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Secrets and Ethics in Ali Smith's the Accidental Secrets and ethics in Ali Smith’s novel The Accidental Noora Vesterinen Pro gradu -tutkielma Taiteiden ja kulttuurin tutkimuksen laitos Jyväskylän yliopisto Kevät 2014 JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta – Faculty Laitos – Department Humanistinen tiedekunta Taiteiden ja kulttuurin tutkimuksen laitos Tekijä – Author Noora Vesterinen Työn nimi – Title Secrets and ethics in Ali Smith’s novel The Accidental Oppiaine – Subject Työn laji – Level Kirjallisuus Pro gradu -tutkielma Aika - Month and year Sivumäärä – Number of pages Maaliskuu 2014 145 Tiivistelmä – Abstract Tutkielma käsittelee Ali Smithin (s. 1962) romaania The Accidental (2005, suomennettu 2006 nimellä Satunnainen ) salaisuuksien ja etiikan näkökulmasta. Luenta kiertyy teoksen viiden päähenkilön ympärille. Erityistä huomiota kohdistetaan Amberiin, salaperäiseen vieraaseen, joka poikkeaa täysin muista teoksen henkilöhahmoista. Luennan lähtökohtana on ajatus salaisuuksien ja etiikan yhteydestä paitsi romaanin päähenkilöiden maailmassa myös laajemmin. Tutkin, mitä romaani paljastaa salaisuuksien ja etiikan olemuksesta sekä niiden välisistä yhteyksistä. Luennan teoreettinen viitekehys jakautuu salaisuuksiin liittyvään teoriaan sekä eettiseen kerronnan teoriaan. Salaisuudet valottuvat paitsi käsitteen tarkan määrittelyn ja avaamisen kautta (Sissela Bok, Matei Calinescu) myös aukon käsitteen avulla (Gérard Genette, Leona Toker). Kerronnan etiikan teoriaa avataan yhtäältä retorisen etiikan näkökulmasta (James Phelan) ja toisaalta toiseuden etiikan kautta (Andrew Gibson, Simon Critchley). Teoreettisen taustan moninaisuus tulee perustelluksi henkilöhahmojen keskinäisten erojen kautta, mikä mahdollistaa sekä salaisuuksien että etiikan monipuolisen käsittelyn. Analyysi osoittaa, että salaisuudet ja etiikka ovat monimutkaisia ilmiöitä, joita The Accidental käsittelee paitsi kerrotun myös kerronnan piirissä. Henkilöhahmojen tarkka luenta paljastaa muun muassa, että salaisuuksilla on taipumus ketjuuntua, ja että salaisuuden pitämisellä voi olla arvaamattomia seurauksia. Romaanin kerronnan etiikka osoittautuu monitulkintaiseksi, mikä haastaa lukijaa eettiseen pohdintaan. Hypoteesi siitä, että salaisuudet ja etiikka kietoutuvat romaanissa toisiinsa monin tavoin, pitää paikkansa. Salaisuuksien pitäminen näyttäytyy syvästi eettisenä toimintana, ja toisaalta etiikan perusolemus hahmottuu osittain salaiseksi. Asiasanat – Keywords Smith, Ali - The Accidental - salaisuus - etiikka- kertomuksen tutkimus - aukko - kerronnan etiikka Säilytyspaikka – Depository Taiteiden ja kulttuurin tutkimuksen laitos, Jyväskylän yliopisto; Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto Muita tietoja – Additional information Tutkielma on myös englannin kielen syventävien opintojen sivulaudaturtyö. Table of contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Accidental and Ali Smith ............................................................................... 1 1.2 Research questions and hypotheses .................................................................. 9 2. Theoretical framework ............................................................................................. 15 2.1 Secrets in narratives ........................................................................................... 15 2.2 Ethics in narratives .............................................................................................. 26 3. Secrets in The Accidental .......................................................................................... 41 3.1 The secrets of the Smarts ................................................................................... 41 3.1.1 Astrid: secrets of a victim ........................................................................... 42 3.1.2 Magnus: secrets of a wrongdoer ................................................................ 46 3.1.3 Michael: secrets of an adulterer ................................................................ 49 3.1.4 Eve: secrets of a fake .................................................................................... 53 3.2 The secret of Amber ............................................................................................ 56 3.2.1 Reading Amber’s secret .............................................................................. 56 3.2.2 Effects of Amber’s secret ............................................................................. 70 3.3 Secrets revealed? ................................................................................................. 76 4. Ethics in The Accidental ............................................................................................ 81 4.1 The ethics of the Smarts ..................................................................................... 81 4.1.1 Astrid: ethics of responsibility .................................................................. 82 4.1.2 Magnus: ethics of relation .......................................................................... 88 4.1.3 Michael: ethics of passion ........................................................................... 94 4.1.4 Eve: ethics of authenticity .......................................................................... 99 4.2 The ethics of Amber ........................................................................................... 106 4.2.1 Reading Amber’s ethics ............................................................................. 107 4.2.2 Effects of Amber’s ethics ........................................................................... 114 4.3 Ethics revealed? ................................................................................................. 117 5. Secrets + ethics = ? ................................................................................................... 124 5.1 Ethics of secrecy ................................................................................................. 124 5.2 Secrecy of ethics ................................................................................................. 127 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 132 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 136 1. Introduction 1.1 The Accidental and Ali Smith Lives are changed accidentally in Ali Smith’s critically acclaimed novel The Accidental (2005). It is a novel that tells the classic story of a life-changing visitation of a stranger, but with a 21 st century twist. The Accidental focuses on a disconnected family, through the depiction of which it deals with the strangeness of life: knowing and not-knowing yourself and the others around you. It is also a novel about how a stranger can make one see one’s own life in a new way. Most importantly and intriguingly, however, it is a novel about secrets and ethics and how they intertwine and change our lives. This is why my study of The Accidental focuses on secrets and ethics, their effects and connections, in the novel. The Accidental tells the story of how an uninvited stranger, Amber, transforms the way in which each of the Smart family members tries to deal with their secrets and ethical problems. Astrid, the 12-year-old girl, is being bullied at school, but she has not told her family about it. Instead, she videotapes the sunrises in the countryside, and finds a friend and a confidant in Amber. Astrid’s 17-year-old brother Magnus’s secret has to do with bullying as well: he has, together with two other boys, photoshopped a girl’s picture and emailed it round the school, and now blames himself for the girl’s suicide. Amber has an affair with Magnus, and this seems to bring the boy back to life. Their stepfather Michael, literature professor, has a different kind of secret, one of which his wife Eve already knows: he sleeps with his students. Later he falls in love with Amber, one-sidedly. Eve, mother and writer of ‘autobiotruefictinterviews’, secretly suffers from a writer’s block and nurtures serious doubts about the choices she has made in her life. Her and Amber’s relationship has the most dissonance: Amber seems to both heal and irritate Eve. Finally Eve forces Amber to leave, and the family returns to their London home, which they discover has been broken into, and completely empty. The novel ends with both children dealing with their secrets, Michael having to leave the university temporarily and Eve travelling all the way to the United States, where she settles in a house that belongs to people she does not know. The narrative of The Accidental is focalized through the five main characters: Amber, Astrid, Magnus, Michael and Eve. The structure of the novel is interesting, because it presents four different versions of the family’s life: each of the family members has their own beginning, middle and end in the three parts of the novel named respectively the beginning, the middle and the end. Focalization brings each individual to the centre of the narrative in turns, which strengthens the image of them as separate persons with their ethical problems and secrets unbeknownst to the others, problematizing the significance of family. Amber’s parts are significantly shorter and very different from the other parts of the narrative; she is the only character whose narrative is told by a first person narrator. These sections focus mostly on cinema, and thus convey the idea
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