In his 1945 study of Djuna Barne＇s Nightwood, Joseph Frank analyzes a crucial technique of modernist literature, the substitution of spatial relationships for temporal progression as a formal metaphor of thematic dev...In his 1945 study of Djuna Barne＇s Nightwood, Joseph Frank analyzes a crucial technique of modernist literature, the substitution of spatial relationships for temporal progression as a formal metaphor of thematic development. Starting with Gustave Flaubert and recognizing his efforts to duplicate the simultaneity of action possible in drama and later in film, Frank comments that since language proceeds in time, it is possible to approach this simultaneity of perception only by breaking up temporal sequence. While Flaubert introduces this method, it does not become a dominant form until James Joyce＇s Ulysses. According to Frank, spatialization of form in this novel provides an alternative to the chronological development normal to verbal structures, which can be read only in a linear fashion through time, unlike painting and the plastic arts, which can be visually apprehended instantaneously. Applied to Ulysses as a whole by Joseph Frank, the conception of spatial form might as well serve as a convenient point of departure for the analysis on much smaller, let＇s say, ＂episodic＂ scale. In ＂Nausicaa＂ episode, Joyce dissolves temporal sequence by cutting back and forth between the various levels of action in a slowly-rising crescendo to achieve the unified impact, the sense of simultaneous activity occurring in different places. For the duration of the episode the time-flow of the narrative is halted： various levels of action are juxtaposed independently of the progress of the narrative. Joyce, in this fragmentation of narrative structure, proceeded on the assumption that a unified spatial apprehension of not only separate episodes but his entire work would ultimately be possible.展开更多
文摘In his 1945 study of Djuna Barne＇s Nightwood, Joseph Frank analyzes a crucial technique of modernist literature, the substitution of spatial relationships for temporal progression as a formal metaphor of thematic development. Starting with Gustave Flaubert and recognizing his efforts to duplicate the simultaneity of action possible in drama and later in film, Frank comments that since language proceeds in time, it is possible to approach this simultaneity of perception only by breaking up temporal sequence. While Flaubert introduces this method, it does not become a dominant form until James Joyce＇s Ulysses. According to Frank, spatialization of form in this novel provides an alternative to the chronological development normal to verbal structures, which can be read only in a linear fashion through time, unlike painting and the plastic arts, which can be visually apprehended instantaneously. Applied to Ulysses as a whole by Joseph Frank, the conception of spatial form might as well serve as a convenient point of departure for the analysis on much smaller, let＇s say, ＂episodic＂ scale. In ＂Nausicaa＂ episode, Joyce dissolves temporal sequence by cutting back and forth between the various levels of action in a slowly-rising crescendo to achieve the unified impact, the sense of simultaneous activity occurring in different places. For the duration of the episode the time-flow of the narrative is halted： various levels of action are juxtaposed independently of the progress of the narrative. Joyce, in this fragmentation of narrative structure, proceeded on the assumption that a unified spatial apprehension of not only separate episodes but his entire work would ultimately be possible.
