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11Tatyana Kolesova and Irina Polyakova,
Southern Federal University Rostov-on-Don
The Art of Parenthesis in Waterland
В статье говорится о многообразных функциях вводных конструкций и о той ключевой роли, которую они играют в создании различных линий повествования в романе Грэма Свифта «Водоземъе».
The epigraph to Graham Swift’s Waterland provides the reader with the clue to the philosophy of the novel. It is the entry relating to the origin and meanings of the word History which according to its definitions could be anything from an investigation to any kind of narration. Probably this puzzling epigraph is meant to bring in the first enigma, which the reader is supposed to start unravelling. In fact, the book involves bits of diverse narrations (histories) - a family chronicle, a didactic story of Tom Crick, his lecture on the French Revolution, his arguments with the imaginary interlocutors, etc. 1
It is quite obvious that the manner and style of presenting stories within one narration vary a great deal in the novel. But whatever the style, the protagonist’s voice is always distinct: his comments and observations, reasoning with himself and his pupils, his doubts, apprehensions, suspicions and discoveries are all conveyed through a free and easy talk with his listeners (his pupils). This artistic effect of a heart-to-heart, intimate tone of the narration with its uneven flow characteristic of oral speech full of digressions, stipulations and slips, is for the most part achieved by the author by means of a variety of parenthetic constructions including bracketed phrases, sentences or even entire paragraphs. These also include Tom Crick’s ample explanations in the form of revelations, elucidations and justifications he feels his duty to pour out on the reader or rather, on his imaginary interlocutors. According to the narrator the only way to get at the core of things is to know their past and to follow the chain of events. This philosophy affects the style of the narration, in the first place. Our
1 Irina Popova in her article Just so Stories: on the Novels of Graham Swift in Footpath Nol writes about a variety of minor histories intertwined in Waterland.
perception of things is deceptive unless we trace their history, their coming into being, unless we learn ‘cause and effect’; then and only then we can say ‘why’ - this is the message the history teacher Tom Crick intends for his pupils. An abandoned rickety motor-cycle, a brass key, an old-fashioned beer bottle - we learn the true meaning of these things through their history in the course of the narration.
One of the most important devices employed by the author to achieve his artistic goal is the abundant usage of parentheses. For Swift they are crucial in building up his novel, putting together different ‘histories’ (narrative lines) and combining different narrative styles. Thus, in a strict recount of historic events the school teacher’s speech is often interrupted by his observations intended to clarify the narration, to add some information or a detail.
And there, because Dad had at one time under the auspices of the Great Ouse Catchment Board (which subsumed the Leem Drainage and Navigation Board) been given token instruction in the Holger-Nielson Method of Artificial Respiration, he began to press between Freddie’s prominent shoulder-blades, to raise and lower his stiffened arms and to continue to do so for a full quarter of an hour.
These parenthetic clauses, phrases or words in brackets add an intimate tone to the narration. Another important function of parentheses employed in the novel is that they create a certain time perspective of the narration, the idea of looking back on the past events, of the narrator telling the story with his ‘today’s’ retrospective knowledge of its outcome. Thus, the scene when Tom Crick and his wife have a walk in the old park is rendered in the present tense bringing the described events close to the reader, making the whole scene more vivid as it got imprinted in the narrator’s memory. And it sounds even more dramatic with the comments in the form of parenthesis.
She takes his arm, squeezes it. (It’ll be the last time they’ll walk so closely, familiarly in the old park.)
Still, his role of an observer is best manifested when Tom Crick writes about himself in the third person, which he does in many parts of his narration addressing his pupils and speaking of himself as their teacher.
A history teacher’s wife who (so the history teacher thought), was realistic.
However, parenthetic remarks may refer not only to different time planes but also to the same time period. Here belong most of Tom’s meditations, his observations, his conclusions made just on the spur of the moment. In that case the figure of the narrator does not stand out as clearly as when he is an omniscient storyteller opening the vistas of the future events. On the contrary, he acts together with other characters, he is one of them: most of his hesitations, observations and conclusions are implanted into the general flow of the story. Therefore the reader is left to follow the course of events as they develop, with Tom Crick in the midst of these events. And in these instances he usually lacks his wisdom of the storyteller. This, for example, holds true when Tom’s father racks his brain over the accident.
He walks up and down the tow-path asking Whywhywhy.
He asks, how do these things happen? (And I ask, watching him, does he suspect? - Mary, Freddie, Dick, me?)
Parenthetical comments often serve, as it were, very specific functions creating various artistic effects. Actually, Swift’s novel incorporates a diversity of narrative lines which require switching over to different styles and ways of presenting events. Parenthesis as the key device of the narration specifically marks each narrative line, easily transforming one into another. One of the essential effects achieved by the author is that of creating the theatricality of the action. In fact in many parts of the narration there are several indications
which lead us to the idea of a theatrical performance.
In the first place, it is best demonstrated when the author either employs the present tense forms for the past events or makes use of nominative sentences that lack any indication of the time of the action. It is then that the narrator’s observations given as parentheses actually turn into the asides and stage directions. The remarks made ‘on the spot’ when they are addressed to the reader by way of shot comments seem very much like actor’s asides when he talks to his audience. These asides are markedly discerned in some parts of the narration. For example:
‘An’ you best make yisself scarce, bor. You best sit you outside quiet an’ not git in owd Martha’s way. An’ stop that blubberin’.
(Because I’m blubbering.)
One of the functions of the asides in the performance is to compress the time and to skip the episodes which could easily be omitted without impeding the course of the performance. This can be observed in the following:
Because the policeman was satisfied; because time elapsed while the unfortunate parents were informed and summoned (another endless, indelible scene) and the body was transported to the mortuary in Gildsey ... the preliminary verdict on Parr was that he died ... by drowning...
In addition numerous reticent asides (bracketed nominative sentences) one can also observe a lot of stage directions. They are clearly perceived as such with the verbs in the form of the present simple tense. They express quick momentary actions and are frequently used in plays for stage directions. In fact the examples of this kind are easily found in the book. Compare:
Why why why...
Because (he swings) my Freddie was drunk and fell, with no one to save him, into the river.
Another idea connected with the theatrical exposition of action in Waterland is that the characters tend to assume roles, being not what they seem to be. Thus, a respectful history teacher is not always what his pupils take him for (a secret tippler as he calls himself), his realistic wife proves to be mad, Tom Crick’s brother (who turns out to
be his half-brother), ‘a potato-head’, proves to be a murderer, etc. It
follows that what is shown to the audience needs interpretation; it needs meaning and ‘history’.
Another theatrical effect in Waterland is built up by way of describing the setting of events. Thus, the fairy-land of the Fens with the river and the locks serves as the unfailing backdrop for the dramatic performance. At the same time it suggests the idea of the unstable and volatile world - the world of fairy-tales transfiguring itself into a realistic drama. There are, of course, other scenes that have a different setting, such as:
‘Darkness. A school playground. Darkness in the classroom, in the assembly hall, in the science block, the
gym, the library. Only a single light still burns in the
office wing. ’
The setting may also be the old park where Tom and Mary used to walk, or it may be the scene of the crime, etc. All these settings testily to the fact that here we deal with a special manner of presenting events. With the change of the narrative line the role of the narrator and the manner in which he presents the events often undergo considerable transformations. When Tom Crick talks to his pupils, when he teaches them history, he resorts to various kinds of explanations, concessions, and warnings that are so typical of professional discourse. And here he often speaks of himself in the third person.
And more recently chewed thoughtfully, if distantly, over
school textbooks (does it surprise you that your tiresome teacher was once a tiresome swot?) or concocted my high-flown essays (wince again) on the Jacobite Rebellions or the Effects of the Seven Years War.
Sometimes while lecturing he anticipates the reactions of his pupils, critically reviewing what he has just said.
‘If that were so, history would be the record of inexorable process, wouldn’t it? The future would be an ever more glowing prospect.’
(Price would love that ‘glowing’)
More often than not the imagined conversation grows into a heated argument with Price, his favourite pupil or Lewis, the headmaster. Then the protagonist’s remark completes his interlocutor’s statement, and expresses a bitter sarcastic disapproval or a rejection of what he has heard.
‘I give you my advice, Tom - my sympathetic advice. I said take a rest, a period of leave... ’ (And come back to no bloody History Department.)
The extension of thoughts and arguments may also come as a remonstrance in the form of a rhetoric question.
The man’s got to go. No question of that. But how to avoid all that adult mess? Departmental reshuffling. Budgetary directives ... And the relevance of the subject to the real world ...
(But since when have you been living, Lew, in the real world?)
Finally, one more function of parenthesis which should not be overlooked is that of direct citation. This can be demonstrated in the scene when Tom drives his wife to the police station and imagines
what answers she is going to give:
I see her in the driving mirror. Her eyes are brilliant and clear. Yes, she’ll continue this trumped-up narrative (... and just drove off. No hue and cry. No chasing police cars...), she’ll play this part of the cranky child-thief.
Different from the asides and stage directions, these citations together with the examples of parentheses rendering the protagonist’s deliberations, his reflections and scrutiny of the events, play a special role. The narrator proves to be one of the characters arguing with them, imposing his opinion on his pupils, making assessments, etc. In fact, these parentheses add to the tension of action creating the polyphonic effect by splitting the monologue and introducing different voices.
It follows that the numerous parentheses used in Waterland can fulfil various functions depending on a narrative line, the manner of presenting events, the attitudes and feelings of the narrator. In the novel they play a crucial role in building up the entire narration switching it from one narrative mode to another.
