Month: September 2022

Quote: “As words, the character Vardamon and the character in Bishop’s poem offer analogies to psychologizable people, but these analogies stop short of the three-dimensional range that might apply to a person” (Parker 134). 

Comment: I understand this point that in Bishop’s poem “First Death in Nova Scotia,” the unnamed young girl is just “words on paper, not people”(Parker 134) but I feel to some degree that the readers cannot help but imagine and elaborate on the humanness to whatever situation this made up character is in. The ability to analyze this fictional character as a representation of what psychoanalysts would say is a displacement or shift to a less threatening subject as means to cope with one’s own vulnerability appears like an acceptance that this character could be real. 

Question: I want to know more or have more explanation given to this idea of displacements as an interpretation of culture. Taking Bishop’s poem, again, we could say that the psychoanalysis methodologies to interpretation are objectively correct or could be correct if applied to a real person; or we could ask if it varies based on cultural and societal norms. Would someone’s personal experience alter their view on the analysis of the young girl from a psychoanalytic view?

Quote:

 “To-morrow is her last day of grace, and unless we can get the letters to-night this villain will be as good as his word and will bring about her ruin”(4). 

Comment: 

Thinking in terms of a structuralist’s analysis, I immediately notice the defining characteristics of the “detective novel” and its use of a series of events to reach meaningful development. In the work of author Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,” I picked up on this quote because it seems to be the most far-reaching scenario in both short stories, novels, and cinema. That is the woman whose innocence and character face an unavoidable tarnish unless, in a very short period, the individual with some insider information saves her from falling from good society. This genre has many examples to draw from in terms of concepts and the more extensive system of writing that a structuralist would rely on.

Question: 

Going back to Parker’s assertion on the methods within structuralism, I wonder how we could interpret focalization in the case of this Doyle short story. Would we question the known narration of Watson as the focalizer? Is it Holmes who is focalized, or would it be whatever situation their stories bring that takes their attention? I also thought about another point brought up in Parker about the “tale and the telling” in reference to how our reading starts with the insight from our narrator on a tale we don’t yet know. What would a structuralist say is a strength or weakness of this form?