Quoting Sean
A really interesting concept that Sean brought up in his first blog on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is the idea that (to quote Sean) “so much of the novel is about breaking free from cruel regimes and yet the cruelest may be when one controls the narrative of a history that is not their own.” (Thanks Sean!) After reading The Uses of Enchantment, I can definitely see how this concept is going to be a developing theme amongst the “Comtemporary Narrative.” I think part of the complexity of this novel in particular and the novels we have been looking at is the complication the narrative voice offers to the story being told. Who “owns” the story is a common theme in The Uses of Enchantment. Yet, at the same time, disperate narrative voice is also a tool employed by the novel. Therefore the ambiguity of who own’s the story, or who has power over the narrative being told both becomes a tool and a theme, and possibly even the structure on which contemporary narrative is built. In The Uses of Enchantment, the narrative voice structure we are given is from the point of view of four different voices. We have older Mary, younger Mary, notes from Dr. Hammer’s sessions with Mary, and Mary’s anonymous Captor, K. Yet this complicated structure is complicated further by given the brief tale of the lives of several other women, including Miriam, Ida or Dora, and Mary extended family members, including Abigail Lake. This narrative is willing to complicate its story with a vast breathe of geneological history, which is a testement to both its beauty and its status in the world of contemporary literature.
Danielle,
I see what you (and Sean:P) are saying and I think it is a great way to view the narrative. And what I like even more is your connection to “Uses of Enchantment.” One of the elements of “Enchantment” that I am enjoying so much is the constant flux in narration. I feel if we were only in one person’s head, we would not be able to follow the story nearly as well as we do with the insight from the other characters. I agree with you that this complexity allows for it to be included in contemporary literature.
I couldn’t agree more with you (and Sean). The ambiguity of the novel truly is intensified by the “owning” of the story. As if it wasn’t obvious that Mary’s story is far from her own, in the way that Dr. Hammer takes it and creates “Miriam”, there’s the more broader levels of the narrator taking Mary’s story and creating a possible explanation of “What May Have Happened”, while Julavits herself is, on a grander scale, creating Mary’s story herself as she uses her characters to recreate it throughout the novel. I agree that this construct and theme or appropriating other people’s stories to tell, making them partially your own in the process, is a trend in Contemporary Lit. An incredibly intriguing one, at that.
[...] Week 2- Danielle & [...]
ENG 576- Final Portfolio « Spontaneous Anne's Blog said this on November 20, 2009 at 11:29 pm |
[...] Uses of Enchantment [...]
Final Portfolio « Sp-Rockets said this on December 17, 2009 at 5:55 pm |