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- Herausgeber: ibidem
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
This book explores the central fictional minds in three of Ian McEwan's most popular narratives. Mind presentation constitutes the main part of characterization in the second phase of McEwan's writing, where his plot structure depends to a large degree on the presentation of the characters’ mental workings. In Amsterdam (1998), Atonement (2003), and On Chesil Beach (2007), the construction process of the fictional minds, the degree their functioning is impacted by their experiences, and the way their mental aspect controls their behavior and relationships are critical to the stories. Relying on insights and methods from Cognitive Narratology, this study follows two purposes: It firstly analyzes the function of fictional minds and their operational modes in these narratives. Secondly, it explores the impact of the characters' experiences on both their mental functioning and their behavior, especially with view of their relationships. Nayebpour reveals that the plot structure of these narratives highly depends on the lack of a sound balance between the two aspects of the represented minds (intermental/joint thought and intramental/individual thought) as well as on the dominance of the intramental one. The tragic atmosphere in these narratives, Nayebpour argues, is the result of this imbalance.
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Seitenzahl: 658
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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ibidemPress, Stuttgart
Our Stories Are Interwoven—
to
Naghmeh
and
to OurB
Table of Contents
List of Abbrevations
AMAmsterdam
ATAtonement
CBOn Chesil Beach
CNCognitiveNarratology
TRThought Report
FIT
Acknowledgements
My research was informed by a great variety of sources. I would like to express my gratitude to all the authors and colleagues who helped me along the way, most notably Iwould like to thank David Herman, Alan Palmer, Monika Fludernik, Gerald Prince, Marco Caracciolo and John Pier for their illuminating insights about (Cognitive) Narratology and the significance of mind, consciousness and character (re)presentation in narrative literature. Iwould also like to thank Prof. Mustafa Zeki Çıraklı for his significant contribution to this project.
1.Introduction
[T]he novel is a special case. As a form it's so rich in explicit meaning, so intimately concerned with other minds, with relationships, and with human nature, and so extended too—tens of thousands of words—that the writer is bound to leave his or her personality behind on the page. There's nothing we can do about it. The form is total in its embrace. (McEwan,»Artof Fiction«)
Ian Russell McEwan (b. 1948) is one of the»highly respected professional«(Malcolm 6) contemporary British novelists. He has already»established himself as one of the world's most celebrated writers in English«(Wells,»IanMcEwan«250). McEwan's writing career began in the 1970s and has undergone profound thematic and technical transformations. His earlier works—First Love, Last Rites(1975), a collection of short stories;The Cement Garden(1978), McEwan's first novel; his second short story collectionIn Between the Sheets(1978); and his second novelThe Comfort of Strangers(1981)—are mainly concerned with the effects of instinctive desires and socio-cultural pressure on human behaviour. Their subjects include:»sexual abuse«in early adolescence; the»desire to destroy«inherent in human nature; familial relationships with»dislocated children«whose uncontrolled behaviour threatens the established social as well as domestic patriarchal units; and the»perversion and psychosis operating«in the absence of a»social context«(Cochran 391, 398, 392, 400). Because of these themes, critics, according to Wells, labelled early McEwan»one of theenfant terriblesof the British literary scene«and nicknamed him»Ian Macabre«(»Ian McEwan«250, 252).[1]In his later works, however, McEwan deals withmature characters, giving up the»exploration of grotesque and disturbing themes«(Groes 1) as well as the»exteriorized narration of events«(Wells,IanMcEwan17).
McEwan's second phase of writing[2]began with the publication of his third novel,The Child in Time(1987),»hailed as a turning point in McEwan's career«(Wells,»IanMcEwan«250). It marked»a point of change«in his fiction»with its positive, adult ending«(Malcolm 5). The novel is also considered as a»radical shift in stylist posture«(James 81).In an interview withLynnWells, McEwanhimselfpoints to the importance of what Wells calls his»evolving literary techniques«(Wells,IanMcEwan18). His interest in the novel as a moral or ethical form, he states,
has certainly changed from the work I did in the 70s and early 80s. Then I was more interested in the surfaces. I thought it was almost cheating to let the reader know what a character was thinking. It seemed antiquated, a dead aesthetic, to provide paragraph summaries of someone's states of mind: I thought a subjective state had to beconveyed through observed details or simply by what people said and did. Later this existential kind of writing came to seem very self-limiting, and my fiction began to change around the time ofThe Child in Time. What fiction does better than any other art form is present consciousness, the flow of thought, to give an interiornarrative, a subjective history of an individual through time, through every conceived event, through love, or moral dilemmas. This inner quality is what I now value. (Ian126)
Shifting from the»surfaces«to»interior narrative[s]«isthe most outstanding characteristic of McEwan's later work. Further, representing a»world beyond the trauma of violence and the cynicism of public life«and plumbing the»depths of individual subjectivity«(Cochran 402), McEwan inThe Child in Timewas inclined to»be rather dark, rather interior and rather more concerned with the pathology of the mind«(qtd. in Cochran 400), he told the (London)Sunday Times. Such characteristics are recurring tendencies in McEwan's later narratives too. There, he mainly represents symbiotic relationships between exterior factors (embedded in the social contexts) and interior ones or the subjective (re)constructions of them. In other words,the novels written in his second phase are, in his own words,»the representation of states of mind and the society that forms them«(qtd. in Brooker 54). Moreover, what is highlighted more in McEwan's later writing period is the vulnerability of the seemingly safe urban lifebecausethe works written in this period are»noted for the revelation of psychological and emotional disturbances beneath an ordered social veneer«(Head,TheCambridge217). InThe Child in Time, McEwan, as Cochran says, uses new narrative techniques and subjects:»The central calamity«in this narrative,»occurs at the beginning of the work rather than at the climactic moment near the end«and its main concern is»human suffering«(402). Moreover, events in this narrative, according to Brooker, are»subjectively experienced«(202).
Set against the historical backdrop of European and global history of World War II, McEwan's next two novels are primarily considered explorations of the central characters'selves. The self in these narratives, however, is mostly determined by the historical forces andtheexploration of the interdependent relationship betweenthemis their main concern.The Innocent(1990)»develops tunnelling into a motif for Leonard's gradual exploration of his own potential. [. . .][He] begins to unearth aspects of his personality that before his journey he could only have guessedat«(Cochran 403). InBlack Dogs(1992),the main narrative concern is»a deep-seated connectionbetween the personal and the political«(Cochran 403). In his next novel,Enduring Love(1997)—hailed as an»ethical turn«(qtd. in Wells,IanMcEwan11)— McEwan left political and historical themes and instead concentrated on human relationships. The central concern in this novel is the»difficulties of conveying the truth in narrative form«(Wells,»IanMcEwan«251). Alan Palmer, in his article»Attributions of Madness in Ian McEwan'sEnduring Love,«explores how Jed's madness affects»the perfectly sane intermental unit of Joe and Clarissa«(291). Moreover, the central characters in this novel are»almost entirely removed«from the historical, political and social»determinant«present in McEwan's early novels. Such factors are»of secondary importance to the novel's presentation of Joe's and Jed's minds«(Malcolm 8). Possibly, it isin consideration ofthis fact that the critic Andrew Gaedtkewrites:»Among the most formally ambitious examples of contemporary literature's engagement with cognitive science is McEwan'sEnduring Love«(187). Analysing third-person narratives only, this study, however, does not includea discussion ofEnduring Love.
Likewise, McEwan's focus in his last novel in the twentieth century—AM—is»on the present and on certain psychological states«(Malcolm8).[3]Inhis interview with Jon Cook et al.,McEwan, referring to the period when his four previous novels were published,statesthat:
During that period, before I actually started work, many of the notes, the messages I sent to myself were about finding dramatic or sensual ways in bringing ideas to life rather than about characters or settings or plots. In other words, I set out to make a novel of ideas[. . .]But then I abruptly fell out of love with that notion. When I wroteAmsterdam, I had no specific›ideas‹in mind.[. . .]Amsterdamwas a form of farce—I abandoned myself purely to the possibilities of its characters. Although I gave them ideas[. . .]they seemed subsidiary.Amsterdamwas light-hearted, and it liberated me from abstraction. (»Journeys«7)
DespiteDavid Malcolm's wonder in2002—»Howthis aspect [presentation of the characters'psychological states inAM] of McEwan's fiction will develop in the new century is far from clear«(8)—itis now obvious that theprimacy of fictional minds (consciousness) and their psychologicalpresentationincreasingly continuesin McEwan's narratives publishedafter 1998, particularly inATandCB.
McEwan's novels written after 1998—Amsterdam (AM),Atonement (AT),Saturday,On Chesil Beach(CB),SolarandSweet Tooth—reveal a particular concern with the presentation of the characters'internal or psychological states. Dealing with the characters'mental workings strongly cues the reader's scripts and world models. In this way, it firmly anchors the reader's experiential repertoire to the fictional models. The result of such a technique is a narrative with high degrees of narrativity or fictionality and worldmaking. These features are both textual and thematic. Themain characters'mental functioning are largely presentedin these narratives such that the reader encounters fictional event sequences mostly through the experiencing characters'or focalisers'[4]consciousnesses. Despite this, an omniscient narrator orients the transferof information whenever the focalisation shifts. In such a representational mode of consciousness and through following the characters'thoughts and actions, the reader also gets to know the ways characters come to terms with their own pasts, with the others, the way their minds bring self and other together and finally their (mis)interpretations and (mis)readings. At the centre ofAM,ATandCBa mind in action is presented dramatically—a socialised consciousness or centre of consciousness heavily busy with the social and familial relationships—and a mind interrelatedwith the other fictional minds through regular visions and revisions.[5]Further, the narrators of these narratives are extradiegetic or non-character narrators who recount the story from outside the fictional world applying variable focalisations.
AM, one of the threemain subjects of this study,»has strong elements of the psychological novel«which is the»traditional genre in British fiction«too (Malcolm192). It is focalised intermittently from an eminent composer's, Clive Linely's, as well as from the professional editor's, Vernon Halliday's, perspectives. The central concern in this narrativeis apersonalorprivateissue. It presents the way the two friends Clive and Vernon are deteriorated by their own»greed, corruption, self-interest […and] masculine egotism that is in direct contrast to the principles of compassion and generosity«(Wells,»IanMcEwan«251). Pursuing an intramental way of thought without»compassion«for others brings about their final calamity. Their destiny mainly derives from their orientation to break down any potential intermental unit with each other throughout the storyworld or the world evoked by the narrative. Moreover, the communication among them fails because the intramental side of their mental functioning overcomes the intermental one. Helga Schwalm illustrates this with the following scene:»in the key scene of the novel set in the Lake District, when the composer Clive witnesses the assault on a woman, he fails to overcome his egoistic concerns and decides not to help a female stranger«(175).
The difficulty of constructing intermental units in the first part ofATseems to be this novel's main concern too. Briony Tallis's (imaginary) relationship with Robbie Turner and his relationship with Cecilia Tallis are strongly under the influence of their primarily intramental behaviours, which bring about the ensuing disintegration. Briony Tallis spends her life trying to reconstruct the breakdown and compensate for the terrible lie[6]with which she ruined her sister and Robbie's lives. She seeks her atonement and act of repentance in fiction, which is hardly recognisable from truth. Allin all, the narrative, as Bentley points out,»deals with ideas of memory, historical truth and the fictionalizing of the past«(128). Further, inATeverything begins with an initial misreading which leads to deadly consequences. The whole narrative can be summarised in Bentley's words:
After misreading the first stages of a love relationship between Robbie and Cecilia, Briony mistakenly accuses Robbie of attacking Lola by the lake in the grounds of the country house. She has observed Lola's attacker in the half-light and because of her feelings toward Robbie at this time mistakenly assumes that he is the culprit.(150)
Thus, the central narrative concern inATis, as David K. O'Hara points out,»The same uncertain relationship between selves and others. [. . .] Over the course of McEwan's perspective-shifting narrative, we find characters, again and again, realizing that they are bounded by otherness, by other minds with their own plans, their own interiorities, their own ways of perceiving the world«(75). From this perspective, the first part ofATis a rich narrative. Therefore, in this study the focal character's, Briony's, mental functioning and its impact on the emerging intermental unit between Cecilia and Robbie are analysed.
This studydoesnot include McEwan's next novelSaturday(2005), although it»is uniquely placed to enable us to know›what it is like‹to experience the mind of another«(Green 58–59). Thenarrative has been so far the subject of some studies in terms of consciousness and the intermental breakdown as its focal concern.Caraccioloregards it as»a brilliant example of internally focalized narration«(»Phenomenological«62). Having been»consciously about consciousness […and] a critical participant in the quest to understand the mind«(Green58), the narrative during twenty-four hours pursues the social events that construct or affect the central character's consciousness. In other words, consciousness inSaturday»has central stage«(»Phenomenological«61). Perowne fails to communicate whenever he becomes a»subjective first«character. The omniscient narrator represents the way Perowne reacts to the exterior threats represented by mentally ill street-thug Baxter. Perowne's reflection on his wife, children, Baxter and the social events are suggestive of the way his mind functions in different situations.
InCB, McEwan's next novel and the secondnarrativeanalysed in this study,Florence Ponting's and Edward Mayhew's mental workings derive from their socio-cultural contexts. Their intramental or subjective first mode of mental functioning, however,brings about their separationeventually.Applying an omniscient narration, internal mode of focalization is pursued in this narrative through representing two central characters alternately. Florence and Edward are unable to consummate their marriage because of different reasons since above all their attributions of mental states—such as intentions, beliefs and desires—to each other are not congruent with their true feelings and thoughts. Asmentioned by Wells,»as it is common in McEwan's work, there are self-reflexive elements inOn Chasid Beach, with couple's dilemma paralleling the difficulties of›reading‹the other, and of communicating adequately with language«(»IanMcEwan«252). Furthermore, althoughthe manner ofEdward's and Florence's mental functioning, among the other factors, basically derivesfrom the definingdiscourse of thetime they live in, the early years of 1960s,it is in fact their intramental or subjective first side of mental functioning that at last brings about their separation. This is also the main reason of their inability to construct a shared, communion or intermental unit. Moreover, this narrative, likeAM, anchors itself strongly to the reader's world models by presenting a worldly known script—the difficulties of a wedding night. Narrative reader's initial expectations and inferences of the subject, however, are reconstructed through the progression of narrative sequences. Thus, this study investigates the two central characters'mental states or functioning as well as the impact of the particular moments on their consciousness.
McEwan's next narrative,Solar(2010), is not also included in this study because it seems that gaining access to the mental functioning of the central characters is not primarily necessary for narrative understanding since there are only few passages of mental readings. Michael Beard, scientist and the noble prizewinner, is a self-oriented character whose mentality is to great extent busy with his own desire. He is revealed to be a symbol of»exploitation«(Wells,»IanMcEwan«252) since he is mainly concerned with his self-interests leading him to his final destruction. His self-centeredness in pursuing both fame and pleasure, regardless of the other social minds, bringshim finally to a deadly consequence. His mind dominantly functions intramentally without considering a possibility of communication with the other social minds in the fictional world. Likewise, the study does not include McEwan's last published novel,Sweet Tooth(2012), for the simple reason that it is a first person narrative and the study's priority is third-person narratives. The study, in this case, agrees with Palmer's distinction between homodiegetic narratives (where narrator is a character in the story being narrated) and heterodiegetic ones (where narrator is not a character in the story being narrated). As Palmer says,»there are various complexities inherent in this apparently simple distinction«(Fictional«25).
This study, thus,exploresthemanner of central characters'»mental functioning«(Palmer,Fictional25)as well as»the impact of [narrated] situations and events on the mindsexperiencing them«(Herman,Basic147)inIanMcEwan'sthree narratives—AM,ATandCB.Theprocesses through whichthese narrativesengender»experience«(Herman,»Cognitive«30) in theinterpreter'smindas well as the nature of this experiencewillbe explored.In other words, thisresearchapplies the terminology ofcognitive narratology (CN), a subdomain of postclassical narratology,to the analysis ofsomecognitiveaspects of thecharacters inAM,ATandCB.The term›cognitive‹in this approachhasno connection witha»neurological description ofthe reader's brain«;rather, itrefers tothe»reader's subjective experience«during the reading act(Bernaertset al,3,8).»Readers,«as cognitive narratologist Monica Fludernik understands,»do not see texts as having narrative features but read texts as narrative by imposing cognitivenarrative frames on them«(»Narratology«926).Related to this,AlanPalmer's terminology explainshowthereader's mind(re)constructsfictional mindsand how fictional minds operate.He definesfictional mindsas»semioticconstructs that form part ofan overall narrative pattern. Theyare elementsin a plot as well as centers of consciousness«(Fictional191). Narrative readersmentally simulatesuch experiencing consciousnesses within the storyworlds in order to understand or experience narrative events and situations. Moreover, to experience narrative, a typical readerundergoesthesome mentalprocessesin order to reconstruct fictional minds based ontextual (semiotic) cues.In a similar manner to Palmer,DavidHermanexploreshowfictional characters'lived experiencesinfluencetheir thoughts and behaviourandhownarrative experience takes place in the interpreter's mind.Concerning the construction of fictional minds, both cognitive narratologists allowfor somesimilarities between real oractual minds andfictional minds. That is mainly because,as Palmerpoints out,»Just as in real life the individual constructs the minds of others from their behavior,so the reader infers the workings of fictional minds and sees these minds inactionfrom observation of characters'behavior andactions«(Fictional246).
Thisstudyspecificallyapplies Palmer's and Herman'stheories of fictional minds and narrativity in order to explain themanner of centralfictional mindsmental functioningin McEwan'sAM,ATandCB.The study, furthermore, analysesthe waythey experience particularevents and situationsand their impacton their thoughts and behaviour.To thisendand before discussing the narratives,the following theoretical issuesare examined at first:thecognitive approachto literature or CN; the role ofthereader in narrativeunderstanding; intermental (joint, group, shared, or collective)thought/ intramental (individual or private) thought; the modes of presenting fictional minds in narrative; and narrativity (or narrativeness).This is preceded inthefollowingsectionwith areviewoftheroleof mind or consciousness representation in McEwan's fiction.
The presentationof the characters'mental workingsand the impact of narrative events and situations on their mindsasobservable from their actions and behaviour,are central toAM,ATandCB. Accordingly, applying theterminologyof CN to the analysis ofthesenarrativesseems appropriatesince, as David Jamespoints out,the»McEwan we have seen emerging over the past fifteen yearsis a complex figure requiring rigorous narratological focus«(81).The present narratives have been chosen forthis study,becausethe characters'mental workings as well as the impact of somedecisive narrativemoments on their consciousness seem to be their central concern.Furthermore,these are the basic characteristics for a cognitive approach. Avoidinggeneralisationsand following a slow analysis methodology,the present study mainlyfocuseson thepassagesof internal focalisation withintheselectednarrativesin order to examine the manner of fictional minds'mental functioning.
Criticalapproaches to McEwan's novelsdemonstratethe growing importance ofcharacter,fictional minds andconsciousnessthroughout his writingcareer.It is believed thatsocio-historical(external)circumstancesand their pernicious impacton children's and young adults'behaviourarecentral concernsinhisearlier novels.Moreover,therepresentation of the impact of narrative events and situations on the fictional minds'consciousness appears to be the crucial concern in McEwan's later narrativespublished afterThe Child in Time(1987).After a discussion ofthese issues,thecardinalquestions of the presentstudy,the approachitapplies in order to examineand explore themental workings of thechosen fictional mindsare givenat the end of the followingsection.
1.1ReadingMcEwan as aCognitiveNovelist
McEwan's fiction has evolved thematically and technically duringthenearly four decades of his writingcareer.He»has been considered [a] shocking«writerin his early career anda»serious and contemplative novelist«(Childs,The2)with respect tohis later work.In hislaternovels,McEwan has paidcloseattention to the presentation of fictional minds.Heusestheomniscient third person narrativemodeinAM(1998),AT(2002),Saturday(2005),CB(2007)andSolar(2010) as well as diverse consciousness (re)presentation[7]methods—directthought, indirect thought and particularly free indirect thought (FIT). Thesetechniques allow him toreport focalised characters'innerperceptionsin order to involvethe readerinthe mental functioning of thefictionalcharacters.With their high degrees of fictionality and narrativity,[8]moreover,these narrativesare potential toanchorthemselvesfirmlyto the readers'real world knowledge, experience andmentalmodels, ortotheirso-calledframes and scripts.Therefore,McEwancan be consideredas a cognitive novelist.
McEwan's central narrative themes and techniques, according to Angus R. B. Cochran, should not be analysedapart from
atradition of twentieth-century European novelistswho took it upon themselves to expose the cynicism and corruption of government, patriarchy, class division and nationalism. Furthermore, his influences—Kafka, Woolf, Joyce—proposed that individual psychology was inextricably bound up withsuch large-scale social forces.(407)
One should also include in this list ofinfluencesHenry James as»something of a mentor.«McEwan, however, as Brooker adds, has»imaginatively engaged with the politics of the present«(53,54) inhis works. Exploration of the individual psychologybecomes central in McEwan's later fiction in which he primarily»illuminates the cavernous makeupof the mind by using his own instrument, his penetrating prose. The place he discovers there is both dark and elegant«(Cochran407).Even thoughthis statement byCochranpredatesthe novels discussed in this study, it fits them as well.Theyarepredominantlyconcerned with the representation of thefictionalcharacters'mental functioning.Moreover, they explorethedestructiveimpact offictional minds'intramental thoughts on theirinter-personal relationships.Likewise,McEwan,according to Wells,
combines a contemporary sensibility about the power and limitations of narrative with a keen sense of his characters'inner lives and their struggles to deal morally with one another. His work demonstrates an impressive variety of generic styles and a wide historical range while consistently providing his readers with points of identification and reflection about their own lives.(»IanMcEwan«252)
Through presentation of their mental functioning, McEwan's consciousness narratives presentthecharacters'inner livesshowingthe natureormodeof their thoughtsandthe way(s)they deal with the other fictional minds.As Matt Ridley states,»The novelist's privilege, according to Ian McEwan, is to step inside the consciousness of others, and to lead the reader there likepsychological Virgil«(vii). Similarly,McEwaninAM,ATandCBsteps inside the central characters'consciousnessesand in this way enablesthe readertocompareand contrast the presented perspectives.
1.2Mind Representation inAmsterdam,AtonementandOn Chesil Beachand the Aim of this Study
Presentation of the characters'mental functioning is the central narrative concern in McEwan'sAM,ATandCB. In the first part ofATBriony,is represented as yearning to impose her mental order on her surroundings. Likewise, McEwan'stwoothernarratives,asWellsstates,»have a number of things in common despite their very different subjects and generic styles. Both focus on a small number of characters engaged in tightly formed relationships and lead to intense dramatic action and climactic endings«(IanMcEwan84). This studymaintains thatwhenever the main characters in the chosen narrativesbecome too much intramental pursuing only their own interestsorperspectives,theyfinallyface excruciating pain and failure.Althoughthe fictional mindsinAMare situated and constructed socially, the communication among them failsmostlybecause theintramental side of their mental functioning overcomes the intermental oneor the balance between them is disrupted. The readermainly becomesaware ofsuch situationsthroughboththenarrativepresentation oftheconcerned characters'unuttered thoughtsandtheir behaviour. For example,inAM,»As the novel proceeds, the reader enters the minds of the two protagonists and some other characters, too, and follows their moods, uncertainties, and intimations of mortality and immortality«(Malcolm 192). In other words,»In both books, the characters are either unwilling or unable to recognise the needs of others, and remain trapped within modes of self-serving behaviour that ultimately harm them as well«(Wells,IanMcEwan85).Moreover, the primary focus of these narratives seems to be character presentation. According toPalmer»characters«in these narratives»face sharp and painful dilemmas relating to attempts to exercise control over other minds and the motives in trying to doing so«(Social64). This characteristic,presentation of characters'or selves'relationships with the others, is in fact in line with McEwan's style too.Pascal Nicklasrefers to this case stating that:»At the heart of McEwan's poetology is the desire to look through the eyes of someone else. The confusion of the self and the other[. . .]in general opens up for Ian McEwan the ethical dimension of literature«(9). Further, the main problem in these narrativesariseswhen theriftbetween thecentralcharacters'intermentalunitsand their intramentalorientationsis left unfilledcausingdisequilibrium in the narratives. Thisbrings about asituationwhen the centralcharactersare unable tocome to terms with theirownproblems or,recognizing them,theyare unable tocurethemthroughhaving a realaffiliation between their private selves and the social cognitive networks.In other words, they are unable to construct apermanent balance in their intermental units. It is mainly because of such paucity thattheir relationshipsarelikelyaffectedadversely.
This study explores the mental functioning of the central characters in McEwan's three narratives. As it is shown in the discussion chapters,the main reason for the disruption of fictional intermental units inAM,ATandCBappears to be the central characters'intramental dissents.The possible worlds in these narratives, moreover, anchor themselves strongly to the reader's world knowledge,experiencesor models. This happens because thenarratives primarily represent the impactof the presented events and situationson thecentral characters'consciousnessthroughouttheirlife courses. This characteristic makes the mentioned narratives more narratives or narratives with high degrees of narrativity because they closely portray the characters'consciousness or the quality of what it's like to undergo some experiences. The difficulty of constructing stable intermental relationships or cognitive units between and among these minds, however, appears to be the main reason for the destructive consequences in these narratives. The»reflector-characters«[9]in these narratives, furthermore, appear to prefer theirsingle subjectivityover (re)constructing intermental units. They are depicted as relying mainly on their own (mis)interpretations of the other(s)as well ason their own minds orhighly aspectual perceptions. That seems to be the fundamentalreasonin bringing about the lack of a unified social or intermental unit in these narrativesorannihilatinganyestablishedone(s) withinthem.
As thisstudyargues,the workings of thefictional minds inAM,ATandCBreveal bothintermental/social andintramental/individualaspects. It is,nevertheless,the negative emotional consequences of their subjective firstposition, or intramental side of their mental functioning, that fundamentally orient their mental states. This also finally brings aboutthe fatal imbalance to their relationships.InAM,this situationends atClive's andVernon's double murder and inCBinEdward's andFlorence's separation before consummating theirmarriage. This studyexplores the way(s) fictional minds within thesenarratives operate when they encounter with challengingconflicts as well as the impactof those momentous conflicts on the operation of their consciousness.Following such a process, the study explores how narrative experience takes place too.To do that, the study, in a combining manner in the discussion chapters, uses the terminologies provided by Palmer and Hermanabout theworkings andpresentation of fictional minds as well as the impactof the dissenting events and situations on theirexperiencingconsciousness withinAM,ATandCB.Accordingly,two subjects are explored in thetheoretical partof this study:the relationship between narrative meaningorexperience and fictional mindsas well as theconnectionbetweenanynarrative reader's cognitive abilities and her/his understanding of the fictional minds. In analysing the three selected narratives, thisstudyfocuses on three points. Firstly, it examines the narrativity level of each narrative. Secondly, it exploresthe way fictional minds in themare presented andthe manner of their operation. Finally, the study analysesthe impacts ofcentral characters'thoughts and(mental)experiences on their and the other characters'(individual and social) behaviour/actions as well as relationships.
2.Cognitive Narratology and Consciousness (Re)Presentation
Situated at a point where the narrative and cognitiveturns meet, cognitive narratology provides a meeting ground for many disciplines, including literature, history, linguistics, pragmatics, philosophy, and psychology.(Jahn,»Cognitive«67)
Interiority, experientiality, and fictional minds are, after all, a good part of what we read novels for. (Palmer,Fictional38)
The research at issue suggests not only that narrative is centrally concerned withqualia, a term used by philosophers of mind to refer to the sense of what it's like for someone or something to have a particular experience, but also that narrative bears importantly on debates concerning the nature of consciousness itself. (Herman,Basic144)
This chapter exploresthe fundamental questions ofCN, the approach to fictional minds according to Palmer's theories as well as the concept ofnarrative andnarrativity from Herman's perspective. These subjects are the basic theoretical issues for the analysis of the central characters'mental functioning inAM,ATandCB. Under the first subframe,Cognitive Narratology and Narrative Experience, the fundamental questions ofCNareexamined and then, under a sub-subframe, Fictional Minds and Cognitive Reader, the role of narrative readerisexamined within that framework. Further, under the second subframe, Palmer's Approach to Fictional Minds'Mental Functioning, the concepts of fictional minds, theirworkingswithin the storyworlds,their presentational modesandtheir construction and understanding by the reader are discussed.Finally, under the third subframe, Narrative and Narrativity, the concept of narrative and itsmost important element, what it's like or qualia, as well as reader's narrative experience areexplored according toHerman's theories.
2.1CognitiveNarratologyandNarrativeExperience
Asan importantbranch of postclassical narratology, CN has been developingfrom the classicalnarratology since 1980s.Analyses of the fictional characters'cognitive aspects in postclassical narratology, according to Palmer,take place within two conceptual frameworks: possible-worlds theory and cognitive science.While the former one»regards the fictional text as a set of instructions according to which the storyworld is recovered and reassembled,«the latter,»derived from cognitive science, studies how various cognitive frames and scripts which are made up of real-world, stereotypical knowledge are applied to the reading process«(»Thought«606).Moreover, considered»as a subdomain […and] still an emergent trend within the broader domain of narratology,«CN[10]»at present constitutes more a set of loosely confederated heuristic schemes than a systematic framework for inquiry.«The lack of a»systematic framework,«however, does not mean that the related works in thisfield are disconnected. According to Herman, the»mind relevant aspects of storytelling practices«is a»trait shared by all this work [cognitive approaches to narrative fiction].«Following that, CN is definedas»the study of mind-relevant aspects of storytelling practices«(Herman,»Cognitive«30–31). It is so because in CN»representation of minds are [considered] fundamental to stories«(Herman,»Cognition«257)[11]. Inaddition,reader experiences storyworld mainly through following the cognitive aspects of narrative.
Narrative, according to Herman,is a»cognitive activity«(Basic98) since its»meaning potential requires the cognitive activity of readers«(Herman,»Cognitive«33).[12]Furthermore, mind, as claimed by Herman,is crucial to storyworld since»stories both shape and are shaped by what minds perceive, infer, remember, and feel«(»Cognition«257).Likewise, representation ofthe experiencingmindsis considered to be one of the key concerns in McEwan's work since,asmaintained byNicklas,»The genome and theories of the mind and brain as well as Darwinian evolutionary models or ecological problems of climate change are the background to much of McEwan's fiction and his many articles«(10). CN is, furthermore, concerned with questions that in general deal with narrativeproduction, thenature offictional minds'functioningas well as theirpresentation in narrative and narrativeunderstanding.Moreover,in the opinion of Palmer,»One of the concerns of cognitive narratology is the relationship between consciousness and narrative«(»Attributions«292) which is central to this study too.The following questions, which, according to Herman,»still suggest themselvesto the cognitive narratologists«(»Cognitive«31),arealsothe fundamental questionsofthe present study:
How exactly do stories function as tools for thinking? Is it the case that[. . .]narrative is a mode of representation tailor-made for gauging the felt quality of lived experiences? More radically, do stories afford scaffolding for consciousness itself—in part by emulating through their temporal and perspectival configuration the nature of conscious awareness itself? In other words, are there grounds for making the strong claim that narrative not only represents what it is like for experiencing minds to live through events in storyworlds, but also constitutes a basis for having—for knowing—a mind at all, whether it is one's own or another's?[13](Herman,»Cognitive«32)
CN,asHermanunderstands,intends to evaluate narrative as tools for thinking[14]meaning that any narrative provides somecues thatinitiate the reader's cognitive activities while experiencing narrative. In addition, it isa medium of experience representationandrepresentation of the impact of represented events and situations on characters'consciousness. CN, moreover, intends to connect the storyworlds to the readers'actual world knowledge and experiences treating fictional minds'operation partially likethemental functioning of theactualmindsin many respects.It isconcernedwith the relationship betweennarrative or storyworld presentation and the actual lived experiences.Itexaminesthe relationship between the nature of fictional minds'functioning, the way they are presentedas well as their consciousnessandthe manner they are actualised or configured in the reader'smind whileexperiencingnarrative[15].All in all, CN-based analysis presupposes the affinity between the storyworld and the actual one andhenceattempts toanalyse, in Herman's words, the»mind-relevant aspects of storytelling practices«(»Cognitive«31)in the former one based on the principles of the latter. That is so,because, as Herman suggests elsewhere,fictional minds'examination»entails giving an account of readers'minds, too—of how readers interpret particular textual details as information about characters'attempts to make sense of the world around them«(»Cognition«245). Likewise,the central concerninAM,ATandCBseems to be the fictional minds'reactions to the challenging situations and events or their mental functioning in different situations.In other words, they both»replicate consciousness in text«(Ridley vii). InAM,for example,Clive-Vernonrelationship is mostly represented through their internal broodings both about each other and about themselves. In the same way, the bedroom scene and the beach scene inCBare represented primarily throughEdward'sandFlorence's internal perspectives focusing on their intramental evaluations of the conflicts.Likewise, inATthe narrative mainly shows how Briony's perspective at some particular moments (for example in the fountain scene) is in conflict with that of the others. As a result of this characteristic, these narratives are rich in terms of tools for thinking, experience, consciousness, mindreading and the other cognitive related issues.[16]
The attention to the importance of mind, experience, consciousness as well as thereader'sfunction in narrative interpretationand finally his/her narrative experienceare mainly notable within the postclassical phase of narratology.With an autonomous and self-sufficient understanding of the text, classical narratology waslimited to the textual framework. Accordingto Jahn, itattempted torefute as far as possible any extraneous factors ignoring»the forces, and desires of psychological, social, cultural and historic contexts.«Therefore, it rejected the idea that»texts«should be»reconstructed in an ongoing and revisable readerly process«(»Cognitive«67)as pursued by the postclassical approaches to narrative.Further, the abstract nature of classical models, in terms of story and text, is believed to»ignore(s) experience, ideology, and other so-called subjective and contextual elements as much as possible«(Herman and Vervaeck104).The early narratologists, or Francophone Structuralists, were influenced by the Russian Formalism through Vladimir Propp'sMorphology of the Folktale(1928). After Tzvetan Todorov proposed the term narratology in 1968, theycame to be known asstructuralist narratologists. Theyemphasised on narrative form, its intrinsic constituents and common ingredients in order to define a universal pattern or grammar for the understanding of narrative function.The structuralist-inspired narratology, as Gerald Princestates, was»text type rather than context, grammar rather than rhetoric, form rather than force«(A Dictionary66).
Postclassical narratology, however, has made efforts to extend the focus of analysisin the process of narrative experiencebeyond the textual frames ofnarrativethoughincluding the contextual elements such as the importance of author, reader, history, class, gender etc.Nevertheless,postclassical narratology,asHerman points out,is not considered as a negation of the classical one but instead it»draws on concepts and methods to which the classical narratology did not have access to«(»Scripts«1049). Moreover,it:
contains structuralist theory as one of its»moments«but enriches the older approach with research tools taken from other areas of inquiry. Or, to put the same point another way, postclassical narratology expands the scope of narrative analysis and its applicability. The result is not simply new ways of getting at old problems in narrative analysis but a rearticulation of those problems, including the root problem of how to define stories. (»Scripts«1057)
Therefore, in spite of the fact that»The postclassical approaches partly resist structuralism,«or the so-called classical narratology,»but at the same time rarely if ever make a complete break from it«(Herman and Vervaeck 103).One of the›research tools‹that in postclassical narratology has been included in narrative analysis approaches comes from cognitive psychologists. Cognitive approach to narrative, accordingly,argues thatnarrative readers—whoexperiencenarrativeusingtheir actual experiences and cognitiveabilities—undergonearly the same experiencesasrepresentedin the storyworldor experienced by the fictional characters.
Accordingly,»Cognitive dimensions of stories and storytelling,«according to Herman,»has become an important subdomain within the field of narrative analysis.«It is»concerned both with how people understand narratives and with narrative itself as a mode of understating«(»Narrative: Cognitive«452). Cognitive approaches to literature, therefore, intend toanalysethe(cognitive)techniques readers apply in order toexperiencenarratives.Italsoexplores the waysnarrative itselfcan be taken asa mode of understanding (the minds and experiences) or as a tool for thinking.Hence, the presupposition behind Herman's statement is twofold.[17]Firstly, fictional minds and storyworld as a whole can be treated as well as analysed like actual minds or actual world entities. Secondly, it is implied that from the perspective of cognitive approach to literature, narrative reader or audience is central to the process of decoding narrative information. In the same way, Palmer, as a follower of cognitive theories and approaches, underlines the fundamental role of the reading processes of real readers. He remarks that»the constructions of the minds of fictional characters by narrators and readers are central to our understanding of how novels work, because readersenter storyworlds primarily by attempting to follow the workings of the fictional minds contained in them«(Social7). However, considering the symbiotic relationship between the diegetic feature(that isnarrator)and extradiegeticfeature (that isreal readers)of the narrative, Herman's and Palmer's stances are unlike those of theclassicalnarratologists.Classical orstructuralist narratology inclined to constrain the active role of reader in narrative comprehension by its over emphasis onintradiegetic or textualfeatures.[18]
2.1.1Fictional MindsandCognitive Reader
Fictional minds aremodelled by thehelp ofreaders'cognitive abilitiesbased onthe semiotic features provided by the author in the narrative text. Accordingly, CN considersfictional character, not plot or sequenceof events, asthe central part of narrativethrough which reader's experience of fictional world is realised. That is sobecause narrative plot isprimarilyshaped by what happens to characters within the storyworldor by the events that become their experiences. It follows that,narrative is in fact representation, aswell as analysis, of the impactofnarrativeeventsand situationson fictionalcharacters. That is so because,as Palmer says,»events in the storyworld are of little importance unless they become the experiences of characters. We follow the plot by following the workings offictional minds«(»The Lydgate«156).At the centre of Palmer'sresearch lies the question»howfictional mindswork within the context of the storyworlds to which they belong«(»Construction«29). According to him, fictional mindsare the product of both story level and the discourse levelof narrative:
I have been asked whether fictional minds form part of the story level (the content plane, the narrated, the»what,«thefabula)or the discourse level (the expressionplane, the narrating, the»how,«thesjuzhet).The answer involves two separate but related issues: One is the story-level issue of the nature of the fictional minds constructed by the texts, thewhatthat is the content of those minds; the other is the discourse-level issue of the techniques used to represent consciousness in narrative,howminds are presented in the discourse. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that it is difficult in practice to maintain a distinction between the two. I focus primarily on the first issue, thewhat,but it is impossible to talk about thewhatwithout detailed consideration of thehow.To describe the contents of fictional minds is to focus on how those minds are presented in the text. Also, the techniques that are used for fictional mind presentations will determine, to a certain extent, what thoughts are described.(»Social Minds«205)
Therefore, narrative reader experiences fictional minds through following both narrative content and its techniques.Moreover, in CN any undertaken narrative analysis is based on the representational or mimetic concept of character since from mimetic perspective, asUriMargolin put, a character is treated»as a human or human-like entity«(»Character«53).[19]Following that,narrative reader is able to experience narrative using her/his ownuniversal knowledge structures (schemas, scripts,and frames).As a result,withinthe theoretical paradigms of cognitive approach,a»character is seen as a mental model of a storyworld participant, constructed by the reader incrementally in the course of reading (text comprehension) on the basis of constant interplay between specific textual data and general knowledge structures stored in the reader's long-term memory.«The constructed mental model, however, is based on nothing other than the textualor semioticdata or clues which orient the reader's mental map of a character as a»conceptual unit«(Margolin,»Character«54).As Margolin continues, having gatheredthe scatteredbutrelated properties of a character within the text following a»bottom-up or data-driven processing,[. . .]they often activatea knowledge structure stored in long-term memory under which these properties can be subsumed and integrated into a character model«(»Character«54–5). Further, the constructed knowledge structure which triggers a unique character category in reader's mind can be, other than the literary models, based on actual-world models. In that case,the readers, following a top down modelbesides thebottom up one,[20]experiencethe text with an already established mental model or categorization. As a result, according to Margolin,they»fill in or complete their mental model of the individual, formulate expectations about further textual information about it, and explain previous information«(»Character«55). Nevertheless, the reader's mental model of a characterdoes not stayfixedthroughout his/her narrative experiencing. It isexposed to refreshmentor reconstructionanddisruption or change. That is mainly because they ascribe different properties to a particular characterbased on both the explicit textual data and their own inferences as well.
Therefore,thereader[21]is considered as the main part of narrative understanding or experiencingin cognitive approaches to narrative. This is a result of the fact,thatencountering the fictional minds,theyuse their default experiences.They alsouse their ability of constructing theories of mind, as they do in their actual relationships, in order to gain accessto the manner of fictional characters'mental functioning.At the same time,they experiencethe waysfictionalcharacters make theories ofminds about the othercharacters. In the same way, reader is central to Herman'sand Palmer's cognitiveapproaches to narrative. They attempt to show how readers utilise their everyday cognitive frames, which have default values too, and scripts or their world knowledgeand modelsin order to interpret the fictional minds or, in the opinion of Palmer,»to fill gaps in storyworlds«(»The Lydgate«154).[22]AlthoughHerman'sarea of concern ismuch broader thanthat of Palmer's, their approacheshighlight some of those universal frames. Herman's theory is in agreement with Palmer's statement that»fictional beingsare necessarily incomplete, frames, scripts, and preference rules are required to supply the defaults that fill the gaps in the storyworld and provide the presuppositions that enable the reader to construct continually conscious minds from the text«(Fictional176).Therefore, these are the central questions to both Herman and Palmer:how readers accept storyworldsas plausible possible worlds with possible beings, how they makesense of stories and how they utilise their cognitive potentialities in order to access the plausible characters'minds are central.
Palmer pursues a parallel approach[23]to the fictional minds.Callingthisapproach»criss-crossing of the field[. . .]an interdisciplinary project«(Fictional3–4),hearguesthat the same techniques people apply in order to understand other people's minds areautomaticallyapplied when they, as readers, try to understand the fictional minds through attributing mental states to them. In Herman'swords:
Palmer (2004) also draws on elements of the early work on knowledge representations, studying how readers'world-knowledge allows them to make sense of a variety of techniques for representing fictional characters'minds. Palmer explores how readers construct inferences about fictional minds by using various textual indicators, including thought reports, speech representations, andascriptions of behaviors that span the continuum linking mental with physical actions.(»Cognitive«34)
Moreover, having called his approach to the fictional minds»external,«Palmerelsewhere uses the term social mind to»describe those aspects of the whole mind that are revealed through the externalist perspective«(Social39)[24]. His concept of social mind in fiction, nevertheless, is within the context of»the cognitive turn in humanities, or, more specifically, what has come to be known as cognitive approach to literature«(Palmer,Social198).Moreover, hechimes on the»traditional narratological approach to the representation of fictional character,«which, according to him, is»internalist one that stresses those aspects that are inner, passive, introspective, and individual«(Social39). Thus, according to Palmer, in the previous narratological approaches to the fictional characters, either»the social nature of fictional thought has been neglected«or»little narratological work has been done on social minds in the novel«(Social39–40,45). Thus,exploration of such aspect of fictional character should beincluded in the narratological approaches because an externalist perspective»stresses the public, social, concrete, and located aspects of mental life in the novel«(Palmer, 2010a:40). Accordingly, when referring to theintermental andintramentalthoughts,[25]which aretheimportant parts of Palmer's social mind theory,a complementary approach is thought to bean appropriatenarratologicalapproach to the fictional minds. It should combineinternalist perspective with the externalist one. Consideringthetwo perspectives on mind—INTERNALIST PERSPECTIVE and EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE[capitals are Palmer's]—Palmer suggeststhat:
A good deal of the significance of the thought that occurs in novels is lost if only the internalist perspective is employed. Both perspectives are required, because a major preoccupation of novels is precisely this balance between public and private thought, intermental and intramental functioning, and social and individual minds. Withinthis balance, I will be emphasizing social mindsbecause of their past neglect.(Social42)
Therefore,from Palmer's perspective both internalist and externalist perspectives are required for the proper analysis of the fictional minds'mental functioningas it is followed in this study too.[26]
A character's mind is modelled based on some sources. His/herinner speeches can delineatehis/hermental life including feelings, beliefs, intentions andinternal perceptionsregarding the other characters'thoughts and actions.Similarly,the way a characterappears in the minds of the other characters oris thought by them, his/her place in the community, his/her actions etc.can define and clarify the manner ofhis/hermental functioning.Moreover, drawing on the textual cues and the real world experiences, thereader attributes mental states to characters. Palmerexamines this issue under attribution theory[27]or»the study of how attributions of states of mind are made«(»Attribution«293).These attributions are possible because of the existence of»theory of mind«in human beings. According to Palmer,it is»used by philosophers and psychologists to describe our awareness of the existence of other minds, our knowledge of how to interpret other people's thought processes, our mind-reading abilities in the real world.«For this reason, Palmerargues that:
Readers of novels have to use their theory of mind in order to try to follow the workings of characters'minds. Otherwise, they will lose the plot. The only wayin which the reader can understand the plot of a novel is by trying to follow the workings of characters'minds and thereby by attributing states of minds to them. This mind reading involves trying to follow characters'attempts to read other characters'minds.(»Attribution«293)
Thecentral characters'attributions of states of mind toeach otherinAM,ATandCBappear to be inaccurate and unsuccessful. Suchfalse attributions, as a result,leadthe bond betweenCliveandVernonas well asEdwardandFlorenceto total breakdown or annihilation.
Palmer's theory regarding the function of reader in narrative experiencing derives partly from the traditionalreader response theory. Recognizing the»intense power of reader response to fictional minds,«healludes to the»sheer scale of the input required from readers in constructing minds from novels«(Fictional4,3).This means that hebelieves in the»creative nature of the reading process.«According to him,the textual signs are loaded with real human imaginationorthey arecoloured with real life knowledge and experiences. A»text is simply [considered] the scaffolding on which you build the vivid psychological processes that stay with you for so long afterward«(Palmer,Fictional4). Palmer's preference of the study of character to the study of narrative plot, action or event,which is the main concerninclassical narratology,according to Stockwell,suggeststhat»narrativeshould be regarded as being driven not by event but by person.«Thus, pursuing his central concern in his studies on social and fictional minds, as Stockwellput,»Palmer's approach rests on the evident truism that narratives are about relationships between people«(288). Therefore, the primary concern of thecritic/reader in CNappears to bea thoroughanalysis ofthe relationship betweenfictional characters'thoughtsandtheir actions or the effect of theirownortheothercharacters'actions on their thoughts.
Accordingly, either from Herman's perspective or from Palmer's—which are congruent with the general inclination of the postclassicalorcontextual approaches to narrative—a reader experiences narrativeby the help ofhis/her every day, non-literary or anthropomorphic experiences. In this way, he/sheunfoldsthe possible meanings of a narrative or communicateswith it. Therefore, the narrative readers'main responsibility is not the discovery of the narrative grammar through a systematic approach to narrative text, as the structuralist narratologists supposed it should be.[28]Rather, their primary function isto participate in the construction and realization of the narrative meaning using their ownreal worldknowledge andexperiences mostly in the forms of scripts and framestheyuse in everyday communications. The focus of narrative analysis, therefore, changes from text to its receiver who, referring to his/her own anthropomorphic characteristics, constructs the narrative meaning depending on thesemiotic features of thenarrative text itself. This postclassical understanding of narrative analysis is atthe heart of the new definitions offictional character, fictional minds,narrative and narrativity or the constituent elements that make a narrative narrative.In the following part, therefore,first Palmer's terminologies regarding the construction, presentation, workings and comprehensionor experiencingof fictional mindsareanalysed. Then,the concept of narrativity and the role of reader in accepting a narrative as narrative as well as its basic elementsarediscussed.
2.2Alan Palmer's Approach to Fictional Minds
Palmer inFictional Minds(2004), chapters six»The Fictional Mind«and seven»The Fictional Mind in Action,«gives the outline of his»newly expanded, postclassical narratology of the fictional mind«approach which relates»some cognitive science notions to the specific area of reader comprehension of fictional minds«(17,175). The previous approaches, according to Palmer, have ignored the central role of the workings of characters'
