Magic Realist Transformations in Paulo Coelho's The Witch of Portobello and The Experimental Witch

Magic Realist Transformations in Paulo Coelho’s
The Witch of Portobello and The Experimental
                    Witch

                     Meryem Riza-Ezel

                          Submitted to the
           Institute of Graduate Studies and Research
   in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of

                         Master of Arts
                              in
                English Language and Literature

               Eastern Mediterranean University
                         June 2010
                  Gazimağusa, North Cyprus

Approval of the Institute of Graduate Studies and Research

                                                 Prof. Dr. Elvan Yılmaz
                                                      Director (a)

I certify that this thesis satisfies the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master
of Arts in English Language and Literature.

                                                    Dr. Can Sancar
                                       Chair (a), Department of Arts, Humanities,
                                                   and the Social Sciences

We certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate in
scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in English Language
and Literature.

                                              Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Erginel
                                                        Supervisor

                                                                 Examining Committee

1. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael Walsh

2. Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Erginel

3. Asst. Prof. Dr. William Spates

ABSTRACT

This analysis of Paulo Coelho’s novel The Witch of Portobello and its film

adaptation The Experimental Witch, entails three major questions: How important is

the role of objective truth when engaged in an inquiry? What role does narrative play

in overcoming metanarratives in order to create a poeticized society? What is the role

of magic realism when trying to dissolve boundaries and limitations that objective

truth and metanarratives impose on texts, or even societies?

This thesis aims to answer the questions above by first discussing Rorty’s theory of

how a poeticized society, and the strong poet, may overcome the limitations of

objective truth. Furthermore Lyotard argues that the concept of metanarrative, which

is political/social in nature, needs to dissolve. By including literary narrative theory,

this thesis aims to analyze the importance of how structuralist and postmodern

narrative theories relate to the concept of metanarrative. It is argued that Magical

Realism, which is used as a mode in contemporary novels and films, succeeds in

overcoming the limitations and boundaries imposed by metanarratives and objective

truth. Finally, the analysis of the novel and its film adaptation shows how magic

realism blurs boundaries and transforms meanings of existing concepts.

Keywords: Paulo Coelho, Richard Rorty, Jean-François Lyotard, magic(al) realism,

poeticized society.

                                           iii

ÖZ

Paulo Coelho’nun Portobello’nun Cadısı adlı romanı ve romanın film uyarlaması

Deneysel Cadı üç ana sorunun sorulmasını gerektirir: Bir araştırma yaparken nesnel

doğrunun rolü ne kadar önemlidir? Şairleşmiş toplumun                (poeticized society)

yaratılmasında anlatının üstanlatıları bastırmasında ne tür bir rolü vardır? Büyülü

gerçekçiliğin nesnel doğrunun ve üstanlatıların metinler veya toplum üzerine

dayattığı sınırlar ve kısıtlamaların yok edilmesindeki rolü nedir?

Yukarıda belirtilen soruları cevaplandırabilmek için bu tez ilk olarak için Rorty’nin

şairleşmiş toplum ve güçlü şair        (strong poet) kuramlarının nesnel doğrunun

sınırlamalarının üstesinden nasıl gelebileceğini tartışıyor. Buna ilaveten, doğası

politik veya sosyal olan üstanlatım kavramı Lyotard’ın neden üstanlatım

çözülmelidir tartışması ile ele alınmaktadır. Edebi anlatım kuramını dahil ederek bu

tez yapısalcı ve postmodern anlatım kuramlarının üstanlatım kavramı ile nasıl ilişkili

olduğunun önemini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çağdaş romanlar ve filmlerde bir

biçim olarak kullanılan büyülü gerçekçilik, üstanlatımlar ve nesnel doğru tarafından

dayatılan kısıtlamalar ve sınırların üstesinden gelmekte başarılı olmuştur. Son olarak,

roman ve onun film uyarlamasının analizi büyülü gerçekçiliğin sınırları nasıl

bulanıklaştırdığını ve varolan kavramların anlamlarını nasıl dönüştürdüğünü

göstermektedir.

Anahtar kelimeler: Paulo Coelho, Richard Rorty, Jean-François Lyotard, büyülü

gerçekçilik, şairleşmiş toplum.

                                          iv

DEDICATION

  With all my love

to Yasemin and Cahit

         v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Erginel for guiding and advising me

continuously through the process of my research and the production of this thesis.

Without his effective feedback I would not have been able to establish the link

between the philosophical and the literary theories I am using in my thesis. I also

want to thank him for his patience and understanding in times when work and family

life took my focus off my thesis.

I would also like to thank especially Cahit and Yasemin for their loving support

throughout my research and the writing stage. They always knew how to make me

smile at times when I got frustrated or too tired from working.

A special thanks goes to my parents, and to Mustafa and Müge, for encouraging me

to return to academic research in the field of Literature and Humanities. They made

me realize that doing research in this field is one part of my existence that needs to

be nurtured and kept alive.

I also want to thank my dear friend Susanne Müller-Sermen for her invaluable

support in terms of proofreading and putting me back on track when I thought I was

lost in oblivion. Finally, I want to thank my dear friend Salime Mehtap-Smadi for her

continuous encouragement to follow my dream....whatever it may be.

                                          vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................iii

ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... iv

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................. v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... vi

LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... x

1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................... 1

   1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1

   1.2 Challenging objective truth ........................................................................................... 2

   1.3 Metanarrative in the late 20th and early 21st centuries ................................................... 3

   1.4 Rorty’s poeticized society and its effect on metanarrative ............................................ 4

   1.5 The relation of narratology to metanarrative ................................................................. 4

   1.6 Magic(al) Realism ......................................................................................................... 5

   1.7 Summary of The Witch of Portobello ........................................................................... 6

   1.8 The Experimental Witch................................................................................................ 7

   1.9 Chapter Division............................................................................................................ 7

2 THE HOPELESS SEARCH FOR OBJECTIVE TRUTH RESOLVED IN

POSTMODERN NARRATIVE?................................................................................. 9

   2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 9

   2.2 Rorty on Obective Truth.............................................................................................. 10

                                                                 vii

2.3 Lyotard’s critique of metanarrative ............................................................................. 12

   2.4 Creating a Poeticized society....................................................................................... 17

   2.5 Is Narrative Theory a controlling metanarrative?........................................................ 19

   2.6 Time and Space in Structuralist Narrative Theory ...................................................... 21

   2.7 Novels versus films in structuralist narrative theory ................................................... 23

   2.8 Postmodern Time and Space ....................................................................................... 25

   2.9 Focalization ................................................................................................................. 26

   2.10 Focalization in postmodern novels or films............................................................... 29

3 MAGIC(AL) REALISM......................................................................................... 34

   3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 34

   3.2 Magic(al) Realism: its beginnings and its confusion................................................... 35

       3.2.1 Magical Realism and Surrealism in paintings ..................................................................... 39

   3.3 The liberation of privileged postmodern Magical Realist centers ............................... 43

   3.4 Magical Realist narrative............................................................................................. 46

   3.5 Defocalization, or Magical and Realist perspectives................................................... 48

   3.6 Magical Realist time and space ................................................................................... 50

   3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 51

4 MAGICAL REALIST TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE WITCH OF

PORTOBELLO.......................................................................................................... 52

   4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 52

   4.2 Biography as an inquiry to find objective truth ........................................................... 53

   4.3 Ineffable in-between and defocalization in the novel and film ................................... 55

   4.4 Historical time and magical space in the ineffable in-between ................................... 60

                                                                viii

4.5 Possible wor(l)ds in the Magical Realist witch ........................................................... 66

       4.5.1 The feminine and the masculine wor(l)d ............................................................................. 66

       4.5.2 Dance .................................................................................................................................... 72

       4.5.3 Calligraphy ........................................................................................................................... 73

   4.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 76

5 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 77

   5.1 Final Remarks.............................................................................................................. 77

   5.2 Ideas for further research ............................................................................................. 78

REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 79

                                                                          ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 On The Threshold of Liberty....................................................................... 41

Figure 2 Persistence of Memory ................................................................................ 41

Figure 3 Grey Day...................................................................................................... 42

Figure 4 Still Life II ................................................................................................... 42

Figure 5 Heron and Athena in a Romanian restaurant .............................................. 57

Figure 6: Athena’s ecstatic dance in the restaurant.................................................... 58

Figure 7: The park Athena goes to after leaving the Church. ................................... 62

Figure 8: Athena gets salvation from Jesus. .............................................................. 63

Figure 9 Introductory scenes of Vosho Bushalo ........................................................ 65

Figure 10 Introductory scenes of Vosho Bushalo ...................................................... 65

Figure 11 Introductory scenes of Vosho Bushalo ...................................................... 65

Figure 12 Introductory scenes of Vosho Bushalo ...................................................... 65

                                                             x

Chapter 1

                            1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Magical Realism has become a widespread narrative mode in contemporary novels

and films. This narrative mode creates a coexistence between real and magical

events, and breaks away from the structuralist approach of constructing or

understanding the narrative of a text. Narrative in contemporary Magical Realist

novels or films is defocalized, and disturbs the sense of time and space. Hence,

Magical Realist texts can challenge existing concepts, words, or perceptions. This

thesis will be an examination of how Magical Realism challenges objective truth and

metanarrative. It will explore Rorty’s poeticized society and Lyotard’s metanarative.

Furthermore, the link between (the seemingly unrelated) literary narrative theory and

Lyotard’s metanarrative will be examined in this thesis. I will also discuss Rorty’s

pragmatic view on truth and the strong poet in a society, which re-describes existing

words/concepts in order to liberate society from objective truth and become more

progressive. Taking Rorty’s strong poet a step further, I will show the importance of

the role of narrative when attempting to liberate society from predefined concepts of

truth. What is more, I aim to show how Magical Realist narrative comes closer to a

liberation of meaning of words and concepts. Finally, I will examine Paulo Coelho’s

                                         1

novel The Witch of Portobello1 and its film adaptation The Experimental Witch2 to

illustrate how Magical Realism challenges the idea of metanarrative and objective

truth.

1.2 Challenging objective truth

The concept of objective truth refers to the notion that something is universally true

independently of culture, language, or opinion. Objective truth is considered to be

based on a mind-independent reality, and it also suggests that truth is a fixed entity.

However, Rorty argues that this essentialist view on describing objective truth fails,

language is a social construct, and therefore language serves the purpose of

description and re-description. However, re-description should not serve the purpose

of reiterating already existing ideas in order to prove them right or wrong, but it

should be an attempt to question concepts that are universally agreed upon. He also

suggests that inquiry should be done within the context of the object/subject to be

investigated, because meaning is related to a specific cultural context. When

inquiring one has to be aware of the two different notions of context Rorty proposes:

the first notion of context is that the inquirer has already an opinion about the

object/subject to be inquired into; and the second notion is that the inquirer has no

opinion about the object/subject to be inquired into. I agree with Rorty that if an

inquiry starts with a presumed opinion, the inquiry will end up reinforcing fixed and

unchangeable propositions. The learning process in the course of inquiry comes prior

to the outcome when an inquiry takes place with no value judgments. The aim of the

inquirer is not to prove right or wrong, but to be able to make use of the paradigm of

1
    Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello (London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007).
2
 Paulo Coelho’s Blog, “The Experimental Witch videos,” http://paulocoelhoblog.com/experimental-
witch-videos.

                                                   2

imagination which is “the new metaphorical use of old words, the invention of

neologisms, and the colligation of hitherto unrelated texts.”3

1.3 Metanarrative in the late 20th and early 21st centuries

According to Jean François Lyotard there are two modern metanarratives. The first is

the metanarrative of emancipation which aims to organize a society politically. The

political organization of society liberated people after the French Revolution,

because everybody was granted the right for primary and secondary school

education. Even though it seemed revolutionary for that time, the metanarrative of

emancipation served as a tool to educate people according to the needs of the state.

Therefore this metanarrative has become a metanarrative of state control and of the

manipulation of a society. The second modern metanarrative, which is the

metanarrative of speculative knowledge, is of an academic/philosophical nature. It

emerged as a reaction to the metanarrative of emancipation. Willhelm von Humboldt

created a narrative that would liberate academic/philosophical knowledge by arguing

that the academy should have its rules independent from the state. After liberating

the academy from the metanarrative of emancipation, Humboldt aimed at a blending

of the two modern metanarratives. Lyotard critiques the metanarrative of speculative

knowledge as he argues that it aims not to do research for humanity’s good but is a

“legitimation of scientific discourse”.4 Therefore the metanarrative of speculation,

again seems not be acting on behalf of humanity, but as justification of what science

would        produce.     Furthermore,      the    metanarrative      that   is   established    by

academicians/philosophers sets the criterion for deciding whether or not a research

outcome is legitimate, because it sets its rules and predefined outcomes accordingly.

3
    Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 94.
4
  Jean François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1984), 33.

                                                   3

In other words, the metanarrative of speculation has also become a tool for

manipulation, because it restricts academic knowledge to outcomes that are defined

from the beginning to be either true or false. In order to find a way to overcome the

limitations by the metanarratives, it is necessary to look at Rorty’s concept of a

poeticized society.

1.4 Rorty’s poeticized society and its effect on metanarrative

Unlike Lyotard, Rorty proposes to create a poeticized society. Since the poet

according to Rorty is a creator, s/he is able to induce change by working on the

existing meanings of vocabulary. The strong poet aims at constantly re-describing

existing concepts/things. Furthermore, the strong poet being able to enhance the

power of imagination can induce change as s/he liberates herself/himself from the

limitations of political or scientific reason. Rorty’s focus on the meaning of words

leads to the questions: Can meaning only change by changing meanings of existing

words? Or does the strong poet also need to look at how these words are organized?

As the meaning of words is strongly dependent on how it is contextualized, I will try

to answer these questions first by examining structuralist narrative theory. Then I

will compare it to the postmodern view of narrative theory to show how

postmodernism has attempted to break away from the controlling narrative function

of structuralism.

1.5 The relation of narratology to metanarrative

The structuralist approach to narrative is very controlling as it presents a

methodology on how to understand the narrative of a text/film. In relation to

Lyotard’s metanarrative it could be argued that structuralist narratology provides

readers and writers with a formula for how a narrative should be read or constructed.

                                         4

Hutcheon’s5 argument that the structuralist approach of narrative is a mode of

totalizing representation may lead to the assumption that postmodernism rejects the

idea of narrative construct completely. Yet, as Herman6 points out, postmodern

narrative makes use of the structuralist concepts on narrative in order to break away

from its controlling function. Thus postmodernism offers the reader and the writer a

multi-disciplinary approach to the study of narrative. Since narratology deals with

many aspects of narrative theory, it is crucial to look at the structuralist and

postmodernist view on narrative time and space in novels and films.

1.6 Magic(al) Realism

Although literary critics have not been able to define Magical Realism clearly, it has

increasingly become a mode used in postmodern novels and films. The blending of

magical events/objects into a real situation or setting, results in a transformation of

meaning of universally agreed concepts/words. Magical Realism achieves a

liberation of metanarratives. D’Haen’s7 and Hutcheon’s views on the challenge of

universally agreed centers and the theory on the ex-centric, are major points to be

examined. Furthermore, this thesis aims to discuss how Magical Realist narrative

time, space, and defocalization, become a tool for the Rortean poet to achieve

transformation of words and meanings.

5
    Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. London: Routlege, 1988.
6
  Herman, Luc and Bart Varvaek. Handbook of Narrative Analysis. Nebraska USA: University of
Nebraska Press, 2005.
7
 D’Haen, Theo. “Magical Realism and Postmodernism: Decentering Privileged Centers,” in Magical
Realism: Theory, History, Community, ed. Wendy B. Faris and Lois Parkinson Zamora. Durham:
Duke University Press, 1995.

                                                  5

1.7 Summary of The Witch of Portobello

Paulo Coelho’s novel The Witch of Portobello8 is written in the form of a

biographical inquiry. There are fifteen narrators who tell their stories about Athena,

who seems to be murdered as a result of a ‘modern witch hunt’. Athena was born as

an illegitimate child in Romania. Her mother (Liliana), who is a Gypsy, had to give

Athena for adoption, and a Lebanese couple (Samira and her husband) adopted her

soon after she was born. Athena and her parents have to leave Lebanon due to the

civil war, and they move to London. While studying at university Athena meets

Lukas and soon gets married to him. A short time after getting married, she feels that

she needs to become a mother and she follows her intuition. She gives birth to a boy,

yet she is not able to stay married and gets divorced. As she was raised as a

Christian, she visits the Church on a regular basis. When Father Fontana refuses to

give Athena communion, because she is a divorced woman, she abandons the

Church. Later she is introduced to dance as a spiritual act by Pavel, who is her

landlord. This takes her a step further in her quest to fill her blank spaces and when

she moves to Dubai to work for a real estate company, she meets Nabil who teaches

her the art of calligraphy. When she goes to Romania to find her birthmother, she

meets Heron, and Deidre (Edda)9. Deidre becomes Athena’s teacher and helps her to

connect with the mother goddess (St Sarah)10. Back in London Athena shares her gift

with the public and also adopts a spiritual student, Andrea McCain. As the Church

gets disturbed by Athena’s public display of spirituality, Athena eventually decides

8
    Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello (London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007).
9
    The character Deidre O’Neil is called Edda in the novel.
10
     The Mother Goddess is a reference to Saint Sarah, who is ‘the patron saint of Gypsies.’

                                                     6

to disappear and asks her boyfriend, who works for Scotland Yard, to set up a murder

scenario.

1.8 The Experimental Witch

In 2008 Paulo Coelho launched a competition for amateur film makers. He asked his

readers to pick a character from the book and make a short film on him/her. Thus, the

best fourteen films were posted on his blog, free for readers to watch the adaptation

of the novel. The films bring a new light into the story, in that Athena is not anymore

an image in the readers’ minds, but has different appearances and even speaks in

different languages. Compared to the novel, the storyline in the collection of films is

disrupted, as the story in the film is not told chronologically, but narrator based.

Consequently, the films lead to a greater questioning of objective truth and

metanarrative. Both the novel and the film adaptation will be analyzed in terms of

Magical Realism, the transformation of metanarratives, and objective truth.

1.9 Chapter Division

In Chapter Two I will discuss Rorty’s argument against objective truth and Lyotard’s

view on metanarrative. Furthermore, I will take Rorty’s concept of the strong poet,

who can change meaning of existing words to induce change, one step further and

argue that narrative needs to be changed as well in order to achieve change in a

society. Due to the fact that I am dealing with literary texts and films, I will discuss

the limiting function of structuralist narrative theory. I will also show how

postmodernism has tried to dissolve the boundaries that structuralist narrative theory

has put on narrative texts.

In Chapter Three I will give information on the diverse discussions on Magical

Realism, as scholars have not been able to come to a consensus, or a clear definition

                                           7

of the term. I will then discuss how Magical Realism liberates narrative from

boundaries, or metanarratives. In addition I will focus on time and space relations,

and defocalization in Magical Realist narrative.

Chapter Four will be an analysis of Paulo Coelho’s novel The Witch of Portobello11,

and its film adaptation The Experimental Witch12. I will first give a brief summary of

the plot and explain the peculiarity of the film adaptation. Then I will discuss the

concept of biography in terms of objective truth. I will also explain how

defocalization and historical time and space take place in the novel and the film.

Finally, I will discuss how Magical Realism changes meaning in terms of

feminine/masculine, dance, and calligraphy.

11
     Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello (London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007).
12
  Paulo Coelho’s Blog, “The Experimental Witch videos,” http://paulocoelhoblog.com/experimental-
witch-videos.

                                                   8

Chapter 2

 2 THE HOPELESS SEARCH FOR OBJECTIVE TRUTH

       RESOLVED IN POSTMODERN NARRATIVE?

2.1 Introduction

Is literature merely a mirror reflecting society, or is it able to create or re-create a

society? These two questions are fundamental when talking about postmodernist

literary theories. The rejection of structure and meaning allows postmodern scholars

to look beyond the boundaries of objective truth. However it is the poet (creative

writer) that can move beyond those boundaries because the poet can play with

language and structure freely. In this chapter I aim to elucidate Rorty’s repudiation of

objective truth and explain his idea of a poeticized society. Since Rorty focuses on

words and their meanings, I will look into Lyotard’s critique on metanarratives

which are the grand-narratives that establish the rules of how we should see or think

in terms of objective truth. In addition, my analysis of some structuralist and

postmodern techniques in narratology will give an insight to how metanarrative

manifests itself in language. Finally, I will also briefly discuss some problems

postmodernism faces when trying to overthrow this dominant concept.

                                           9

2.2 Rorty on Obective Truth

Plato put forward the idea that objective truth exists in the realm of Forms, which can

be grasped by knowledge. Knowledge, which is “infallible and is of unique,

unchanging objects”, stands in contrast to belief, which may be either true or false.
1
    Richard Rorty, like many other 20th century philosophers, rejects this theory in his

essay “Solidarity or Objectivity.”2 He delineates knowledge by stating that

“’knowledge’ is, like ‘truth,’ simply a compliment paid to the beliefs which we think

so well justified that, for the moment, further justification is not needed.”3 ‘The

desire for objectivity’, or the quest for objective truth, seems to result in a

detachment from a human reality, and attachment to a non-human reality. Essentialist

philosophers claim that every object’s ideal form exists in the realm of objective

truth. Rorty, on the other hand, distinguishes between the object in itself and the

vocabulary that has been assigned to the particular object. He states that both words

and sentences are mind-dependent, rather than discovered4. Moreover, Rorty argues

that descriptions or definitions being related to cultural context are due to language

being a social construct. Hence Rorty explains in his pragmatist position that:

“The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can once we have programmed

ourselves with language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language

1
    Plato, The Republic (London: Oxford University Press, 1945), 474B – 480.
2
 Richard Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993),
24-34.
3
    Ibid., 24.
4
 The verbs ‘construct’ and ‘discover’ are essential in Rorty’s writings, as only something that already
exists can be discovered. On the other hand, if we agree that language and narrative is a human
construct we need to think in terms of how it has been done until today or even how a culture should
construe its own language reality.

                                                  10

for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.” 5 As it seems to be impossible

for Rorty to “step outside the various vocabularies we have employed and find a

meta-vocabulary which somehow takes account of all possible vocabularies”6, he

claims that a society should free itself first from the universal concepts, by looking at

the web(s) of belief(s)7 and then give room for a constant reweaving of this web.

However, the method of inquiry also plays an important role when looking at the

webs of beliefs. In his essay “Inquiry as recontextualization” Rorty argues strongly

against the methods of realist or essentialist methods of inquiry (which is based on
                  8
inference).           He claims that an object of inquiry needs to be analyzed within the

context in which it exists, in order to consciously create changes in a society, or to

create recontextualization.9 Context according to Rorty, “a) a set of attitudes toward

some of the sentences previously in one’s repertoire, and b) the acquisition of

attitudes toward new truth-value candidates, sentences toward which one had

previously no attitude.”10 The first sense of context relates to inference, because it

implies that there are fixed unchangeable propositions and the context revolves

5
 Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993),
6-7.
6
    Ibid., xvi.
7
 Rorty plays with the term web-of-belief throughout his writings. Sometimes he uses the singular
form to refer to the coherentist theory of truth (all beliefs in a web are coherent with each other) and
sometimes he uses the plural form to indicate his view that there are different beliefs that are
somehow, even though opposing, in the same web.
8
 The realist or essentialist method of inquiry claims that an object needs to be taken out of its context
and analyzed independently from its community. The language for inquiry is pre-supposed, so Rorty
argues that this form of inquiry is not useful for a society’s process.
9
 Richard Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993),
94.
10
     Ibid.

                                                   11

around that fixed entity. Thus context is a fixed unchangeable entity itself. On the

other hand, the second sense of context is equivalent to imagination, and it implies

that there is a learning process to establish an attitude towards something new or

neutral. Therefore, a culture, a society, a word, or a sentence needs to be explored in

terms of a learning process, rather than a process to prove it right or wrong. This

process enables an understanding of (a) web(s) of belief(s) in a certain context. Rorty

describes the paradigm of imagination as “the new metaphorical use of old words,

the invention of neologisms, and the colligation of hitherto unrelated texts.”11 This

paradigm, then, seems not only to allow change in terms of language, but also a

change of context, which Rorty calls recontextualization.

2.3 Lyotard’s critique of metanarrative

Another question that needs to be discussed when talking about overthrowing

universality and fixed language entities, is the concept of metanarrative as an

organizing form of those fixed entities. Jean François Lyotard looks critically at the

historical background of metanarratives in his book The Postmodern Condition: A

Report on Knowledge12. The word metanarrative, which is also frequently referred to

as grand narrative, refers to an accumulation and organization of knowledge. Lyotard

distinguishes between two types of metanarratives. The first one has the purpose of

transmitting customary knowledge in tribes, which serves as an existential organizing

principle. In other words, the orally transmitted history of a tribe teaches tribe

members their particular customs or beliefs. Lyotard considers the second type of

metanarratives as modern, as they are either political or philosophical in nature. Here

the organizing principle has shifted from a pure transmission of customary
11
     Ibid.
12
 Jean François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press), 1984.

                                             12

knowledge to organizing a society under a certain set of rules in order to achieve the

ideal society. Lyotard elucidates how both the metanarrative of emancipation and of

speculation have been created in terms of a universal belief system and therefore

failed in terms of humanity.

The metanarrative of emancipation emerged with the French Revolution and was

based upon the belief that everybody had a right to access scientific knowledge.

However, this right was restricted to primary and secondary education, and excluded

higher education. An obvious reason for this split, Lyotard argues, was “the desire to

produce the administrative and professional skills necessary for the stability of the

state”13. Nevertheless Lyotard critiques this notion sharply as it ignores the idea

behind the narrative of liberty, and accordingly seems to be used as a means for

manipulation.

              This overlooks the fact that in the context of the narrative of freedom, the
              State receives its legitimacy not from itself but from the people. So even if
              imperial politics designated the institutions of higher education as a
              breeding ground for the officers of the State and secondarily, for the
              managers of civil society, it did so because the nation as a whole was
              supposed to win its freedom through the spread of new domains of
              knowledge to the population, a process to be effected through agencies and
              professions within which those cadres would fulfill their functions. [The]
              State resorts to the narrative of freedom every time it assumes direct control
              over the training of the “people,” under the name of the “nation,” in order to
              point them down to the path of process.14

Accordingly, the metanarrative of emancipation was a tool used by the state to

spread and use knowledge for the purpose of validating actions. Here I want to take

Lyotard’s critique one step further and draw a possibly provocative analogy,

considering the previous discussion on objective truth. On the surface it seems as if a

13
     Ibid., 31.
14
     Ibid., 32.

                                              13

people have the right to choose their leaders, but when I look closely at Lyotard’s

description, I would argue that the State has merely replaced the Church, because the

State is in full control over the people. The compulsory primary and secondary

education served as a tool to teach children to obey the rules and regulations in a

society, as the compulsory Church education was solely a formation for people

obeying the rules of the Church. Accordingly, the metanarrative of emancipation can

only be considered as another manifestation of what had existed before, namely

‘Christian Monarchy’. Also, Willhelm von Humboldt’s description of the various

purposes of the state in his work Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der

Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen,15 indicates that the vocabulary used in the

establishment of democracy was borrowed from the previously existing religious

(monarchical) words. He claims that the State can have two aims; one that enhances

happiness and the other that protects citizens from evil (Übel). Humboldt argues that

if the State chooses to protect a people/society from evil, it may need to use force and

power to control the people. The first strategy to achieve this aim, he argues, is

through force – such as dictating and prohibiting laws,16 so individual actions can be

clearly defined. The second strategy aims to achieve collective actions through

encouragement and setting examples. Finally, the State imposes its identity in order

to form the character and the way of thinking of a people. Since he believes that

freedom or emancipation is necessary for a nation because it allows a people to

choose their legislation and work with the state rather than functioning as a machine,

he presupposes that a vital State would exist in an intellectual and moral unification

15
  Willhelm von Humboldt, Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu
bestimmen (Project Gutenberg – DE – Der Spiegel Online, retrieved 2008), Part III.
16
     Ibid.

                                              14

of a people17. Humboldt introduces the metanarrative of speculation (by using the

pre-enlightenment vocabularies) in order to describe the purpose and the function of

a state. Yet, the only change that can be seen is that the controlling power has been

shifted from a King/Queen and the Pope, to the State. Hence, the metanarrative of

speculative knowledge, which is also referred to the metanarrative of academic

knowledge, needs further questioning.

The metanarrative of speculative knowledge is associated with knowledge of

academia, or higher education. Observing the State manipulating the field of

knowledge for political purposes, Humboldt attempted to break away and form a

more positivistic view on knowledge. To achieve this he formed a new metanarrative

with its own rules. This was established for a unique, independent entity, which is as

Humboldt stated clearly “Science for its own sake”18, and therefore would renew and

progress independently from the aims of the State. This not only shows that scientific

knowledge is accumulated or researched for the sake of academic knowledge, but

even further, that science in academia “obeys its own rules.”19 However, Humboldt

did not claim that academia is a separate world from the rest of society, but that it has

an ethical responsibility of sharing knowledge with the people of a State. Therefore,

Humboldt proposed to blend the metanarrative of the state with the metanarrative of

speculation. This blending resulted in the “acquisition of learning by individuals, and

the training of a fully legitimate subject of knowledge and society.”20 Humboldt

17
     Ibid.
18
 Jean François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1984), 32.
19
     Ibid.
20
     Ibid.

                                             15

suggests three steps to achieve this unification. The first is to accept that “everything

derives from an original principle”, the second is to relate legislative and academic

practices to an ideal, and the third step involves a unification of this knowledge for

the same purpose21. Lyotard, however, argues that Humboldt’s intention to center a

people on knowledge, was due to legitimate scientific knowledge:

              The subject of knowledge is not the people, but the speculative spirit. It is
              not embodied, as in France after the Revolution, in a State, but in a system.
              The language game of legitimation is not state-political, but philosophical.
              [Speculation] is here the name given the discourse on legitimation of
              scientific discourse.22

Lyotard implies in the quote above that academia was disregarding people’s needs

and opinions in terms of humanity. Moreover, it is a discourse that justifies scientific

argumentation. Although, Humboldt claims that the speculative spirit is a

combination of State and academia, Lyotard notes that the blending procedure is only

a manipulating tool to validate the arguments from academia and the state. “True

knowledge, in this perspective is always indirect knowledge; it is composed of

reported statements that are incorporated into the metanarrative of a subject that

guarantees their legitimacy.”23 In other words, the authority of true knowledge acts

as a judge to certify that the knowledge collected for a specific subject/topic has been

done within the rules of the speculative spirit. Moreover, it excludes knowledge that

may be irrelevant because it may disagree with a certain origin, an ideal, or may have

used different rules in order to acquire it.

21
     Ibid., 33.
22
     Ibid., 33.
23
     Ibid., 35.

                                               16

The desire to follow a grand narrative, whether it was the metanarrative of

emancipation or speculation, dissolved after World War Two. As a result,

postmodern scholars have become aware that the ruling bond between human beings

is not of idealistic nature, but based on language games. Furthermore, as Lyotard

points out, “The social bond is linguistic, but is not woven with a single thread”24.

The multiplicity of language games leads to the question of how valid an argument is

within a society, because the nature of argumentation is not coherent anymore but

pluralistic.

2.4 Creating a Poeticized society

Rorty         proposes a “poeticized society”, in order to liberate a society from

metanarratives and make a society more progressive. The view that the arts are a

product of creation, rather than imitation, originated from the Romantic poets, as

they demanded to have equal status with the other fields (such as religion and the

natural sciences).25The strong poet, according to the Romantics and Rorty’s view, is

a creator, rather than imitator, and s/he has the tools to play with the language in

order to induce change. The strong poet according to Rorty is a person who seeks to

re-describe things and someone who changes the meanings of words in such a way

that new meaning arises. Moreover, as the strong poet wants to expand the power of

human imagination, s/he is able to create a poeticized culture.26 Thus Rorty takes the

metaphor of the strong poet further and prioritizes the poetic imagination so that a

fully liberal society may be created:

24
     Ibid., 40.
25
     Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993),
3.
26
  Ulf Schulenberg, “ “Speaking Out of the Most Passionate Love” – James Baldwin and Pragmatism”
European Journal of American Studies (2007):8-9, URL : http://ejas.revues.org/document1333.html.

                                                  17

We need a redescription of liberalism as the hope that culture as a whole can
            be “poeticized” rather than as the Enlightenment hope that it can be
            “rationalized” or “scientized” . That is, we need to substitute the hope that
            chances for fulfillment of idiosyncratic fantasies will be equalized for the
            hope that everyone will replace “passion” or fantasy with “reason”. In my
            view, an ideally liberal polity would be one whose culture hero is Bloom’s
            “strong poet” rather than the warrior, the priest, the sage, or the truth-seeking,
            “logical,” “objective” scientist.27

As previously mentioned, cultural change happens through the invention28 of new

vocabularies with the means of imagination. Yet the poet seeks to change the

meanings of existing words in order to express her/his imagination, and re-describe

her/himself. Such a re-description can be seen as the process to free oneself from the

limitations of reason. What I suggest is that as individuals are freed from the

limitations of scientific logic, a society can be re-described without those limitations.

Thus, Rorty’s utopian liberal society may come into being.                 Rorty also argues that

one should not use old tools for creating new vocabularies.

            The gradual trial-and-error creation of a new, third, vocabulary … is not a
            discovery about how old vocabularies fit together. That is why it cannot be
            reached by an inferential process – by starting with premises formulated in
            the old vocabularies. Such creations are not the result of successfully fitting
            together pieces of a puzzle. They are not discoveries of a reality behind the
            appearances, of an undistorted view of the whole picture with which to
            replace myopic views of its parts. The proper analogy is with the invention of
            new tools to take the place of old tools.29

In other words, the poet’s tool is the language that s/he will deal with when writing.

However, Rorty does not pay attention to the narrative techniques and procedures

when talking about a poeticized society. If the poet only changes the meaning of

words and disregards ways of narration, it seems quite difficult to achieve a major

27
     Ibid., 53.
28
  According to Rorty the invention of a new word is not a creation of a new vocabulary, which is
unknown to a specific language. He claims, rather, that through pushing the limits of the meanings of
the words, the meanings will gradually alter and lose their ‘objectively true’ meaning.
29
  Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993),
12.

                                                 18

breakaway from metanarratives, or limitations. It is crucial to look at the existing

forms and components in literary narrative in order to change the function of the

grand narrative in literature. When the function and the form of narrative changes, it

allows us to re-invent new meanings to those existing concepts, or perceptions.

The next section will therefore deal with structuralist and postmodernist theories of

narrative. It will not only review the literature of temporal and spatial relationships

and the theory of focalization, but will also show how the various techniques

employed in narrative theory may result in a change of narrative perception when

dealing with novels or films. As Chapter Three will deal with the theory of Magical

Realism and its impact on expanding narrative boundaries, it is necessary to see what

techniques or theories in narratology may be limiting, or even totalizing.

2.5 Is Narrative Theory a controlling metanarrative?

Narrative theory is mostly related to, and widely known as, a structuralist approach,

which aims at analyzing a literary text in terms of spatiality, temporality, and formal

and pragmatic dimension30. In order to see these dimensions, the structural critic

explores plot or fabula, point of view and focalization, time and space relations, and

causalities. By giving a certain approach to dealing with the compounds of a text,

postmodern critics argue that structuralists create a totalizing function when treating

a text. Plot, which is one of the central features of structuralist narrative form,

implies that a narrative is structured in terms of meaning and order. Linda Hutcheon

argues that “the notion of its ‘end’ suggests both teleology and closure”. Hence, she

30
  Marie – Laure Ryan, “Toward a definition of narrative,” in The Cambridge Companion To
Narrative, ed. David Herman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 29.

                                              19

elaborates that this notion leads to the view that the structuralist approach “is

considered a mode of ‘totalizing’ representation.” 31

             The function of the term totalizing, as I understand it, is to point to the
             process (hence the awkward ‘ing’ form) by which writers of history, fiction,
             or even theory render their materials coherent, continuous, unified – but
             always with an eye to the control and mastery of those materials, even at the
             risk of doing violence to them. It is this link to power, as well as process, that
             the adjective ‘totalizing’ is meant to suggest, and it is as such that the term
             has been used to characterize everything from liberal humanist ideals to the
             aims of historiography.32

Like Lyotard, Hutcheon discusses the idea of a metanarrative and its controlling

function. Although it seems that postmodernism rejects the idea of narratology

completely, Herman points out that postmodern narratology “combines classical

elements         with    new    insights    without    striving    for    a   kind   of   higher

synthesis.”33Accordingly, postmodernism uses the structural components of

narratology in order to break away from its previously discussed function, and offers

a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of narrative. The question comes up of

how postmodernism breaks away from structuralist narratology while still employing

some of the components. The time/space relationship, and focalization are two major

issues in novels and films that need to be discussed, while looking at how

postmodern narrative breaks away from conventional narrative forms.

31
     Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism (New York: Routldge, 2002), 59.
32
     Ibid.
33
 Luc Herman and Bart Varvaek, Handbook of Narrative Analysis (Nebraska USA: University of
Nebraska Press, 2005), 108.

                                                 20

2.6 Time and Space in Structuralist Narrative Theory

If narrative is defined as “the semiotic representation of a series of events

meaningfully connected in a temporal and causal way”34, the plot of a story “is the

chain of causation which dictates that these events are somehow linked”35. Temporal

and spatial relationships, in the structuralist view of narrative, are one of the most

important parts in a story. They not only prepare the time frame for the reader in that

they give information of the period (e.g. 16th century), but they also present the

settings where the story takes place. Teresa Bridgeman examines the different time –

space relationships in fiction in her essay ‘Time and Space.’ The two temporalities

she outlines are a) story (which presents the basic sequence of events), and b)

discourse (which is “the presentation and repetition of these events in linguistic

form”)36. Based on Genette’s concept37, she analyses how the relationship between

story and discourse can achieve a certain effect on the reader. 38 The order of events

can be organized chronologically, or not. From a reader’s perspective, the act of

reading “is a combination of memory and anticipation”39. The reader’s memory of

past events (in the given order) will not only construct a picture in the mind, but

arouse curiosity and excitement about how the story may develop. The duration of

scenes, which is the second aspect of temporality in narrative establishes a hierarchy

34
  Susan Onega and JosÉ Angel GarcÍa Landa, “Introduction: Preliminaries: Definition of
narratology,” in Narratology: An Introduction, ed. Susan Onega and JosÉ Angel GarcÍa Landa
(London: Longman, 1996), 3.
35
     Paul Cobley, Narrative (London: Routledge, 2001), 5.
36
 Teresa Bridgeman, “Time and Space,” in The Cambridge Companion To Narrative, ed. David
Herman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 53.
37
  Gerard Genette argues that narrative discourse is linear because the mind is thought to organize
events chronologically.
38
     Ibid., 54.
39
     Ibid., 57.

                                                  21

of importance amongst those scenes. The third aspect Bridgeman describes is

frequency. She claims that “the number of times an event is narrated can influence

the readers interpretation.”40 The repetition of events indicate an obsession of a

narrator or it may reveal different views on a certain event.41 Although readers are

used to switching in temporalities in literary narratives, the order and duration of a

narrative is important to the temporal experience of the reader.

The spatial relationships in narrative, function as “a guideline to keep track of what is

going on” for the reader42. The reader can conceive the spatial relationship on a

stable topographical level, and s/he can also relate to movements of objects/things

and people. In other words, the descriptions of physical space are important in

relation to the movement of characters and the position of objects. It gives

indications of how the characters “inhabit a space.”43 Hence, descriptions of space

and movement enable the reader to visualize the contents of a story. This

visualization depends on notions of dimension, spatial containment, and the reader’s

position. The dimension of the text has an important effect on the transmission of a

narrative space. Narrative space enables the story to take place in a dark room or

even in multiple worlds (as in science fiction). Furthermore, proximity and distance,

which are important factors when talking about spatial relationships, give important

indications of the character’s perception of the space they are moving within.

However, the reader’s position may cause alteration to those dimensions,

proximities, and distances as her/his understanding depends on her/his culture.
40
     Ibid., 59.
41
     Ibid., 54.
42
     Ibid., 56.
43
     Ibid., 55.

                                           22

2.7 Novels versus films in structuralist narrative theory

Although there are differences in temporal relationships between novels and films,

from a general perspective their features mostly overlap. However, the spatial

relationship needs further elaboration when comparing films to novels. Chatman’s

first distinction between novel and film is based on explicit story space and implicit

story space. Explicit story space, “is the segment of the world actually shown”

whereas, “implicit story space is everything off screen to us but visible to the

characters, or within earshot or alluded to by action”44. Due to the explicit story

space in film, narrative is more specific and does not need a reconstruction in the

audience’s mind. This is due to the spatial parameters that convey the story in a film.

Scale and size, which are the first parameter, represent objects and how they are

perceived from the camera’s lens. Accordingly, the audience is able to see through

the character’s/narrator’s/camera’s eyes. Besides, proximity in film can be

manipulated in a greater degree, which is why the audience is not given a choice of

inferring his or her own experience in it. Furthermore, the interplay of contour,

texture and density, serve the purpose of conveying the third dimension in cinematic

film. In other words, films are like a sequence of photographs and those are two

dimensional. Moreover, in order to make the film more realistic it needs the above

mentioned features. Another parameter is that of position, which is the situation and

arrangement of existents and objects in a shot. Positioning in film narrative not only

shows the perspective of the camera, but also shows how the relationship between

objects and the subjects are supposed to be understood. Although it is helpful for the

audience to see/get the views by the camera, they limit the audience’s interpretation

44
 Seymour Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (London: Cornell
University Press, 1980), 96.

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