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Creating Suspense and Surprise in Short Literary Fiction: a Stylistic and Narratological Approach

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Creating Suspense and Surprise in Short Literary Fiction: a Stylistic and Narratological Approach CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository CREATING SUSPENSE AND SURPRISE IN SHORT LITERARY FICTION: A STYLISTIC AND NARRATOLOGICAL APPROACH by YUMIKO IWATA A thesis submitted to School of Humanities of The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English School of Humanities The University of Birmingham July 2008 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Suspense and surprise, as common and crucial elements of interest realised in literary fiction, are analysed closely in a sample of short stories, so as to develop a detailed explanation of how these forms of interest are created in literary texts, and to propose models for them. Creating suspense involves more conditions, necessary and optional, and more complication than surprise: the several optional conditions mainly serve to intensify the feeling of suspense the reader experiences. Surprise requires two necessary and sufficient conditions, with only a couple of optional conditions to maintain or ensure coherence in the text. The differences are considered attributable to a more fundamental difference between suspense and surprise as emotions. Suspense can be regarded as a progressive emotion, whereas surprise is a perfective emotion. As such, suspense as an interest is considered as a process-oriented interest, while surprise is an effect-oriented one. Suspense is mostly experienced while reading and has the reader involved with the story. Surprise drives the reader to reassess the story in the new light it throws on events and to look for some further message; this is often a main aim of the literary fiction which ends in surprise. To the memory of my mother. Acknowledgements For the past ten years spent in completing the thesis, I have experienced the most adverse circumstances that words cannot fully describe. The years have been filled with obstacles and losses and I was forced to spend more time coping almost single-handedly with all sorts of problems which arose incessantly than I spent in working on the thesis. If I had been the protagonist of the story, the reader would have experienced suspense repeatedly over whether I could complete the thesis or not even to the extent that they too became exhausted. Now that the thesis is completed, which is a little surprising, I cannot but deeply appreciate all the help and support provided in academic and material areas by many people in England and Japan. Had any aspect of this help been missing, the thesis could not have been completed. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Michael Toolan, for his many years’ constant supervision and academic support since my embarking on the thesis in 1996 and sympathetic understanding with my circumstances since I suspended the course in December 1997. I especially appreciate his academic advice and support which have always surpassed expectations. As I believe that my difficulties with progress over an unusually long time must have required of him (or anyone) infinite patience, I am grateful for that as well. To the staff at the Department of English and the University, who have been highly supportive and understanding with my difficulties for so many years, I am deeply thankful. I also thank Dr Sheldon Penn, Dr James Williams and those who were then postgraduates in Faculty of Arts for their cooperation with my survey in 1997 when they themselves were under pressure of their own theses. Their cooperation with my work was a tremendous help. I would like to show my appreciation to my former professors in Japan who encouraged me when I could not concentrate on work. To Mr Mike Milward, formerly Professor at Sophia University, Tokyo, I owe gratitude for completion of this thesis in many ways. He has been helping me with my academic English since I wrote my MA dissertation. Also, his suggestions often extended to interpretation of stories, analyses of the texts and ways of thinking, which helped me to understand the stories better and analyse them more carefully. Dr Akiko Ueda, Emeritus Professor of Tsuda College, Tokyo, took the time to read and comment on one of the chapters and occasionally encouraged me to complete my work, for which I am really grateful. She also offered me several classes to teach at her college and other schools, which was another invaluable help for me to continue the thesis. I do appreciate her generous support both research-wise and job-wise. During the first long stay in Birmingham from September 1996 to April 1998 and subsequent short stays in the summers in 2000, 2001 and 2006, I was given a great deal of support in various ways from quite a few people in two countries. Among others, I am grateful to Mr and Mrs Frank for their enormous help. They readily accepted my request to store my personal belongings in large boxes for two years and stored them in their house actually for eight years in total. Thanks to their incredibly generous help, my stays in England and frequent travels across the Continent were far easier and more comfortable. I spent most of my time in England at the Queens Foundation (formerly known as the Queens College). To the bursars and the other staff of the Queens in those days, I do want to express my appreciation of their charitable spirits. At home I had help from many. I especially appreciate Mr Murakami, an old acquaintance of mine in Tokyo, for showing his concern with both my studying abroad and difficulties back in Japan. Without his assistance, I would have suffered more undue problems and difficulties than I did. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the present study 1 1.1.1 Interestingness and affect in reading narratives 2 1.1.2 Suspense and surprise as interestingness 3 1.1.3 Emotion in reading literature—recent trends and developments 6 1.2 Aims and objectives 11 1.3 Organisation 16 2 SUSPENSE AND SURPRISE: PREVIOUS STUDIES AND PROPOSALS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 18 2.1 Suspense 19 2.1.1 Previous studies I: literary and narratological approaches 19 2.1.2 Previous studies II: psycholinguistic and psychological approaches 24 2.1.2.1 Structural affect theory: Brewer and Lichtenstein (1981, 1982) 24 2.1.2.2 Other psychological approaches 27 2.1.2.2.1 Alternative developments 27 2.1.2.2.2 Uncertainty of the outcome and subjective certainty 28 2.1.2.2.3 Expectation/anticipation 30 2.1.2.2.4 Suspense resolution and character development 32 2.1.2.2.5 Summary 35 2.1.3 Suspense in literary texts: assessment and proposals for further research 36 2.1.3.1 Text differences 37 2.1.3.2 Suspense and resolution 38 2.1.3.3 Characters’ dispositions 39 2.1.3.4 Point of view 43 2.1.3.5 Bifurcation/alternative story lines and literary interest 45 2.1.3.6 Delay 47 2.1.3.7 Individual differences 48 2.2 Surprise 49 2.2.1 Previous studies I: literary and narratological approaches 49 2.2.2 Previous studies II: psycholinguistic and psychological approaches 53 2.2.3 Surprise in literary narratives: assessment and proposals for further research 56 3 FRAMEWORKS OF ANALYSES 65 3.1 Story and discourse: Chatman (1978) 65 3.2 Point of view, narrator and narration: Simpson (1993) 67 3.3 Speech and thought presentation: Leech and Short (1981) 72 3.4 Narrative time: Genette (1980) 77 3.4.1 Order 77 3.4.2 Duration 78 3.4.3 Frequency 80 4 ANALYSIS I: STRUCTURE OF LITERARY SUSPENSE 81 4.1 Literary Texts for Analysis 81 4.2 Analyses of Literary Suspense 83 4.2.1 Bifurcation of plot lines 83 4.2.2 Resolution of suspense 85 4.2.3 Episode of interest 94 4.2.4 Characters and characterisation 99 4.2.5 Point of view and suspense—with some linguistic and stylistic analyses 107 4.2.5.1 General overview: interaction between point of view and suspense creation 108 4.2.5.2 Some examples of stylistic and narratological devices 112 4.2.5.2.0 “Indian Camp” 112 4.2.5.2.1 “Little Things” 113 4.2.5.2.2 “A Small, Good Thing” 115 4.2.5.2.3 “Two Gallants” 117 4.2.5.2.4 “The Mouse” 120 4.2.5.2.5 “The Necklace” 123 4.2.5.2.6 “Let Me Sleep” 124 4.2.5.2.7 “The Age of Grief” 125 4.2.5.2.8 “A Lady with Lapdog” 130 4.2.5.2.9 “The Prophet’s Hair” 133 4.2.6 Sustainment of suspense 136 4.2.6.1 General overview 137 4.2.6.2 Examples of sustainment: stylistic and narratological analyses 141 4.2.6.2.0 “Indian Camp” 141 4.2.6.2.1 “Little Things” 143 4.2.6.2.2 “A Small, Good Thing” 145 4.2.6.2.3 “Two Gallants” 149 4.2.6.2.4 “The Mouse” 152 4.2.6.2.5 “The Necklace” 153 4.2.6.2.6 “Let Me Sleep” 155 4.2.6.2.7 “The Age of Grief” 158 4.2.6.2.8 “A Lady with Lapdog” 161 4.2.6.2.9 “The Prophet’s Hair” 165 4.3 Conditions of literary suspense: summary 168 4.3.1 Bifurcation 168 4.3.2 Resolution 169 4.3.3 Episode of interest 170 4.3.4 Characters and characterisation 171 4.3.5 Point of view 173 4.3.6 Sustainment 174 4.4 Model of literary suspense 176 5.
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