Excessive Suspension of Disbelief: Raymond Jeans La Lectrice Essay

luxuriant Suspension of Disbelief Raymond dungarees La LectriceWhen I mystify a class in fiction or poetry, I always talk for a few minutes about the motleypurposes of lit escape, didactic, and interpretive. I tell my students that escape literatureis a wonderful way to forget our problems for a while (less dangerous than drugs, alcohol,careless sex, or driving), but that escape literature can be harmful if one expects ones personallife to be as exciting, successful, or romantic as that in escape fiction. As trillion Ryans friendsays to her in Sleepless in Seattle, You dont want to be in love. You want to be in love in amovie. Thus my title, Excessive Suspension....In The Literary Work of Art (1931, trans. 1965), Roman Ingarden analyses the layers ofmeaning he beleves exist within a work of fiction. His theories were popularized by Ren Wellekin Theory of literature (Wellek and Warren). Ingarden identifies four strata.The first is the sound stratum, which he defines as the strat um of word sounds and phoneticformations of various orders the second is the stratum of units of meaning of various orders andphonetic formations of various orders the third includes objects represented in the world ofthe novelist, which he defines as the stratum of manifold schematized aspects and aspectcontinua and series (Literary Work of Art, 30) and the fourth includes the stratum ofrepresented objectivities and their vicissitudes or the world as it is seen from a particular messpoint. As Ingarden complains in his preface to his second edition, Wellek had erroneouslyadded a fifth layer, that of metaphysical qualities, which include the tragic, the terrible, andthe holy. Ingarden argues th... ...s read and view and how those fictions shape us. LaLectrice is a testimony to the power a written text whitethorn have-that even a single readingexperience may permanently change a readers life. But, most of all, La Lectrice is great fun.But, as the policeman cautions the lectrice, Read ing is fine, but look where it leads. When youread a book, anything can happen. full treatment CitedIngarden, Roman. The Literary Work of Art. Trans. George G. Grabowicz. EvanstonNorthwestern UP, 1973. From Das literarisch Kunstwerk. Tbingen Max NeimeyerVertag, 1965.-----. The Cognition of Literary Work of Art. Trans. George G. Grabowicz. EvanstonNorthwestern UP, 198. From Von Erkennen des literarisch Kunstwerk. Tbingen MaxNeimeyer Vertag, 1973.Deville, Michel, dir. La Lectrice (film). Elefilm, 1988.Jean Kermer, Raymond, La Lectrice (novel). Editions Jai lu, 1986.