ENGL 495 Lecture 16: ENGL 424 14 February
4 Jun 2018
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14 February, 2018
Theme of changing the subject when something they don’t want to talk about comes up
Virtues of misdirection → Shakespearean values, Polonius (misdirection to find direction)
- Affronting something directly doesn’t get the same result; approach difficult topics (ie,
Irish independence, revolutionary violence) through misdirection
- Aesthetic problem, conversational tactic → characters stop short of saying what’s on
their mind
- Ex: when Gerald gets shot in the head, not immediately obvious who the
characters are talking about, no intervention from the narrator
- Problem of not wanting to be direct, to state your mind, to be controversial
- Inference, innuendo, insinuation
- Readers always making inference, as are characters -- what are the implications
of this as a reading practice, as a political practice? What happens when
someone infers wrong?
- Characters’ statements are gauche when it comes to the Irish (there are things you don’t
say)
*Gerald petting the back of his head = foreshadowing for getting shot in the head
- P 298: Gerald’s name is never actually used in this conversation, though they are clearly
talking about him
- “We knew him so well” → is that a true statement? No, they didn’t like him. Lady
Naylor didn’t approve of him for Lois, but now that he’s dead, she’s writing to his
mother
- “Oh, he was so --” “Yes, he was” → they have no words to describe him
- Misrepresenting the situation through innuendo and insinuation; allowing
mistakes to compound, mistakes that arise through pretending to be what they’re
not
- The em-dashes in the paragraph function to cover up and misdirect
- Things presented as yes/no binaries, correct answer is prompted for the listener,
inference is only sort of the listener’s work
- Bowen often uses multiple negations at once → impossible to arrive at a positive,
commentary on Ireland
- P 299: Laurence doesn’t want to run into Lois, but he does
- Laurence has to rush past laurels to get around Lois; Lois seeking comfort in
laurels/Laura
- Laurence can’t articulate naturally his condolences, same blocked, misdirected
speech
- “There are things that one can’t --”; She meant, “He loved me, he believed in the
British Empire” → there are things that one can’t get past, things that she cannot
get past
- Lois loves Gerald more when he’s dead
- Two unlikely things to put together; is there a causal relationship? Does
he love her because he’s there as a British soldier to preserve the empire
Document Summary
Theme of changing the subject when something they don"t want to talk about comes up. Virtues of misdirection shakespearean values, polonius (misdirection to find direction) Affronting something directly doesn"t get the same result; approach difficult topics (ie, Aesthetic problem, conversational tactic characters stop short of saying what"s on their mind. Ex: when gerald gets shot in the head, not immediately obvious who the characters are talking about, no intervention from the narrator. Problem of not wanting to be direct, to state your mind, to be controversial. Characters" statements are gauche when it comes to the irish (there are things you don"t say) *gerald petting the back of his head = foreshadowing for getting shot in the head. P 298: gerald"s name is never actually used in this conversation, though they are clearly talking about him. Naylor didn"t approve of him for lois, but now that he"s dead, she"s writing to his mother.
