Title: Narrative Devices and Aesthetic Perception in Joyce's and Huston's "The Dead"
Abstract: This study analyzes the capacity of narrative devices to depict and elicit processes of perception in both the text and the film' of James Joyce's novella Dead. The objective is to determine the artistic means through which each medium projects the conflict. The realization of the qualities of an of art is accomplished through acts of perception. Only when we understand the artistic devices of a work of art can it be experienced as an entity. Each work of art projects a purely intentional state of affairs, and it is up to the reader, viewer, or listener to concretize it. Yet the essence of understanding the work lies not exclusively in discovering its meaning, but also in recognizing the means or devices by which the work achieves meaning. These introductory observations shall serve as the basis for this comparison of a literary narrative and its cinematic adaptation that aims for the highest degree of authenticity. The focus lies on the concluding passages of Dead which account for the incidents that initiate the protagonist's self-awareness, leading up to an epiphanic vision. It is precisely the literary/cinematic realization of this vision that constitutes the climax of the narrative, and special attention must be given to its transformation onto the screen. As early as 1968 a critic pointed out cinematic devices in Joyce's narrative by demonstrating its division into sequences, scenes, and shots.2 While these observations are meticulous and accurate in their own right, a fundamental qualitative distinction is necessary for juxtaposing novels and films. While the literary text projects its intentional state of affairs through verbal assertion, the dominant mode in film is presentational. Films are expected to elucidate a state of affairs through sight and sound; an outside narrator is considered inartistic for then the film would be using its soundtrack much in the same way as literature uses assertive syntax.3 Thus, the specific difficulties in making a novel into film lie in the transformation of the richness of language into the expressiveness of pictures, especially the narrative perspective and the flexibility of the narrator into proper cinematography, as well as the realization of the specific tone verbal narratives can imply through intelligent camera work. No doubt Joyce presents his narrative in a dramatized and active fashion through a perspective which is-with the exception of a few descriptive passages-never completely that of an omniscient narrator, but rather fluctuates unobtrusively between various points of view, thus subtly manipulating the reader's engagement.4 Of central significance in Dead is the protagonist's experience of epiphany. The reader/viewer's participation in the character's insight is facilitated precisely by a perspective that oscillates between the narrator and the character, and thus, is of utmost importance for the realization of the narrative. The concept of epiphany is defined in Stephen Hero as a cognitive process that reveals a tripartite structure: First we recognise that the is one integral thing, then we recognise that it is an organised composite structure, a thing in fact: finally, when the relation of the parts is exquisite, when the parts are adjusted to the special point, we recognise that it is that thing which it is. Its soul, its whatness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of the commonest object, the structure of which is so adjusted, seems to us radiant. The achieves its epiphany.5 Proceeding from taking superficial notice of the as a whole to the perception of its composite character, the perceptory process culminates in the full cognition of the object's essential properties. When the finally reveals these to the viewer's eye, it is-in Stephen's words-epiphanised.6 The process of zeroing in on the until penetrating to its essence-its whatness as Stephen calls it-is reminiscent of Roman Ingarden's distinction between real object and aesthetic object. …
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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