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9. XaTZnßaciXeiou В. Ti yàxvei n cûyxpovn XoyoTexvia GT^v IcTopia; Окт. 2009. URL: http://www.enet.gr.
10. XaTZnßaciXeiou В. H cûyxpovn eUnviKq пeÇoypaфía CTO nayKÔc^io xœPiô, 12/03/2009. URL: http://www.enet.gr.
11. XaTZnßaciXeiou В. Ti aKp^œç eivai n XoyoTexvia tou фavтacтlкoû, 29/07/12. URL: http://www.tovima.gr/books-ideas/article/?aid=468566
SUBJECTIVITY, SUBJECTIFICATION AND THE NARRATOR'S SELF IN ALICE MUNRO'S
FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVE
Khrisonopulo Ekaterina Yurievna
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Dotsent at the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Saint-Petersburg
State University of Culture and Arts, Saint-Petersburg
The proposed paper aims to explore linguistic techniques of making reference to the narrator and the effects of using such techniques in Alice Munro's short stories included in the collection Dance of the Happy Shades. Nearly all the stories in this collection present first-person narratives and represent, according to G. Genette [4], "homodiegetic" narration. This kind of narration implies the positioning of a narrator within the story - by contrast with "heterodiegetic" narration whose narrator is outside the story. By being inside the story the author integrates two roles - those of narrator and character. As a result of this integration, the narrator and the character are located in the same diegesis, or identical spatiotemporal dimension of the plot (see, for instance, [1; 2; 4]).
Reference to the author in her roles of the narrator and character is effected in Alice Munro's stories mostly through the use of the first-person pronoun I. However, there are instances when the author generalizes over certain events and makes reference to herself by using 'generic' you, as in examples (1) and (2):
(1) That the heart of another person is a closed book, is something you will hear him say frequently, and without regret ("The Office", p. 140).
(2) I hated Business Practice because you had to rule pages of an account book, using a straight pen [...] ("Red Dress", p. 332).
In (1), you obviously refers to the narrator who speaks about what she often heard from her husband. In (2), you and I explicitly correlate, both referring to the narrator who describes her attitude towards a subject at school (I hated) and what she had to do in class throughout the corresponding study course (you had to rule pages of an account book).
The use of the second-person pronoun is not the only way of implicit reference to the narrator in Alice Munro's firstperson narratives or homodiegetic narration in general. Thus, it is mentioned in P. Simpson [6, p. 56 - 62] that in first-person narratives the subject of the story can be referred to through the use of clauses which are headed by anticipatory it and which contain evaluative adjectives (e.g., it was vain that; it was good that, etc.) or verba sentiendi (for instance, it seemed that, it appeared that; it looked as if). In the stories of Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades there are cases of correlative (though not quite identical) uses of I think and it seems, with both expressions indicating the narrator's epistemic stance to what is being described, cf. sentences in (3) and (4) from the short story "The Office":
(3) I remember Joyce with a box of crackers in her hand, saying that I had become terribly sick from eating - I think she said sauerkraut - for supper, and that I had called her for help ("The Office", p. 190).
(4) I have no picture of her down on her knees and she would have done it in a minute - so it seems this threat was not carried out ("The Office", p. 191).
In both (3) and (4), the author as a narrator refers to her mental state of retrieving things from memory, but in (3) the narrator is explicitly mentioned through the use of I, whereas in (4) it is a schematic mental picture (it), not the narrator herself that is mentioned in the introductory clause.
Besides correlative uses of clauses with I, generic you and anticipatory it, the texts of Alice Munro's first-person narratives contain alternations of first-person clauses with verba sentiendi and sentences with anticipatory there. Illustrative in this respect is the fragment in (5) from the short story "Dance of the Happy Shades":
(5) I look at the children seated on the floor and I see the same profile repeated two or three times; I see another boy with a very large head, fine as a baby's; there are other children whose features are regular and unexceptional [...] ("Dance of the Happy Shades", p. 485).
Obviously, in (5), the there-clause does not simply describe an existential situation, but provides a periphrasis of perceptual clauses with I see. In other words, the so-called "non-referential" there functions as an implicit reference to the narrator similar to previously mentioned anticipatory it and generic, or narrative you.
Most first-person narratives from Alice Munro's collection Dance of the Happy Shades equally display occurrences with explicit (through first-person clauses) and implicit reference to the narrator (in clauses with generic you, anticipatory it and there). Among these alternatives, firstperson clauses signal the expression of subjectivity in narration, or, according to E. Benveniste [3], the capacity of the speaker to posit himself/herself as a subject. By contrast, reference to the author in clauses headed by either generic you or anticipatory it/there leaves the actual narrator in the background and invokes an imaginary narrator or addressee (you), a schematic mental entity or location (there), as well as a schematic mental frame (it) that receives explication in a subsequent clause. This implicit way of invoking the speaker-narrator('s point of view) is characterized in R. Langacker [5] as subjectification.
Generally, both subjectivity and subjectification are mostly studied in linguistics, in particular, with reference to such a linguistic phenomenon as grammaticalization (see, for instance, [7]). However, the choice of one method of the narrator's self-reference over another one or alternative uses of both methods in a first-person narrative may reveal certain psychological facets of the narrator's presence in his or her
own narrative and the nature of effects achieved through this presence.
The proposed study aims to explore the method of the narrator's reference to her own self in the short story which gives the name to the whole collection "Dance of the Happy Shades" and which differs from most first-person narratives of the collection in that it gives a more or less objectivized perspective on the world of adults through the eyes of the narrator in her years of adolescence.
The short story "Dance of the Happy Shades" cannot be characterized in terms of subjectivity, since throughout the text there are very scarce references to the narrator as an explicit stance taker. The whole story contains only three cases when the narrator explicitly mentions herself as the subject of epistemic and emotional stance (I think; I have the impression; we are surprised) and three cases of self-reference as an observer (I see). In all the other uses the narrator's self is invoked by means of subjectification techniques, namely, through the use of narrative generic you (9 cases), anticipatory it (7 cases) and anticipatory there (18 cases). In one fragment of narration (demonstrated earlier in (5)) there is obvious correlation between clauses with I see and one clause with anticipatory there. There is one more segment of narration (given below in (6)) which contains the correlative expressions You would think and it seems:
(6) You would think, now that at the end of her life she has found someone whom she can teach [...] to play the piano, she would light up with the importance of this discovery. But it seems that the girl'splaying like this is something she always expected, and she finds it natural and satisfying [.] ("Dance of the Happy Shades", p. 489).
The uses of there, you and it in (5) and (6) produce the impression of narratorial estrangement from what is being described. Thus, introducing other children through the use of anticipatory there in (5) - by contrast with the immediately preceding correlative expression I see - results in the narrator's "offstage" positioning as a hidden observer of what is being "onstage". By the same token, the use of you in you would think involves any potential reader - alongside the subject of narration - in the suggested stance-taking activity. Anticipatory it, in turn, used as part of it seems contributes to "backgrounding" the narrator by activating a schematic mental frame which is subsequently filled with the propositional content (here: Miss Marsalles' treatment of the children's musical performances as something usual and natural).
Generally, the plot of Alice Munro's story "Dance of the Happy Shades" centers around a visit paid by the narrator (in her early adolescence) and her mother of a musical party arranged by the family's acquaintance Miss Marsalles. The beginning of the story gives numerous details on the general atmosphere of awkwardness associated with Miss Marsalles' parties and people's general reluctance about acceptance of invitations to them. The focus of the story is on the narrator's visit of one of these parties. The description of the party puts special emphasis on the awkward setting of the event and the feeling of uneasiness experienced by the narrator and the people present there. The development of the plot comes to its highest point when the party is joined by a group of children and one of the girls from the group performs a musical piece on the piano. The piece is called "Dance of the Happy Shades" and it is performed in a clumsy manner producing unpleasant impressions and evoking uneasy feelings. In the end, everyone leaves the party in silence feeling subdued and at the same time being convinced that the hostess shouldn't be called "Poor Miss Marsalles", but rather treated as a person who should live
in her own world which is simply different from tacitly accepted conventions and from general ideas of how things should be in different life situations including social occasions like parties.
The strategy of narratorial estrangement reflected, as mentioned above, in the choice of generic you and anticipatory it and there as markers of subjectification can be motivated by the narrator's wish to present events from the world of adults in a more or less neutral manner, without putting too much emphasis on her own perceptions as a teenager. However, it is not estrangement alone that motivates the use of markers of subjectification.
At first sight, the clauses with anticipatory there that have the highest number of occurrences among the subjectified means of reference to the narrator in the story may appear to be chosen randomly - just to refer to an internal experience, an instance in time or to a physical object, as in (7) through (9):
(7) There is a feeling that can hardly be put into words about Miss Marsalles' parties [...] (p. 466).
(8) There is even a moment, driving in to such a party, when the question occurs: will anybody be there? (p. 466).
(9) In the room where the mothers sat [.] there was a picture of Mary, Queen of Scots [...] (p. 470).
Notably, despite the obvious heterogeneity of entities represented in an existential mode (a feeling, a moment, a picture) in these sentences, all these entities have their counterparts in mental representations of what the narrator sees (a picture), lives through (a moment) and inwardly experiences ( a feeling). In a number of cases the narrator's experiential sphere, signaled by anticipatory there, encompasses even "non-existent" entities, as in (10) - (12):
(10) There is no fireplace so the iron firedogs are not there [...] (p. 477).
(11) I look around and calculate that there is no one in the room within a year of my age (p. 482).
(12) There is nothing to be done (p. 486).
Generally, in all the given examples from (7) to (12)
anticipatory there introduces phrases which refer to entities (or their absence) that either attracted the narrator's attention (as in the case of a picture, absence of a fireplace or no other people of her age at the party) or made her concentrate on a particular event or experience (such as a particular feeling, a moment lived through and realization of the absence of alternatives when there was nothing to be done). In other words, anticipatory there signals the activation of the narrator's experiential space in one of its subdomains: sensory (in case of seeing or hearing); introspective (in case of internal experiences and retrieving things from memory); inferential subdomain (based on making inferences from particular events or state of affairs). The use of anticipatory there as a way of implicit reference to one of the mentioned subdomains in the narrator's experiential space allows to achieve two things in the first-person narrative. First, it allows to avoid direct reference to the narrator's self and thus to shift the focus to what actually triggers off one of the segments of her experiential space. Second, evocation of this space (rather than individuality of the narrator) invites the reader's alignment with it and focusing his or her attention on it.
Throughout all the eighteen cases of sentences with anticipatory there the narrator implicitly leads the reader throughout the maze of separate characters, events, stretches in time, physical objects, with all of them being associated with uneasy feelings, strangeness, oddness, incongruity and general lack of harmony. Among the referents of nominal phrases (further given in italics) introduced by there as an
indexical of the narrator's experiential space are the following awkward things: a feeling about things going wrong at Miss Marsalles' parties; a regular awkward little space before the table with sandwiches; a picture of Mary, Queen of Scots which like other pictures in the room produced awkward impressions; absence of a fireplace that creates disproportion in the room; the presence of only a dozen people in the room and at the same time the general impression that the room is crowded; a sudden arrival of guests with a sound of people squeezing together; an inappropriate curiously unplaceable giggle. In sum, every time anticipatory there is used to introduce an entity or an event the latter are perceived as clumsy, awkward and/or inappropriate.
The use of narratorial you as a means of subjectified reference to the narrator is complementary to the use of anticipatory there. Whereas there invokes the activated subdomain in the experiential space of the narrator's 'self', narratorial you projects the 'self' on to the sphere of imagination. All the nine uses of you occur in the imagined context. Thus, the very first use of the pronoun, as shown in (13), involves implicit reference to the narrator as she brings back to her imagination the possible ways of her interpretation of the word "now" when it indicates the time period which her mother - by way of excuse - describes as inappropriate for calling on Miss Marsalles:
(13) Oh, but won't all that be too much trouble, now? Now being weighted with several troublesome meanings; you may take your choice (p. 463).
The subsequent two uses of you invoke an imaginary interpreter of the situations described: that of impossibility of explaining things to Miss Marsalles (14) and the situation of the narrator's identifying herself with Miss Marsalles (15):
(14) Dancing is believed to be more favourable to the development of the whole child [...]. But how are you to explain that to Miss Marsalles [...]? (p. 467).
(15) If you are a Miss Marsalles your wants are simple and it does not cost a great deal to live (p. 474).
Similar to anticipatory there, narratorial you occurs in contexts revealing the general feeling of awkwardness and oddness about Miss Marsalles. Thus, in (13) - (15) the narrator's interpreting you comments on the following: the awkwardness of specifying the time ("now") that could motivate non-acceptance of Miss Marsalles' invitation; the clumsiness of having to explain things to Miss Marsalles; the oddness of having a life like Miss Marsalles with her "simple" wants and requirements.
The other odd situations (given subsequently in italics) that are interpreted by imaginary you involve the following: when you can feel such things (disaster) behind your back; when you look during a piano performance in a direction one doesn't want to look; when a girl at the piano does something you would not think could ever be done.
Two facets of the narrator's 'self' - experiential 'self' (invoked by there) and imaginary 'self' (conjured up by narratorial you) - are further complemented by virtual, or mentally represented pictures upon which the narrator's judgment is pronounced. In clauses with it seems, anticipatory it signals the givenness of a mental representation to the mind, the verb seem points out the existential status of the mental picture and evaluative adjectives (like polite, nice, awkward) describe the appraisal of the picture given to the interpreting mind at the moment of reflection.
Alongside one case (exemplified in (6)) where the subjectified structure it seems correlates with you would think there are four occurrences of it in the story, with each of them
evoking the atmosphere of awkwardness and clumsiness permeating the story as a whole. As shown in glosses (given in square brackets) of all the four clauses headed by anticipatory it, the so-called 'non-referential' pronoun correlates with reference to the narrator, whereas the subsequent predication has its counterpart in the description of awkward experiences that the narrator goes or could go through:
(16) [...] this aspect of Miss Marsalles' life had passed into that region of painful subjects which it is crude and unmannerly to discuss (p. 475). - ['which would make the narrator appear impolite if she discussed them'].
(17) Miss Marsalles is wearing her rouge, her hairdo and her brocaded dress, which it is difficult not to tramp on (p. 476). - ['which the narrator could hardly avoid tramping on'].
(18) [.] It is a matter of politeness surely not to look closely at such children [.] (p. 486). - ['the narrator would be impolite if she looked closely at such children'].
(19) For the moment she is finished it is plain that she is just the same as before, a girl from Greenhill school (p. 490). - [for the moment she is finished the narrator understands that.].
In all the given examples anticipatory it (as was the case with anticipatory there and narratorial you) suggests an entity, namely, an activated mental picture that could be shared by other participants or even-co-participants of the story. Thus, it was not only the subject of the story as a diegetic narrator who experienced awkward feelings in the above mentioned situations. The third-person pronoun it may imply that the same mental pictures were present to the mind of other characters of the story. The pronoun also invites the reader to construe identical mental pictures.
Summarizing the analysis of the short story "Dance of the Happy Shades" it could be suggested that the story's subjectification techniques manifested through the use of clauses headed by anticipatory there, it and narratorial you, on the one hand, implicitly refer to what is happening in the narrator's experiential, mental and imaginary spaces and, on the other hand, encourage the reader to align themselves with the invoked facets of the narrator's 'self' and thus to reveal some aspects of individual perceptions and mental judgments that are crucial to the story's interpretation.
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