CCLA01: Strangers to Ourselves: the Critical Study of Narrative

Character: Week 3 (1)

Read the following texts:

Aristotle, from the Poetics: chapters on Imitation and Character

Chatman, "Existents" from Story and Discourse

David Lodge, "Introducing a Character"

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, "Ketjapi"

Reading Strategies and Preparation

First read "Ketjapi," and note down your responses to the story.

Now read Lodge's "Introducing a Character," George Landow's brief guide to Characterization and the selections from Aristotle.

The Chatman essay builds upon your previous two readings, and you may find it more difficult. Think of it as a chance to strecth yourself. If you find yourself short of time, note that pp. 108-110 are a commentary on Aristotle. Chatman's remaining discussion is essentially chewing over a single question: to what extent does it make sense for us to think of characters as "models" of real people, and to what extent are they just functions of the plot? Clarify Chatman's conclusion, in which he calls for an "open theory of character" (119). We will be extracting a few points rather ruthlessly from the essay in our seminar and not considering it in its totality, but you may wish to follow the guidelines suggested for reading critical and theoretical essays and read the essay closely in its entirety. In this case, try to identify key points and terms, and questions that you have: if these are not answered in our class meeting, there's always the narrative café section of the IVLE discussion group!

Preparatory Writing

Write a one or two paragraph answer (100-200 words or so) to any one of the six questions below, and post it to the IVLE bulletin board. In order to gain practice for your first assignment, try to illustrate your answer by quoting relevant passages from the text. Remember to bring a copy of your response to the seminar meeting.

1. Write an extra paragraph of character description to add to the story, indicating the precise place in the story where you would like to add it. In a separate paragraph, indicate what effect you were trying to create in your extra paragraph.

2. In "Introducing a Character," David Lodge argues that "all description in fiction is highly selective; its basic rhetorical techniques is synecdoche, the part standing for the whole." Pramoedya certainly makes use of a series of small details in the passage in which his narrator introduces the hero of "Ketjapi":

I first met him under the eaves of a house I wanted to rent. He was wearing black shorts. His back was hunched and his ribs stuck out like rows of crabs' legs. His red eyes longed for a good night's rest, but the plaintive tone in his voice begged for attention.

"Even though I am just one of the little people," he said with pride, "God has granted me the good grace to meet a number of our great leaders: the president, ministers, high-ranking officials."

And again his ribs undulated, really and truly like a crawling crab, and his reddish eyes blazed: he solicited my absolute attention, and that attention I gave him.

"So what is it that you do?" I asked.

It turned out he was a debt-collector for a doctor in private practice.

Later, we became neighbours.

Over time I came to realize that his life was a long chain of fears: of demons, of the police, of sorcerers, of rich people, of his own bitterness at not hitting it big on the black market, of his wife's nagging, and a whole lot more that could be linked to the chain. It was as though each step forward was two steps back--paralyzing! And what he sought were fragments to hold on to: the turtledove he sprayed with his own spit each Friday, and the spontaneous expression of his sexual fantasies: so beautiful. so fair (when a woman happened by)! And his red eyes would flash demonically.

And when Saturday night arrived, he'd take his ketjapi from its place and, alone, begin to play sesindiran. Occasionally another neighbour would bring a violin and their playing would grow quite lively. The sesindiran would quickly be replaced by tembang sekar. Then the aura of his homeland--the Land of Valleys and Mountains--would descend from the heavens. The faint sound of the singing would suddenly change into something lively and passionate. Ah dreams! Ah reality! The two coexist within each person. The two are constantly at war. That's why no one can escape them.

Using Lodge's reading of Sally Bowles as a model, write a brief analysis of how details in the passage above give us clues regarding the character of the anonymous "hero."

3. Try to apply Aristotle's notions of imitation and character to "Ketjapi." Is the "hero" in Pramoedya's story better than characters in real life, worse, or is the story just representing things as they are? How many of Aristotle's "four things to be aimed at" with regard to character does the story in fact achieve? Is the story faulty, or are Aristotle's criteria problematic?

4. Would you say that "Ketjapi" was a plot-centered narrative or a character-centred narrative in Todorov's terms (see Chatman, "Existents," p. 113)? In answering, you may like to think of whether discourse or story predominates in the narrative.

5. Indulge in a series of speculations about the "hero" of the story concerning anything about him which we are not told in the text (see Chatman, "Existents," 119-120)-- e.g. his tastes, his past life, his appearance. Be as creative as you want, but be prepared to defend your "reconstruction" of the character by showing how you have built upon suggestions in and inferences from the story.

6. Why do you think that none of the characters' names are given in the story?