Abstract

NATURALIZING THE TEXT

Dr. Dhananjay Kumar Singh

Volume: 5 Issue: 3 2015

Abstract:

This paper looks beyond New Criticism. It ties in with a great name, Jonathan Culler associated with critical theory. Not content with neo- critical formalism, he explores the structuralist notion of Vraisemblance which goes by several names such as Naturalization, Recuperation, and Motivation as well. Each of these underlines an aspect of meaning and coherence. Each of these tries to situate the text with a view to making it ‘seem natural or real’. As to Naturalization, it is the idea of bringing the ‘strange or deviant’ into an intelligible order. Culler places all these under his concept of Vraisemblance which works on certain structuralist assumptions. These five relate to (1) “the socially given text” (2) to general cultural text, (3) Convention of the genre (4) Natural attitude to the artificial and (5) intertextualities. Three famous non-poetic texts- Kafka’s The Metamorphosis,Marcel Aymes’s Dermuche and William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily are critically examined from the point of view of Vraisemblance or Naturalization

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References

• Jonathan Culler, Structuralist Poetics ( London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975), p138-160.
• Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” in Classics of Modern Fiction (edited) (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, inc, 1960), pp. 411-455.
• Marcel Ayme,” Dermuche” in The scope of Fiction, ed. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn warren (New York : Appelton – Century Crofts & Company, 1945), pp.251-258.
• William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” in Understanding Fiction, ed. Cleanth Brooks,Jr and Robert Penn Warren ( F. S. Crofts & Company, 1945), pp 400-409.
• Mary Doyle Springer,” Form of Modern Novella” (Chicago:University of Chicago Press,1975),pp.105-109
• Tzvetan Torov, “ The Fantastic”( Cleveland: The Press of Case Western Reserve University,1973), p.56
• Fydor Dostoevsky, “ Notes from The Underground and The Grand Inquistor” (New York: Dutton,1960), p.6.
• Irving Howe,” William Faulkner: A Critical Study” ( New York: Vintage Books, 1962), p.265
• Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan,” Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics” ( New York: Methuen, 1983), p.78.