Answers from the whirlwind: Chaos, closure and the ends of narrative
Description
Closure is recognized as a major force in defining a narrative and determining its effectiveness. This study attempts to explore two questions, one theoretical, the other critical: Why is it that there seems to be a disjuncture between the conclusion of every narrative and its meaning? How can we understand the meaning of a particular narrative, its moral implications, without reducing it to a thematic or theoretical hobbyhorse, on the one hand, or a technical exercise on the other? The study will reveal, I believe, that the ethic of Narrative--and of a narrative--is uncovered--and recovered--during and through the method of closure The foundation of the theory proposed here is that the tension between experience and meaning, between living in time and achieving value beyond time becomes most intense and most resolved during closure. This foundation recognizes that on one level narrative structures that which by its nature cannot be organized according to the logic of our understanding. Narrative allows us to force histories--personal, psychological, cultural, even ideological--into a perception of why, to read forward into intelligible patterns the causes ultimately obscured by the whirlwind, or whatever metaphor we apply to the overwhelming presence of existence which humbles the conceit of our experience. As Chaos theory shows how order breaks down into a randomness within which lies an undefinable order, so too does Closure theory attempt to show how plotting breaks down into a failure of narrative within which lies a higher plot Of course, any theory of narrative must, to be viable, be critically applicable, must bring us closer not only to Narrative, but to Texts. The first three chapters may be labeled theory, the last three criticism or practice. In brief, chapter one outlines the theory, chapter two considers its implications for how narrative works, how closure 'controls' plots and genres, and chapter three surveys the closure of a particular plot, or genre, the marriage-ending. Chapters four through six examine particular narratives. Pamela, Evelina and Mansfield Park, moving in each case from Narrative to Text, so that the theory becomes more and more concealed in and subordinate to the reading