Positioning and Closure On The Reading Effect of Contemporary Utopian Fiction

Positioning and Closure: On the "Reading Effect" of Contemporary Utopian Fiction
Author(s): Peter Fitting

Source: Utopian Studies, No. 1 (1987), pp. 23-36
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20718883
Accessed: 28-01-2016 14:19 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Utopian Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Thu, 28 Jan 2016 14:19:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
POSITIONING AND CLOSURE:

ON THE "READING-EFFECT"
OF CONTEMPORARY UTOPIAN FICTION
Peter
Fitting
consensus
the critical
Fifteen
seemed
to be
years
ago,
a
of
of
there was,
Utopian
paralysis
thought
"something
a predominantly
SF
itself had become
while
imagination,"1
the recent
of Utopian
revival
"pessimistic"
genre.2
Accordingly
a surprising
or many
an
in SF has been
themes
of us,
and,
and
SF
boom
The
which
important
development.
heartening
in
late
the
1960s--and
continues
which
began
to
the
social
in
the
upheavals
developed
today?corresponds
countries
of the dominant
and to the collapse
social
capitalist
consensus.
of Utopian
themes within
The
SF at
appearance
a
was
own
extension
of SF's
that moment
inherent
logical
more
and
than
other
for,
any
possibilities
potential,
a
was
one
it
literature
of
alternatives,
genre,
contemporary
and writer
offered
the reader
alternate
times and places
which
to the dominant
to
in opposition
forms which
seemed
bound
our own social
reality.3
that
and
an
the
of how or why
SF
became
question
Beyond
for the Utopian
in 1970s,
this
vehicle
important
imagination
a number
not
raises
of more political
questions,
development
all of which
I can attempt to answer
here.
The
be
first would
to explain
this
of
the
moment,4
apparent
Utopian
waning
of Literary
in Frank
"Varieties
Utopias,"
xNorthrop
Frye,
and Utopian
Manuel
ed.
(Boston
1966),
Thought
p29.
Utopias
is a widely
for
held
Mark
2This
view.
instance,
See,
as Nightmare
Future
The
(NYC
1967).
Hillegas,
use
of the term
for
Merril's
"new
instance,
3See,
Judity
in her reviews
for The
and
Magazine
mythology"
of Fantasy
late 1960s:
"The
unformulated
Science
Fiction
in the
as-yet
man must
use
is the map modern
in
contemporary
mythology
...
An
for his soul.
the search
large part of
increasingly
out of "science
in and
serious
fiction,
fiction,"
speculative
concerns
now
of
the
examination
and
itself with
analysis
a
if
the
and
with
smaller,
segment
mythology,
significant,
for viable
modern
search
creative
(December
1966),
myths."
p31.
to say,
in France
different
**The situation
is, needless
quite
a "Socialist"
to the
further
has
contributed
where
government
for
James
the
ideal.
of
See,
instance,
Utopian
undermining
Counterfeit
New Left Review
Petras,
Reformists,"
"Europe's
146
thus,
1984),
Anti-utopianism,
pp37-52.
(July-August
seems
for
the
second
in France:
see,
instance,
stronger
in particular,
and
Science
Fiction
issue
of
(Paris
1984),
23
a final
to pass
too early
it is perhaps
judgement.
to
be
the
would
question
analyse
accompanying
a development
into fantasy
has
its
which
fiction,
correlate
in
the
of collective
and
political
projection
hopes
a
a
an
fears
onto
return
to
who
represents
president
lost
past.
imaginary
although
Another
retreat
Here my aims are more modest.

I would
like to look at
some
the
of
recent
SF,
Utopian
"reading-effect"
namely:
Samuel
Triton
K.
Ursula
Le Guin's
The
(1976),
Delany's
on
Woman
the
of
(1974),
Dispossessed
Marge
Edge
Piercy's
Time
and Joanna
Russ's
The
Female Man
In
(1976)
(1975).
more
I would
like to examine
the
terms,
political
specifically
of this writing
about
effectiveness
alternate
in terms
societies
of concrete
social
of the future
how to link a poetics
change:
of the future.
with a politics
Within the Marxist
the major critique
of utopia
tradition,
lies with
the
these
that
would
divert
argument
writings
a
attention
and
from concrete
energy
away
action,
political
as Fredric
no
situation
has written,
Jameson
which,
longer
obtains:
For where
in the
older
in Marx's
(as
society
a
classic
Utopian
analysis)
represented
thought
of
diversion
into
idle
energy
revolutionary
and
wish-fulfillments
in
satisfactions,
imaginary
our
own
time the very
nature
of the
Utopian
a dialectical
has undergone
reversal.
Now
concept
is
it
which
practical
thinking
everywhere
a capitulation
to the system
represents
itself, and
as a testimony
stands
to the power of that system
to transform
even
its adversaries
into its own
mirror
The Utopian
idea, on the contrary,
image.
of a world
alive the possibility
keeps
qualitatively
one
distinct
from this
and
takes
the form of a
of all that
stubborn
is.5
negation
and
Hubert
"Sous
les paves
de
l'enfer
Galle,
pp50-72.
Marxism
Form
and
Jameson,
(Princeton
1971),
was
This
in
written
context
the
of Bloch
and
pp110-111.
on SF and utopia.
but Jameson
has also written
See
Marcuse;
his "Progress
Versus
or, Can We
Utopia;
Imagine the Future?"
Science
Fiction Studies
and his
IX, 2 (July
1982),
pp147-158;
of
Louis
review
Martin's
"Of Islands
and
Utopiques:
lengthy
Trenches:
Naturalization
and
the
Production
of
Utopian
Diacritics
2 (June 1977),
VII,
Discourse,"
pp2-21.
Roland
Lew
utopique,"
5Fredric
24
for most of
has meant,
The
themes
of Utopian
revival
a
of
reconsideration
the
the writers
involved,
Utopian
project
in some
in the
modifications
evident
itself, most
significant
but evident,
contents
of the Utopian
and design
community;
as
in some of the strategies
in a moment,
I will
too,
argue
newer works,
In these
the reader.
for influencing
employed
Le Guin,
is
for
often
the
then,
Utopian
ambiguous.
project
"an
while
her
subtitles
novel,
instance,
utopia";
ambiguous
and all four novels
describe
his a "heterotopia"6;
calls
Delany
are far more open
than earlier
and problematic
societies
which
the
of these works
each
More
depicts
utopias.
specifically,
a
of
and
than
the
finished
for
rather
utopia
image
struggle
harmonious
Utopian
society.
is set
in an enclosed
In Delany's
which
Triton,
city on
of
the
22nd
the
advanced
of Neptune's
moons,
technology
an
almost
free
has
made
possible
society
completely
century
access
are guaranteed
to food
and
shelter.
members
whose
the
is threatened
from without,
this
by
society
Although
to maintain
their
and Mars who wish
of Earth
"inner worlds"
over their former colonies--the
smaller and
dominance
economic
break
with
settled
"Outer
Satellites"--the
principal
sparsely
a
of
hero
in
the
lies
who
traditional
Utopian writing
portrayal
of
the concept
is not happy.
Whereas
problematizes
Delany
an
central
character?one
who
is,
unhappy
utopia
through
of Triton,
of the
not typical
inhabitants
indeed,
moreover,
Le Guin's
reservations
is to blame
for his unhappiness,
who
to
failure
individual
the
about
go beyond
Utopian
project7
On
the
of a better
the very
society.
possibility
question
to a flawed
in familiar
fashion
of Annares--juxtaposed
world
our
anarchist
like
much
own--the
world
original
very
new
into a
have
of
the
community
congealed
principals
themselves
while many of the Utopians
bureaucratic
apparatus
a conformity
to the system.
internalized
have
one
of the
feature
the most
On
the other
hand,
striking
The
Female
in Joanna
Russ'
of [While away],
Utopian
society
least
it is the
of men.
absence
is the
Man,
Formally
it is constructed
of short
four novels:
of these
conventional
and
and
mix narration
with
which
polemic
dialogue
chapters
is set
reader.
to the
The
novel
addressed
passages
directly
in a
Bantam
edition p345,
Triton
(NYC
1976),
Delany,
et
mots
Les
from Michel
Foucault,
quotation
jes choses.
LeGuin
under
three writers
the other
7Unlike
consideration,
the
a number
of dystopian
has written
works,
particularly
and
from Ornelas"
who walk
"The Ones
(1973)
away
stories,
her novel, The
and to some extent
"The New Atlantis"
(1975),
Lathe of Heaven
(1971).
6Samuel
25
least
in an alternate
where
(or at
present
present)
from the Earth
900 years
in the future,
describes
to
a plague
and Jeannine
after
had
killed
all the
how,
learned
to fend for themselves
the women
of Earth
and
men,
a
more
in
the
human
and
process,
developed,
nourishing
as we
But
in the novel,
the
learn
late
"natural"
society.
is a myth.
of the
The
world
emergence
Utopian
society
men
the result of a choice,
is instead
for there was,
without
an
the present
and the future
in fact,
interim stage
between
our world
into
in which
camps--men
split
warring
against
from which
the women
victorious.
women--and
emerged
in the
Janet,
Joanna
on
Woman
the
of Time
Edge
Marge
Finally,
Piercy's
an
is, nonetheless,
depicts
Utopian world which
unambiguously
attack
from without.
The
central
is an
under
character
woman
Mexican-American
in
the
has
who
present
impoverished
her
and
is
contacted
been
institutionalized
will
who
against
is then able
to visit
from the future which
she
telepathically
As
in The
Female Man,
in the same way.
the Utopian
society
can
of Piercy's
is set on Earth
in a future which
Mattapoisset
a
come
about
in
the
both
present:
through
only
struggle
characters
from the future who
novels
have come to
portray
a Utopian
to build
enlist
in our present
in order
future.
help
to the
then
of these
effect
it is a
works,
Turning
or to the effect
to the reader
to think that attention
mistake
of
is
born
now
literature
is
called
with
what
new,
are
criticism.
There
esthetic
various
"reader-response"
in the 20th century which
currents
have been concerned
with
the
of which
the most
is that of didactic
reader,
important
and committed
most famous practitioner
is the
art, and whose
His call for an art which
communist
Brecht.
Bertolt
playwrite
"arouse
for action"
and
would,
capacity
spectator's]
[the
was
not simply a slogan,
"force
but
[him] to take decisions"8
a concrete
and esthetic
he developed
which
political
project
or "estrangement"
the "alienation"
effect.
Moreover,
through
to Darko
this effect
central
Suvin's
is, as you probably
know,
SF
definition
of
"the
literature
of
as,
cognitive
estrangement."9
Kenneth
evidence
at the
In his paper
Studies
984
conference,
Utopian
some of the categories
Roemer
reviewed
of external
a work's
for studying
actual
available
readers.
But,
is the Epic Theatre,"

8Bertolt
"The Modern
Theatre
Brecht,
on Theatre,
in Brecht
ed. John Willett
(NYC
1964).
p37
of Science
Fiction
9Darko
Suvin,
(New Haven
Metamorphoses
an
on
The
book
contains
1979)
important
pp3-15.
chapter
the Literary
Genre
of Utopia."
utopias,
"Defining
26
as his paper
the most problematic
and potentially
suggested,
the most fruitful area
for reader-oriented
lies in the
criticism
a
examination
of a work's
internal elements?the
in which
ways
text constructs
its implied reader.
Without
specific
literary
here
the
manifestations
and developments
reviewing
[various]
on several
I would
of such criticism,10
like to focus
internal
of recent
elements
arises
from
Utopian writing.
My approach
concerns
mentioned
the
earlier?the
political
potential
as well
it originates
of Utopian
in
effectiveness
writing ?and
social
that different
the recognition
and practices,
activities
the
of
infant's
and
with
acquisition
beginning
language
or "hail"
and art, construct
literature
(interpellate)
including
as psychological
and social
I am
individuals
specific
subjects.
a
that
the
interested
in the ways
form of
novel
very
the unacknowledged
in the reader
of
acceptance
reproduces
to the dominant
and how traditional
adherence
and
ideology,
a
to produce
for
that
work
narrative
subject
strategies
11
ideology.
means
a
text
the most
evident
by which
Although
constructs
its
is
reader
the
"shared
through
reading
it must
of author
and
be
remembered
conventions"
reader,
include not only the esthetic
that these
codes
and
conventions
of
SF
but
the
of
and
form
the
utopia,
expectations
generic
a number of
include
novel
itself; and more
importantly,
they
or
extraoverlooked
pre-literary
frequently
the English
conditions ?beginning
with
itself?which
language
interaction
of text and
reader
insofar as they
affect the
limit
or
can
at a given
determine
be written
read
and
what
some
in SF,
moment.
In the case of Utopian
themes
historical
see
of these
Steven
summary
approaches,
York
Conventions
New
1982).
(Ithaca,
Mailloux,
Interpretive
See also Hans Robert
Aesthetic
and Literary
Jauss,
Experience
For an empirical
treatment
Hermeneutics
1982).
(Minneapolis
the usual
of these
of
which
goes
questions
beyond
"sociology
see Jacques
Leenhardt
and
literature"
(Escarpit),
approach
essai
de sociologie
de ha lecture
Pierre Jozsa,
Lire ja lecture:
a
See
also
Brian
"Notes
towards
(Paris
1982).
Stapleford,
of
Science
Foundation
XV
1979)
Fiction,"
sociology
(January
10For
useful
pp28-41.
11_rhis
a
course
to
reference
the
is of
of
Louis
work
et
La
Althusser,
d'etat,"
appareils
id?ologiques
"Ideologie
m English
im Lenin
Pensee
1970) pp3-38,
(mai-juin
reprinted
Of the many
and
and Philosophy
(London
1971).
applications
see R. Coward
accounts
in English,
and J. Ellis,
Language
see
as
and
also
Materialism
(London
1977);
my
"Reality
of Five Novels
A Reading
Construct:
by Philip K.
Ideological
Science
Fiction Studies
X, 2 (July 1983) pp219-236.
Dick,"
27
conditions
of these
would
include:
an
of the English
dimensions
1) the "sexist"
language,
wave
has called
recent
of feminism
to which
the most
issue
concern
in Russ'
The
Female
is a specific
attention
,and which
in Piercy's
Woman on the Edge of Time;12
Man and
1950s and early
in the SF of the
2) the predominance,
the
reflected
themes
which
of
1960s,
larger social
anti-utopian
a consensus
had already
consensus
which
of the period--albeit
ideal
to the dominant
the
to unravel.
view,
According
begun
and only minor
been achieved
had already
adjustments
society
remained
and
improvements
possible.
technological
continuing
was
a
the
different
of
The
society
by definition
imagining
or the description
of utopia,
of a degraded
version
evocation
our
success
own
and
threatened
which
alternative
of an
stability;
one
could
this further,
say that the
carrying
was
this period
blocked
during
Utopian
effectively
imagination
as well
of Utopian
of the historical
because
thought
linking
the McCarthy
socialism--an
alternative
with
which,
during
to write about
it was
impossible
favorably.13
literally
period,
and
3)
sense
and prosperity
of contentment
But the widespread
and
in the 1960s by the increasing
was
contradicted
militancy
to whom
the
of various
dissatisfaction
groups
supposedly
were
from
dream
of the American
benefits
universal
denied,
in the United
States
of poverty
the "discovery"
(in Michael
the
The
Civil
Other
book,
America),
Rights
Harrington's
to
the war
in Vietnam
and the mobilization
movement
against
or
the
movement
with
the reinvigorated
women's
struggle
along
of a new possessive
invention
in Piercy's
instance,
and
her.
his
(from
per
replace
person)--to
not around
but
issue
in The
is an
Dispossessed,
Language
as a way
of the possessive
i.e. the avoidance
pronoun
sexism,
"
of defeating
"propertarianism.
can
be
treatment
of this
theme
and
13An extreme
amusing
Merchants
The
in F.
Pohl and C.
Kornbluth's
found
Space
run
a
future
US
which
(1953)
by
satirically
portrays
an
is
threatened
which
by
advertising
conglomerates
we
call
united
around
would
what
organization
underground
to conserve
seek
Insofar as they
issues.
today
"ecological"
or
are
called
the
"Conservationists"
life on
planet
they
to
the
allusion
"consies"--a
contemporary
thinly
disguised
In many
in our own
the
about
"commies"
society.
paranoia
for
the only vehicle
the McCarthy
SF was during
period
ways,
social
criticism.
12As, for
pronoun--
28
men.
of
and
This
outburst
of
lesbians
gay
recognition
was
moment
and
demands
the
of
the
contestatory
liberatory
now no
rebirth
of SF,
longer as the fiction of technological
as
a
or
but
literature
of
pessimism,
optimism
increasingly
alternatives.lk
on
concentrate
I will
two
following
analysis
and
of the
conventions
narrative
reading
are
in
which
Utopian
writing
strategies
significant
to break
tries
out of
how this recent writing
understanding
the
and
of
the
traditional
illusionism
passivity
reading
an
to
to work
in
for
effort
the
reader
experience
push
are:
These
the
of
the
1)
aspects
change.
"positioning"
is addressed
reader
reader within
the text:
how the
by the
as the perspective
text as well
from which
he or she views
of
the
and
that
the
"closure"--how
2)
Utopian
society;
return
to
social
tensions
the
traditional
novel manages
through
its
and
mark
which
harmony
stablity
ending.15
In
internal
the
aspects
of
of the
recent
in their construction
These
novels
differ,
the
traditional
the
of
from
novel.
reader,
Utopian
strategies
has
been
described
in
for
More's
instance,
Utopia,
Although
terms of its dramatic
its basic
form is that of a
structure,
this rational mode of addressing
Indeed,
philosophic
dialogue.
as an intelligent
or constructing
to
the reader
open
person,
dominant
form
is
the
of
reasoned
Utopian
arguments,
writing
one
the
of
the
into
nineteenth
well
Thus,
century.
enormous
success
in the
of Edward
apparent
developments
is precisely
the alteration
backwards
(1888)
Looking
Bellamy's
for there
has been a change
of persuasion,
in the techniques
audience
of the newly
in the
intended
(to the wider
public
as well as a shift
in the United
formed middle-classes
States)
romance.
we
to Utopian
As
from philosophic
readers,
dialogue
see my "The Modern

of these
developments,
and
SF
Novel:
Capitalist
Utopian
Longing
Anglo-American
1
Studies
Fiction
Science
(March
1979)
VI,
Cooptation,"
see The
ed. by
60s Without Apology,
On the 1960s,
pp59-76.
et al.
1984).
(Minneapolis
Sohnya
Sayre
film
is borrowed
from
feminist
term
15The
"positioning"
See
Annette
Women's
1982).
(London
Kuhn,
pictures
theory.
see Roland
Charles
For "closure"
S/Z
Barthes,
(Paris
1970),
de
Production
l'int?r?t
(The Hague
1973)
romanesque
Grivel,
On
the
Theorie
Tel
d'ensemble
and
(Paris
1968).
quel :
see
in
social
contradiction
of
culture,
popular
management
most
Fredric
various
works
his,
Jameson,
noticeably
by
Text
1
Social
in Mass
and
"Retif ication
Culture,"
Utopia
14For
an overview
(Winter
Unconscious
1979)
pp130-148
(Ithaca,
New
and
York
his
book
The
Political
1981).
29
are
no longer addressed
as
we have become
listeners;
simply
in an experience
involved
which
the discovery
goes
beyond
and
one
of a better
in which
the
apprehension
society,
of the
ideal
forms
the background
to a
description
society
however
events which we follow
sequence,
flimsy, of unfolding
a
of
the
and
hero
in
terms
of his own changing
eyes
through
attitudes
and
Thus
the
"novelization"
of
feelings.
utopia
a significant
involves
transformation:
from the positioning
of
as the addressee
the reader
in a philosophic
is
who
dialogue
reasoned
to the process
of
persuaded
presentation,
through
a fictional
identification
with
character
where
the reader
is
on an emotional
and experimental
level as well as on
implicated
one.
the intellectual
can be
similar
shift
seen
in Utopian
in the
writing
of another
of its narrative
conventions.
if the
For
of a better
else"
"somewhere
(or "nowhere")
setting
society
a permanency
in earlier
to the
implied,
Utopian
writing,
reader's
the
and
Industrial
French
situation,
impact of the
was
to
revolutions
render
the
of
imaginable
possibility
own
one's
the
While
dominant
of
convention
changing
society.
the first moment of Utopian writing was
that of the voyage,
it
in the
second
that of a temporal
became,
moment,
voyage,
most
the topos
of the
(or commonplace)
familiarily
through
The
awakened
of the dream,
not
moreover,
sleeper.
figure
the
underlines
distance
real
between
the
and
only
imagined
but the absence
of a connection
between
This
them.
worlds,
is not to say that the works
of the second
of Utopian
period
do not address
the transition
to utopia--both
writing
Bellamy
and Morris
have
came
the change
"how
chapters
explaining
about"--but
in such
they do not attempt to involve the reader
a transition.
A
evolution
In contrast
to such
traditional
utopias,
contemporary
uses
SF
different
for the reader
I
which
Utopian
strategies
called
have
and which
include:
the perspective
positioning
from which
the Utopian
is depicted;
the techniques
of
society
the
a
reader's
identification
with
identification,
namely
character
is emotionally
who
the
involved
with
Utopian
and the "distance"
between
the reader's
community;
empirical
and
the utopia,
the contrasting
of the two
reality
including
as well
as attempts
societies
to break
the reader's
passivity
various
"performative"
through
strategies.
In this sense,
and Russ
than Delany
go further
Piercy
Le Guin
in their attempts
to
link their alternate
worlds
the present.
The
libertarian
in Triton,
for
city-state
has
as a result
of
instance,
apparently
emerged
"naturally,"
and
with
30
on a frontier world;16
is no
but there
conditions
the harsh
forms or state
its social
have
of how
apparatus
explanation
no
of
of the amount
indication
and
particularly,
developed,
?
to
or planning
I think,
in contrast,
choice
involved
conscious
a description
of
is given
The
reader
the other three
novels.
some would
infrastructure
the
institutions
and
consider
what
are
of a
there
but
few
of a "better"
suggestions
society,
our present
In The
it and
connection
between
day world.
on the other
is set much
further
which
hand,
Dispossessed,
of
Annares
is
the
in
and
time,
space
Utopian
away
society
on the basis
But
social
of a worked-out
founded
philosophy.
to which
the followers
of Odo
the conveniently
empty moon
the reader
to set up this
society
discourages
again
emigrate
a
be
such
could
how
from
society
considering
seriously
on our own planet.
achieved
on the
The
Female Man and Woman on the Edge of Time,
are
the
set
and
in the
reader's
other
present
hand,
Julian
is with
characters
who?unlike
identification
Bellamy's
in
each
in the present.
in the end
West?remain
Moreover,
to
contacted
from the future
has been
character
this
case,
these
into being.
the
Utopian
help
society
Through
bring
as a potential
actor
in the
is "hailed"
the reader
characters
role
the
unlike
of
process
passive
utopia,
building
to
to
it
suffices
the
where
reader,
assigned
traditionally
and to wait.17
dream
of a
of the development
of the theme
locus classicus
16The
of
of the harsh
environment
in the context
libertarian
society
a Harsh
Moon
a space
is Robert
The
Heinlein's
colony
[s
to the "welfare"
But as opposed
Mistress
(1966).
system on
:
is "TAASTAFL"
"There
in Heinlein
the rule
Triton,
(p178)
ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
a
out
to me
that
Roemer
has
Keneth
17Professor
pointed
to
do end
iwth direct
of 19th century
number
utopias
appeals
for
of Looking
edition
The
second
the reader.
Backwards,
a post-script
to the
addressed
included
reader,
instance,
Drift
included
Human
The
Gillette's
while
(1894)
King Camp
stock
in
in to buy
could
mail
the reader
certificates
which
cover
and
the
back
of
Gillette's
"people's
corporation,"
an
had
Smith
John
President
V.
Adam's
Frederick
(1897)
to
form
These
to
reader
clubs."
the
appeals
"majority
appeal
are
are part of the physical
and certainly
reality of the book
an attempt
total
the
and
to link fiction
Moreover,
reality.
or act of
narrative
increasingly?since
experience
'consuming'
?
direct
includes
which
of
the
advent
television
appeals
often
actual
the
narrative.
too,
novels,
Popular
interrupt
etc.
and coupons
While
inserts
include forms of advertising:
to the
19th century
novels
this
is not strictly
equivalent
31
a
to
The
Female
Man
of
subvert
number
attempts
in the recognition
conventions
novelistic
like language
that,
nor
neutral
forms are neither
natural
itself, these
apparently
but
for the maintenance
instruments
of the
status
neutral,
as well
as the
of identification,
The
quo.
process
ideological
unified
is undermined
the
myth of a rational,
through
subject
names
of four overlapping
all begin
characters
whose
presence
the authorial
with
Joanna:
"I said
persona,
"J",
including
off
went
and
I
also
with
with
watched
Laur,
I,
Janet;
goodbye
moreover
them go,
I went
off to show
Jael the
I, Joanna;
I Jael,
I myself."18
her fictional
I, Jeannine,
city,
Through
us that the positioning
reminds
Russ
of the reader
practice,
an
our own
is actually
of how we construct
important feature
we
learn our
roles
identities:
and
from
responses
reading
even as we "know"
that they are not real.
This
novels
points
as
to current
around
in the novel,
debates
"stereotyping"
19
Russ
in her
of The
review
For
Dispossessed.
argued
was
Le
the
whatever
Guin's
reader
offered
intentions,
to
characters
to
with
whom
traditional
according
identify
sexist
roles.
Under
of
the
I have
concept
then,
positioning,
reader
discussed
the
is produced
in these
how
texts,
the
character
from whose
with
the
perspective
beginning
are seen and experienced;
and the Utopian
events
and
society
to directly
which
performative
attempt
strategies
including
the reader,
rather than simply reaffirming
the solitary
engage
nature
and passive
of the reading
I would
Now
experience.
like to argue
that
the technique
of closure
is a powerful
as
mechanism
for insuring
that passivity,
insofar
it returns
the
to an original
reader
was
and
order
which
tranquility
at the beginning
of the work.
This
basic
narrative
disrupted
can
seen
structure
be
in Looking
for
Backward,
instance,
which opens
with the disruption
of the status
quo as the hero
in the future where
are
his friends
and fiancee
awakes
long
moves
dead.
From
there
the
moments
novel
of
through
a
tension
and
to
disordei?his
efforts
final
adjust--to
in which
he realizes
resolution
that this
is a better
society
he has found true happiness.
This
where
is the substance
of
the
effect
in
of
closure
the
traditional
the
novel:
ideological
I am only
mentioned
concerned
in this
with
above,
paper
are
to the reader
forms of appeals
which
into the
integrated
itself.
narrative
18Joanna
The
Female
Bantam
edition
Russ,
Man,
(1975)
p.
212.
of Fantasy
and
19ln The
Science
Fiction
Magazine
(March
41-44.
1975):
32
of an established
fictional
followed
order,
by an
of that
order.
In this way,
the
re-establishing
a vis
are
anxieties
social
vis
contradictions
larger
concerns
to the fictional
and then displaced
and
acknowledged
are
tensions
of the novel
the
where
resolved
they
through
own resolution
of the fictional
tensions
and the return
novel's
to harmony
in Looking
and order.
Furthermore,
Backward,
is reproduced
of the persuasion
of the reader
in
the process
structure
the underlying
of the novel.
More's
written
Utopia,
as a philosophic
the skeptical
assent
ends with
of
dialogue,
for the reader:
the addressee,
the "stand-in"
disruption
eventual
reader's
In the meantime
I cannot
with
agree
everything
for all his undoubted
that he said,
and
learning
are
I freely
admit
that
But
there
experience.
of
the
features
I
which
many
Utopian
Republic
see
I
should
expect--to
hardly
like--though
in Europe.20
adopted
on the other
concludes
with Julian
hand,
Backward,
Looking
in
the
future:
the
his--and
ensconced
Utopian
happily
or
to that alternate
not only,
reader's--assent
society marked
as
ones.
in intellectual
in emotional
not so much,
For
terms,
to the principles
of utopia
is also
conversion
Julian's
gradual
a seduction:
his
the novel
ends with
love for the Utopian
a love which
is of course
recipocated
"explainer's"
daughter,
consumation
closes
the novel,
and whose
promised
just as his
to a woman
to be married
of his own time opened
engagement
it.
in terms of what
it does
in
is significant
and
Closure
In the
it prevents.
historical
of
what
present
it is one of the methods
literature
which
through
conjuncture,
serves
the reader within
the
the status
quo,
by reinscribing
like the traditional
order
dominant
which
itself,
represents
or
as whole
and
of art,
without
flaws
work
meaningful,
the
The
initial
contradiction.
which
opens
disruption
of our
is a displaced
traditional
novel
collective
expression
is thus
at
dealt with
and
anxieties
which
fears
reassuringly
we
at the end of The
end.
Thus
the novel's
Dispossessed
as the
it
of the return
ends where
novel
the figure
have
is
in
at
Annares
This
the
conclusive
novel
spaceport.
began,
it ends with Shevek's
commitment to
for although
another way,
the
of
the
concludes
invention
it also
with
struggle,
communications
instantaneous
device--which
?ansible?--the
a technological
SF fashion,
solution
in typical
becomes
then,
terms
20Thomas
More,
1965) p132.
Utopia,
Translated
by
Paul
Turner
(Londong
33
to
social
communication
as
insofar
conflict
as the problem.
it
identifies
imperfect
it prevents:
for what
is also
Closure
important
writing
terms
I mention
in the Brechtian
would ?arouse
which
earlier,
It goes
for action.?
without
the
capacity
saying
[readers]
a
to write
fiction
dissatisfaction
that
Utopian
implies
today
state of affairs and a desire
for change.
with the present
sense
to change
this
closure
undermines
this will
of
its
formal
return
to
resolution?
the
?imaginary
through
at
is
the
the
which
novel's
disrupted
implied
harmony
In
beginning.
is very
from
of Triton
different
the
ending
effect
of
the
end
of
The
the
but
Dispossessed;
pacifying
to some sort of critical
the reader
tactic of brining
judgement
of
closure
the
in Delany's
is
absence
novel
through
too
had been
undermined
turned
by the fact that the reader
one character's
so
confusion
and unhappiness,
much
towards
seems
for
the
reader
focused
that the only realization
possible
on the character
in contrast
to the
of Bron himself.
Indeed,
lacks one of the central
three
other
world
novels,
Delany's
? a common
or
utoian
communities
of most
ideal
components
Triton
of
to
The
attempts
provide
government
philosophy.
for the happiness
the minimal structures
and well-being
of its
this
libertarian
ideal state
but within
there
is little
citizens,
sense
a collective
to
commitment
of
those
Bron's
goals.
own fault;
Bron's
but at the
is, the reader
feels,
unhappiness
same time,
in the absence
of collective
his solitude
and
ideals,
isolation do not seem surprising.
The
on the
contrast
The
The
Female
Man
and Woman
with
not
in terms
is
of Time
of
their
Edge
striking,
only
in their
commitment
to shared
but
to break
ideals,
attempts
move
to directly
the traditional
the reader.
In
novel
with
on the Edge
traditional
of Time
Woman
have
terms,
might
ended
in Mettapoisett
with Connie's
(a la Bellamy),
remaining
or at least with
her successful
from the hospital.
escape
By
to struggle
her desperate
in the present--by
attempt to begin
the doctors'
in the documents
coffee--and
to
relative
poisoning
the novel,
her case
close
reader
which
the
is refused
any
such
Connie
illusions.
is still trapped,
comforting
probably
more
even
as
under
and humiliating
circumstances
repressive
of
the
experimental
involuntary
subject
psychosurgery
to control
anti-social
As with
the ending
behavior.
designed
are
we
the pain
of Triton,
left with
and
of the
suffering
but here that suffering
has an identifiable
character;
principal
cause
as Connie
is called
the reader
which
upon to help end,
to help:
come
has been asked
to
to
"We must
to
exist,
fight
to be the future
remain
in existence,
that happens.
That's
34
why
we
the
Similarly,
reader:
reached
you."
The
Female
Man
ends
with
a direct
address
to
we will
Remember
all be
In a
changed.
in the twinkling
of an eye, we will all be
moment,
it on my head.
I wear
I swear
it on my
free.
ten fingers.
I
We will be our selves.
Until then
am silent;
I am God's
I can no more.
typewriter
is typed out.
and the ribbon
trot
Texas
little book,
and
Go,
through
and Maryland
and Washington
and Alaska
Vermont
.
and Florida
and Canada
and England
and France
. . do not mutter
to
when
young
angrily
yourself
to
and
read
hrooch
hrooch
and
persons
you
were
the
dickens
all
what
you
wondering
guffaw,
Do not get glum when
about.
you are no longer
Do not curse
fate,
little book.
understood,
your
and
the
do not reach up from readers'
laps
punch
noses.
readers'
Rejoice,
For
on
little book!
that
day,
we will
be
free.
to understand
the effectiveness
of recent
In attempting
not looked at the question
I have
of the new
Utopian writing
social
since
the
the audience
have been
who,
1960s,
subjects
nor
I dealt
of social
for the discourses
have
transformation;
as addressed
of "actual"
readers
with the empirical
questions
Instead
that cultural
of reading.
I've argued
by the sociology
are
as
such
practices
already
reading
socially
meaningful,
or
even
intentions
of
authorial
individual
regardless
the
forms
and
these
and
that
of
responses;
meanings
in particular
the novel,
evolved
have
practices,
specifically
to consolidate
and serve
and maintain
circumstances
historical
I
of
the
dominant
class.
and
the political
hegemony
ideological
form of the novel,
that the traditional
have argued,
moreover,
a
and
structure
of
tension
is
its
resolution,
through
these
anxieties
for managing
social
and conflict:
mechanism
are acknowledged
onto the events
and then displaced
tensions
to be
at the
and
characters
of the
resolved
story,
only
on
serves
to
the
other
end.
novel's
hand,
Positioning,
the
the
of
individual
within
reinforce
production
subjects
as gendered
act in
social
and unified
who
formations,
subjects
are
over
and
which
ways
repeated
comprehensible
specified
over
the
and
and
patterned
stereotypes
again
through
fiction.
of popular
behavior
35
as
there
has been,
In recent
I've tried
Utopian writing
a questioning
of closure:
in
the
to show,
very
firstly,
design
rom
closed
for traditional
and
of utopia,
utopias--f
unitary
been
More
superseded
by ambiguous
Bellamy--have
through
are
to come to be.
still struggling
which
utopias
Secondly,
on a deeper
the
in
structural
of Piercy and Russ
novels
level,
a
to
their
Utopian
politics
implement
particular
through
sought
and passivity
fostered
break with the isolation
by the reading
to
reader
the
the
familiar
itself,
experience
by
refusing
The
closure
rhetorical
traditional
of the
novel.
satisfying
the
tradition
from
of
have
evolved,
Utopian
strategies
an
to
to
seduce
the
reader
into
attempts
philosophic
dialogue
own
of the Utopian
the
character's
acceptance
society
through
four recent works
These
in
seduction.
reject such
strategies
of
characters
with
who were
themselves
favor
involvement
For those
to whom the
filled with question
and doubts.
idea
more
is
of
of a better
than
academic
the
interest,
society
as the result of dreaming,
better
society will not come about
nor are
its forms already
it must be struggled
determined:
for as Bee
tells Connie:
and fought
"We must
fight to come
to be
to exist,
to
remain
in existence,
the
that
future
we
reached
That's
happens.
why
you."
University
of Toronto
36

Positioning and Closure On The Reading Effect of Contemporary Utopian Fiction

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Оригинальное название

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Positioning and Closure On The Reading Effect of Contemporary Utopian Fiction

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Positioning and Closure: On the "Reading Effect" of Contemporary Utopian Fiction

Author(s): Peter Fitting

POSITIONING AND CLOSURE:

Here my aims are more modest.

is the Epic Theatre,"

see my "The Modern

Вам также может понравиться