ENGLISH 45C Lecture 25: 11/21 Their Eyes Were Watching God #2
Document Summary
Last time, we said: janie = central character, constantly moving tw subjectivity/subjection; other minor characters are lenses that show us more about her. But maybe that"s too simple, and overlooks other things in the novel . Circular bildungsroman, beginning pt is ending pt (most bildungsromans are linear) Also an archive of speech acts - speech is foregrounded in certain conversations, or the jury trial at the end; we"re often watching narrator narrate another speech act to us (joe. Stark giving eulogy on mule, janie and joe fighting in store ) fundamental thing this story does isn"t just show janie"s self-development, but has janie narrate her own development. Tc"s problematic, but what the novel has to do is preserve the purity/difference of janie"s love w/ tc - we shouldn"t read too cynically, b/c she doesn"t. Tc had to die for loving her . Tc has to die w/in structure of novel.
