REPETITION AND STRUCTURE: A STUDY OF WILLIAM FAULKNER AND CLAUDE SIMON by EVELYN MARGOT COBLEY B.A., Brigham Young-University, 1972 M.A., The University of British Columbia,.1975 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Programme in Comparative Literature) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September 1979 (c) Evelyn Mar got Cob ley,. 1979 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department nf Comparative Literature The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Qa£e September 7, 1979 ii ABSTRACT This study focuses on repetition as a literary device and documents its findings with examples from William Faulkner's Absalom, Ahsalomt and Claude Simon's La Route des Flandres. It distinguishes between the fol• lowing kinds of repetition: 1. Immediate repetition of words where two or more identical or near-identical words succeed each other immediately. 2. Interrupted repetition of words or sentences where some material separates two or more occurrences of the same or similar words (sentences). 3. Repetitive patterns in the narrative structure which take the form of a) simple duplication of episodes, characters, narrators; b) repetition as a retardation device in the suspense structure of Absalom, Absalom!; c) repetition in the fragmented structure of La Route des Flandres; d) doubling of characters in repetitive behavioral patterns. 4. Repetition and Intertextuality where literary allusions draw at• tention to the "copy mechanism" which connects a text with a pre- coded cultural system. These divisions form the major chapters of this study; they move from the smallest to the largest units of the fictional text and follow an analogical rather than a causal pattern. The major purpose of repetition in Absalom, Absalom', and La Route des Flandres is to perform such functions as ambiguities; formal transitions between episodes; the relationship between main narrative and digressions; narrative pace, temporal stratifications, narrative voices, thematic associations; the relationship between fact and fiction; narrative progres• sion; the symmetrical arrangement of narrative fragments; the doubling of characters and narrators in structural and psychoanalytic terms; represen• tation and non-referentiality in literature. As a result, repetition in Iii Absalom, Absalom! and La Route des. Flandres,: 1. conforms to conventional usage in some instances and exploits experimental pos.s.ibalities in others.. 2. contributes both to narrative continuity and discontinuity. 3. functions as an ordering, stabilizing device but acts as a subversive agent when it erodes the coherence it supposedly establishes and maintains. 4. challenges literary conventions by blurring the distinctions between such categories as character and narrator, past and present, time of narration and time of the narrative, main story and narrative frame. 5. challenges assumptions about human nature by undermining the concept of the independent and isolated human individual. 6. challenges assumptions about the nature of creativity by questioning the possibility of original (ex nihilo) literary production. Most critics discuss repetition in terms of sameness and "spatial form." Assuming that a word or phrase, when repeated, is identical to its previous occurrences, they conclude that the aim of repetition is to abolish time by space. But this study makes difference rather than sameness the main focus and accounts for the effect on repetition of intervening material. This new perspective corrects the overemphasis that the "spatial form" orthodoxy places on analogical relationships. When repetitive devices are analyzed both temporally and spatially, Faulkner and Simon are seen to go beyond spatial form to exploit repetition through breaks in the narrative sequence. Continuities and discontinuities thus complement each other in ways that differ significantly from "spatial form" interpretations. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. Abstract p. ii Table of Contents p. iv A Note on References and Acknowledgments p. vii Preface p. viii Introduction p. 1 Chapter I: Immediate Repetition p. 13 1. Introduction to immediate repetition p. 13 2. Immediate Repetition influences relationships within the text p. 17 a. Affective intensity and semantic ambiguity p. 17 b. Formal transcendence p. 21 c. Cumulative pattern p. 23 3. Immediate Repetition influences the relationship between text and reality p. 26 4. Immediate Repetition and relationship between two types of fiction p. 29 a. Structural pivot p. 30 b. Word games p. 36 5. Conclusion p. 37 Chapter II: Interrupted Repetition of words and sentences p. 40 1. Introduction p. 40 2. Repetition in the sentence p. 42 3. Repetition in the arrangement of recurring key-words p. 46 a. Mood and atmosphere p. 46 b. Characterization p. 49 c. Association p. 50 d. Instability p. 52 e. Pace p. 55 V 4. Repetition in the structural operations of recurring key• words p. 57 a. Orientation among narrative voices and strands p. 58 b. Temporal stratification and ellipses p. 62 c. Documentation p. 63 d. Heterogeneous connections p. 66 e. Transitions p. 69 5. Conclusion p. 71 Chapter III: Repetitive Patterns in the Narrative Structure p. 73 1. Introduction p. 73 2. Simple duplication of episodes, characters, narrators p. 75 a. Juxtaposition (parallelism and contrast) p. 76 b. Superimposition p. 81 c. Substitution p. 89 3. Repetition in the Overall Structure p. 96 a. Repetition and suspense (Faulkner) p. 98 i. The role of repetition in a proleptic opening p. 100 ii. The role of repetition in misleading information p. 103 iii. The role of repetition in the overall narrative pro• gression p. 105 iv. The role of repetition in point of view p. 113 v. The role of repetition within narrative levels p. 118 vi. The role of repetition in the struggle between fact and fiction p. 120 vii. Conclusion to repetition and suspense p. 121 b. Repetition and fragmentation (Simon) p. 125 i. Some basic observations about the narrative structure in "La Route" p. 126 ii. The relationship between repetition and fragmentation p. 129 iii. Temporal story progression p. 13Q iv. Formal narrative patterns p. 134 v. Conclusion to repetition and fragmentation p. 139 4. Repetitive Behavioral Patterns p. 142 a. Doubling as a traditional Freudian phenomenon p. 143 b. Doubling as a synchronic phenomenon p. 148 i. Theoretical background p. 149 ii. Application to "Absalom" p. 156 iii. Application to "La Route" p. 162 c. Doubling as a diachronic phenomenon p. 165 i. Theoretical background p. 166 ii. Application to "Absalom" p. 168 iii. Application to "La Route" p. 175 5. Conclusion p. 177 Chapter IV: Repetition and Intertextuality p. 180 1. Introduction p. 180 2. Literary allusions and critical attitudes p. 183 3. Literary allusions as inappropriate parallels p. 185 4. Literary allusions and cultural authority p. 187 5. Literary allusions and arbitrariness p. 202 6. Literary allusions as structural paradigms p. 205 7. Literary allusions as self-quotations p. 208 8. Literary allusions to contemporary authors p. 210 9. Conclusion p. 213 Conclusion p. 217 Footnotes p. 224 Selected Bibliography p. 239 vii A NOTE ON REFERENCES The edition of William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! cited through• out is the Modern Library Edition published by Random House, New York, 1936; rpt. 1964. The edition of Claude Simon's La Route des Flaridres cited through• out is published by Editions de Minuit, Paris, 1960. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Professors F. Grover and G. Good of the University of British Columbia for their valuable criticism and advice pertain• ing to the preparation of this thesis. I am grateful to John Cobley for his support and encouragement. I am also indebted to the Canada Council for its financial support. viii PREFACE This study has arisen out of a more or less intuitive awareness that recent prose fiction makes both frequent and innovative use of repe• tition. As I turned to critical investigations of the theory and practice of literary repetition, I found that very little work had been done in this area and that the existing approaches tended to be rather one-sided. Since articles and books dealing directly with my subject were relatively scarce, I had to extend my research into related fields in order to apply their methods and findings to my own study. With some diligence and some luck I stumbled on many interesting theories of language and fiction that shed considerable light on my enterprise. The main difficulty of my approach was that I did not know in advance what exactly I was looking for. Since I could not find a coherent and convincing theory or model for repetition, I had to formulate one with the supplementary help of literary texts. The texts did not only supply illustrations (answers) for a theory but, at the same time, they provided the questions that would have to be asked for such a theory to come into existence. This meant that I had to start my analysis from the texts without making an interpretation my main concern. My initial intention was to consult a representative cross-section of contemporary fiction in order to determine the role of repetition in recent literary developments. But, since texts had to be read very closely for the right theoretical questions to emerge, I decided to limit myself to two texts. Absalom, Absalom! and La Route des Flandres suggested themselves because they typify the "difficult" or experimental novel and because they include a variety of examples illustrating the use of repetition.