencies, and often by the fact that most of the time none of the characters know what the others are doing and that the action is told through constantly changing focalisers by the omniscient narrator. Given the characters he is dealing with and their total ineptitude, this affords

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him the possibility ofplaying with the (mis)interpretations given by each to what is going on around him, thus creating jokes like that of «the Ming»(55), or EIs' view ofVerkramp and his two volunteers reconnoitering in camouflage as «three remarkably agile agglomerations of vegetable matter [which] scuttled across the road»(56).The narrator uses his omniscience and therefore the reader's awareness of the overall context at each point to create jokes based on multiple incongruities, drawing on all possible sources ofhumour. Hence, for example, in the scene we have just mentioned, Luitenant Verkramp is bitten by a spider. This is a detail which, in the context of wholesale battle, should hardly seem relevant, but which is magnified with almost sadistic insistence: «The spider that had bitten him on the nose as he tried to disentangle himselffrom its web had been ofa size and malevolence he would never have believed possible ifhe hadn't seen it with his own one eye, the other being obscured by the spider's three feet which it had fastened there to give it a good foothold while it injected 50 cc of toxic venom into his left nostril. .., The poison spread so fast and with such evident effect that even after the giant spider had been good enough to let go of his cornea he still couldn't see out of it. That side of his face was pulsating alarmingly and his sinus appeared to be filled with some caustic liquid.»(56) The description ofthe huge spider hanging on to Verkramp's cornea and injecting poison into his nostril has the grotesque effect of something taken out of a cartoon. At the same time, Eis perceives the Luitenant's predicament in rather different terms: «The sounds reaching him from the hedgerow seemed to indicate that his enemies were already suffering some trepidation. To the sounds ofbreaking twigs that had accompanied their progress were now added the occasional whimper and what appeared to be chronic catarrh»(57). There are various sources of incongruity here: Verkramp and company are described as a hedgerow; camouflage is designed not to be seen or noticed, and the Luitenant and his men are obviously highly conspicuous, among other things because of the noise they make; and it seems hardly apt that a character like Verkramp should «whimper»13, while the description ofhis laboured breathing as sounding like «chronic catarrh» suggests a «script» to the reader hardly in place in this context, and creates

Cristina Larkin Galbianes Tom Shal1Je S Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

humour tlu'ough the mechanism of «bisociation of ideas» described by Koestler and Raskin. Intertwined with the activities of the police characters are various other «story-lines» which contribute strongly to give the novel its particular tone of farcical humour. One ofthese is Miss Hazelstone's account of her «passiona!» relationship with the unfortunate Fivepence. Despite her age and apparent primness (she is described as «a thin, angular, almost frail, elderly lady dressed in dark chiffon with lace to her throat»(20)), she has been engaged in an affair with what turns out to have been a transvestite Zulu(91), founded on a shared rubber fetish, which, despite «little incompatibilities in [their] attitudes, not to mention [their] physical attributes» and Fivepence's propensity to «cjaculatio praecox»(29), has proved satisfactory thanks first to the application of three contraceptives «one on top ofthe other, to desensitize his glans penis», and finally to the administering to the same part of Novocaine injections used by Miss Hazelstone's dentist as local anaesthetics l4 • Despite the fact that thc relationship has presumably had other aspects (Miss Hazelstone's «catalogue ofFivepence's virtues as a sentimental and spiritual companion» is mentioned on at least two occasions), the narrator glosses over these, and concentrates instead on the more scandalous sides of the affair, outlined above. This is done for various reasons. In the first place, a description of the «spiritual» aspects of the affair might easily introduce a note of sentimentality which would be completely out of place in the narration, whereas the incongruity introduced by its physical aspects maintains the distortion which characterises the novel as a whole. In the second place, the lavish detail in which the old lady describes her relationship to van Heerden produces humour not only because of its intrinsic content, but also because of the Kommandant's shock, disgust, and distinct unwillingness to hear such things from the lips of one who has, up to this point, been his model of uprightness and distinction. Indeed, one of the elements which produces humour is what in Pragmatics would be considered an excess of information 15. Much more detail is given by Miss Hazelstone than is strictly speaking necessary or than Kommandant van Heerden wants to know. It is he who reacts like a prim old lady: «Kommandant van Heerden didn't think. He was doing his best not to listen. He rose unsteadily from his chair and closed the french doors that led out onto the stoep. What this ghastly old woman

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was telling him must on no account reach the ears of Konstabel EIs.... the Kommandant paced the room, frenziedly searching his mind for some means of hushing the case Up.»16 Several other themes are used by the narrator specifically, we think, to create humour and grotesqueness and add to the farcical tone of the novel. The first, and perhaps most prevalent ofthese is Rubber. Integrated in the plot by Miss Hazelstone's fetish, it gives rise to such scenes as that in which Kommandant van Heerden sleeps in the old lady's latex sheets and, unconscious of the nature ofthe material by which he is surrounded, sweats so profusely that he thinks he has been guilty of incontinence and, full of an embarrasment totally incongruous in the figure of a redoutable South African policeman, hastily gets into bed again to try to dry it out with his body heat(75-77). Later on, forcibly attired in an over-tight pink latex nightdress, he is virtually raped by Miss Hazelstone dressed in a salmon pink double-breasted latex suit with a yellow pinstripe, shirt of white latex and «mauve rubber tie complete with polka dots»l7, an attire which she is to wear again later on in the novel when she tries to hand herself in to the police(l25). She uses, as a coercitive weapon, a Novocaine injection. The scene ends when van Heerden, still attached to the large double bed to which Miss Hazelstone has tied him, throws himself out of the bedroom window, and is left strung up on high to the view of the aghast Sergeant de Kock (his name is particularly suggestive, given the context), who is standing below, and who judges, quite rightly, that «the corpulent creature in the pink nightdress who squirmed and struggled against the wall of the house some twenty feet up» cannot be Miss Hazelstone, since «she wasn't fat like that, she wasn't hairy like that, and above all, he felt sure she didn't have reproductive organs like that»( 106). The Bishop of Barotseland, also, is made to spend most of the time clad exclusively in a rubber bathing cap, and at the very end of the novel an unnamed couple travelling on a plane for London is rendered immediately recognisable to the reader as the Bishop and Miss Hazelstone by the «catalogue of rubber goods» the lady is reading(202). Another ofthe leitmotifs used ubiquitously by the narrator to create humour through its total incongruity is the figure of a vulture first seen «waiting with evident prescience» in the branches of an oak tree l8 near the scene of the wholesale slaughter wrought by EIs on the South African

Cristina Larkin Galiflanes

Tom Shmpe sRiotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

Police corps, and shortly afterwards sighted by the Bishop ofBarotseland as he floats in the swimming pool of Jacaranda Park, and taken by him as a manifestation ofthe Almighty. It is thereafter seen hovering over scenes of bloodshed and eliciting the reader's amusement by the various (always ludicrous) guises in which it appears. Finally it disintegrates, struck by a volley of bullets, in a shower of lights, feathers and police buttons, all over Sergeant de Kock, who staggers about the. garden in a state of shock «enveloped in a cloud of feathers and draped with what appeared to be the half-digested contents of a stomach that had recently indulged in an enormous meal of raw meat»( I06), so that to Kommandant van Heerden, hanging from Miss Hazelstone's bedroom window in his pink latex nightie he looks as if he had <~ust emerged from a nasty accident in a turkey abattoir»(l09). De Kock's uniform, covered in feathers and lights, continues to be used for comic effect in later passages, until it is finally worn by the Bishpop of Barotseland in the farcical identification parade set up to inculpate him with the murder ofFivepence and the slaughter of twenty-one policemen(l17). The reader is therefore plunged into a text that is notable for its farcical treatment of character and plot, which are in no way credible from a nonnal, every-day, «realistic» point of view. In such a context the positioning ofthe narrator is important. As an omniscient narrator he does not partake consistently ofany one character's point ofview or solicit our sympathy for that character, but jumps with equal detachment from one to the other. Thus what is played with here is the fact that the narrator shares his omniscience with the reader, who knows everything that is going on, in contrast to the characters involved, each of whom has a very limited knowledge. This use of «dramatic irony» creates a great deal of humour, since the characters' interpretations are often incongruous in the extreme. It is also significant on the level ofthe implicatures generated by the discourse, since we are dealing, most of the time, with a wide-scale police operation whose total lack of coordination hardly says much on behalfofthis force. However, and most important, the reader is thus placed on a plane above the characters which he shares with the narrator, and this communion in itselfmakesforthe formation ofan identification group between them. This identification is reinforced by the patently ridiculous way in which the characters are portrayed and the ludicrous situations in which they are placed, both of which preclude any sort of sympathy with

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them. At the same time, the running jokes we have referred to aboye, while being appreciated by the reader because ofthe sympathy established with the narrator, simultaneously help the latter to maintain the relationship between the two, since the reader 's recognition and appreciation of them creates a complicity with the narrator which is renewed every time they comeup. It would not, however, be altogether true to say that the reader does not sympathise at aH with any ofthe characters ofRiotous Assembly. As the novel progresses, we do come to see two of them in a different lighí. One of these is Jonathan Hazelstone, the Bishop of Barotseland, who is placed in a sympathetic situation principaHy because ofthe way in which he is victimised by van Heerden and the South African institutions, but also because on a subliminallevel he is manipulated by the narrator into a position closer to that ofthe reader and his own by the fact that he shares the encyclopaedic knowledge ofboth, whereas the police characters who deal with him do not, and is therefore the source ofa great deal ofthe humourdirected against them. Something similar may be said of the narratór's treatmentofMiss Hazelstone, hardly a sympathetic character in principie, but one who is aJso subtly brought nearer to the identification class ofreader and narrator by the same means as those used in the case of her brother. AIso, of aH the characters in the novel she is the only one in full possession ofthe truth which the others try to distort (the Bishop is also later put in a similar situation), and furthermore, the only one who questions the working of the world she is immersed in. In contraposition to van Heerden's acclaim ofher as an arbitrer oftaste, the «doyenne of English society in Zululand» and practically a «national institution», she says, «If people choose to follow my advice to put maroon wallpaper next to orange curtains, who am 1 to say them nay? People who believe that having a pink skin makes them civilized, while having a black one makes a man a savage, will believe anything»(l41). Her statement undermines radicaHy van Heerden's deepest convictions, but, most noticeably, it is made extensive to South African «society» in general. Miss Hazelstone says ofher articles on «fashion and tastefulliving»: «1 had great fun thinking up the most awful combinations of colours. Everybody took my recornmendations seriously too. 1think 1can honestly say that 1 have made more homes unliveable in than aH the termites in South Africa». In the context ofthe implicatures generated by the narrator's

Cristina Larkin Galiñanes Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

discourse the reader interprets these assertions as damning to the basic criteria on which South African society is founded, and as an explicit statement of the criticism implied in the text thus faro Miss Hazelstone, therefore, despite her evident eccentricity, comes towards the end of the novel to constitute a voice which confirms the implicatures derived by the reader from the text, being thus brought into the identification group of the narrator and the reader. This, of course, causes us to reinterpret sorne of her attitudes, so that, for example, we see her treatment of van Heerden and company not only as a manifestation ofsnobbishness towards social inferiors, but also as one of real disdain towards figures representative ofthe society in which she lives.

It is, indeed, the fact that the implicatures derived from the narrator's discourse go beyond individuals and individual situations and incident to sweeping comments about the South African situation that removes it from the category of farce into that of satire. On a globallevel of reading the accumulation of passages generating implicatures which point to political or social comment overrides the grotesque caricaturisation of individuals such as van Heerden, Verkramp and EIs, and causes the reader to put them into perspective as «tip-of-the-iceberg» representatives of a situation that is profoundly vitiated. Hence, for example, the importance of passing comments such as that made on South African justice in the passage conceming the native milk-delivery boy on whom EIs tries out Luitenant Verkramp's electrical-therapy machine(13-14). After prolonged application of «electric-shock therapy» to various parts ofthe boy's body, the latter is willing to confess to anything, thus proving the utility and efficacy ofthe new machine: «At that point Luitenant Verkramp confessed himself satisfied with the experiment and the milk-delivery boy was charged with being out without a Pass, obstructing the police in the course of their duties and resisting arrest, which charges got him six months' hard labour and satisfied the magistrate that his injuries were justified if not actualIy self-infliéted»(l4. My underlining). The implicatures generated in this passage are rotundly confirmed in the course ofJonathan Hazelstone 's trial. He has, it is true, been framed by the police and tortured into signing a false confession. But the crimes he confesses to are patently ridiculous and unbelieveable. However, the judge is heavily prejudiced, the attomey for the defence inept and accommodating, the jury «hand picked from close relatives of the murdered policemen»(l54), and the

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Bishop's confession is manipulated by the Bureau of State Security in Pretoria, which «decided to intervene in the interests ofWestem civilisation incarnate in the Republic of South Africa and using the powers bestowed on it by Parliament, ordered the suppression of nine-tenths of the confession», thus rendering it totally damning. The system, it is clearly implied, is totally corrupt, and its victims have no hope of surviving. Other generalising implicatures are generated by the text on the subject of apartheid, and constantly confirm and reinforce each-other throughout, from the first pages, when EIs describes killing a black cook as «garbage disposal»(l6), to the point where Jonathan Hazelstone is found guilty of murder «twenty-one and a quarter times over»19, to that other, near the end ofthe novel, where van Heerden rotundly rejects the transplant ofa «kaffir's heart» and acuses Dr Erasmus ofbeing «an enemy of South Africa» and «a bloody Communist» for even suggesting such an idea on what are (to the reader) perfectly reasonable medical grounds( 177-178). Most direct are Miss Hazelstone's biting comments when in Fort Rapier Mental Hospital, transcribed (significantly) in the narrator's voice: «When she looked around her, there didn't seem to be any significant difference· between life in the mental hospital and life in South Africa as a, whole. Black madmen did all the work, while white lunatics lounged about imagining they were God»(l49). Also significant is the narrator's recreation of passages of the history of the conquest of South Africa, such as his description of the Battle of Bulundi(l9-20), the implicatures of which are reinforced at the end of the novel by Miss Hazelstone's pageant at Fort Rapier in which «the history of South Africa unfurled before the spectators in a series of blood-curdling battles in which the blacks were invariably massacred by the whites»(185). In Riotous Assembly, therefore, a political reality that is tragic is

taken as a starting point, and is transformed into satirical comedy of the most extreme sort. One is inclined to think that the extremity of the reference justifies that of its referent. The distortion of reality visible in the narrator's treatment of his theme seems symbolic of the distortion of human values and rationality present in the «real» situation. Although we are constantly provoked into laughter as we read the text, the prevailing impression that remains once we have finished it is one of violence, stupidity, ignorance and corruption. As Thomas Nollet writes, in this work Sharpe «deliberately avoids presenting his character sketches realistically

Cristina Larkin Galiiianes Tom Shmpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

and concentrates instead on making them ludicrous in their foibles, hypocrisies and vices....All of them are in different aspects, insane. Such is Sharpe's method ofsatirizing racism. He creates a deranged world which is exasperatingly ludicrous in its distortions but which depicts nonetheless the insanity he feels informing and supporting South African society»(l992, 11 & 13). In his vision of South Africa, indeed, we are made to feel that the implied author subscribes entirely to Miss Hazelstone's words when she says «One has to conclude that insanity is a poor substitute for reality»(149)

1. Merrie Bergmann, 1991. 2. p.l O. Since we have a third-person, omniscient narrator, on the performative level he does have the authority to assert this. See Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, 1986, p.l 03: «A covert extradiegetic narrator, especially when he is also heterodiegetic, is likely to be reliable», and Marie-Laure Ryan, 1981, p.534: «Since unreliability cannot be demonstrated in impersonal narration, the impersonal narrator enjoys absolute authority for the fictional world: This absolute authority does not derive from a literary convention, ... but from a logical necessity». This fact is reinforced here by the narrator's implied claim that he knows what is under the appearance of Piemburg. 3. p.7.There is nothing in the first paragraph to suggest that the narrator's attitude is in any way deviant. The performative mode is that of assertion, and the only hint that it might be otherwise lies in the rhyme jacarandas / verandahs, but since there is nothing in the context to confirm his suspicions, the reader passes over it. 4. An isolated case of death by tsetse fly or malarial mosquito would have been acceptable within the genre. But the narrator generalises: «And as the great steam engines blustered up the winding gradient to Empire View, ... carrying with them their august burden to an early death by tsetse fly or malarial mosquito ...» and «monocled and moustached men would gaze serenely ...» 5. The words «A gem, a gem set in a green and yellow ring» echo ironically Queen Victoria's reference to India as «the jewel in the crown»,

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but, ofcourse, without their symbolic content - one thing is the crown and quite another a ring, let alone a «green and yellow ring», which seems rather a stretched metaphor. 6. This new interpretation is explicitly confirmed by the narrator slightly further on when he says describing the social structure ofPiemburg and with reference to the Boers: «At the bottom ofthe scale came private soldiers in the pay corps. Below these pariahs there was nothing left.... What happened down there was simply nobody's concern. All that one had to know was that somewhere even lower than the loyal Zulus and the treacherous Pondos there were the Boers.... Boers didn't wash. Boers were cowards. Boers were stupid. Boers were an excrescence that blocked the way to Cairo. Piemburg ignored the Boers. And then came the Boer War and as the Boers shot the monocles out of the eyes of the officers of Fort Rapier, waiting deliberately for a semaphore reflection of the sun to signal a suitable monocled target, a new respect was born in Piemburg. The Boer could shoot straight. The Boer was cunning.» (p.9.)

7. See Sperber and Wilson's definition of irony: «Irony results when the thought entertained by the speaker is a more or less literal interpretation of an attributed thought, and the speaker, moreover, dissociates herself from this thought with ridicule or scorn» (1988, 147). 8. And also of all that preceded. It gives comic dimension to the American's description ofPiemburg: «Halfthe size ofNew York cemetery and twice as dead», trenchantly categorical and to the point, and incongruous amidst the narrator's carefully qualified assertions, full of verbs implying a lack of total commitment to the propositions presented by the speaker, and to the also incongruously poetic rhyme of «Its roads are lined with jacarandas and its gardens are lush with flowering dark verandahs». And it confirms the reader's suspicion of the pesence of humour behind the elegiac description of Piemburg's grotesque development «in a rash of colonnade and red Victorian brick»(p.7). 9. pp.8-9. On the level of the micro-speech-act this is similar to what Sharpe has already done on a larger scope. Also note «Many would never return and those who stayed and were not buried in the military cemetry in Fort Rapier would build their houses as close to the Governor's mansion as their seniority [...] and overdrafts allowed»(p.8).

Cristina Larkin Galiiianes Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

10. Though two of them (Miss Hazelstone and her brother, the Bishop of Barotseland) are, in the course of the novel, brought to partake in the same group. 11. See Suls' account of the problem-solving strategies employed in processing ajoke (1972,87), and Raskin's description of the working of the «script-switch-trigger» (1985). Appreciating humour is described as similar to reading a text, except that there comes a point where incongruity arises and then the receiver has to go back and re-read. 12. For example when Eis fires from the blockhouse its effects are described in the following way: «The great wrought-iron gates ofJacaranda Park lay a twisted and reeking heap of partially molten and totally unidentifiable metal. The stone gateposts had disintegrated. The boars rampant sculpted in granite that had surmounted the posts would ramp no more, while the roadway itself bore witness to the heat of the gases propelling the shells in the shape of four lines of molten and gleaming tarmac which pointed down to what had once been the thick bushes that had obscured his view of his adversaries.... The cover his enemies had used was quite gone. The hillside was bare, barren and scorched and it was doubtful if it would ever regain its originallook»(p,48). 13. This narrator frequently uses terms whose semantic scripts are totally incongruous with the surrounding context. Thus, for example, members of the police forces give «a nervous giggle» (65). 14. p.30. The effect of Miss Hazelstone's description of her sexual practises with Fivepence is heightened by the implicatures generated by the text. If she says that the three contraceptives were used to retard Fivepence's ejaculations but that they «tended to restrict his circulation a teeny bit and he did complain that he didn't feel very much. after an hour I would get him to take one off and that helped him a bit and finally he . would take the second one offand we would have a simultaneous orgasm», then the reader jumps to the conclusion that with the use of Novocaine sexual intercourse must have lasted as long as the effects ofthe anaesthetic did! 15. Grice's Cooperative Principle is broken under what he denominates the Maxim of Quantity: «Do not make your contribution [to a communicative exchange] more informative than is required». (I 975,308).

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16. p.28. What most preoccupies van Heerden, of course, are the possible repercussions which the revelation of Miss Hazelstone's affair might have on South African society: ÂŤMiss Hazelstone and Jacaranda House were practically national institutions. Her column on refined living and etiquette appeared in every newspaper in the country, not to mention her frequent articles in the glossier women's journals. If the doyenne of English society in Zululand were known to have murdered her black cook, or iffalling in love with black cooks was to come into the category of refined living and the fashion spread, as well it might, South Africa would go coloured in a year. And what about the effect on the Zulus themselves when they learnt that one of their number had been having it offwith the granddaughter ofthe great Governor, Sir Theophilus Hazelstone, in Sir Theophilus' own kraal, Jacaranda Park, freely, practically legally, and at her insistance? Kommandant van Heerden's imagination swept on from wholesale rape by thousands of Zulu cooks, to native rebellion and finally race warÂť. The implicatures ofthis passage, in view of South Africa's regime of apartheid, are obvious, despite the ludicrous nature of the situation created by the narrator's discourse and underlined in this passage by the hyperbolic generalisations about Zulu cooks and the incongruity of the ideas connected with them. The notion ofa Zulu cook in itselfseems to us pretty incongruous - Zulus are normally connected with war-like activities - let alone that of a transvestite Zulu cook. 17. p.98. One of the characteristics of Sharpe's narrators is their way ofgetting carried away with what they are describing and of heaping on effects in really thick layers. In this passage, as in many others, we have, again, gross exaggeration and insistence on the most incongruous details, here not only of situation, but also visual (in the horribly clashing colours). 18. p.51. Note the incongruity here. One hardly associates vultures with oak trees. 19. p.155. The first figure (twenty-one) refers to the policemen he is supposed to have killed; the quarter is the Zulu cook.

Cristina Larkin Galiiianes Tom Sharpe s Riotous Assembly: A Pragmatic Analysis

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Sharpe, Tom, 1971. Riotous Assembly. London: Pan Books. Bergmann, Merrie, 1991. «Metaphorical Assertions». In Steven Davies (ed) Pragmatics: A Reader. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 485-494. English, James E. 1986. «The Laughing Reader: ANew Direction for Studies of the Comic». In Genre XIX: 129-154. Grice, H.P. 1975. «Logic and Conversation». In Cole and Morgan (eds) Studies in Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press, 41-58. Koestler, Arthur, 1989 [1964]. The Act of Creation. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Nollet, Thomas, 1992. «Tom Sharpe and the Satire of Racism: Caricature and Farce in 'Riotous Assembly'. The Modern Language Association ofAmerica, 11-18. Raskin, Victor, 1985. Semantic Mechanisms ofHumor. Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel. Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith, 1983.NarrativeFiction: Contemporary Poetics. London and New York: Methuen. Ryan, Marie-Laure, 1981. «On the Why, What, and How ofGeneric Taxonomy». Poetics 10:2\3, 109-126. - 1981. «The Pragmatics of Personal and Impersonal Fiction». Poetics 10, 517-539. Sperber, D. and Wilson,D. 1988. «Representation and Relevance». In Kempson, R. (ed) Mental Representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Suls, Jerry M. 1972. «A Two-Stage Model for the Appreciation of Jokes and Cartoons: An Information-Processing Analysis». In Goldstein and McGhee (eds) The Psychology ofHumor. New York: Academic Press, 81-100.

M!!. Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la comprension del genero «Relato Breve»

«Bases para la comprension del genero 'relato breve' como modelo narrativo especifico de representacion del tiempo» Maria Jesus Hemaez Lerena Universidad de La Rioja

The short story genre embodies a sense of our existence as separation from the flow of time by focusing on one stimulus, on the character of a perception which strikes us as containing some truth. It represents an attempt at grasping the inner texture of isolated segments of our life, snatching them out of time in order to exorcise them. In this sense, the short story offers the most fulfilling narrative embodiment ofthe concept ofepiphany because it roots its significance by concentrating on a fragment of experience, a moment in time where past experiences converge and are subject to revision. Although in the novel several revelatory points in time can take place, the short story achieves significance by concentrating on just one. Therefore, such points are not presented as a culmination of a previous period of transition or evolution: they retain a certain quality ofarbitrariness or mystery. The aim ofthis paper is to review some theories about the nature of the short story in order to identify and evaluate the role they assign time in their understanding ofthe genre. We will apply to these theories our own hypothesis: we can give different «destinies» to our experience according to the form we choose to recall or to express it, that is, as a transit that leads us from one stage to another, or as an image-or a limited set of images-that help us to discover the power and potential of certain isolated perceptions unbound from the continuity of time. The first option gives shape to life in the form of a novel, the second one, in the form of a short story.

«Because short fiction is dealing with the power ofthe forces which act on us rather than with the nature ofthe forces» Walton Beacham (1981:16) El relato breve exige a menudo una concentracion absoluta en un unico estimulo, en el caracter de una percepcion; nos hace testigos de un momento aislado en el que convergen experiencias pasadas que se someten a una fugaz revision. Su fuerza estetica deriva de su aparente limita-

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ci6n para contemplar la complejidad y las transiciones de la vida: a traves de un fragmento de experiencia somoscapaces de imaginar un mundo completo. El objetivo de este articulo es revisar algunas teorias que se han ocupado de definir el genero del relato breve para evaluar el papel que asignan al concepto del tiempo. En nuestro planteamiento inicial, consideramos que el relato breve se configura como representaci6n narrativa de un modo de comprensi6n de la experiencia basado en una noci6n de temporalidad especifica, diferente de otras nociones de temporalidad implicitas en el genero novelistico. A pesarde que ambos generos operan sobre una selecci6n de la experiencia, la novela muestra la vida como tninsito que nos lleva de una etapa a otra, mientras que el relato breve selecciona una imagen -0 un conjunto restringido de imagenes- para potenciar su valor frente a la continuidad del tiempo en la que se inscribe. Con las siguientes reflexiones pretendemos poner a prueba la validez de esta hip6tesis asi como integrarla dentro de una corriente critica general dedicada a la investigacion de las posibilidades expresivas de este genero. En la mayoria de las definiciones del relato corto desde comienzos de siglo hasta nuestros dias, su esencia se concibe fundamentalmente como una seleccion de material de vida mucho mas acentuada que aquella operada por la novela. Sin embargo, los primeros maestros del genero no contemplaron el nuevo genero como representante de una pequefia parte de la ÂŤlongitudÂť y complejidad de la existencia. En un articulo sobre Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe (1842: 174) identific6 el efecto del relato corto como un solo momento de intensidad que proporciona a la narracion una unidad imposible de conseguir en el genero novelistico. La impresi6n totalizadora se produce, segun Poe, no por una restricci6n impuesta a un corpus amplio de personajes, acontecimientos y tiempos, sino por la creaci6n de un disefio en el que los sucesos incluidos produciran un efecto de intensificaci6n de un determinado aspecto. Su enfasis no reside en el ÂŤrecorteÂť de la diversidad del mundo exterior al relato; se encuentra en una particular conjuncion de determinados elementos inventados.

Mf!. Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la comprension del genero «Relato Breve»

Si estudiamos detenidamente las declaraciones de Poe (1842: 174) en su articulo «Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthome; A Review», . articulo que sento las bases pamposferiores apfoximaciones al relato corto, observamos que el proceso que se sigue es, primero, la identificaci6n del efecto que se quiere conseguir y, segundo, la creaci6n de los elementos necesarios para lIevarlo a cabo. Poe no considera que existe una reciprocidad vidalnarraci6n en terminos de longitud temporal 0 espacio textual. El hecho de utilizar el verbo invent corrobora la falta de relevancia, desde el punto de vista del artista, del criterio que asume que la literatura «representa». La literatura inventa y, por 10 tanto, la idea de que una narraci6n breve representa . limitadamente una existencia «mas grande» no forma parte de su teoria: having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents -he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. (Enfasis afiadido) Con elIo, Poe (1842:7) logr6 esquivar la idea de una supuesta correlaci6n entre la extensi6n del tiempo en el que viven los personajes dentro de la narraci6n y las demandas de longitud discursiva necesarias para cubrirlo. Incluso cuando elige el mejor relato de Hawthome, este resulta ser «Wakefield», un relata que cubre un periodo de veinte afios en la vida del protagonista. Tambien admira el relato «The Minister's Black Veil», que incluye varios afios de la vida de un sacerdote. La base de las conclusiones de Poe se apoya en la brevedad del tiempo de lectura, no del tiempo en el que se enmarca la acci6n del relato. AquelIa permite que elementos del mundo exterior del lector no se entrometan en el mundo imaginario de la obm. Tambien Ant6n Chejov (1883:22), quien fue acusado de decir en sus relatos «demasiado pocm>, confes6 su preocupaci6n por los efectos negativos de la creencia de que el relato corto s610 necesita un principio de selecci6n de materiales, sin que este haya de ir acompafiado por un principio de elabomci6n inclusiva: And so in planning a story one is bound to think first about its framework: from a crowd ofleading or subordinate characters one selects a person only- wife or husband; one puts him on the canvas

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and paints him alone, making him prominent, while the others one scatters over the canvas like small coin, and the result is something like the vault of heaven: one big moon and a number ofvery small stars around it. But the moon is not a success, because it can only be understood if the stars too are intelligible, and the stars are not worked out. And so what I produce is not literature, but something like the patching ofTrishka's coat. What am I to do? I don't know, I don't know. I must trust to time which heals all things. Sin embargo, definiciones del genero posteriores afiaden alas teorias de Poe y de Chejov presupuestos de ÂŤalcance argumentalÂť, es decir, suponen que la unidad de impresion del relato corto (parecida a la relacionada con el poema lirico) se consigue unicamente limitando la variedad de personajes y sucesos y, sobre todo, restringiendo el periodo de tiempo incluido en el relato. Debemos dilucidar, por 10 tanto, si la obvia limitacion del espacio textual del relato breve va unida 0 no a una reduccion de las coordenadas temporales. Esta cuestion enlaza con conceptos muy importantes, como son la implicacion y el canicter simbolico de laacci6n incluida en cada relato breve. La estrategia de la implicacion se puede manifestar a traves de alusiones, de detalles aparentemente triviales y de otras seiiales textuales que nos ofrecen informacion de forma indirecta y concisa (0 'Faolain 1974: 151-2). Gracias a ella, podemos acceder a elementos reveladores de la vida y del canicter de los personajes sin necesidad de que se nos ofrezca una descripcion extensa de los mismos 0 sin que los veamos inmersos en escenas reproducidas a gran escala. Por otra parte, el relato breve depende, en mayor grado que la novela, de la seleccion de una sola parte del curso completo de una vida, y este hecho nos induce a contemplar este segmento seleccionado como simbolo que sugiere una realidad mas extensa a la que el texto puede aludir, pero nunca presentar en su totalidad. Con el proposito de dar claridad a la exposicion, esta aparecera dividida en tres apartados, que se corresponden con los objetivos principales de nuestra reflexion.

•

Mg Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la camprension del genera «Relata Breve»

1. Significaci6n temporal en el relato breve y en la novela Brander Matthews (1885:36) consider6 que el relato corto realiza las tres unidades del drama chisico frances: muestra una acci6n, en un lugar, durante un s6lo dia. Su f6rmula, «a Short-Story deals with a single character, a single event, a single emotion, or the series ofemotions called forth by single situation», es respaldada posteriormente por otros criticos de principios de siglo como Henry Seidel Canby (1901:48) 0 J. Berg Esenwein (1909:56) y desarrollada por otros mas recientes al contrastarla con metodos acumulativos de composici6n en la novela. Baquero Goyanes (1973:67), Springer (1975: 11-12), Shaw (1983: 194) y Pickering (1989:47) seftalan que la novela enfatiza el cambio a traves del tiempo y a traves de una complejidad de interacci6n entre los personajes. La fluidez temporal es uno de 10s maximos recursos de la novela; se trata de acaparar el tiempo a traves de estructuras sinf6nicas dentro de una disposici6n epis6dica. Incluso los manuales pedag6gicos literarios, que asumen la posibilidad de que se puede aprender a escribir relatos cortos ateniendose a ciertas tecnicas, afirman que el relato s610 sera capaz de cubrir uno 0 dos incidentes: the beginning of a story occurs when the moment of crisis is at hand. Your characters have lived only for this particular sequence ofevents in which they play the central role. Before and after, they are relatively anonymous, and readers will not want to hear about their past or future. (Gater,1993:85) Jorge Luis Borges (1980:236) ya habia mencionado que una de las estrategias mas tipicas del relato es hacer depender de una situaci6n todos los componentes de la trama. Dadas estas circunstancias, la vida de los personajes quedaria subordinada a la c1aridad de un s610 episodio. Por eso son tan abundantes las definiciones en las que el concepto de luz se utiliza como metafora para ilustrar la visi6n del relato corto, una visi6n que no es panoramica ni sostenida, sino transitoria: The scene of a story or a sketch to be laid within the light of a street lantern; the time, when the lamp is near going out: and the

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catastrophe to be simultaneous with the last flickering gleam. (Nathaniel Hawthome, cit. en Pattee, 1975: 108) (I) Sin embargo, las definiciones que consideran exclusivamente el criterio de restricci6n del tiempo al que estan sometidas las obras de ficci6n clasificadas como «relatos» no son suficientes para explicar las implicaciones tecnicas, temMicas e inc1uso ideol6gicas que los diferentes usos del tiempo producen en los diferentes generos narrativos. Walton Beacham (1981:9) sugiere que, mientras el relato corto ampara un sentido de «descubrimiento» cuando sentimos alguna verdad sobre nosotros mismos, la novela sustenta la idea de que existe una conexi6nentre los acontecimientos, de que nuestra vida esta protegida por una linea ininterrumpida de significado: Whether it is one day in James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), three days in For whom the Bell Tolls (1940), or half a lifetime in David Copperfield (1849-50), we see the force which time itself exerts on character. Given enough time, events will occur which will change people's lives, and the novel attempts to chronicle the relationship between passing time and event. The novel builds detail on detail, event on event, so that we can see that life is both a matter of coincidence and a product of will. We control and are controlled, establishing our lives and our values according to our perceptions of what life means. Of all art forms, the novel is best able to show connections. It establishes a sense that some kind of order does exist and that life is not simply a matter of cosmic coincidence. Our lives may not have been personally designed by a supreme being, but the events of our lives are linked together like a chain which either enslaves us or provides a lifeline to the source of things valuable. (Enfasis aiiadido) Nos encontramos con el binomio «proceso/percepci6n instantanea» y, por 10 tanto, con diferentes modos de conocimiento propiciados por las diferentes perspectivas sobre la temporalidad. Pickering (1989:49) seiiala que te6ricos del relato corto establecen el termino evolucion y revelacion como metodos que describen la naturaleza de la novela y del relato. corto respectivamente. El termino

M!! Jesus Hermiez Lerena Bases para la camprension del genera ÂŤRelata BreveÂť

revelaci6n se relaciona con la epifania 0 momento de percepci6n de la esencia de algo. No es s610 un principio de orden, sino que sustenta la idea de que momentos aisladosde experienCiadefinen la cualidad de una vida completa (2). Segun Shaw (1983:193), la epifania es el momento en el que se disuelve la barrera entre 10 ordinario y 10 misterioso. La experiencia pasada se concentra en un momento de consciencia y dilucidaci6n, incluso si este momento no logra iluminar la opacidad de la existencia, creando solamente un conjunto de sugerencias que expresan la ausencia de certeza 0 estabilidad en las percepciones humanas. El momento de revelaci6n justifica la transcendencia del relata y, ademas, dota al relato de profundidad temporal. La sensaci6n de movi~ miento, de desarrollo y de paso del tiempo no se puede reproducir en el relato corto a traves de las exposiciones, descripCiones 0 variedad de contactos entre los personajes. Sin embargo, la revelacion consigue el sentido de desarrollo y cambio sin necesidad de que el tiempo aparezca representado en detalle. La revelacion suprime el tiempo como entidad principal y 10 substituye por un cambio que, nec.esariamente, connota tiempo. Este cambio puede configurarse como una situaCion que experimenta un personaje dentro de la trama, CircunstanCia que le lleva a modificar su interpretacion sobre algUn elemento de su mundo. Pero de la misma forma que criticos posteriores a Poe afiadieron ciertas connotaciones a su teoria, otro posible foco de ambigiiedad 0 confusion a este respecto podria encontrarse en la correspondencia entre el momento unico de percepci6n 0 emocion intensificada -que aparentemente experimenta ellector- y un unico momento de revelaci6n experimentado por el personaje. Las teorias del relata corto (Bader, 1945:90) parecen admitir que estos dos momentos coinciden (numerica y tematicamente). Sin embargo, hemos de considerar que el relato breve moderno frecuentemente oculta informaCion concerniente a los pensamientos de los personajes y que a menudo este cambia se localiza exclusivamente en la interpretacion del lector del significado de los acontecimientos 0 en su identificacion retrospectiva de contradicciones en la informacion presentada. Esta Ultima posibilidad le exigira formarse una perspectiva afiadida 0 complementaria sobre los acontecimientos y los personajes.

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El concepto de revelaci6n no es exclusivo al genero del relate corto. En la novela de principios del siglo veinte el movimiento del argumento comienza a girar no en tome a la progresi6n secuencial de acontecimientos en el tiempo, sino en el movimiento de la apariencia a la realidad, como sefiala J. Arthur Honeywell (1988:242-3). Dicho de otra forma, el argumento de la novela comienza a depender mas fuertemente de un cambio de evaluaci6n 0 revelaci6n que de otros criterios. Como hemos mencionado, uno de los fen6menos que los criticos del relate breve han tornado como caracteristica definitoria desde la aparici6n del genero ha sido precisamente la sustituci6n de la noci6n de desarrollo 0 evoluci6n por la de revelaci6n. La revelaci6n se considera como un elemento estructural que sustituye a los efectos del climax producidos por la secuencia de sucesos asociada a los argumentos convencionales de la novela del siglo diecinueve. Sin embargo, en la novela modema tambien se puede contemplar el enfasis en estos momentos de conciencia y en el canicter elusivo de la noci6n de una identidad fija y constante en el tiempo. La diferencia entre ambos generos aparece establecida por la forma en la que cada genero incluye estos procedimientos en un sistema de jerarquias diferentes. El relate breve, al tener un s610 centro de interes, puede ofrecemos este momento de visi6n como objetivo unico, alrededor del cual gravitan el resto de componentes del relato. Por otra parte, Frank O'Connor (1962:21) reconoce que el tiempo es el valor principal de la novela y que la progresi6n crono16gica de personajes 0 incidentes es la traducci6n en el nivel narrativo de una ÂŤforma esencialÂť que percibimos en la vida. Sin embargo, para el escritor de relatos cortos, no existe tal cosa COllO una forma esencial, ya que su marco de referencia nunca puede ser la totalidad de una vida y, cada selecci6n que hace, incluye la posibilidad de una nueva forma. En la introduci6n a su libro The Lonely Voice. O'Connor (1962:22) ilustra su teoria con un poema lirico de Browning, ÂŤMy Last DuchessÂť: But since a whole lifetime must be crowded into a few minutes, those minutes must be carefully chosen indeed and lit by an . unearthly glow, one that enables us to distinguish present, past,

M~ Jesus

Hernaez Lerena Bases para la camprension del genera «Relata Breve»

and future as though they were all contemporaneous. Instead of a novel of five hundred pages about the Duke of Ferrara, his first and second wives and the peculiar death of the first, we get fiftyodd lines in which the Duke, negotiating a second marriage, describes the first, and the very opening lines make our blood run cold: That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. This is not the essential fonn that life gives us; it is organic fonn, something that springs from a single detail and embraces past, present and future. (Enfasis afiadido) Lo que me interesa subrayar especialmente de las apreciaciones de O'Connor es que se vislumbra en ellas un nuevo estatus de la trama, una concepci6n diferente de 10 que se considera la «unidad argumental» en tenninos temporales. Segun A.L. Bader (1945:87) 0 Walton Beacham (1981:4), el sentido de unidad de una narraci6n proviene de observar el desarrollo de una acci6n hasta su punto de resoluci6n 0 culminaci6n. Por eso, este ajuste que O'Connor menciona se refiere al sentido de totalidad que se le da a un s610 punto dentro de la secuencia completa conflictoresoluci6n. Sus declaraciones exigen, ademas, que seamos conscientes del valor simb61ico de los segmentos temporales que han sido seleccionados por el autor y que nos replanteemos el poder de implicaci6n de las narraciones. Uno de los efectos fundamentales de esta selecci6n de un detalle, de un segmento temporallimitado, es la representatividad de 10 que ha sido incluido 0 expuesto. Es casi inevitable considerar al unico incidente como simb6lico, como metafora de una experiencia mas amplia. El lector siempre confia en que la fase que el escritor elige del periodo total de la vida del protagonista sea crucial. Shaw (1983:46-7), por ejemplo, registra dos fonnas opuestas que penniten que el relato corto implique periodos largos de tiempo. Si la intenci6n es retratar la cotidianidad y rutina de los personajes, se coloca

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un mareo de horizontes temporales definidos sobre el ineidente seleeeionado y se invita allector a compartir 10 que se ha percibido. Si se busca representar un periodo de conflicto, el foco de atencion se centra en este dilema, que detiene por un momento el curso del tiempo y deja todo permanentemente alterado una vez que ha pasado. Una segunda implicacion presente en las reflexiones de O'Connor esta relacionada con una nocion de temporalidad que el relato corto propicia: la idea de que la experiencia solo puede concebirse como contemporaneidad (recordemos sus palabras sobre el poema de Browning). Esa es la razon por la que el relato corto desafia en gran medida la formula narrativa convencional: «comienzo + desarrollo + desenlace». Al menos dos de esos estadios estan praeticamente ausentes en el relato corto porque forman parte de un estado de cosas dentro del instante que se ofrece; dentro de el, pasado y futuro son inseparables. Las consecuencias del pasado y las expectativas de futuro son observables solo en relacion al presente. La novela presenta, en este sentido, un interes muy distinto: refleja y encama un sentido amplio de temporalidad que se proyecta hacia el futuro, como comenta Mie1 (1969:917). J. HilIis Miller (1979: 14-5) concluye que, en la novela, el tiempo se concibe como secuencia lineal, no solo porque representa el concepto espacial de la vida como una carretera o rio pre-existense, sino porque expresa la temporalidad como aspiracion hacia una totalidad, como un futuro que contiene una reasimilacion del pasado. Podriamos decir que, por contra, la cronologia de sucesos se sustituye en el relata corto por un «efecto de cufia» 0 de detencion del tiempo y este se asimila indirectamente a traves de la implicacion 0 del simbolo. En mi opinion, la aproximacion de Nadine Gordimer (1968:459) a la esencia del relato es, en este sentido, la misma que realizo O'Connor cuatro afios antes: Each of us has a thousand lives and a novel gives a character only one. For the sake ofthe form. The novelist may juggle about with chronology and throw narrative overboard; all the time his characters have the reader by the hand, there is a consistency of relationship throughout experience that cannot and does not convey

M!! Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la comprensi6n del genera «Relato Breve»

the quality of human life, where contact is more like the flash of fire-flies, in and out, now here, now there, in darkness. Short story writers see by the light of the flash; theirs is the art of the only thing one can be sure of- the present moment. Ideally, they have learned to do without explanation of what went before, and what happens beyond this point.[...] A discrete moment oftruth is aimed at - not the moment oftruth, because the short story doesn't deal in cumulatives. La «unidad de la experiencia» deja de ser el proceso completo de una vida. Lo unico que poseemos es el presente; en el, el pasado es solo una impresion y el futuro, aunque predecible, desconocido. La estabilidad argumental 0 continuum narrativo que proporciona la novela tradicional no emula a nuestra experiencia, sino a nuestras reconstruciones y abstracciones sobre la existencia, y, en este sentido, falsea la ineludible condicion humana de ser unicaniente en el momento presente. El relata corto dota de independencia, de un sentido de totalidad, a un segmento de experiencia muyrestringido. Esta independencia se mantiene incluso en el ciclo de relatos; donde cada relato existe de forma autonoma, a pesar de relacionarse entre si a traves de personajes, simbolos, contextos 0 temas comunes. El ciclo de relatos cortos juega con la multiplicidad y rechaza la totalidad del conjunto, porque no proporciona . un esquema de conocimiento que puedan compartir todos los relatos. Por esta razon, el ciclo tambien hace visible el contraste entre las distintas «apropiaciones» de la experiencia que realizan la novela y el relata breve. Nicole Ward Jouve (1989:37) pone en tela de juicio la conveniencia de aquella convencion de la novela que exige la unidad ininterrumpida de vida como representacion de la realidad: Why don't people buy Short Stories? Or do they? [...] Is it that when people buy a book, they want a whole? A thing. Because the pleasure ofhaving your attention held over time by the same thing, . of having to begin and to end once, and once only, is a powerful element in what you expect from a book? Is there a fetishism of the Book as One?

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2. Tiempo dramatizado y tiempo incluido (3). Otro aspecto que demanda nuestra atenci6n es el conjunto de estrategias gracias alas cuales el incidente presentado se carga de elementos que posibilitan la reconstrucci6n, por parte del lector, de un contexto mucho mas amplio. Nos referimos fundamentalmente a la implicaci6n coma recurso que permite, ya sea en el nivel de la frase 0 en el nivel argumental, reconstruir secuencias temporales ausentes discursivamente del texto. La omisi6n en el relato de ciertos elementos esperados de la trama, como la exposici6n de fases anteriores de un conflicto 0 la resoluci6n final, hace que ellector construya 10 que Ferguson (1988:462) denomina hypotheticalplots frente a argumentos que son elipticos 0 metaf6ricos. El lector crea estos argumentos hipoteticos para encontrar significado. Liega a ellos por implicaci6n metonimica de la informaci6n que ha recibido, por la «materializaci6n» de imagenes en temas y por la expansi6n simbOlica de detalles 0 sucesos triviales que se encuentran aislados de un contexto explicativo mas amplio. Estos detalles son sustituidos por una secuencia de sucesos que el texto mantiene implicita, pero que el lector acaba por construir en su comprensi6n de la narrativa. Segun Ferguson (1988:465): Combining our intuitive knowledge of«storiness» with a symbolic reading of the actual events and characters, we find the narrative element in the works and perceive them as short stories rather than random accounts of umelated characters and happenings. Uno de los ejemplos mas comentados sobre la tecnica de la implicaci6n por alusi6n es el relata de Ernest Hemingway (1974:55) «Hills like white Elephants». Este relata se circunscribe dentro de los limites de una conversaci6n entre una pareja de extranjeros que esperan un tren en Espana. S610 tenemos acceso a sus comentarios y, a traves de ellos, concluimos que el motivo de su viaje es un aborto que la mujer no desea, opci6n que su compafiero considera, sin embargo, necesaria. El detalle de la palabra labels en el siguiente extracto proporciona toda una serie de implicaciones que nos hacen intuir la situaci6n de la pareja y la clase de relaci6n que han mantenido, en especial, su superficialidad y su falta de estabilidad:

M!!. Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la camprension del genera «Relata Breve»

He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights. La implicacion permite que ellector produzca tramas hipoteticas basadas en una sola percepcion del personaje, como en este caso. Esto es posible, en parte, porque los lectores se han familiarizado con los componentes de las tramas tradicionales y pueden rellenar los elementos que faltan (4). El canicter dual del suceso seleccionado en el relato de Hemingway, una decision, tambien consigue que se incluyan otras fases de la vida de los personajes, aunque formalmente no se integren en la accion que se . muestra. Cualquier decision implica una reconsideracion sobre el pasado con respecto a un curso de vida diferente enel futuro. La vision que los dos personajes tienen de esta decision exige unjuicio comprometido por parte del lector, doblemente estimulado por el canicter casual de sus comentarios. Existen tambien otros medios de hacer el relato inclusivo temporalmente sin necesidad de que sea soporte de mucha informacion. Estos medios se relacionan con aspectos de la narrativa tales como el tema, los personajes y el punto de vista. Las explicaciones que damos a continuacion se refieren alas estrategias por las cuales el relata aumenta su capacidad de inclusion.. Con respecto al aspecto tematico, Shaw (1983: 192) da especial relevancia al concepto de la «experiencia de la frontera», entendido metaforicamente como un ambito doble que guia allector a mundos mas alIa de 10 conocido. La frontera incluye dos perspectivas sobre la realidad y se convierte en una tercera entidad que es a la vez union y oposicion de dos mundos. Los elementos constitutivos del tema de la frontera -circunstan. cias extrafias, peligro, ausencia de instituciones- ofrecen al relata corto muchas posibilidades de creatividad con respecto a la presentacion de situaciones en las que el personaje esta en una posicion insegura y tiene que hacer frente a 10 incontrolable. Tambien se pueden incluir dentro de este tema aquellas situaciones que favorecen la acumulacion de varias perspectivas 0 interpretaciones posibles.

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La noci6n de «frontera» puede re1acionarse tanto con el motivo literario del viaje como con el recurso a incluir dos periodos diferentes de la vida del protagonista. Shaw (1983: 198) menciona otros temas particularmente apropiados para 1as narraciones breves, como el tema de la iniciaci6n 0 el de las oportunidades perdidas. La permanencia del tiempo se puede expresar a traves de acciones habituales, presentando una rutina 0 un procedimiento ritual. Pueden yuxtaponerse personajes con edades y emociones diferentes, de modo que esta combinaci6n de juventud y madurez permita observar c6mo se influyen entre si. Los personajes pueden aparecer tambien en un momento de cambio 0 en una etapa concreta de sus vidas, pero estar aferrados a un periodo anterior. Si el relato se centra en una fase en particular, e1 personaje puede colocarse en la frontera de dos etapas de su vida 0 se puede «dejar» al personaje, al final del relato, en ellimite de 10 que no se conoce. Finalmente, el recurso a la memoria, que se puede comparar a un acto sincr6nico que incluye dentro de si mismo muchos procesos diacr6nicos, hace que muchos relatos cortos seconstruyan a partir de un personaje narrador. Su particular sintesis de los.acontecimientos pasados es la clave, no s610 para conocer la historia, sino para verificar la validez de su interpretaci6n. La retrospecci6n, -»the pocketed time of memory», segtin Hanson (1989:90)- permite analizar la influencia del pasado en el presente y es una de las estrategias mas usadas en el relata corto desde «La Muerte de Ivan Illich» de Le6n Tolstoi, ya que ofrece muchas posibilidades de incluir cualquier segmento temporal sin que la trama pierda un tinico hilo argumental. Al hacer recuento de los temas cuya peculiar naturaleza los hace apropiados para su representaci6n en narraciones breves, Valerie Shaw (1983:194,224) se hace c6mplice de la idea de que la especial relaci6n del relata corto con el tiempo influye en la selecci6n del tema. Por mi parte, me inclino a pensar que no existen temas especialmente apropiados para el relato corto 0 la novela, sino que su adscripci6na un determinado genero depende del disefio concebido originalmente por el autor. Sin embargo, si pienso que existen ciertos «tipos de experiencia» que el relato corto puede explotar de forma satisfactoria porque no se someten a la

MI! Jesus Hermiez Lerena Bases para la comprension del genera «Relato Breve»

nocion lineal del tiempo cronologico. Me refiero a estados 0 a situaciones en los que las normas de la convivencia diaria 0 social no pueden aplicarse, como por ejemplo, el suefto, la alucinaci6n, el espejismo, estados de •• •• semllnconSClenCla y terror, etc. Estos temas incluyen mundos paralelos que agrandan y relativizan la restriccion del tiempo cronol6gico. Shaw (1983:203) tambien mencio- . na este tipo de temas en su lista, especificando que pueden encontrarse tambien en la novela. Sin embargo, en mi opini6n, la necesidad de la novela de presentar un tono ininterrumpido, hace que sea en el relato corto donde la mirada mas alla de 10 real reciba la intensidad propia de 10 inusitado, del contacto breve con 10 magico 0 de la experiencia mistica. En el relato breve, el sentido de 10 irreal 0 maravilloso se basa precisamente en el hecho de que el lector solo puede mirar detnis de las apariencias durante cortos e intensos periodos de tiempo. Esta es la opini6n de varios autores y criticos de relato literario, como Nadine Gordimer (1968:460), que reconoce que la fantasia implica simplemente un cambio de angulo que nos sorprende y desaparece enseguida como una figura vista a traves de un cristal, siendo verdad solo durante un momento. Elizabeth Bowen (Hanson, 1987:7) y Julio Cortazar (1983:27) coinciden con Gordimer, quien seftala que la vision de 10 fantastico tiene mas facil cabida en sus relatos que en sus novelas. Pero hay al menos dos razones mas que convierten a la experiencia fantastica en un tema particularmente apropiado para el genero narrativo breve. En primer lugar, porque <<lo fantastico» no requiere que se presenten causas y contextos que expliquen el mundo ficticio. El genero fantastico comparte con el relato corto una caracteristica: la ausencia de la referencia al pasado, la libertad de presentarse sobre un vacio 16gico, cronol6gico, 0 de relacion causa-efecto. En segundo lugar, el relato corto admite el misterio como forma de reconstruir los acontecimientos. El misterio, al final del relato corto, le confiere un aura que prolonga una atm6sfera de extrafteza. La inquietud producida por no poder obtener una conclusion clara sobre 10 que hemos presenciado es menos admitida en la novela, que por su extension y por el largo periodo durante el cual hemos ido conociendo a los personajes, demanda la revelacion de todo 10 sucedido.

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El relato corto abre posibilidades al final, mientras que la novela las cierra. La extension de la novela hace conveniente un sentido de cierre en el que cada personaje haya agotado su potencialidad. En la novela se rastrea la gradual disminueion de las altemativas de los personajes, mientras que el relato corto puede eentrase unieamente en un presentimiento, en la posibilidad de que sueeda algo. No se coneretan todas sus eonseeueneias porque no tiene la obligaei6n de mostrar los efectos de la acci6n y del paso del tiempo (5). La idea de la dualidad de la experiencia es clave en la construccion del relato corto desde sus origenes y no solo por su relacion con el generofantastico. Se trata de la yuxtaposici6n de dos perspectivas sobre un mismo objeto 0 de dos identidades diferentes de los protagonistas. La acumulacion de perspectivas substituye, por 10 tanto, al principio lineal cronologico. En la novela, por contra, las perspectivas se extienden y acaparan una multiplicidad de situaciones. Segun Shklovski (1970:136), una de las ideas basicas del relato corto es su doble relaci6n con respecto a un mismo objeto. El relate corto resume la idea de que cada uno de nosotros tiene una existencia doble. Shklovski ilustra su teoria con la construccion argumental de los relatos de Chejov. El argumento de «El Gordo y El Flaec» se basa, porejemplo, en la desigualdad social que separa a dos viejos compafteros de eseuela. La situaci6n del relate se centra en su reencuentro, que comienza con abrazos y acaba en tirantez y nerviosismo. El desenlace es paralelo, segun la sensibilidad de los dos amigos. El gordo reehaza la actitud servil . de su viejo amigo, el flaco no puede oeultar sus ganas de adular. Lo mismo sucede en «Un Hombre Conocido», donde una prostituta, privada de sus ropas profesionales, se encuentra en desventaja ante un «profesional», el dentista que le arrebata su ultimo rublo: Cuando salio a la cal1e, se sentia aun mas avergonzada, pero ya no era su pobreza 10 que la avergonzaba, ya no pensaba en que no l1evaba un sombrero alto ni una chaquetilla a la moda. Iba por la cal1e escupiendo sangre, y cada uno de esos esputos rojos le hablaba de su mala y penosa vida, de las ofensas que habia soportado y de las que soportaria maftana, dentro de una semana, dentro

Ma Jesus Hernitez Lerena Bases para la camprension del genera «Relata Breve»

de un ano, toda su vida y hasta la misma muerte. (Anton Chejov, 1988:158) Obviamente, la anticipacion no es un metodo exclusivamente utilizado en el relata corto. Pero, a diferencia de los desenlaces convencionales de la novela, el futuro de la protagonista de este relato, que se vislumbra en el pasaje anterior, no da cuenta de 10 que pasani, toma forma como revelacion de la cualidad de la vida de la protagonista resumida en una imagen. El final de este relato no tiene una funcion informativa comunicamos la resolucion de una secuencia de sucesos-, sino que mas bien tiene una cualidad de sorpresa. No se asimila como una anticipacion de un contenido del argumento, sino como un contraste. Hemos mencionado hasta ahora algunos recursos que permiten que el tiempo cubierto por el relato no se restrinja al tiempo dramatizado en el relato. Y, en especial, la capacidad de las narraciones para admitir la alusion 0 la representatividad argumental del incidente seleccionado como procedimientos satisfactorios para tener acceso a otros estadios de la vida de 10s protagonistas. Estas estrategias, eliminan, en mi opinion, la validez de aqueIlas teorias que suponen una relacion estable entre longitud de exposicion y extensi6n del tiempo ficcional. Una de estas teorias aparece representada por Norman Friedman (1988:166). La clave de su analisis radica en que un periodo largo de tiempo solo puede hacerse comprensible y verosimil a traves de una presentacion extensa. Friedman (1988:155-9) utiliza el concepto de «magnitud» de las acciones, las cuales se pueden clasificar en pequenas 0 grandes. Las acciones pequeiias muestran un cambio menor y requieren para su representaci6n solo una fase de la vida de los protagonistas. Las acciones de mayor alcance exigen que ciertas partes de la trama sean incluidas discursivamente en la obra para que ellector pueda identificar las causas y considerar el cambio verosimil y probable. En tal caso, segun Friedman (1988: 163-4), siempre ha de incluirse: (I) a precipitating cause to bring the character into his first state, (2) a counterplot action to represent the consequences ofthat state,

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(3) an inciting cause to bring him out of the counterplot, (4) a progressive action to represent the process of change, and (5) a culmination where the process is completed. El mismo Friedman intuye la falta de validez de su propuesta cuando sefiala que las historias largas pueden cortarse para producir un mayor efecto. Incluso comenta que se pueden incluir estadios anteriores de la vida de los protagonistas a traves de la menci6n de un detalle que resuma sus vidas. Nos concentraremos ahora en las implicaciones de su propuesta. En primer lugar, Friedman considera exclusivamente valido el criterio de causalidad para obtener conexiones entre los acontecimientos y para comprender el desarrollo de personajes. En segundo lugar, los procesos de cambio complejos, segun Friedman, s610 pueden localizarse en un periodo largo de tiempo y comprenderse gracias a una extensa exposici6n discursiva de varias de las etapas anteriores de la vida del protagonista.. . Por ultimo, Friedman considera que las tramas son «grandes» 0 «pequefias» desde una perspectiva previa al texto, en vez de considerarlas construcciones sugeridas por el texto, dependientes de ciertas tecnicas y procesos de abstracci6n con los que esta familiarizado ellector. En resumen, Friedman ha asumido que, para hacer una narrativa inteligible y creible, es necesario mostrar todos los procesos en los que el protagonista ha estado implicado. Del mismo modo, Friedman asume que el lector no sera capaz de entender 0 imaginarse el estado mental de un personaje si no se le ensefia 10 que le ha ocurrido anteriormente a traves de dialogos, escenas y episodios. Por 10 tanto, no ha considerado que el lenguaje puede ser inclusivo sin necesidad de recurrir al detalle expositivo. . Ha pasado por alto la tecnica de la implicaci6n, que posibilita el acceso a amplios segmentos temporales no dramatizados, y ha ignorado el recurso a la acumulaci6n de perspectivas, que se presentan en los textos coma un desafio a la estructura cronol6gica secuencial. Pero la ausencia de causas 0 de .contexto es precisamente uno de los logros del relata literario; a pesar de su omision, la personalidad del personaje 0 las condicionesde las que depende una situacion determina-

Mg Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la comprension del genero «Relato Breve»

da son creibles, inteligibles y 10 suficientemente poderosas como para causar impacto en ellector (6). No hay una conexi6n necesaria entre extensi6n discursiva y tamafio de la acci6n. La eleccion del autor no es de intervalos temporales, sino de significaci6n. El ejemplo de Friedman es uno de los casos mas claros de desviacion de la idea original de Poe y Chejov. Friedman considera que el tiempo es un bloque lineal extenso que solo puede «representarse» a traves de un sistema de bloques discursivos extensos, organizados en fases 0 etapas. Su teoria depende de la creencia de que la novela es un libro largo como la vida y de que el relata breve recorta esta experiencia previa. La perspectiva correcta, desde mi punto de vista, es que ambos generos se basan en diferentes principios para crear significado. El relato corto se basa en un principio de convergencia y la novela en un principio de expansion. La tipica concentracion del relato corto no implica una restricci6n en 1as posibilidades de representacion de mundos imaginarios porque incrementa la capacidad del lector para percibir significado en la se1eccion deelementos argumentales y en la utilizacion de tecnicas narrativas y estilisticas. Hemos de mencionar que a1gunos criticos son mas cautelosos sobre la validez de la formula que teoricamente resumiria el relato corto: un episodio, un incidente, una situacion. Por ejemplo, lames Cooper Lawrence (1917:275) estudia exclusivamente las caracteristicas del interes 0 la atencion ininterrumpida que demanda el relato corto 0 1. Beachcroft (1968: 10) se pregunta: «To what extent should it be based on a single unified event?». Otros criticos como Howard Baker (1938:581) se limitan a trabajar sobre la idea de Poe de one sustained moment y desecha la nocion de que la accion haya de estar construida alrededor de un solo personaje predominante: A short story we might say, is an account of a change pertinent to human interests, but the change might range in magnitude from the deepening ofa single perception to the overthrow ofan empire. 3. Conclusi6n El relato breve surgi6 en e1 siglo diecinueve como consecuencia de una innovaci6n que consistio en conferir con un sentido de

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transcendencia a unidades de experiencia mas reducidas y con menos peso argumental que la novela. Ajust6 el criterio de unidad y totalidad (que anteriormente s610 poseia el marco cronol6gico de una vida 0 de un conflicto dramatico extenso) a la secuencia aislada. El relato corto fue el primer genero narrativo que abri6 los ojos a nuevos criterios de verosimilitud, desvinculados de las raices de la novela en el sentido comlin y la racionalidad. Asi 10 considera Nadine Gordimer (1968:459): . Short-story writers have known - and solved by nature of their choice ofform - what novelists seem to have discovered in dispair only now: the strongest convention of the novel, prolonged coherence of tone, to which even the most experimental of novels must conform unless it is to fall apart, is false to the nature of whatever can be grasped ofhuman reality. En estas afirmaciones, Gordimer concibe el relato como una forma literaria que refleja laimagen modema de la conciencia, constituida por fragmentos y percepciones momentaneas, aisladas de una cadena causal de acontecimientos. Pero la noci6n del tiempo como un soporte fragmentado de una experiencia que carece de continuidad 0 de conexiones firmes con periodos pasados 0 futuros no es exclusiva del relata corto. La novela modema ha evolucionado hacia formas que se habian considerado caracteristicas tradicionales del relato corto. Es relativamente sencillo diferenciar los ideales de composici6n breve de Edgar Allan Poe de los mas extensos y discursivos de novelistas contemponineos suyos como Dickens 0 Thackeray. Pero a principios del siglo veinte, la unidad de ficci6n en la novela se restringi6 al dia. Estas novelas, asociadas al periodo modemista, ocultaban los sistemas de comprensi6n que permitian un acceso facil al texto y una interpretaci6n sin problemas. Se incluy6 el final abierto y se elimifi6 la secuencia de Sllcesos para efectuar una concentraci6n en estimulos mas elusivos, produciendose esa dificultad para encontrar un argumento que tantos criticos han asociado al genero del relato breve. Sin embargo, estos procedimientos tienen su raiz en diferentes motivos para el relata y la novela. El relata breve aparece ligado a este tipo de organizaciones como una consecuencia inevitable de su forma: Sll brevedad implica un trata-

Ma Jesus Hemiiez Lerena Bases para la camprension del genera «Relata Breve»

miento mas oblicuo y ambiguo de la experiencia y elimina la posibilidad de incluir sistemas totalitarios de conocimiento. Tampoco puede «permitirse» seguir continuadamente la trayectoria de varios personajes integrados en una comunidad 0 sociedad visible 0 solida. Solo nos permite «mirar» durante un corto periodo de tiempo. Por su parte, la novela modema adopto nuevas tecnicas porque se consideraba necesaria una adecuacion mas fiel a nuevos criterios de realidad basados en la fragmentacion e inaccesibilidad de la experiencia. Pero es importante recalcar que si el autor de relato breve se concentra frecuentemente en unos pocos instantes elegidos no 10 hace esencialmente por la restriccion de longitud de este genero sino por una eleccion de vision y de estrategias expresivas. Una de las funciones principales del arte es ayudamos a ordenar las cosas y, si hemos de entender este «ordenamiento», debemos conocer la forma que ordena. El artista selecciona su medio por alguna raz6n -ya sea racional 0 intuitivamente- y parte de surnensaje es proyectado por el medio en si mismo. La ficcion breve afecta al tratamiento de las acciones y del progreso individual: la vida no se desdobla gradualmente, se concibe en forma de etapas separadas, puntos de tiempo, no como proceso 0 como flujo. Ofrece un reto, por 10 tanto, a nociones tradicionales de integracion y coherencia dentro de la ., narraClOn. Por esta razon, creo que la hipotesis de que el genero del relato breve esta asociado a una determinada concepcion del tiempo puede resuItar muy uti! para poder comprender y apreciar su valor y sus posibilidades textuales como forma narrativa distintiva. El relata breve da forma narrativa a una actividad relacionada con el conocimiento y la memoria. Nos hace observar la experiencia en forma de situaciones que conectan brevemente a unos personajes, como un incidente suspendido en el tiempo que se materializa en una realidad duradera. Investiga aquellos medios de expresi6n que reflejan la cualidad de la vida humana de forma no acumulativa. Destaca un solo aspecto de la realidad dejando el resto en la sombra. Si utilizamos los terminos deScholles y Kellog (1966:375), podemos decir que la conexion entre el mundo ficticio y el real en el relata corto es «ilustrativa», en oposicion a la conexion «representativa» que produce la novela. Aunque la novela lleve a cabo un proceso de seleccion, este proceso intenta mimetizar la continuidad del tiempo, proporcionar un sentido de duracion.

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Quiza, el metodo de organizar la experiencia en el relato breve se encuentre mas cercano a nuestra forma de recordar, que es esporadica, y nos devuelve nuestro pasado aumentando la importancia de ciertos momentos fugac es, no fabricando un argumento que mimetice la continuidad y duraci6n del tiempo. El relata breve se configura, asi, coma un modo de comprensi6n de la experiencia que rechaza la sucesion prolongada coma acceso a la temporalidad humana. De esta forma, al enfrentamos con un relata breve, tanto los lectores coma los criticos asumimos la creencia de que ciertos incidentes aislados de una cadena temporal y causal pueden proporcionamos una interpretaci6n valida de nuestra vida emocional.

NOTAS

1. Eudora Welty (1977:90) tambien asume que en el relata se opera una reducci6n parecida a la del close-up. Dentro de este restringido campo de visi6n, el objeto que se mira aparece aislado del resto, y por ello, dotado de una intensidad de observacion especial. Cuando habla de los relatos de Hemingway leemos: As we now see Hemingway's story, not tranparent, not radiant, but lit from outside the story, from a moral source, we see that light's true nature: it is a spotlight. And his stories are all taking place as entirely in the present as plays we watch being acted on the stage. Pasts and futures are among the things his characters have not. Outside this light, they are nothing. Shaw (1983:195) comenta, en terminos casi identicos, que en el relato corto hay ÂŤperiods of life which are held in a steady lightÂť. Estas citas ilustran la naturaleza fuertemente limitada del campo de vision del relato corto. 2. Informaci6n adicional sobre la significaci6n y origenes de este concepto puede obtenerse en Shaw (1983: 193); Ferguson (1988:465) y Bayley (1988:8). 3. Estos dos terminos (tiempo dramatizado y tiempo incluido 0 cubierto) se han tornado de Ferguson (1988:469) y hacen referencia, res-

MI! Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la comprension del genero «Relato Breve»

pectivamente, al tiempo que es expuesto discursivamente por el relato (y que puede tener unos limites muy estrechos) y aI tiempo al que tenemos acceso por informaciones indirectas (que normalmente se extiende mas alia de los limites del primero). 4. Para una explicaci6n en detalle de 10 que son tramas elipticas y metaf6ricas, vease Ferguson, (1988: 461-5). 5. Un ejemplo claro podria ser el relato de Truman Capote (1987: 12) «Miriam», en el que la protagonista, una mujer anciana, abre al final del relato la puerta a una aparici6n en forma de nifia, que se presenta de nuevo en su casa cuando la anciana ya habia logrado olvidarla. El relato se centra en la inclusi6n de un elemento nuevo 0 inquietante en la vida rutinaria de un personaje, sin que logremos saber al final que es 10 que ocurre y si la nifia es una vision 0 es real. 6. Esto es 10 que Eudora Welty (1977:32) denomina the visibility offiction: «There is no need to see a story happen to know what has taken place».

OBRAS CITADAS

Bader, A.L. 1945. «The Structure of the Modem Short Story». College English 7: 86-92. Baker, Howard. 1938. «The Contemporary Short Story». Southern Review 3: 576-596. Baquero Goyanes, Mariano. 1967. Que es el Cuento. Buenos Aires: Editorial Columbia. Bayley, J. 1988. The Short Story: From Henry James to Elizabeth Bowen. Sussex: The Harvester Press. Beacham, Walton. 1981. «Short Fiction: Towards a Definition». Magill, Frank N., editor. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. London: Mehuen.I-17. Beachcroft, T.O. 1968. The Modest Art: A Survey ofthe Short Story in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Borges, Jarge Luis. 1980. Nueva Antologia Personal. Barcelona: Bruguera.

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Canby, Henry Seidel. 1901. «On the Short Story». Current-Garcia, Eugene & Patrick, Walton R. eds. 1961. What Is the Short Story? Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company. 46-50. Capote, Truman. 1987. «Miriam». A Capote Reader. London: Penguin. Chejov, Anton pavlovich. 1883. «On Problems of Technique in Short-Story Writing». Current-Garcia, Eugene & Patrick, Walton R. eds. 1961: 20-24. _ _ _ _ _--'-. . 1981. «El Gordo y el Flaco». Primeros Relatos. Barcelona: Planeta. _ _ _ _ _ _ . 1988. «Un Hombre Conocido». Cuentos I. Madrid: Aguilar. Cortazar, Julio. 1983 (1963). «Some Aspects of the Short Story». Review o.fContemporary Fiction 3: 27-33. Esenwein, J. Berg. 1909. «What is the Short Story?». CurrentGarcia, Eugene & Patrick, Walton R. eds. 1961: 51-57. Ferguson, Suzanne C. 1988. «Defining the Short-Story: Impressionism and Form». Hoffman, Michael and Murphy, Patrick, eds. 1988. Essentials of the Theory of Fiction. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 457-471. Friedman, Norman. 1988. «What Makes a Short Story Short?». Hoffman, Michael and Murphy, Patrick, eds. 1988: 153-169. Gater, Dilys. 1993. Short Story Writing. Nairn: David S1. John Thomas Publisher. Gordimer, Nadine. 1968. «The International Symposium on the Short Story». Kenyon Review, 30: 457-463. Hanson, Clare. Editor. 1989. Re-reading the Short Story. London: MacMillan. Hemingway, Ernes1. 1974 (1928). «Hills like White Elephants». Men Without Women. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Hillis Miller, J. 1979. The Form of Victorian Fiction. Ohio: Arete Press. Honeywell, J. Arthur. 1988. «Plot in the Modem Novel». Hoffman, Michael and Murphy, Patrick, eds. 1988: 238-250. Lawrence, James Cooper. 1917. «A Theory of the Short Story». North American Review ccv: 274-286. Mathews, Brander. 1961. «The Philosophy of the Short-Story». Current-Garcia, Eugene and Patrick Walton R., eds. 1885: 36-41.

MI! Jesus Hernaez Lerena Bases para la comprension del genera «Relato Breve»

Miel, Jan. 1969. «Temporal Form in the Novel». MLN 84: 916930. O'Connor, Frank. 1962. The Lonely Voice. A Study of the Short Story. London: MacMiIlan. O'Faolain, Sean. 1974 (1951). The Short Story. Connecticut: The . Devin-Adair Company. Pattee, Fred Lewis. 1975. The Development ofthe American Short Story. A Historical Survey. New York: Bibl0 and Tannen. Pickering, Jean. 1989. «Time and the Short Story». Hanson, Clare, editor. 1989: 45-54. Poe, Edgar Allan. 1842. «Twice-Told Tales, by Nathanie1 Hawthorne: A Review». Stern, Milton and Gross, Seymour L. eds. 1975. American Literary Survey. Vo!. 2. Connecticut: The University of Connecticut. 171-178. Ricoeur, Paul. 1987. Tiempo y Narracion II. Conflguracion del TIempo en el Relato de Ficcion. Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad. Scholles, R. & Kellog, R. 1966. The Nature ofNarrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shaw, Va1erie. 1983. The Short Story. A Critical Introduction. London: Longman. Shk1ovski, Viktor. 1919. «La Construcci6n de la 'Nouvelle' y de la Nove1a». Todorov, Tzvetan, editor. 1970 (1965). Teoria de la Literatura de los Formalistas Rusos. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Signos. 127-157. Springer, Mary Doyle. 1975. Forms of the Modern Novella. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Ward Jouve, Nicole. 1989. «Too Short for a Book». Hanson, Clare, editor. 1989: 34-44. Welty, Eudora. 1977 (1942). The Eye ofthe Story. Selected Essays and Reviews. London: Virago.

Jorge Figueroa Dorrego Parents, Dowries, and Incomes: Dealing With Marriage in...

Parents, Dowries, and Incomes: Dealing With Marriage in Aphra Behn's Novels.

lorge Figueroa Dorrego. Universidade de Vigo.

El presente articulo pretende analizar como la escritora inglesa de finales del siglo XVII, Aphra Behn, trata el tema del matrimonio en su obra narrativa. Behn se centra principalmente en dos cues- . tiones: el casamiento convenido debido a la interferencia paterna, y los aspectos economicos que entran en juego a la hora de concertar un matrimonio. El estudio tiene en cuenta el contexto literario y social de la Inglaterra de la Restauracion. No parece que Behn este en contra de la institucion del matrimonio como tal, pero si presenta las malas consecuencias que puede ocasionar una union impuesta y sin ninguna base en el afecto de los conyuges, asi como la importancia de la cuesti6n econ6mica. Anticipa, pues, temas y actitudes de las novelistas inglesas posteriores.

Although there was no need for parental consent in the English marriage system except for the period 1754-1853 (see Macfarlane 1986: 124-28), parents often had the economic and social power to influence their children's decisions. However, there was much public opinion against parental abuse on marriage choice, as it used to lead to unhappiness '. This was obviously reflected in the literature ofthe time as will be shown below. But no author before Behn had insisted so much on the inconvenience of forced marriage and parental interference in matters oflove. This paper attempts to analyze how she presents this topic in her novels as well as the financial deals involved in matrimony.

It is true that some prose fiction works such as Emanuel Forde's Ornatus and Artesia (1598) had presented lovers who were separated due to family feuds, but their treatment of the topic cannot be compared to Behn's. In these kind of texts, parental intrusion was often simply a narrative device to hinder the lovers' union. Jacobean drama had taken up the protest against arranged matrimony which started in Elizabethan

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times, a good example being George Wilkins's The Miseries ofEnfore'd Marriage (1607). However, the concern for this topic was relatively occasional compared with the prominence given it in the Restoration, and particularly in Behn's works. It was more uncommon to find unhappy marriages in previous

romances. Curiously enough, they were unions of young wives married to old men, most likely due to parental decision or to financial reasons, as is often seen in Behn. John Dickenson's Valeria ofLondon (1598) was one ofsuch cases, but it actually contrasted with the romances of its time. Mary Wroth's Urania (1621) also showed unhappy marriage as a consequence of lack of love, unjustified jealousy, violence, or adultery. And few novels by the contemporary Spanish writer Maria de Zayas ended with a happy marriage, since most ofher heroines preferred to find retreat in a convent after a profoundly disappointing love affair2• Realistic fiction like The Cobler of Canterbury (1590) and The Art ofCuekoldom (1697) presents the aforementioned kind of couple in order to make a misogynous attack on women's supposed lust and inconstancy, and to make fun of the cuckolded old man. The anonymous author ofthe· latter book sees marriage as a source ofmoney with nothing to do with love 3• Behn criticizes this social fact and prefers a union based on true affection. The link between marriage and money, so recurrent in her works, is much more common in later novels, in Austen's for instance, although it is already present in earlier fiction4 • Let us see first how Behn deals with arranged marriage and parental pressure on love matters. A good example is Agnes de Castro, or The Foree of Generous Love (1688). Don Pedro's marriages to Bianca first and then to Constantia were actually determined by his father. Moreover, the King wants Agnes to marry the fierce and ambitious Don Alvaro, in an attempt not only to satisfy the wishes of his favourite, butalso to prevent the possibility offuture matrimony between her and Don Pedro. But Agnes refuses to marry Don Alvaro claiming that she does not have «a Soul that is tender» and that «nothing is dearer to me than my liberty» (Todd ed. 1995: 143). This comparison of an arranged marriage without love to slavery is further clarified when she faces the King again later, and she decides to leave, «and remain no longer a Slave in a Place, to which I came free» (p. 157)5.

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In The History ofthe Nun, or The Fair Vow-Breaker (1689), Behn compares accepting a loveless matrimony to entering a religious order without real devotion. At the beginning of the story, she argues that vowbreaking is the reason for many unhappy marriages and that it is done both by men and women alike. She believes that taking marital or religious vows is something very serious, and therefore women should not enter nunneries or marriages till they are mature enough to make their own 6 choices, and parents should not impose their authority in these cases • But in The HistOlY ofthe Nun, Behn focuses on the pernicious effects offorcing a young lady to take religious vows when she is not suited to a life of privations entirely devoted to God.

An example of a heroine's dependence on her parents is found in The Lucky Mistake (1689). Atlante does not want «to enter into an Intreague ofLove, or Friendship, with a Man, whose Parents will be averse to my Happiness» (Todd ed. 1995: 176). She reminds Rinaldo her fortune is not suitable for him. However, they meet again and «when he nam'd Marriage, she trembled, with fear of doing something that she fancy'd she ought not to do without the Consent of her Father» (p. 182). But she promises not to marry any other. The lovers are separated and, in spite of parental pressure, they are true to their vows of fidelity. Atlante's father reacts violently when he finds out the truth. De Pais wounds Rinaldo and offers him Charlot instead. The young girl, who is staying at a convent, accepts the match delightedly, and later she confesses: «I was not so much in love with Rinaldo, as I was out of Love with a Nunnery; and took any Opportunity to quit a Life absolutely contrary to my Humour» (p. 201). That is why she also accepts Vernole's proposal: for her, marriage is an attractive alternative to convent life? Finally, Atlante and Rinaldo are allowed to get married too. The problem of arranged marriage is also present in «The Adventure ofthe Black Lady» (1698). Though Bellamora was courted by Mr Fondlove, a gentleman of true worth who really loved her, her mother preferred another, much wealthier gentleman, «but one whose Person and Humour did by no means hit with (her) Inclinations» (Todd ed. 1995: 317). One night Mr Fond10ve's passion was kindled, and promised her 8 marriage • According to Bellamora, she accepted him «partly with my Aversion to the other, and partly with my Inclinations to pity him» (p.

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318), but later she doubted his love and escaped. So, to a large extent, her mother's pressure was responsible for the situation she was in at the beginning of the story: she was pregnant and alone in London trying to look for the help and privacy she could not get in Hampshire9 • Finally, Fondlove, as his name reflects, proved a true lover, went to meet her in London, and convinced her to marry him even ifit was just for the child's benefit. •

In «The Wandring Beauty» (1698), Arabella also decides to escape from parental imposition concerning a husband. At the age of 16, she is courted by Sir Robert Richland, who is «hardly 60»10 and does not attract her. Arabella leaves her parents' house to avoid their pressure on the subject. While she is staying with the Kindlys, she is courted by the pompous Mr Prayfast, who wants to marry her. But his is not a true love, as proves the fact that when he hears that Arabel1a may be from a humble family, he decides «she is no Wife for (him)>> (Todd ed. 1995: 400). Fortunately, the wealthy and worthy Sir Lucius Lovewell falls truly in love with her, and does not care about her obscure origins. So, Arabella's disobedience to her parents is not only left unpunished but it is even rewarded with a more «profitable» marriage both sentimentally and economically speaking. In «The Unhappy Mistake» (1698), Miles's problem is that Diana is not rich enough to be accepted by his father. For Sir Henry Hardyman, «Money is Beauty, Virtue, good Humour, Education, Reputation, and High Birth», and he warns his son: «no Love without my Leave» (Todd ed. 1995: 417-8). Behn is again criticizing the abuse of parental authority in amorous matters, and the financial aspect of marriage. Miles, however, promises he will not love any woman other than Diana however rich and noble she may be. The two lovers of «The Court of the King of Bantam» (1698), Philibella and Valentine, also have problems in getting married because of the difference in their families' fortunes. Sir George Goodland, Valentine's father, knew of his son's passion for Philibella, but.he did not think it convenient, as she just had 500 pounds that her uncle Sir Philip Friendly had given her as a present. It was this old man who helped the lovers. He knew that Sir George would disinherit Valentine ifhe married

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Philibella, so Sir Philip offered to add 3,000 pounds to her fortune ll . When he managed to get that sum ofmoney from the haughty and extravagant Would-be King, the lovers got married privately. Sir Philip used his discarded mistress, Lucy Queen, to trick Mr King. He had to pay for her services and pregnancy. Behn specifies the fortune of many characters, how much Sir Philip adds to Philibella's dowry, and how much he gives to Lucy. It is not difficult to notice a relationship between the financial aspect of marriage and prostitution. Behn makes these kinds of specifications as well in other stories. In «The Wandring Beauty», Sir Christian offers 300 pounds as a dowry for Peregrina, but it is noteno).lgh for the chaplain. However, Sir Lucius Lovewell, who had more than 3,000 a year, accepts the offer. We also know that he gives 200 pounds to Sir Christian's servants on his wedding day, and that at the end he gets 10,000 pounds in ready money from Arabella's father. In «The Unhappy Mistake», Sir Henry gives 10,000 pounds for Lucretia's marriage, whereas Diana only has a fortune of2,000 pounds, and Lewis's is not above 1,200 a year. The narrator comments: «0 the unkind Distance that Money makes, even between Friends!» (p. 416). For Sir Henry, money makes all the difference, and therefore he does not approve of his son's love for Diana. Miles values beauty, virtue and education instead. However, when he escapes from home, he takes all ofhis mother's jewels and 1,200 pounds, which he uses to live on after . the war in Germany. Miles eventually gets his father's estate and 10,000 pounds as his revenue over the last five years l2 •.

Behn also makes many references to money in «The Unfortunate Happy Lady» (1698), mainly concerning the characters' wealth and various payments and debts. William Wilding inherited an estate of almost 4,000 pounds a year, and was obliged to give his sister Philadelphia the sum of 6,000 pounds. He spent a lot of money and used to gamble, so he had many debts which the narrator specifies. He intended to avoid his obligations to his sister by sending her to a brothel and paying 40 or 50 guineas to the old lady who ran it. There Gracelove offered Philadelphia 100 guineas, and as much yearly, and 200 more for every child she might have if she became his mistress l3 • He told her that Old Beldam «is a rank Procuress, to whom lam to give two hundred Guinea's for your Maiden head» (Todd ed. 1995: 374). Later, Counsellor Fairlaw offered her 30,000

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pounds in ready money and 1,000 a year if she married him. Thanks to that money she could pay off her brother's debts, free him from jail, and give him Eugenia as a wife with 20,000 pounds. Once again in Behn's narrative, money appears as a basic aspect of prostitution and marriage. References to the characters' estates are also given in «The Unfortunate Bride» (1698). Frankwit inherits 1,700 pounds a year, whereas Celesia receives 50,000 in cash and some estate in land, and Moorea 6,000 a year from her husband. But there are more interesting points to comment on in this novel. One is the ideas about marriage that the heroines defend. When Frankwit and Belvira start thinking of marriage, she appears reluctant as she distrusts men's constancy and fidelity and believes that consummation destroys the charm of love: «»Frankwit, I am afraid to venture the Matrimonial bondage, it may make you think your self too much confined, in being only free to one»(. ..) «we are all like perfumes, and too continual smelling makes us seem to have lost our Sweets, I'll bejudged by my Cousin Celesia here, if it be not better to live still in mutual love, without the last Enjoyment)>»{Todd ed. 1995: 327).

Celesia advises them not to marry and live «without the least Enjoyment» (p. 328). Frankwit reminds her that «love is no Camelion, it cannot feed on Air alone». Belvira thinks «Marriage enjoyment does but wake you from your sweet golden Dreams: pleasure is but a Dream, (...), and to be waken'd». And she adds: «(...) Women enjoy'd, are like Romances read, or Rareeshows, once seen, meer tricks of the slight of hand, which, when found out, you only wonder at your selves for wondering so before at them. 'Tis expectation endears the blessing; heaven would not be heaven, could we tell what 'tis. When the Plot's out you have done with the Play, and when the last Act's done, you see the Curtain drawn with great indifferency» (pp. 328-9). Later, the narrator makes another comment quite critical of marriage. She tells us a «whimsical Knight» passionately desired Moorea, so he married her, «as if there were not hell enough in Matrimony, but he must wed the Devil too» (p. 331 )14.

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I do not believe Behn is against marriage as such, but rather against some of its manifestations. She criticizes it when it is not based on love, and when this leads to infidelity. As has been said above, matrimony can become a form of slavery, and it can often resemble prostitution because it depends on moneyl5. What Behn is undoubtedly and radical1y against is forced marriage, which is a recurrent theme in her works. She deals with it in her narrative, as has been shown before, but also in her plays, for instance in The Forc 'dMarriage (1670), The Town Fop (1676), Sir Patient Fancy (1678), The False Count (1681), and The Lucky Chance (1686). In the latter, Lady Fulbank says: «Oh, how fatal are forced marriages! How many ruins one such match pul1s on! Had I but kept my sacred vows to Gayman, How happy had I been, how prosperous he!» (Act I, Sc. ii). She, like many other heroines, was forced to marry an old man she did not love, and this was the cause ofinfidelity. Adulterous love is here a liberating force. According to Ballaster (1992b: 91), «The Unfortunate Bride is a short romantic fiction that is dominated by tropes of vision and economic exchanges». This is so because of the emphasis Behn places on the visual aspect of love scenes, as well as on the financial aspect of marriage and how she makes reference to the characters' wealth when describing them. It happens in other novels by Behn too, as I have pointed out above. She believes in true love, and censures everything that has nothing to do with it: not only lust and inconstancy, but also arranged marriage and the socio-economic aspects ofthe institution. Hence the comparisons she makes between matrimony and both slavery and prostitution. In Behn's narrative comedies, Le. her stories with a happy ending, marriage is provided to reward the virtue and true love ofthe protagonists, and sometimes even those who do not deserve such a prize (like Wilding in «The Unfortunate Happy Lady»). So she is no misogamist whenever marriage means love. Sometimes she advocates for a freer relationship, but she is aware of the social vulnerability of unmarried women. In seventeenth-century society, to remain single would mean social and economic disaster for a woman. It would lead her to monastic life or else to prostitution or a similar sexual liaison. Either as a wife or as a kept mistress, a woman always depended on the financial support of a man. Behn presents the situation ofcourtesans in many of her plays, but in few

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ofher novels (mainly in Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684-7), «The Court of the King of Bantam», and «The Unfortunate Happy Lady»). In Love-Letters, Silvia is left in constant need of «new Prey» not only due to her vanity and egoism, but also because she has few other possibilities in the world she lives in. Calista, instead and rather meaningfully, ends up in conventual retreat, like most ofZayas's heroines, after being abandoned by Philander. But the other protagonists ofBehn's novels who do not die are provided with a happy marriage, and this proves that she is not entirely critical ofthe institution as such, only with parental interference and the financial questions involved. Moreover, she seems aware ofthe social vulnerability ofcontemporary women outside marriage. Behn's treatment of matrimony certainly contrasts with that of previous and coeval male writers, and establishes her as a forerunner of the female novelists of the following centuries.

NOTES

1. Macfarlane (1986: 133ft) includes plenty of records from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Stone (1979: 181ft) relates it to the development ofindividualism and ofthe conception ofmarriage as a union based on the compatibility and affection of the spouses, which precisely started during the Restoration. 2. However, Zayas's ideas about arranged marriage are not very clear (see Yllera's introduction 1983: 50-1, and Montesa Peydro 1981: 114-21). 3. The young lovers of this narrative are poor, so she «would not Marry him, out ofa principle of pure Affection; as well remembering an old Proverb, That when Poverty comes in at the Door, Love creeps out at the Window» (Mish ed. 1970: 188). They decided that she would marry a rich old man, but they would continue to be lovers. The financial aspect was considered as very important for both the upper and the lower class (see Stone 1979). 4. Like Cervantes's «El casamiento enganoso», it]. Novelas ejemplares, for example. And in «El celoso extremeno», rich old Carrizales thinks: «»De que tenga dote 0 no no hay para que hacer caso, pues el ciel0 me dio para todos y los ricos no han de buscar en sus matrimonios hacienda, sino gusto: que el gusto alarga la vida y los disgustos entrelos casados la acortan» (Sieber ed. 1981: 102). Young Leonora's dowry was 20,000

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ducados. Zayas deals with the financial aspects of marriage too; and Kirkman also specifies the amounts of money offered in matrimonial dealings in The Counterfeit Lady Unveiled. 5. Images of slavery applied to women were common in Behn's drama (e.g.: in Sir Patient Fancy, The False Count, The Feign'd Curtezans. and The Emperor ofthe Moon), and in contemporary feminist writings like Drake's An Essay in Defence ofthe Female Sex (1696) and Astell's Some Reflections upon Marriage (1700) (Uphaus & Foster eds. 1991: 30, 39 & 48). In Scudery's Grand Cyrus, Sapho had already compared marriage to slavery due to men's tyranny. This imagery continued to be used by Victorian women novelists, see Moers (1977: 14-18). 6. Convents were the destination of many young women in many European countries, as is the case in this novel, but in England they had been abolished in the sixteenth century, and 95% ofthe female population ended up in marriage (see Stone 1979: 38). The comparison between religious reclusive life and matrimony is meaningful. For Pearson (1993: 246), «In Behn's fiction, the nun (...) becomes a metaphor for the female condition. Nuns and wives are openly identified as parallel instances of society's limitation of women's lives». 7. This is just Charlot's personal choice, because religious life could actually be a career for a young woman of the time much better than an arranged or loveless marriage. It could provide her with education and could prevent her from the infidelity, disdain, and even violence of a husband, as well as venereal diseases. As Stone (1979: 38) puts it, «the life of an abbess was clearly preferable to that ofan aristocratic wife». 8. Betrothal was totally binding and allowed pre-marital sex, but only ifit was public (see Stone 1979: 30 & 386, and Macfarlane 1986: 299 & 305). 9. The number ofpre-maritalpregnancies in seventeenth-century England was surprisingly low (below 20%) for a society without any means of contraception other than coitus interruptus. However, it increased in the mid-eighteenth century to over 40% (see Stone 1979: 386-8). 10. For sexual, financial, and social reasons, early marriage was considered inappropriate for both men and women in seventeenth-century England. The common marrying ages were the 20s for women and between 25 and 30 for men. But there were late marriages and remarriages too (Macfarlane 1986: 211-6). Nevertheless, we must bear in mind that 60 was precisely the highest life expectancy for the contemporary rural elite (Stone 1979: 57). We also know that at the end ofthe seventeenth century,

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«parent-child relations on the issue ofcontrol ofmarriage were becoming more and more strained, and more and more children were defying their parents and running away» (Stone 1979: 31). Therefore, Behn is showing a frequent situation at the time and not a simple literary cliche. 11. According to Macfarlane (1986: 264), the common dowries in the aristocracy and the upper gentry were of 3,000 or 4,000 pounds, and 0000 or 400 in the middle class, i.e. something equivalent to about three years' income from the man's estate. 12. According to Trevelyan (1967: 293), in 1688, the yearly income oftemporal lords was 3,200 pounds, that ofknights 650, that ofmerchants 400, and that of lesser clergymen 72 pounds. 13. Having kept mistresses became very common in upper-class circles during the Restoration and the eighteenth century as a provisional alternative or a complement ofmarriage. These girls used to have a middleclass origin and difficulties to marry satisfactorily due to financial problems or personal dishonour. Becoming kept mistresses allowed them to maintain the standard of living they were accustomed to, since the man provided themwith a lodging, a fixed annuity, and a certain extra amount for each . child they might have. It was, therefore, the most sophisticated kind of prostitution. 14. There was extensive literature warning people of the dangers and disadvantages of marriage in the early (see Maclean 1977: 97 ff) and the late seventeenth century. The Pleasures ofMarriage (1682) denounced the «tortures», «vexations» and «torments» of matrimony. Margaret Cavendish spoke of the «cares and troubles that accompany a married life» (quoted by Macfarlane (1986: 170-1). And Mary Astell thought it an institution of male tyranny (Uphaus & Foster eds. 1991: 33-49). IS. Later, other writers continued using this comparison, such as Defoe in Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724).

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REFERENCES Ballaster, Ros 1992. Seductive Forms. Women s Amatory Fiction from 1684 to 1740. Oxford: O.V.P. Macfarlane, Alan 1986. Marriage and Love in England. 13001840, Oxford: Blackwel!. Maclean, lan 1977. Woman Triumphant. Feminism in French Literature. 1610-1652. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Mish, Charles C. 1970. Restoration Prose Fiction 1666-1700. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Moers, Ellen 1977.Literary Women: The Great Writers. New York: Anchor Books. Montesa Peydro, Salvador 1981. Texto y contexto en la narrativa de Maria de Zayas. Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura. Pearson, Jacqueline 1993. «The History ofThe History ofthe Nun» en H. Hunter ed. Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory, and Criticism. Charlottesville: U.P. of Virginia. Sieber, Harry ed. 1981. Novelas ejemplares de M. de Cervantes, 2 vols.. Madrid: Catedra. Stone, Lawrence 1977. The Family. Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, abridged edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin (1st pub!. Weidenfield & Nicolson 1977). Todd, Janet ed. 1993. Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, Vo!. 2 of The Works ofAphra Behn. London: W. Pickering. 1995. The Fair Jilt and Other Short Stories. Vo!. 3 of The Works ofAphra Behn. London: W. Pickering. Trevelyan, G.M. 1967. English Social History. A Survey of Six Centuries. Chaucer to Queen Victoria. Harmondsworth: Penguin (Ist. pub!. Longmans Green, 1942). Uphaus, R.W. & G.M. Foster eds 1991. The «Other» Eighteenth Century. English Women ofLetters 1660-1800. East Lansing: Colleagues Press. Yllera, Alicia ed. 1983. Desenganos amorosos de M. de Zayas. Madrid: Catedra.

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An Approach To Women's Social Situation in Seventeenth-Century England. Cristina Mauron Figueroa Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

El principal objetivo del presente articulo esta relacionado con el papel y la posici6n social desempefiados por las mujeres inglesas a principios del siglo XVII. Para dicho analisis hemos rccogido una serie de ejemplos de la obra Patient Grissill (c. 1599) escrita por Thomas Dekker. El corpus a considerar contienc un vocabulario especifico formado por palabras y cxpresiones pertenecientes a Grissill, la protagonista de la obra, y que la caracterizan coma una mujer que sufrc una situaci6n injusta y cruel dependiendo de los roles socialcs adoptados. De entre 6stos, dcstacan los de esposa y madre que, por otra parte, resumen perfectamente la situaci6n social de la mujer en el periodo a estudiar. Menos significativos parecen los roles de hija y hermana aunque, ciertamentc, reflejan el patriarcalismo de esta epoca. Trataremos, pues, de cstablecer una comparaci6n entre los papeles adoptados por nuestra protagonista y los desempefiados por sus semejantes en la vida real en la Inglaterra del siglo XVII.

O. Introduction The issue of the present paper aims at describing feminine roles and position in early seventeenth-century England. The analysis of this situation will be based on a corpus taken from the play Patient Grissil (c. 1599) by Thomas Dekker. Such corpus contains a special vocabulary that characterizes Grissil as a woman who suffers an unjust and cruel situation. Her miseries derive from the roles she undertakes: mother, wife and daughter. The point is to compare these roles with the ones played by contemporary females. In a word, our main concern will be to depict the situation ofmarried women who, in addition, perform their part as mothers.

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1. Analysis of Data

For the analysis of the corpus, only Grissil's own speech has been considered. This is so because our main objective would be to discover women's subjective perception of their own misfortune. Thus, we have a total number of 76 examples, each one ofthem assigned to a specific role played by our protagonist: Table 1 ROLE

NU MBER OF EXAMPLES

PERCENTAGE

Sister

10,5%

Mother

39,4%

Wife

32,8%

Social Self

6,5%

Daughter

10,5%

. From the results above it can be inferred that the most important reason for Grissil's miseries directly relates to her roles as mother and wife. Both of them amount to a 39.4% and a 32.8% respectively. Less significant are the roles as daughter and sister both representing a 10.5%. Nevertheless, they reflect a patriarchal society in which the children owed obedience to the father. Finally, only a 6.5% ofthe examples correspond to Grissil's social self determined by her low condition when compared with the higher status of her husband, the Marquesse. Summing up, Grissil's personality and character are mainly based on the roles she adopts throughout the play. We do not find any instances of Grissil speaking, i.e.: without undertaking any role. Therefore, we may conclude that she must perform a role in order to live, although her life is full of misery, pain and humiliation. As King points out: ÂŤ Women, with very few exceptions, were categorized in terms of their relations to the female ideal of virginity and nightmare of sexuality ÂŤ (1991 :23). So male roles were very different from female ones. Whereas men were classified into those who fought, prayed and worked women were: mothers,

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nuns, wives or widows and their identity depended on the role they assumed. Unfortunately, and as we will see later on, Renaissance women lacked social protagonism no matter how well they performed their parts either inside society or inside their private and domestic environment. 2. Grissil versus Real Women in the XVII century: Marriage . and Motherhood

As said before, Grissil's roles will function as the vehicle through which we are going to establish the comparison between her and real females. Having in mind the predominance ofthe roles as wife and mother, our topics of discussion now will be marriage and motherhood: 2.1. Grissil as Wife

Marriage in Renaissance England was crucial for a woman. We may say that her identity was not complete until she married. Women were not considered as autonomous beings but rather in relation to a man: the father or the husband. Even their social condition was determined by the status of the male they depended on . In the case we are analysing, unmarried Grissil woud be ascribed to a low status (her father's) and would be referred to as woman. After her marriage with the Marquesse she would be termed as lady, gentlewoman or noblewoman according to the classification established by Laurence (1995). It seems to be accepted by most of the authors (among them Laurence (1995) and Macfarlane (1987)) that there was a considerable

freedom of choice in the XVII century, especially for low class people. But as Macfarlane himself affirms: ÂŤ although the consent of the parents was not strictly necessary for marriage, it was the duty ofa child to attempt to obtain itÂť (1987: 132). In our case, Grissil agrees to marry the Marquesse because her father wishes so. To his wish, she answers: (1)

This doth she say, As her olde Father yeeldes to your dread l will, So she her fathers pleasure must fulfil!. Act I, Se. II

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Therefore, it does not seem that Grissil is able to choose her husband freely. On the contrary, as a dutiful and obedient child, she is forced to yield and it is in this way that Grissil conforms to the pattern ofher times when women were constantly put under pressure to marry. Additionally, marriage for our protagonist and for females in general, meant a change from one prison (the paternal) to another one (the husband's) thus denying them any trace of autonomy. Both situations (daughter and wife) are in . relation to Vigil's following idea: Y la accion de la colectividad femenina se localiza, sobre todo, en el espacio privado e intradomestico. Por eso, las mujeres- consideradas como grupo- solo pueden aparecer en la Historia si esta es abordada desde la perspectiva de la vida cotidiana. (1986: 2). Another impediment for marriage was the difference in social sta- . tus. At that time, it was advisable to marry equally. However, the Marquesse does not follow the advice and chooses Grissil who belongs . to a lower social group. Our protagonist is conscious of .her humble condition when she addresses the Marquesse in the following way:

(2)

Oh my gracious Lord, Humble not your higher state to my lowe birth, Who am not worthy to be held your slave, Much lesse your wife. Act I, Se. II

Women belonging to lower classes had little chance of advancing themselves socially. One of these few opportunities was to marry higher. Consequently, one might think that Grissil would be very lucky marrying the Marquesse. Nevertheless, her low origin will be repeatedly stressed. by her husband to make our protagoinst feel inferior and humiliated. In路 the following example, the Marquesse has decided to cast Grissil's father and brother out of the Court on the grounds that his subjects are much offended to see poor people raised to such a favourable position. This is what Grissil replies:

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Oh cast them downe, And send poore Grissill poorely home again, High Cedars fall, when lowe shrubs safe remaine. Act H, Se. H

Although the idea of companionate marriage, rather than forced, was present in the society, it did not mean that both the rights and duties of husband and wife were equal: First, and above all, a wife owed obedience to her husband: That love is the basis ofmarriage is shown by the marriage contract itself: ' the husband first promises to love his wife, before she promises to obey him: and consequently as his love is the condition of her obedience' (Macfarlane, 1987: 176). A closer reading seems to suggest that whereas men were supposed to love their wives, women were expected to obey their husbands. Therefore, one might conclude that female love inside marriage was considered as something secondary. Anyway, Grissil perfectly perfonns the role of the obedient wife, even when she is more vexed and troubled by her husband like in the following example: (4)

Friend you doe me wrong, To let me holde my Lord in wrath so long, He kneele and tye them. Act II, Se. H

Here, the Marquesse orders Grissil to kneel and tie one of his servant's shoes. She obeys not only because she is his wife but also because Grissil's relationship to him is very similar to the one existing between master and servant. Again according to Macfarlane the duty of a husband was: ÂŤ not to be churlish and cruel toward her, but quiet, gentle, modest, patient, long-suffering, kind and soft in all his behaviour toward her.Âť (1987: 182).

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Ironically, in the play we are dealing with, all these virtues are embodied in Grissil. It is clear then that the Marquesse unfulfills his duties as husband. 2 The great majority of contemporary writers claimed that the most outstanding virtues in a wife shoud be obedience and submission. Silence was another important quality that an English gentlewoman must observe: « Silence in a woman is a moving rhetoric, winning most, when in words it wooeth last « (Aughterson, 1995: 84). It is very interesting the fact that, in the early XVII century, to speak in order to complain was a punishable offence for a woman. As Belsey states: « But for women to speak is to threaten the system of differences which gives meaning to patriarchy.» (1985: 191). In the play Grissil is threatened by the Marquesse with wearing a bridle. This instrument had a metal gag which restrained the tongue and was used to punish women accused of complaining too much. Ducking in water was another useful practice to keep them silent. Showing no fear to all these tortures, our protagonist perfectly embodies the virtue of silence and, as a proofofobedience, she would accept being punished in such a way. Thus, Grissil answers to the threat: (5)

And from your humble servant when you please Act 11, Se. 11

On the one hand, one might have thought that husbands' cruelty in general and, in our case, the Marquesse's, could be avoided by resorting to divorce. The problem was that the Church ofEngland did not recognize it. Although separation was possible, any remarriage was considered illegal. The Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum allowed divorce from 1552 to 1602. One of the legal reasons was cruelty. So, having in mind that Patient Grissil was written in 1599 and that the Marquesse was a cruel husband, we may conclude that it was possible for her to divorce. In 1603 the pre-1552 position was reinstaured and marriage was again indisoluble. On the other hand, divorce was a very expensive process and, most of the times, mothers could not claim access to their children. This is what happens to Grissil: (6)

Must I then be divorc'd? And loose this treasure, I must and am content, since tis his pleasure, Act IV, Se. 11

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Our protagonist has returned to her father's, having been cast out by the Marquesse. She is poor again and unable to put up with the costs of a divorce. Although he has ordered that the children should be taken away, Grissil accepts separation, yielding, in this way, to her husband's decission. Her choice is well defined in Belsey's words: ÂŤ there was no remedy but patience for marital disharmony and discontent.Âť (1985: 40).

2.2. Grissil as Mother Women's readiness to become mothers was as important as being a good wife. Lack of children was cause for concern and most of the times it was attributed to female infertility. Pregnancy was considered as a blessing but not as a pure one. Twenty-eight days after birth, women were expected to attend church in order to be purified. Unmarried mothers were threatened with the refusal to church them unless they divulged the name ofthe father. Sometimesthey underwent punishment in front ofthe congregation. Anyway, illegitimacy was uncommon in the XVII century. Desperate measures were also taken especially by unmarried or poor mothers overbumed with children. Laurence (1995) and Macfarlane (1987) mention some practices like abortion, infanticides and abandon. Despite this situation, children were welcomed, being mothers more inclined than fathers to express pleasure. In contrast, many women feared pregnancy due to the high risk of death in childbirth. Mothers were responsible for the education of her sons and daughters until they had reached seven years ofage. In addition to all said so far, the fact that many children were sent away as servants or apprentices at twelve or thirteen has led many authors such as Lawrence Stone3 to think that parents did not really care too much about their children. Nevertheless, it seems that, generally speaking, seventeenth century English fathers and mothers did feel love and tenderness towards their little ones. This idea of the affectionate family is also supported by Laurence: The early age at which children left home was evidence not of lack of affection, but of a belief that the family was a network of obligations, ofwhich children were as much a part as adults. (1995: 91).

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High infant mortality does not diminish parents' feelings, but it encourages the development of resignation and the acceptance of death, qualities which may be confused with lack of affection. (1995:92 ).

Thus, the role of the affectionate mother is perfectly performed by . Grissil. We must not forget that the major part of her miseries derives from the deep love she feels towards her children. For instance, when her husband takes them away, she claims: (7)

That which strikes blinde mine eyes, Makes my heart bleede Act IV, Sc. 11

More important than her own sorrow is the possibility that the babies might be separated from their mother: (8)

Why must my babes beare this ungentle doome Act IV, Sc. 11

or that they might suffer any kind of harm. With this fear in mind, she addresses Mario, one of the Marquesse's courtiers, in the following way: (9)

You cannot plaie the nurse, your horred eyes Willfright my little ones, and make them crie Act IV, Sc. I

Grissil's husband even denies that she is the babies' mother. It is another blow for her, who sees how her condition is now lowered to that of a simple nurse: (l0)

I am but their poore nurse I must confesse, Alas let not a nurse be pittilesse. Act IV, Sc. I

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Another reason for Grissil's concern relates to the habit of putting 4 high born children to wet-nurses. Renaissance writers and physicians recommended breast-feeding and it was thought that babies should be fed by their own mothers. Contrary to the advice, and according to King (1991), ladies usually neglected their natural duty. As De Maio affirms: ÂŤ La costumbre del ama de cria fue considerada por los humanistas y por la Iglesia, si no como pecado, ciertamente como omisi6n de la maternidad. ÂŤ (1988: 115). But listening to her motherly instincts, Grissil insists on feeding her own children; on the one hand, because she follows a popular habit among women belonging to lower classes (from which Grissil herself comes) and on the other hand, because she perfectly plays the role of the loving and caring mother. It is for this reason that we have to understand Grissil's despair when she is not allowed to nurse her own babies. Then, she implores: (11)

I prithee let my tem'es, let my bow'd knees, Bend thy obdurate hart, see heer's a fountaine, Which heauen into theis Alablaster bow1es, Instil'd to nourish them: man theyle erie. And blame thee that this ronnes so lavishly, Heres milke for both my babes, two breasts for two. Act IV, Se. I

As we can see, Grissil is also conscious that there is no better milk for her son and daughter than her own one. She even fears that her suffering may have a negative effect on her capacity to feed the children: (12)

(oo. ), if thou dost beare them hence, My angrie breasts will swell, and as mine eyes Letsfall salt drops, with these white Neeter teares,

They will be mixt : this sweet will then be brine, Theyle erie, Ile chide and say the sinne is thine. Act IV, Se. I Summing up, we may characterize our protagonist as a most affectionate and tender mother. In fact, all the mothers in Renaissance England were supposed to possess these same virtues.

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3. Conclusions

First, I would like to point out that, although the character ofGrissil may be considered as an archetype and the play, as Belsey (1985) suggests, was probably addressed to a misogynistic audience, she broadly embodies feminine roles in the England ofthe early seventeenth century. Her patience and resistance to misfortune represent the apogee offeminine achievement : she is an obedient wife, a caring mother and a dutiful daughter. In a word, Grissil represents those virtues that society expects from her as a woman and, what is more important, she incarnates the ideal of a Renaissance wife: silent, chast, obedient and patient. Grissil would have to be taken as an example to be followed by contemporary women, who, on the whole, were considered either as devils or saints. It is the triumph of virtue (represented by Grissil) over tyranny (symbolised by the Marquesse). Of course, not all the females were ready to endure such a miserable situation: there were widows, single women, witches and even wives who were found guilty of murdering their husbands. But they are marginal people who might have bycome the object of another kind of research. Secondly, English society at that time could be defined as patriarchal considering the establishment of a set of relations between those who have the authority (husband, father and master) and those who must obey (wife, children and servant, respectively). The hierarchy just mentioned leads us to the problem offemale identity: In general, women's public speaking was forbidden. If they dared to complain, they would probably have to undergo punishment. In this way, women played an insignificant part within the family, being more servants than partners. As said before and through the analysis ofGrissil's character, we may conclude that marriage was the only institution which actually provided females with a certain position inside the family and the society. Consequently, the roles of mother, wife and daughter constituted the essence of their identity. Finally, a riddle written in 1733 which can also be applied to the period just described, summarizes both Grissil's unfortunate condition and that of those women who might have identified themselves with the â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ same SituatIOn:

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How wretched is a woman sfate, No happy change herfortune knows; Subject to man in every state .. How can she then befreefrom woes?

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(Laurence, 1995: 275)

NOTES

1. The words in italics stand for the examples used for the analysis of female roles 2. Descriptions ofvirtues which a good wife was supposed to have can be found in writings ofcontemporary authors like Samuel Rowlands, Richard Brathwait, WilIiam Whateley, etc. See Aughterson, K. (1995) 3.This author's opinion is mentioned by Laurence (1995: 90). 4. See Erasmus, D. 1671: The Woman in Childbed and Clihton, E. 1622: The Countess ofLincolns Nursery both in Aughterson, K. (1995: 105- 116).

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Aughterson, K. 1995. Renaissance Woman. Constructions of Feminity in England. London & New York: Routledge. Belsey, C. 1985. The Subject of Tragedy. Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama. London & New York: Methuen. Bowers, F. 1985. The Dramatic WOrks of Thomas Dekker. Vol. 1. London & New York: Methuen. Calder6n L6pez, M.L 1996. «Una Busqueda Renacentista del Principio Femenino: Cordelia» en M. R. Garcia Doncel, ed. La Mujer en la Literatura de Habla Inglesa. Cadiz: Universidad de Cadiz. King, M. 1991. Women o/the Renaissance. Chicago & London: the University of Chicago Press. Laurence, A. 1995. Women in England 1500-1760. A Social History. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Macfarlane, A. 1987. Marriage and Love in England 1300-1840. Oxford & New York: Basil Blackwell. de Maio, R. 1988. Mujer y Renacimiento. Madrid: Mondadori. Vigil, M. 1986. La Vida de las Mujeres en los siglos XVI y XVII. . Madrid: Siglo XXI editores.

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Der Tor und dcr Tod de Hugo von Hofmannstahl: Estudio de un drama decadente M~ Jesus Barsanti Vigo Universidad de Vigo

o Decadentismo como cultivo literario da decadencia refiicte a crise dos valores culturais e artisticos da fin de seculo. Tratase dun movemento de renovacion estetico-literaria producido no seculo XIX e dentro do ambito da lingua alemana onde se desenvolvera fllndamentalmente vai ser en Viena, xa que no resto dos paises case non hOllbo decadentismo e teriamos que ir mais na procura de obras que de autores, xa que ningun deles se axusta a unha soa corrente. De todolos alltores 0 vienes Hugo von Hofmannstahl (1874-1929) e qllizais un dos seus mellores representantes e 0 drama Der Tor und der Tod un bo exemplo. o libro e unha escolma do ideario decadentista dende 0 punto de vista da cosmovision, onde qlleda patente que estos escritores non son sinxelos: critican a sociedade na que viven, mais viven nela, importalles so 0 est6tico, non 0 moral ou inmoral. Imos a encontrar 0 gusto polo atipico, morboso, 0 ensofio, a omnubilacion, os nervios como maxima expofiente do disfrute. Dende 0 punto de vista formal a linguaxe vaise enriqueeer para atopar todos estos estados de animo e a tematica recolleni todo 0 exposto anterionnente. Todolos autores acabaran superando 0 deeadentismo mediante 0 transcendente. Der Tor und der Tod e un claro expofiente de drama decadentista.

1. Introducci6n El decadentismo, como cultivo literario de la decadencia, refleja la crisis de los valores culturales y artisticos de fin de siglo, siendo un movimiento de renovaci6n estetico-literaria que se produjo en el siglo XIX no 5610 en Francia, sino tambien en la mayoria de los paises europeos. Se trata de una actitud vital y artistica, cuajada de pesimismo, de escepticismo y de angustiada insatisfacci6n ante las tendencias racionalistas y materialistas que estaban imperando en la sociedad modema, lanzada por la via de la industrializaci6n y del progreso.

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Asi, surge con fuerza entre losj6venes un movimiento de rechazo, de cansancio y de rebeldia que adopta formas diversas y se viste de nerviosismo -la nevrose fin de siecle- de dandismo, nihilismo, cinismo, decadentismo, misticismo, etc... Esta crisis defin de siglo se presenta coma una oleada de pesimismo, de rebeldia y de insatisfacci6n frente alas realidades de la sociedad y de la cultura burguesa modemas. La sensibilidad y las inquietudes de los Jovenes artistas y escntores no encuentran una respuesta m un cammo adecuados en las tendencias dominantes del pensamiento, de la literatura, del arte y de la moral social de la epoca. El conformismo, la mediocridad y la vulgaridad burgueses, el racionalismo y el materialismo reinantes les parecen totalmente opuestos a la sensibilidad artistica personal, aI refinamiento autenticamente estetico, gratuito y original, y a la sed de ideal y de infinito que perviven en el espiritu exigente e insaciable del hombre. Buscan una estetica artistica que no sea un puro reflejo de las apariencias materialesyobjetivas de la vida y de la sociedad, sino que permita acceder ala sensaci6n de 10 desconocido, de 10 extrafio, de 10 profundo y de 10 inexpresable. •

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En este contexto de nuevas inquietudes y de busqueda de una nueva sensibilidad, se Ira abriendo camino un concepto que poco a poco aglutinara las aspiraciones de muchos de estos j6venes artistas sensibles e inconformistas, se trata del concepto de decadencia y de espiritu decadente.

2. El decadentismo y Hugo von Hofmannstahl

La prensa de la epoca emple6 el terminG decadente coma etiqueta o calificaci6n despectiva para designar a estos artistas rebeldes y anticonformistas que cultivan la melancolia, el refinamiento y el cinismo critico frente alas normas y valores sociales. Pero ellos aceptaron esta etiqueta con ironia y con un sentido diferente, porque veian en el termino decadencia otros aspectos muy distintos relacionados con las ideas que habia expuesto Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) sobre el artista sensible que pretende ser personal, renovador y critico, viviendo y expresandose en una epoca de decadencia 0 en

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sociedades que estan atravesando un claro proceso de transfonnaci6n y de ocaso. Por eso, estos poetas admiran la labor de renovaci6n literaria que, por el camino de la originalidady la brillantez expresiva, realizaron los escritores y poetas de los siglos de la decadencia del Imperio Romano, despues de un periodo de clasicismo y en una epoca de crisis y de descomposici6n social y politica I.

El movimiento decadente, siguiendo en la linea de Baudelaire, se siente vivir en una epoca de decadencia y de descomposici6n -epoca de vulgaridad, de mediocridad, de racionalismo y de utilitarismo burguescon la que no se puede identificar y busca la expresi6n de sensaciones y sentimientos mas personales, refinados y profundos, sintiendo la nostalgia de epocas lejanas 0 sofiadas y la angustia por expresar y sentir al maximo todas las emociones mas exquisitas y refinadas para acelerar et futuro en la muerte y en la descomposici6n del presente. Sin embargo, el movimiento decadente no se guia por una doctrina literaria concreta ni se presenta como una escuela, sino que se caracteriza por una cierta atm6sfera comtin y por unas inquietudes comunes que cada escritor asimila y expresa a su manera por caminos personales muy diversos y diferentes. Es en esta atrn6sfera donde surge uno de los liricos mas grandes de nuestro siglo en lengua alemana: Hugo von Hofmannstahl; sin embargo, el caracter vienes de su naturaleza se va a traducir en su predilecci6n por el teatro y en rapida sucesi6n aparecen pequefios dramas entre los 2 cuales se halla Der Tor und der Tod (1893), donde la evocaci6n de epocas preteritas y ambientes lejanos, tipicamente neorromanticos, se conjuga con la presencia de la muerte que llega envuelta en melancolia.

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3. El decadentismo a traves de Der Tor und der Tod Der Tor und der Tod es un drama en verso, escrito en un s610 acto: presenta al joven de fin de siglo que se extravia egoistamente en 10 artificial y que siente en las ultimas horas de su existencia la vida no vivida y que ya no puede conquistar -en la linea caracteristica de Hofmannstahl, donde la preexistencia de la juventud, que sin conocer la realidad y con una sabiduria temprana, anticipa los acontecimientos del mundo. Este drama fue concluido el 17 de abril de 1893 y se estren6 el 30 de marzo de 1908 en la Kammerspiele de Berlin. Se trata, en suma, de la confesi6n lirico-monol6gica de una precocidad, que reprocha al espejo el estado de animo de toda una generaci6n; su protagonista, Claudio, representacon claridad uno de los temas claves del Ideario decadentista. Las afirmaciones hechas en el primer ensayo que pocos meses despues de ser estrenada la obra Hofmannstahl escribiria sabre el autor italiano D'Annunzio -las cuales fueron ya utilizadas como testimonio para el escritor vienes de la conciencia decadentista- confirman 10 que Claudio muestra: la incapacidad de embarcarse en la vida real, de interesarse por los hombres, por sus predecesores y por las tareas 0 funciones que cada uno tiene que realizar a 10 largo de su vida. .He aqui un elemento esencial en el comportamiento decadente: la aversi6n e incapacidad de adaptarse a la realidad de la vida, de tomar parte en ella activamente y de interesarse por ella, bien compasivamente o bien tratando de entenderla, es decir, de sentirse unido a la existencia de la humanidad. Este alejamiento de la vida, que es representado de una forma exacta en este drama, aparece en muchos personajes de la literatura decadentista: presentan miedo ante la pasi6n y la plenitud de la vida, y por ello, se esfuerzan por descubrir la separaci6n que existe frente a la realidad de la vida. Se encuentran paralizados e impedidos por sus debilidades, las cuales, por otro lado, no pueden rechazar. La insuperable lejania de la vida, la incapacidad de entregarse a ella, significan al mismo tiempo y a menudo, soledad, separaci6n de la humanidad, del pr6jimo, aislamiento...

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En las grandes ciudades europeas de fines del siglo XIX se han perdido las relaciones de union intema que cxistian entre los hombres que vivian unos junto a los otros. Los sensibles autores decadentistas yen que la ausencia de relaciones es dominante y creyendola real, se dejan envolver por ella en un aislamiento opresivo, resultando, por eUo, mas adecuado el alejamiento de la vida, 10 que significa a la postre, el fin de tod0 3 â&#x20AC;˘ Antes de adentramos en el personaje protagonista del drama, resulta necesario conocer el marco escenico en el que este se desenvuelve y a traves del cual se desarroUan y expresan el ideario y la actitud, que convierten a Der Tor und der Tad en un ejemplo de composicion tipicamente decandentista. En esta obra no existe apenas dialogo, ni intriga, ni analisis de las realidades de un media 0 de un ambiente social. El universo de la narracion se identifica con el universo mental de un tinico personaje: su sensibilidad, sus inquietudes, el mundo de su imaginacion y de su fantasia. La obra se convierte asi en el itinerario espiritual de una conciencia, desde la cual surgen, coma aspectos que forman parte de la identidad y de la vision del personaje, consideraciones metafisico-existenciales sobre el sentido de la vida. En esta obra se recogen conceptos como Spleen e Ideal-utilizados ya por Baudelaire en su obraLas Flares del Mal- en la figura del personaje principal, Claudio, de su aprendizaje de la vida y del mundo; este demuestra su decepeion y su hastio despues de reeorrer los eaminos del placer, su indignacion y amargura al constatar la mediocridad, la hipocresia y el egoismo materialista de la vida social. Aunque frente a esto, su deseo de autenticidad y de plenitud le lleva a trazarse y a buscar un ideal, lejos del mundo. El rumbo haeia la muerte se presenta eomo la soluci6n definitiva, pero, en medio de las tinieblas, queda flotando la neeesidad y la esperanza de encontrar algo nuevo. En 10 que se refiere a la organizacion de la obra hay que sefialar que esta se estruetura eonjugando dos niveles temporales faeilmente constatables: a) Un nivel progresivo y lineal: el desarroUo de divagaciones y meditaciones de Claudio en el estudio de su casa.

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b) Un nivel retrospectivo: a traves de un juego de asociaciones afectivas, recuerdos y apariciones, que van evocando momentos pasados de su vida. Sin embargo, en la medida en que estos recuerdos-apariciones brotan de la misma subjetividad del personaje que los evoca, hace que la obra siga tambien, en esa evocaci6n, el fluir y el devenir de la actividad compleja de una conciencia. La magia y el encanto de 10 artificial a traves de la decoraci6n, muebles selectos, objetos artisticos, piedras preciosas, antigiiedades, instrumentos musicales antiguos... -todo ello perfectamente definido en la presentaci6n del escenario y en las pausas de ambientaci6n- contrastan con la monotonia y el encadenamiento objetivo que impone la Naturaleza, trasformando, de esta manera, la imagen decepcionante que nos ofrece el mundo e invirtiendo de algun modo la ciega e implacable voluntad del universo: el orden constructivo e imaginativo en 10 artificial es superior al desordeny a la disposici6n de 10 natural. Claudio, como muchos personajes de la literatura decadentista, tambien permanece separado de la realidad. Su enfermedad es una insu4 perable lejania de esta â&#x20AC;˘ Esta enfermedad se alia con la obligaci6n de descomponer cada vivencia y deshacer la sustancia de la vida a traves del analisis, no estando muy claro cual es la causa y cual el efecto. Todas las vivencias se anticipan en la fantasia y crecen en ella, de tal manera que en la reaIidad se convierten en algo insipido y decepcionante. Podriamos definir la figura de Claudio como la de un homhre sensible pero demasiado cansado para sentimientos intensos, sin una voluntad fuerte, con una ironia graciosa e intrinsecamente inteligente, con la necesidad hacia 10 hueno y una cierta tendencia hacia la interioridad. Incapaz de un verdadero amor y completamente consciente de su comportamiento distante, vive envueIto en el aburrimiento y se estimula a traves de los nervios y no a traves de los deseos; soporta la carga del corazon y ., se engana a SI mlsmo. Esas seran las debilidades de Claudio y esos seran tambien los sintomas de la enfermedad de su tiempo: una debilidad de la voluntad hasta la incapacidad de poder querer algo. Por eso Hofmannstahl no 10 ve como culpa sino como una enfermedad que no esta motivada moralmente y que tampoco puede ser sanada moralmente. Lo que un tipo como Claudio

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determina no es la aversion 0 desgana de poner voluntad para participar en la vida, sino la falta de voluntad, la indiferencia, fen6meno de deca5 dencia, que todo 10 domina â&#x20AC;˘ La perdida de la voluntad se basa, segun la forma de ver del decadentismo, en et debilitamiento de las energias psiquicas, que es un componente de la total perdida de fuerzas, que caracteriza al decadentista. El hastio en la vida y la absorci6n del poder de la voluntad de cada uno, a traves de la pura conciencia de la actividad universal, consiste en las debilidades, los rechazos, los instintos de cada hombre. Esa debilitaci6n de la voluntad trae consigo que los sentimientos sobre la vida y sobre el mundo no se activen con la propia vida y el propio mundo, sino con las cosas artificiales 6 â&#x20AC;˘ Asi, hay un momento en el que Claudio dice: lch hab mich so an Kunstliches verloren, DaB ich die Sonne sah aus toten Augen... (Hofm. 203) El sufrimiento de Claudio, su incapacidad de vivir plenamente, su enfermedad espiritual, todo ello ha sido reconocido despues del surgimiento de Der Tor und der Tod como una destrucci6n de la personalidad, 10 cual fue denominado por el psicoamilisis como narcisismo. Para Hofmannstahl, en un tipo como Claudio se encuentran claras alusiones al amor a si mismo. Claudio dice cuando la muerte le arroja a los pies viejas cartas de amor: Mit Schwiiren voll und Liebeswort und Klagen; Meinst du, ich hiitte je gespiirt, was die Gespiirt, was ich als Antwort schien zu sagen?! Da hast du dieses ganze Liebesleben, Daraus nur ich und ich nur widelionte". (Hofm.2l2) La muerte tiene a Claudio no s610 como a un necio, sino tambien como a un pecador. Le reconoce con pequefias insinuaciones que no viene a el como vengadora ni juez ni para echarle en cara sus culpas, sino para colocarle delante de los ojos su carencia de vida, algo de 10 cual, como ya hemos dicho, es Claudio plenamente consciente hace tiempo -

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«Was weiB denn ich vom Menschenleben?/ Bin ich freilich scheinbar drin gestanden,/ Aber ich hab es hOchstens verstanden,/ Konnte mich nie darein verweben.l Hab mich niemals daran verloren.» (Hofm. 201)- para que reconozca mas vivamente que no ha conducido su vida como los demas. Ensefiarle, este es su proposito y de ninguna manera venganza y castigo. Y el aceptara finalmente esta ensefianza, que sin embargo no se traduce en actitud de arrepentimiento del sufrimiento que haya podido causar a los demas -su incapacidad de compromiso genera amargura a sus seres mas cercanos, como su madre, su prometida y su mas fiel amigo- sino solo en quejas, no solo de su lejania de la vida, sino incluso mas intensamente de la nostagia de una vida vivida plenamente y de 10 que se da cuenta ahora, en los momentos previos a la muerte: Ah! und nie GefUhlt! Durr, alles durr! Wann hab ichje Gespurt, daB alle Wurzeln meines Seins Nach ihr sich zuckend drangten... (Hofm. 214) La muerte llega para llevarse a Claudio como el ultimo grito del impulso de vida - «Die tiefste Lebenssehnsucht schreit in mir.» (Hofm. 211)-. Hofniannstahl hace la figura de Claudio convincente dejandole hpresar ese instinto de vida y permitiendole afirmar su alcanzada capacidad de vivir, antes de que tenga lugar el requerimiento de la muerte. Los versos con los que esta saluda a Claudio se han hecho famosos: Steh auf! Wirf dies ererbte Graun von dir! Ich bin nicht schauerlich, bin kein Gerippe! Aus des Dionysos, der Venus Sippe, Ein groBer Gott der Seele steht vor dir. (Hofm, 209) En estos versos, la muerte se identifica con ein grofter Gott der Seele: la muerte es una de las fuerzas divinas que por si mismas acman sobre el hOl)1bre reavivando la conciencia y el instinto por la vida perdidos. Esto parece saberlo Claudio yaen su habitacion, donde el secreta

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llamamiento de la muerte es tan fuerte, que hani que su miedo inicial hacia eJIa se convierta no s610 en disponibilidad, sinG tambien en una afirmaci6n e incluso en un saludo para el posible final de la vida. Por ello, en compafiia de su madre, su prometida y su amigo, mas consciente del vacio y de la negaci6n de su ser, Claudio se dirigira a la odiada muerte, como su salvadora: K6nnt ich mit dir sein, wo man dich nur hart, Nicht von verworrner Kleinlichkeit verstOrt! (Bofm, 219) Tal comunidad con la muerte se desea ahora; realmente es como la inmortalidad de la lejania de la vida, la cual, soportada con dolor, gana 7 sentido como liberaei6n de la alterada nom1alidad â&#x20AC;˘ La comparaci6n entre la vida y la muerte es tambien una representaci6n basica del espfritu decadentista. Desde que el hombre naee es un ser que sabe que va a morir; euando ereee, erece su muerte y en el momento en que sus fuerzas de vida estan totalmente desarroJIadas, las euales pueden aparecer como la meta de su existencia, entonces, en realidad, son s610 las fases ya pasadas, que son como estaciones del irresistible camino hacia la muerte, las que se colocan como el unico destino final. La negaci6n de esa voluntad de vivir, que existe de forma dominante, cs la filosofia de la decadcncia -Nietzsche, Schopenhauer-. La muerte permaneee pennanente en la vida, incorporada a ella y consciente -coma decia Rilke, quien tiene una vida aetiva, tambien tiene una muerte activa, representaciones que, par otro lado, son dificiles de diferenciar del Memento mori, motivo de la literatura medieval y del barroco-; la certeza de la vida despues de la muerte, sin embargo, no existe, para ellos esta es el final, la absoluta mina, el ocaso, el hundimiento... 8 El reconocimiento de que la vida es tambien muerte es para la concieneia deeadentista la primera experieneia de la eontradicci6n del 9 mundo y su pretendida estabilidad â&#x20AC;˘ Esta (con){usion entre la vida y la muerte es aeeptada por Bofmannstahl: al poner en boea de Claudio las siguientes palabras: Was zwingt mieh, der ich beides nicht erkenne, DaB ieh dich Tod und jenes Leben nenne? (Bofm. 219)

I I I I

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manifiesta que tampoco Claudio puede diferenciarlas realmente ni reconocerlas por separado.

4. Conclusion Claudio representa el tipo en la literatura de Fin de siglo: El tipo finisecular del cerebral y del quintaesenciado, del manojo de vivos nervios que vive enfermo por la obra de la prosa de su tiempo. (Dario, R: 1896-1905) Con seguridad existen en la historia de la literatura personajes en los cuales podemos reconocer, por 10 menos en algunos de sus componentes, la genesis historica de la figura de Claudio: Werther, Faust, Byron... pues todos pueden ser recogidos bajo un mismo epigrafe que podriamos denominar la actitud de la lejania y el aislamiento. El drama de Hofmannstahl gana al final una dimension, en la que Claudiopodria, sin querer, justificar el rechazo a la vida, porque, segun las ensefianzas de Schopenhauer, de todos modos solo se destruye 10 vano y, debido a la abolicion de 10 individual, se desarrolla et ser supraindividual. La muerte, reconoce Claudio, puede comprimir toda la plenitud de la vida en una hora y asi se dirige a ella: Das schattenhafte will ich ganz vergessen Dnd weih mich deinen Wundem und Gewalten. So wach ichjetzt, im FuhlensubermaB, Vom Lebenstraum wohl auf im Todeswachen. (Hofin.2l9220) Cuando la muerte se asombre del ser humano, en una especie de necrologia, ante un Claudio ya muerto, did: Die, was nicht deutbar, dennoch deuten... (Hofm. 220) y quemi pensar, sobre todo, en el misterioso requerimiento de la muerte desde la inconsciencia, ya que desde la consciencia, ni se la com-

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prende, ni se la identifica, pero, sin embargo, se siente como actua y asi es como se puede encontrar algo de luz en la llamada oscuridad eterna. Resulta claro que este drama esta en clara contraposicion a los esquemas naturalistas imperantes hasta este momento: I. El personaje pertenece a la aristocracia. Esto ya es un rasgo de diferenciaci6n respecto a la pretension naturalista de analizar los ambientes que resultaran mas corrientes y vulgares, dentro de la sociedad contemporanea. 2. El nombre del personaje principal, Claudio, evoca claramente a epocas preteritas, par ejemplo, al Imperio Romano, en contraste con la onomastica de los personajes naturalistas. 3. En la novela aparece practicamente la figura de un unico personaje. Hofmannstahl no se detiene -como podria esperarse de una obra naturalista- en un estudio social, sino que rechaza todo tipo de analisis ambiental y sociologico, apartandose de las teorias de Hippolyte Taine (1828-' 1893) Y de los naturalistas que piensan que el medio ambiental condiciona y detemlina la personalidad y cl compOliamiento del individuo. 4. La casa de Claudio, donde se desarrolla el drama, es una manera de significar que el mismo es capaz de crearse su propio media, adaptandolo a la medida de sus inquietudes personales, tan alejadas de la mentalidad superficial, conformista y vulgar de sus contemporaneos. 5. Claudio busca su identidad entregandose a la contemplacion y adentrandose en la profundidad, donde le conducen sus meditaciones y divagaciones, es decir, constmyendose un mundo personal, opuesto a los intereses y valores que predominan en cl mundo social. Resumiendo, se experimenta la decadencia como una epoca de fartuna, dominada por el conocimiento de que pasaron los tiempos de hechos felices, ya rotos, e indiscutible religiosidad, cuyos valores para el tiempo actual se han perdido.

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De hecho, quien aproveche la decadencia sabe 10 que aprovecha y ve en todo 10 marchito, el florecimiento, algun dia, de 10 que ahora se marchita. El conocimiento de 10 perdido se hace sensible al impulso de 10 decadente. En el poema de Hofmannstahl, Weltgeheimnis surge claramente el conocimiento de algo perdido. Lo perdido es una profunda comprensi6n, un adecuado concepto de la esencia del mundo, 10 que es denominado como Weltgeheimnis y que antes era propio a todos los hombres. Ahora este conocimiento esta escondido, hundido en la profundi路 dad del subconsciente, representado con la imagen de la fuente: . Der tiefe Brunnen weiB es wohl, Einst waren alle tiefund stumm, Dnd alle wuBten brum. (Hofm. Der tiefe Brunnen) . El decadentismo ha sido denominado con diferentes apelativos, todos enos significativos. Baste entre otros, citar por ejemplo, 109 siguien路 tes: gelahmten Willen, Willenschwachen, I'affaibilissement de la volunte, la maladie du siecle... Con ello se describe la Lebensferne de cada hombre, 10 cual esta representado magistralmente en el drama Der Tor und der Tod, un drama decadente.

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NOTAS . I. La primera huella la podriamos encontrar en Ta.cito con su exaltaei6n de los germanos frente aRoma; mas tarde en el siglo XVII encontramos a Bossuet que en 1681 escribe Discurso sobre la Historia Universal donde plantea el ciclo de las culturas 0 ya en el siglo XVIII a Montesquieu con su obra Consideraci6n sobre las causas de las grandezas de los romanos y su decadencia de 1734, 0 al ingles Gibson, autor entre 1776 y 1778 de Historia y degeneraci6n y caida del Imperio romano, 0 en el siglo XX con estudiosos coma Spencer con su obra Decadencia de Occidente realizada entre 1918 y 1922 0 Toynbee con A Study of

HistOiY路 2. Al haeer referencia a esta obra utilizare la abreviatura Hofm.

3. La ausencia de relaciones ha sido magistralmente retratada por el pintoI' impresionista Edouard Manet. Los hombres de sus cuadros estan pasivos, no se pueden reconoeer sus impulsos activos, actuan aislados, retraidos hacia si mismos, como los personajes de la literatura decadentista. 4. Hofmannstahl convierte cada lejania de la vida en una experieneia inmediata. Por ejemplo, el seis de septiembre de 1892, algunos meses antes de concIuir el drama que nos ocupa y en un viaje al sur de Francia, le escribe a Edgar Karg 10 siguiente: lch fuhle mich wahrend einer Reise meist nicht recht wohl: mir fehlt die Unmittelbarkeit des ErIebens; ich sehe mir selbst leben zu, und was ich erIebe, ist mir wie in einem Buch gelesen; erst die Vergangenheit verklart mir die Dinge und gibt ihnen Farbe und Duft. Este tipo de experiencias Jas recoge cIaramente en algunos versos en Del' Tor und del' rod: Stets schleppte ich den ratselhaften Fluch, Nie ganz bewu(t, nie voJIig unbewu(t, Mit kleinem Leid, und schaler Lust Mein Leben zu erIeben wie ein Buch, ...(Hofm. 203)

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5. El mundo es siempre y desde todas las perspectivas un oasis de horror y un desierto de aburrimiento y de hastio. Se odia la realidad que se siente como algo totalmente banal, repugnante y ruti!. Se tiene anoranza interior, total inconsciencia, total no-ser, desaparici6n de todos los suenos, unica y final soluci6n. El hundimiento de la consciencia, debido a esa individualidad, trae consigo la negativa, la declinaci6n de la voluntad ante el mundo. Se ve la realidad como algo terrible, horrible, misterioso, que destruye, algo fatal y funesto que esta en la base de la existencia. La dependencia intema hacia ese odio al mundo y la paralizaci6n de la voluntad, pasividad y negacion de los hechos, son elementos claramente decadentes. Se produce el reconocimiento de que la verdad paraliza la voluntad, cambia las debilidades que constituyen la voluntad, crea incapacidad y entonces la realidad se percibe como terrible y odiosa. El propiosentimiento se vuelve mas debil, los impulsos se pierden en su fuerza, la voluntad se rompe y el hombre ya no ve que pueda considerarse como algo deseable y esto hace que el pesimismo nazca y el odio al mundo domine. 6.Por ejemplo, la colecci6n de sus obras de arte le parecen a Claudio Rummpelkammer voller totem Tand (Hofm. 202). 7. Es decir, se trata de la idea de Schopenhauer de que quien este interesado en la muerte, la buscani en la vida - «Ich kanns! Gewiihre, was du mir gedroht: / Da tot mein Leben war, sei du mein Leben, Tod!» (Hofm. 219).

8. El desmesurado amor, por ejemplo, por las piedras y metales preciosos, que a menudo nos encontramos en las obras decadentistas, tiene su razon mas profunda en que los minerales no mueren ni se pudren porque no tienen vida organica, no sufren pues ni sienten ni padecen. 9. Ya eljoven Hofmannstahl topo con las indisolubles durezas de ciertas contradicciones, cuyo reconocimiento el describe en la carta a Edgar Karg citada anteriormente como: «die krankhaften Hellsichtigkeit des Neurophaten.»

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REFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRAFICAS

Althaus, G. 1976. Zwischen Monarchie und Republik. Schnitzler, Kajka, Hofmannstahl, Musil. Munchen. Austrian Studies 1. 1900. Vienna 1900. From Altenberg to Wittgenstein. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Dario, R. 1896-1905. Los Raros. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, Col. Austral, num. 1119. Fischer, J. M. 1978. Fin de siecle. Kommentar zu einer Epoche. Munchen. Hamburger, M. 1964. Hugo von Hofmannstahl.Zwei Studien. Gottingen. Hofmannstahl, Hugo Yon. 1945-1959. Der Tor und der Tod . Gesammelte Werke in zehn Einzelnbanden. HRSG yon Herbert Steiner15 BDE. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. Dramen I, Band 2159. Mauser, W. 1977. Hugo van Hofmannstahl. Konflikbewaltigung und WerkstruktU/: Eine psychosoziologische Interpretation. Munchen. . Pickerodt, G. 1968. Hofmannstahls Dramen. Kritik ihres historiches Gehalts. Stuttgart. Rasch,W. 1986. Die literarische Decadence um 900. Miinchen: C.H. Besk Volke, W. 1967. Hugo von Hofmannstahl in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbeck bei Hamburg. Wunberg, G (Hrsg). 1972. Hofmannsthal im Urteil seiner Kritikel: Dokumente zur Wirkungsgeschichte Hugo von Hofmannsthal in Deutschland. Frankfurt am Main. Zmegac, V. 1980-85. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Vol. II/2 (1848-1918). Konigstein/Ts: Athenaum Verlag.

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