ENGLISH 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Free Indirect Speech
23 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Mavis Gallent – “The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street”
Born and raised in Montreal, moved to Paris where she lived until her death
Canadian expatriates (people temporality living in another nation) are recurring figures in her
fiction
Known primarily for her short stories, many of which have been published in The New
Yorker
Character Driven
Story mediates through characters, it uses character development as a way for us to see the
world from a particular perspective (inside of a character, etc), in a way that allows us to see
a character more than what it itself is aware of – filtering through the character but allowing
reader some perspective
Clip
Writing process – first flash of fiction is not of words (plot) but of a freeze frame of a
character – what their gender/nationality/age/attitude/qualities/secrets
Subjectivity – introducing the story as an experiment of subjectivity through character
exploration. Subjectivity of character is influenced by identity, influences, social pressure,
desires, etc. – the author first figures this out and then throws them into situations and then
shapes how they would react/think, etc.
Author is interested in characters who are uprooted or “unsettled”—each character is
presented as an open question rather than a set of answers. Peter, for example, is not well
defined (to us or to himself) by his name, his country of origin, his job; his inheritance from
his family, on multiple levels, is flimsy and fleeting. The story asks (makes him consider),
how can he find his “secret centre of gravity”?
How does the story mediate character?
Passage: She wore the Balenciaga, and put candles on the card table where she and Peter ate
their meal. The neckline of the dress was soiled with makeup. Peter remembers her dabbing
on the make-up with a wet sponge. He remembers her in the kitchen, in the soiled Balenciaga,
patting on the makeup with a filthy sponge. Behind her, at the kitchen table, Sandra and
Jennifer, in buttonless pajamas and bunny slippers, ate their supper of marmalade sandwiches
and milk. When the children were asleep, the parents dined solemnly, ritually, Sheilah sitting
strait as a queen.
Introduced to Peter’s wife, he is remember, story based on memory, reflective on their life
before
Repetition of details as they come into focus mimics the process of remembering, of
visualizing in progressively greater detail
She’s creating an image of herself with the makeup & dress – Peter’s memory includes all
these detail
Free indirect discourse
This, in memory, is a period of water and water birds: swans, roses and singing birds. The
children were small and still belonged to them. If they remember too much, their mouths
water, their stomachs hurt. Peter says,” It was fine while it lasted.” Enough.
Term for 3rd person narrator – outside of action, moves into thoughts of a character without
quotations,
Another technique - free indirect discourse - when a 3rd person narrator, outside of action,
moves into the thoughts and language of internal subjective experience of a character without
quotations
Enough in peter’s voice, the voice in the character’s head that tells him to stop remembering,
establishes a 3rd person narrator that has access to the innermost regions of individual
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Document Summary
Mavis gallent the ice wagon going down the street . Born and raised in montreal, moved to paris where she lived until her death. Canadian expatriates (people temporality living in another nation) are recurring figures in her fiction. Known primarily for her short stories, many of which have been published in the new. Writing process first flash of fiction is not of words (plot) but of a freeze frame of a character what their gender/nationality/age/attitude/qualities/secrets. Subjectivity introducing the story as an experiment of subjectivity through character exploration. Subjectivity of character is influenced by identity, influences, social pressure, desires, etc. The author first figures this out and then throws them into situations and then shapes how they would react/think, etc. Author is interested in characters who are uprooted or unsettled each character is presented as an open question rather than a set of answers.
