Literary theory and fiction

This week, I want to have a review of a few key concepts of literary theories and some of their applications in Sinhala literature. This is in anyway not a comprehensive review of key concepts of literary theories rather a quick overview covering only concepts such as structuralism, narrative structure focusing on linear and non-linear narrative structures as it is not possible to paraphrase the large corpus of literary theories developed in the west over the years. In this column, I want to emphasise that no serious creative writer can afford to ignore literary theories and successive academic discourses and their extensive applications in fiction and associated fields.

In literature one of the cardinal issues is providing meanings and interpretations. Meaning is not a process of identification of the sign with real world objects, engagement with some pre-existing concepts or realities; rather it is generated by interpreting difference among signs in an organized manner. For instance, the meanings of the words "woman" and "lady" are interpreted by their relations to one another in a field of meaning. Both these words refer to a human female, but what constitutes "human" and what constitutes "female" are themselves established through providing meaning to difference, and not by embracing any concept as ideal truth, or the like. Some literary theories assist us to look at some of these concepts and how writers provide meanings and interpretations through their narrative structures.

Structuralism

According to Robert Scholes, Structuralism emerged as a reaction to modernist alienation and despair. Structuralist attempted at developing semiology (system of signs). Structuralism notes that much of our imaginative world is structured of, and structured by, binary opposition such as being/nothingness, hot/cold, and good/evil.

Structuralism provides the basis for semiotics, the study of signs: a sign may be a union of signifier (the time of the narrative) and signified (what is being said [told] or the narrative), and anything that represents for something else (or, as Italian Umberto Eco puts it, a sign is anything that can be used to lie or construct a deception).

Central to semiotics is the concepts of codes, which provide various signs to context such as cultural codes, literary codes, identity codes and binary codes etc. The study of semiotics and of codes opens up windows to literary studies linking them to a discipline called cultural study. This discipline can be expanded enabling critics to provide meanings of texts. Structuralism, according to Gerard Genette, "is a study of the cultural construction or identification of meaning according to the relations of signs that constitute the meaning-spectrum of the culture."

Some signs may carry with them broader cultural meanings, usually very general; these are called, by Roland Barthes, "myths", or second-order signifiers. Anything can be a myth.

Structuralism introduces the idea of the 'subject', as opposed to the idea of the individual as a stable indivisible ego.

The approach explained through structuralism was contrary to earlier held views such as the relationship between the words and things in the world and they designate. One of the principle notions of Structuralism is the notion of paradigm and value.

In Structuralism, a paradigm is a set of linguistic units (lexemes, morphemes or even constructions) which are possible in a certain position in a given linguistic environment (like a given sentence), which is the syntagm. The syntagmatic analysis of a text (whether it is verbal or non-verbal) involves studying its structure and the relationships between its parts.

The fundamental argument of the Structuralist is that "Novelty value of a literary text" can only in new structures and not in the specifics such as development of characters and voice. However, the Structural Literary criticisms is losing ground today and approaches such as post-structuralism and deconstruction theory have been widely used in literary criticism.

Narrative structure

Narrative structure is generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. For example, fiction could be defined as prose narrative based on a writer's imagination, usually the novel or the short story.

One of the fundamental aspects of a narration in fiction is the structure which may be defined as the order or the manner in which the writer's narration is represented to a reader, listener or a viewer. In a textual context, narrative structure includes elements such as introduction, in which the backdrop of a story is set including introduction of characters and circumstances, chorus, voices of an onlooker describing the events the manner in which the plot of the fiction is revealed.

The narrative structure which was first described by Indian philosophers and subsequently by Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, gained popularity as a critical concept when Structuralist Literary theorists primarily Roland Barthes, Vladimir Propp, Northrop Frye and Joseph Campbell tried to postulate the argument that all human narratives have a certain universal, deep structural element in common. However, this argument was rather nullified when advocates of post-structuralism such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida emphasised that such universal elements and shared deep structures were logically and practically impossible.

Linear and non-linear narrative structures

One of the commonest forms of literary structures is linear narrative where the narration proceeds in a sequential order or in a straight line and in step-by-step pattern. Most of the fiction and non-fiction works also fall into this category.

On the contrary, non -linear narrative does not follow a straight course, the author may create the ending of the story before the middle is finished. Non -linear narratives create dramatic effects. However, it is not a novel concept considering the techniques such as Stream of Consciousness and associated narrative techniques including monologues are often used not only in fiction but also in other media such as films.

In literature it was James Joyce who employed stream of consciousness in his controversial novel 'Ulysses' (1922), with the story taking place in the minds of its main characters, Stephen Dedalus, advertising agent Leopold Bloom, and Bloom's wife Molly as they go their ways through the City of Dublin during a single day. Siri Gunasinghe successfully introduced and employed the technique of Stream of Consciousness in Hevanella (The Shadow) in 1960, which caused a major upstir in the literary community at the time.

Although some of the theoretical frameworks discussed here may no longer be valid in the present context, it is imperative that the writer should have a through grasp of the literary theories in order to create a good fiction.

It seems for some literary people the non- linear narrative structures have become a term which is universally applicable. One of the hallmarks of a literary work of universal value is clarity, portrayal of characters and enrichment of colloquial idiom and perhaps, reflections of the milieu, irrespective of the fact whether the author follows linear or non-linear narrative structure.

Sri Lankan literary landscape

Surveying the post independent Sri Lankan literary landscape, one could identify that those dominant literati of the day such as Martin Wickremasinghe, Gunadasa Amerasekara, Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Simon Nawagaththegama, K. Jayatilake and Siri Gunasinghe had, wittingly or unwittingly, applied the literary theories and some of the techniques such as Stream of Consciousness in their literary works. For Ediriweera Sarachchandra's masterpieces such as 'Malawunge Aurudu da', 'Malagiya Eththo' not only contain, perhaps, the best prose in Sinhala language but also instances where the literary theory has been put into practice.

In some of Martin Wickremasinghe's novels where techniques such as Stream of Consciousness and flashbacks have been widely used. For instance, in 'Gamperaliya' Wickremasinghe has used flashbacks on several instances which are directly linked to evolution of the plot. In the other two novels in Wickramsinghe's trilogy; "Kaliyugaya" and "Yuganthaya", he uses same techniques with a highly evolved diction.

Simon Nawagaththegama is also marked for the application of literary theory for his literary works. Though a comprehensive critical analysis has not been done on his works, in my view, 'Sapekshani' is one of the seminal literary works in contemporary Sri Lankan literature.

Among other things, the book has a structure which is a radical departure from the conventional structure of Sinhala novel. The writers' knowledge of literary theory is as important as the diction.

If a writer is more familiar with literary theories and has read masterpieces of world literature, he or she will be able to relate life experiences in a more authentic and effective manner that they eventually become a part of humanity.