Table Of ContentThe Practice of Reading
The Practice of
Reading
Interpreting the Novel
DerekAlsop
and
ChrisWalsh
©D.K.AlsopandC.J.Walsh1999
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ForAngela and Linden
with love
However muchthouart readin theory,ifthouhastno practicethou
art ignorant.
Muslih-al-DinSheikh Sa'adi, Gulistan(258), trans. James Ross
Thisbookisnotdirectedtoacademics, becauseonlyasmall remnant
ofthemstillreadforthe loveofreading.
HaroldBloom,TheWestern Canon (994)
What Ihave beensayingisthatwhatevertheydo,itwillonlybe
interpretationinanotherguise because,likeitornot,interpretationis
the onlygame intown.
StanleyFish,IsThereaTextin ThisClass?(980)
Anovelisalivingthing,allone andcontinuous,likeany other
organism, andinproportionasitliveswillitbe found,Ithink, thatin
eachofthe partsthereissomethingofeachofthe otherparts.
HenryJames, 'TheArtofFiction' (884)
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiv
Listofeditionsused xv
1 ReadingandInterpretation 1
2 The RoleoftheReader:Tristram Shandy 28
3 The ProcessofReading: PrideandPrejudice 51
4 The ExperienceofReading:GreatExpectations 76
5 DeconstructionandReading:DanielDeronda 96
6 ReadingasRevelation:APortraitoftheArtistasaYoungMan 119
7 ReadingtheSelf:Beckett's Trilogy- Molloy;Malone Dies;
The Unnamable 140
8 PostmodernistReadings:Possession 163
Conclusion 184
Notes 192
Select Bibliography 207
Index 216
vii
Preface
Aprefaceisagood place to tellreaderswhatto expect - andwhatnot
to expect - in a book. Although, in this book, the challenging and
flouting of expectations are shown to be an important part of the
novel-reading experience, it would be a trifle perverse were we to
require ourreaders to proceed to the followingchapters in uncertain
anticipation oftheircontents. Sowhat kind ofbook is The Practiceof
Reading: InterpretingtheNovel?Andwhatkind ofbookisitnot?
First, this book is notan introductory surveyor synopsis of estab
lished theoretical and critical approaches. Neither does it attempt to
help readers catchup with the latestdevelopmentsin accountsofthe
reader in current literary theory. The present proliferation of intro
ductory books is partly the response to a certain feeling of helpless
ness we all experience when faced with so many new, and often
complex, theoretical books. GeoffreyBennington has aptly acknowl
edged the shared 'recognition of the need to "gain time" . . .
allow[ingJ readers to make conversation . . . about thinkers whose
worktherehas notbeentime to read'.1ThePracticeofReading, inthis
sense, will not save readers much (ifany) time. In our references to
influential critical thinkers of the late twentieth century, we do not
attempt to provide aconcise survey oftheirachievements, or abroad
outline of their careers and summaries of their contributions to
current thinking. Although we do hope that readers will find many
informed points of departure for their own further reading of criti
cism, the main aim ofour book is to encourage a return to the close
readingofnovels.Our use oftheoryinthe pages thatfollowiseclectic;
our aim is always the elucidation of the experience of reading the
novels selected, and the revelationofthe problems- and pleasures!
which reading entails. Therefore, there is no single favoured critical
discourse: we are interested in all theories which offer insights into
reading novels. Far from offering a short-cut, we aim to celebrate the
pleasures ofcareful, detailed attention, and ifthis volume belongs to
ix
x Preface
any tradition it might be best placed alongside those texts (whatever
their critical persuasion) which demonstrate a commitment to close
reading. However, this isnottosaythatthis bookhas no introductory
qualities:thoseunfamiliarwith theories ofreadingwillfind arange of
approachesexplainedandapplied.Wedo notassumepreviousinten
sive critical reading on the part ofourreaders, and so do not take for
granted complex technical issues. Our aim is to be lucid about the
helpfulness of certain ideas and perspectives in defining the impor
tance ofthe reader's role in the productionofmeaning.Todo this we
must at times simplify, butwe aim not to oversimplify;we use termi
nology when it is helpful, not because it is fashionable. This book is
not written as a reaction against theory: we do.not, for instance,
lamentthe excesses ofpostmodernism.Neitherdowewish to provide
a critique aimed at exposing the weaknesses of particular theoretical
approaches. But nor do we pay lip-service to current critical ortho
doxies.Ultimately, we are muchmoreinterestedin readingsofnovels
thaninthe use ofnovels tovalidatepreferredtheories.
The Practice ofReading has a few, simple premises: that reading
novels demands the skills of careful textual analysis; that no thor
oughgoinganalysis ofthe novel can ignore those theoretical develop
ments, from reception aesthetics to poststructuralism and beyond,
which have placed the activity of reading at the centre of critical
debate; and that the best way to examine theoretical concepts is
throughthe practiceofreading. Most importantly,behindeveryclaim
made in the following pages is the governing idea that reading is a
creative, interpretational activity with profound and transforming
implications.Wehopethis bookconveys oursenseofthe urgencyand
the intensity of the reading experience. Aswe willsee, though, what
wecall'theexperienceofreading' isinfinitelycomplex.Wewillnotbe
suggesting that there issome simple 'experience' to be valued above
andbeyondmoresophisticatedreflectionson reading. Itisthe nature
and quality of the experience which matters, not the mere fact that
whenwe readwe inevitablyhave somekind ofexperience.Our aim is
to return the readerto the practice ofclose reading in the light ofthe
various issues and questions which any detailed consideration of
reading inevitably raises. With its emphasis on practice, the book
explores acts ofinterpretationin termsofthe dynamicsofthe reading
process.
It is no accident, though, that the book opens and closes by refer
ring to the thrill ofreading, asexpressedbycommentatorsasdifferent
Preface xi
as Richard RortyandA. S.Byatt.Weagree with Rorty (and his critical
practice never oversimplifies the matter) that 'books should make a
difference', and ourtreasured memories ofthe experience of reading
are,likeByatt's, thosewhich'makethe hairs on the neck ... standon
end'. It is worth stressing here that wherever critics express their
commitment to reading there is likelyto be some virtue. To take an
examplefrom Chapter2:althoughwehave reservationsaboutMelvyn
New's view of Tristram Shandy,his idea that 'our interpretations are
our lives' suggests that we have more in common with his approach
thanwith the approaches ofothersforwhomcriticism has nothingto
dowithvalues.
Weought, perhaps, in this preface, to remarkon the methodwhich
takes one major novel per chapter (or, in the case of Chapter 7, a
major trilogy of novels) to illustrate particular aspects of the reading
process. Most important, here, is the assumption throughout that
reading is an intertextual activity. To read Tristram Shandy is to be
told (explicitly,by Tristram) to 'read,read, read', and no close atten
tion to Sterne's novel could leave the reader without the strongest
sensethatthe novel owes muchofits textual existenceto the writings
of others, and that its indebtedness has a convoluted intertextual
history. According to Derek Attridge, in a statement with which we
entirely agree, we can never read Joyce for the first time: his texts
intersect with all aspects of our reading culture. Similarly, Byatt's
novel Possession, with which we end our discussion, has the final
word on the intertextual nature of the reading experience, with its
impressive collection of interpolated texts, merging a fictional recre
ation ofthe pastwith the threads ofactual literaryhistory.The range
ofnovels we have chosento discuss exemplifies the diverse nature of
textual relationsandinterrelations.
We have also chosen these novels because they are themselves
books which highlight the significanceofreading:they offerplentyof
particular instances of reading proper (for example, Elizabeth
Bennet's crucial reading of Darcy's letter, or Pip's profoundly self
consciousreadingofanotetelling him to 'Pleasereadthis, here'); and
they are more generally suggestive about the formative connections
betweenreadingandotherexperiences.
The novels selectedallowus to introducearange ofcomplexissues
arising from ouroverarchingemphasison the practiceofreading. The
choice of novels allows us to differentiate between the various kinds
of issues which reading experiences raise, and the individual works
