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Open destinies : modern American women and the short story cycle Lister, Rachel

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Open Destinies: Modern American Women and the Short Story Cycle

Rachel Lister

Submittedas a thesisfor the Degreeof Doctor of Philosophy Durham University Department of English Studies 2005 A copyright of this thesis rests No quotation with the author. from it should be published without his prior written consent derived information from it and should be acknowledged.

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Rachel Lister Open Destinies: Modern American Women and the Short Story Cycle Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Abstract This thesis examines the juncture between the short story cycle form and gender politics. It explores how twentieth-century women from the United Stateshave been using the form to represent and question gender identity. The introduction outlines includes form. It definitions the the case of story cycle and considers commentaries on Mary by American twentieth-century such as cycles women: studies of earlier cycles McCarthy's The Company She Keeps that have been passedover by critics of the form.

ChapterOnepresentsEudoraWelty's The GoldenApples as a cycle paradigm, examiningconventionssuchasthe form's metafictional dimensionand its preoccupation with communal identity. Chapter Two argues that Grace Paley's scattered Faith narratives set a standard for more dispersed versions of the form. Chapter Three considers how Joyce Carol Oates uses the sequential cycle to represent gender identity as a social construct. Chapters Four and Five examine the macrocosmic form in Gloria Naylor Louise Erdrich their and cycles of and and consider changes gender politics. The final `composite' chapters explore postmodern versions of the form such as Susan Minot's Monkeys. The prose works of Sandra Cisneros stretch across the story cycle continuum, whilst Toni Morrison's Paradise is universally regarded as a novel. Readings of contemporary cycles by Melissa Bank, Elissa Schappell and Emily Carter demonstrate that American women are re-invigorating the form to facilitate the plural identity of the postmodern heroine.

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Contents

Contents

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Declaration

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Statement of Copyright

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Acknowledgements

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Introduction Developing Taxonomies: Cycles, Sequences,Collections

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and Composites Form and Gender

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Questions and Case Studies

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1. "The Illusory Shape": Eudora Welty's Aesthetic of Openness

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2. "The One and the Many": Grace Paley and the Art of Balance

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3. Insularity and Integration: Joyce Carol Oates's Sequential Cycles

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4. Resistanceand Reconfiguration:Gloria Naylor's Evolving Cycles

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5. "Power from the In-Between": Louise Erdrich's Macrocosmic Cycle

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6. Anticipation and Retrospection: Postmodem Variations on the Form Sandra Cisneros: The House on Man ogStreet, Caramelo

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and Woman Hollering Creek Susan Minot: Monkeys

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Toni Morrison: Paradise

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7. "Terminal Uniqueness": The Contemporary Story Cycle and the Plural Self Elissa Schappell's Use Me and Melissa Bank's

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The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Emily Carter: Glory Goesand Gets Some

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Open Destinies

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Appendix: An Interview with Colin Channer

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Notes

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Works Cited and Consulted

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Declaration

I declare that no part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree in this or any other university. Rachel Lister.

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Statement of Copyright

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be

publishedwithout their prior written consentand information derived from it shouldbe acknowledged.

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Acknowledgements I would like to express my appreciation for the funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now Council) that enabled me to dedicate the three years to the thesis. Many individuals made valuable contributions to this thesis and deserve recognition. I would like to thank Colin Channer who took the time to share his thoughts, responded to all my questions and showed an abiding interest in the project. The generous, meticulous responsesof Joyce Carol Oates helped enormously with my readings and opened up my own perceptions of the form. Her lecture on the faith of the writer was inspiring. Special thanks must go to Farhat Iftekharuddin for his guidance concerning the publication of the Grace Paley chapter. Michael O'Neill kindly read this chapter and offered helpful in Conference Maria Lauret's London feedback BAAS the suggestions. on my paper at 2003 was most illuminating; her encouraging comments and probing questions gave me much to think about. I would like to acknowledge enlightening conversations with Simon James and Brian Burton regarding all things cyclic. Simon James's recommendations of cyclic films were particularly helpful. Jo Kramer deserves special thanks for her anecdotes about Jewish family life and her thoughts on Jewish identity. Dialogue with Ben Knights was always encouraging and illuminating; his recommendation of Emily Carter's Glory Goes and Gets Some and generous purchase of Alice Hoffman's Blackbird House provided material for several readings. Special thanks must go to my Mum and Dad for their continued support over the many years of studying. Most of all I would like to thank Pam Knights for all of her brilliant ideas, unflagging support, and assiduous reading that reached beyond the call of duty. I dedicate this thesis to her.

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"Everyone,real or invented,deservesthe opendestinyof life" Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute.

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Introduction

Developing Taxonomies: Cycles, Sequences,Collections and Composites During an interview in 1981 Joyce Carol Oatesoutlined her vision of a hybrid form that would dismantle generic boundaries:"I am fascinated with the ... conceptof a `novel' shapedout of a sequenceof closely related and intertwined `short stories"' (Pinsker 98). Oates'sconcept will be a familiar one to writers and readersof the short story cycle: a form that embodiesthis duality and disrupts notions of formal unity. Over the past forty years interest in the genrehas developed; writers and critics have becomeincreasingly fascinatedby the elasticity of a form that yields the possibility of new configurations and definitions. This introduction will consider how taxonomies for the form both reflect upon and contradict each other, enabling me to define the parametersof my own investigation. Forrest L. Ingram both coined the term `short story cycle' and delivered the first detailed exploration of the form in 1971. In RepresentativeShort Story Cycles of the Twentieth Century Ingram identified someof the defining characteristicsof the genre. Whilst concentratingupon modem adaptationsof the form, he traces its developmentback to the works of Homer, Ovid and Boccaccio. Ingram's opening definition has becomea common starting point for critics of the form and has featured repeatedlyin subsequentstudiesof the genre. He definesthe form as "a set of stories so linked to one anotherthat the reader's experienceof each one is modified by his experienceof the others" (13). Deploying imagesthat capturethe form's fluidity, Ingram stressesthat narrative boundariesin the story cycle are never fixed: "Like the moving parts of a mobile, the interconnectedparts of somestory cycles seemto shift their positions with relation to the other parts

A cycle's form ...

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is elusive" (13). Ingram attempts to establish a generic framework with a short story cycle continuum. He bases his three categories of cycle upon the nature of their construction: "Linked stories may have been COMPOSED as a continuous whole, or ARRANGED capitalization).

into a series, or COMPLETED to form a set" (17 Ingram's The `composed cycle' is "one which the author had conceived as a

whole from the time he wrote its first story. " The author of the `composed cycle' "allows himself to be governed by the demands of some master plan" (17). The creator of the `arranged cycle' consciously brings the stories together so that they will "illuminate or comment upon one another by juxtaposition or association" (18). The construction of a `completed cycle' involves rearranging and regrouping narratives that "may have begun as independent dissociated stories" (18).

At the heart of the form's elusivenesslies its duality. Ingram registersthis in his introduction when he observeshow the form embodies"the tension betweenthe one and the many": "Every story cycle displays a double tendencyof assertingthe individuality of its componentson the one hand and of highlighting, on the other, the bondsof unity which make the many into a single whole" (19). Readingsin this thesis will examine how writers use the form either to representor, in the caseof Louise Erdrich, query this tension. Ingram attributes the "special kind of unity" achievedby the story cycle form to the "dynamic patterns of RECURRENCE and DEVELOPMENT, " which, he claims, "usually operateconcurrently like the motion of a wheel" (20 Ingram's capitalization). As themes,motifs, settings and charactersrecur they "expand their context and deepentheir poetic significance" (21). This repetition and expansion forms a kind of "composite myth" that invites the readerto establishand trace patternsof signification (21).

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Although Ingram's taxonomieshave proved invaluable as springboardsfor subsequentexaminationsof the form, his analysis of individual twentieth-century cycles calls into questionjust how "representative" his study is. He devoteshis three principal chaptersto the cycles of SherwoodAnderson, William Faulkner and Franz Kafka; JamesJoyce,Albert Camusand John Steinbeckalso receive considerable attention. The conspicuousabsenceof female writers from Ingram's study qualifies the diversity and breadth of his exploration. He makesa cursory referenceto Flannery O'Connor's Everything that RisesMust Converge(1965) as an example of Although linked by `arranged' thematic currents. cycle of stories an repetitive Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples (1949) typifies Ingram's notion of a `completed footnote. bounds in it in list the titles of a within cycle' many ways, appearsonly a of By concentratingprimarily on female writers my own investigation will seeknot form's between balance but illuminate the to the to the only redress contiguities also dynamics and theories of female subjectivity and experience. Ingram acknowledgesthat he has limited his analysis to "those story-groups book" (19). have been by therefore, their a given an order, a pattern, which author: Whilst using the more conventional short story cycle as an initial model for investigation, I intend to examine how female writers are continually reworking the form and testing its boundaries. Chapterson Joyce Carol Oatesand Grace Paley in particular will analysethe effects of this kind of experimentation. Both thesewriters have createdcycles of scatteredbut linked stories that stretch beyond the boundaries of the single text. Unity is continually arrestedand reassertedas thesewriters interspersethe linked stories with other, ostensibly unrelated narratives. Whilst one incarnations diffusive that these argue might constitute a genre of their own, they enactthe samebasic principle of "recurrence and development" as the more

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concentrated,unified story cycle. The criteria for the form in my thesis are that the individual stories within the cycle must retain their statusas independentnarrative be binding than thematic that there the must more a connection and entities does between The the the together. size or nature of gaps stories not narratives forms fractured dynamics The these of are therefore worth and effects matter. consideringalongsidethe more cohesivecycles. Since Ingram's `representative'study, taxonomieshave broadenedand story in J. Gerald 1988, inclusive. have become Published more cycle glossaries Kennedy's essay,"Toward a Poeticsof the Short Story Cycle," illuminates someof the strategiesdeployed by cycle writers to generate"composite meanings"(14): the denote "ideas, the "intertextual to the title; signs" accretion of use of a representative beliefs, concernsand fixations forming [the cycle's] ideological substance"(19). Kennedy outlines three types of sign commonly used by story cycle writers. The first of theseis the "topical sign" which "includes all objects, images,and actions Kennedy (19). in `symbolic' cites as the traditional sense" which readersperceive as Tales" Told in Twice "recurrent doors, and the the windows and mirrors examples bullfighting scenesin Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time (19). He notesthat such from intensifies duality that story to the senseof or ambiguity signs often reinforce story. For example,the chalice in JamesJoyce's Dubliners embodiescontradictory it " it denotes degeneracy, "paralysis in Sisters" "The whereas and meanings; "metaphorizesthe young boy's devotion" in "Araby" (19). "Spatiotemporal signs" include fix "which the action they to the cycle reader; allusions story grounding offer in a particular place or at a specific historical moment" (20). "Functional signs" in to the cycle, emphasizingthe role that they play within the cycle characters relate rather than their distinctive personalities. Kennedy writes that one example of such a

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sign-system"resides in the differentia of speech,attitude, and mannerwhich enable us to perceive as a common type those embattledwomen form-owners [sic] in O'Connor's A Good Man" (21). Kennedy's identification of intertextual signs proves helpful when consideringhow cycle writers both createand confound unity. Where appropriate, my investigation will refer to this sign-systemcontinuum in its readingsof individual cycles. Like most recent critics who are eagerto broadendefinitions, Kennedy disputes some of Ingram's observations on the conventions of the form. He argues that Ingram's "insistence on unity" as the "litmus test of cyclical form" has "produced a restrictive and conservative theory of form which has canonized certain collections while ignoring others" (11). He notes that the "junctures" of "collective meaning" in a story cycle "may reveal discontinuity as readily as unity" (14). In response to Ingram's more prescriptive definition, Kennedy proposes the taxonomy "short story collection, " claiming that this broader term will "encompass both tightly organized story sequences and more loosely bound or problematic works" (13). He adds that his term would include multi-author volumes collated by editors.

Kennedy's analysis of some of the distinguishing featuresof the form is undoubtedly useful. On considering his casefor a more inclusive taxonomy, however, it is difficult to perceivewhere to draw the line betweenhis notion of a "collection" and a miscellany of stories. The most superficial reading of any story collection will most likely furnish somebasic thematic connections. Kennedy himself acknowledgesthat, "any grouping of stories by a single writer will possessat least a minimal collective identity" (13-14). He cites Raymond Carver's Cathedral and Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find as texts that would come

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under his term "short story collection" (15). Both volumes are linked loosely only by theme; it is difficult to perceive how thesecollections differ from the majority of short story volumes written by a single author. Wouldn't Eudora Welty's A Curtain of Greenand Other Stories qualify under Kennedy's notion of a story collection becauseof its portrayal of outsidersin stories such as "Petrified Man," "Keela, the OutcastMaiden," "Old Mr Marblehall" and "Why I Live at the P.O."? Kennedy himself acknowledgesthe difficulties surrounding thesegeneric distinctions in his introduction to the 1995 study, Modem American Short Story Sequences: Composite Fictions and Fictive Communities. Having abandoned his

for term the most current taxonomy, he recognizesthat his view of the proposed is inclusive" "broadly genre and embraces"all collections of three or more stories written and arrangedby a single author" (ix). He adds:"given the ultimate inscrutability - if not irrelevance of authorial intention, we face the impossibility of distinguishing certain casesbetweenordered sequencesand mere selectionsof stories editorially arranged" and that "One must concedeat last that textual unity, like beauty, lies mainly in the eye of the beholding reader" (ix). Kennedy places thematically linked collections such as Willa Cather's The Troll Gardenalongside the "exemplary texts" of Joyce and Anderson (ix). His choice of words to describe thesemore unified collections suggeststhat Kennedy, despitehis inclusive vision, has neverthelesscreateda hierarchy of the form. In this study, individual critics look at a range of `sequences, ' including Eudora Welty's The Wide Net and Henry James'sThe Finer Grain: texts that have not featured in story cycle criticism before. Chapterson Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine and Hemingway's In Our Time redressthe balancesomewhat. Having acknowledgedthe breadthof his generic definition, Kennedy illuminates the

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problems posedby "those twentieth-century novels that fragment narrative point of view to project multiple versions of a complex experience"(x). He cites suchtexts as William Faulkner's The Unvan uished (1938) which, as this introduction will note briefly, continuesto generatedebatein terms of generic categorisation. Strangely,Kennedy includes Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Placein this categoryof fragmentednovels, drawing attention to the way that the text's subtitle "A Novel in SevenStories" announcesits hybridity. However Naylor's first work is one of the few texts that cycle critics consistently cite as an archetypeof the form. Indeed my chapter on Naylor will read her debut as a story cycle and will arguethat the subtitle, by illuminating the text's generic duality, highlights the need for a third term such as short story cycle. In 1989 SusanGarland Mann published The Short Story Cycle: a Genre Companion and ReferenceGuide, in which she considersthe many ways in which stories in a cycle connect with eachother. Mann reiteratesIngram's observations development the the within the about recurrenceof settingsand charactersand notes form of collective protagonists such as families and clans. Shealso illuminates the is form's utility for the exploration of particular themes:"the lack of continuity ... usedby somewriters to emphasisethe fragmentary nature of life" and thus a in have "statements about art general, offered considerablenumber of recent cycles especially the difficulty of being the artist" (12,13). Mann briefly registersthe unique kind of reading experiencerenderedby the short story cycle. She asserts: "readers enjoy reveling in the necessarilyrestricted form of a single story and then discovering that they can, as they continue to read,transcendtheseboundaries" (19). Mann's statementhints at a new kind of agency for the reader: a notion that more recent studiesof the genrehave explored in some detail and that will form a

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significant part of this study. Mann's book concludeswith a helpful glossary of the short story cycle. Someof her choicesare interesting and underline again the potential breadthof the form. Like Ingram and Kennedy, she includes collections of stories that are connectedsolely by theme; Willa Cather's The Troll Garden features once more. One year later Robert M. Luscher introduced the term `short story sequence', emphasizingthe successiverather than the cyclic nature of the form. In "The Short Story Sequence:An Open Book," Luscher arguesthat his term is more accuratethan Ingram's `cycle' because"the story sequencerepeatsand progressivelydevelops themesand motifs over the courseof the work; its unity derives from a perception of both the successiveordering and recurrent patterns,which together provide the continuity of the reading experience" (149). Whilst he views the reader's trajectory in a different light to Ingram and Mann, Luscher also enthusesabout the possibilities be interaction by form: "These text/reader the of offered works should viewed, not as failed novels, but as unique hybrids that combine two distinct reading pleasures:the individual closure of patterned stories and the discovery of larger unifying strategies that transcendthe apparentgapsbetweenstories" (149-50). When applying these find I Apples, forms Eudora Golden that Welty's The to taxonomies multiple such as Ingram's term servesas a more accuratereflection of the reader's methodology. The reader's initial experienceof The Golden Apples is sequential;however the interpretive processassumesa circular motion as the reader makesnarrative leaps backwardsand forwards in order to elicit the threadsof connection. Luscher's term is perhapsmore pertinent to those forms that observea sense of sequentiality either through their observation of chronology or the developmentof a particular consciousnessfrom one story to the next. William Faulkner's The

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Unvanguishedis a particularly interesting case. Forrest Ingram devotesa whole chapterto the text and insists on its cyclic status;he calls the text "a composed, mythically oriented short story cycle" (126). His analysisof The Unvanquished signalsthe difficulties surrounding its generic identity. Ingram stresseshow Faulkner conceivedthe sevennarrativesin the text as self-containedshort stories, publishing them in three groups. However he also documentsthe revisions that Faulkner madeand their unifying effect: the revisions brought "the thematic content of the earlier storiesmore closely in line with the seriousdirection of the later stories," "enrich[ing] the backgroundof characters... that are to take an important in role some later story" and "lean[ing] toward a tightening of substanceand symbol" (Ingram 106,107). Ingram recognizesthat the text deviatesfrom more paradigmatic cycles: "Faulkner has tied his stories together with more precision than Anderson's pieces in Winesburg,Ohio, or Hemingway's In Our Time" (139). In support of his classification, Ingram illuminates the more `cyclic' elements of The Unvanquished:the disruption of chronology through the use of flashbacks; the shifting position of Bayard, the foregrounding consciousness,from the centre to the margins of the action; the development in eachstory of a "central action" unlike a novel such as Sartoris that "moves in one continuous multiple action" (134,132 Ingram's italics). ' However Ingram also acknowledgesthe predominantly sequential structure of the text: "the significance of The Unvanquishedaccumulatesfrom story to story through the achievementof successivelyhigher viewpoints embodiedin the gradually maturing reflections and actions of Bayard Sartoris" (134). Ingram draws from Faulkner himself to support his contention that The Unvanquishedis, at least, not a novel, quoting Faulkner's recollection of his original vision of the form:

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I saw them as a long series. I had never thought of it in terms of a novel, exactly. I realized that they would be too episodicto be what I considereda novel, so I thought of them as a seriesof stories,that when I got into the first one I could seetwo more, but by the time I'd finished the first one I saw that it was going further than that, and then when I'd finished the fourth one, I had postulatedtoo many questions that I had to answerfor my own satisfaction. So the others had to be

(Gwynn 252). then written ...

Faulkner's description of the writing processand his use of the term `series' illuminate the overriding senseof sequentialitythat distinguishesthis text from the 2 Go Down, Moses (1942) In light of Faulkner's commentary on more overtly cyclic the conceptionof The Unvan uished, Robert Luscher's term is perhapsthe more for this text: his taxonomy recognizesboth the selfclassification apposite individual the containment of piecesand the underlying senseof sequentiality unifying them, driving the reader forward. The title of Maggie Dunn and Ann Morris's study acknowledgesthe form's breadthand continuing evolution. In The CompositeNovel: the Short Story Cycle in Transition (1995), Dunn and Morris examine many variations of the form. They illuminate a "three-track continuum occupied by all three genres,with the `novel proper' and the `mere collection' on either side, and the compositenovel in the middle" (29). They statethat the terms `short story cycle' and `compositenovel' are "diametrically opposedin their generic implications and assumptions. Composite novel emphasizesthe integrity of the whole, while short story cycle emphasizesthe integrity of the parts" (5). Dunn and Morris claim that Ingram's term both "implies inferior statusin the generic hierarchy" and "preclude[s] linear development" thus

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"prescrib[ing] or at least suggest[ing] generic limitations" (5). The term `composite novel', on the other hand, emphasizescongruities with the novel: a form that, although "usually structuredby plot ... can be structured alternatively, or by association- that is, by juxtaposing events,images,themes,and/or charactersin some sort of coherentpattern" (5). However a glanceat Dunn and Morris's wideranging glossaryjustifies the use of both taxonomies;texts conforming more closely to Ingram's definition such as The Golden Apples, Dubliners and SarahOrne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs sit alongsidehighly unified forms such as Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie and Willa Cather's The Professor's House: works in for the than narratives meaning whose parts are more contingent upon each other the cycles of Welty and Joyce. Dunn and Morris also include Brown Girl, Brownstones, Paule Marshall's episodic novel, which must be read in chronological order. The individual sections of this text do not stand as self-contained narrative freestanding if them entities and some of would not make complete sense read as

`stories.' Suchworks epitomizethe term `compositenovel' morethanthe looser forms of Joyce, Welty and Jewett; thus there remains a casefor retaining these taxonomies as markers for two different forms.

This thesis will take into accountthe multicultural identity of the modern American short story cycle, foregroundedby JamesNagel in 2001. In The ContemporaryAmerican Short-Story Cycle: The Ethnic Resonanceof Genre,Nagel definesthe form as one in which "each componentwork must stand alone yet be ... enriched in the context of the interrelated stories" (15). Nagel insists that, "The short-story cycle in modem American fiction is patently multi-cultural" and traces its origins to "a sharedlegacy reaching back to ancient oral traditions ... uniting disparatepeoplesin a heritage of narrative tradition" (4-5). He argues:"The English

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`novel,' as an extendednarrative with a primary central characterand a main plot that extendsfrom beginning to end, is not as universal a form as a group of short tales linked to eachother by consistentelements" (5). Nagel usesForrest Ingram's taxonomy in his title, but, like most story cycle definition in his he from his Controversially, deviates analysis. presents critics, in formal form their the that texts structural and are closer as paradigmsof several Jamaica Kincaid's Annie Ingram's than the to model. compositenovel properties John (1985) is referred to by Nagel as "a quintessentialexample of the contemporary (56). He stressesthat eachsection of the text was published cycle" short-story "separate the that therefore as stand eight stories separatelyas a short story and "a " constructs, each one presenting conflict, a resolution, and a senseof artistic in them (57). However, Kincaid the collated stories shearranged when closure" the them chapters read might one order, presenting as chapters; whilst chronological as individual pieces,they achieve far more resonancewhen read as part of a whole. Unlike SusanMinot's Monkeys, anothertext presentedas a paradigm by Nagel, there is no changein narrative voice or focalisation and the text consistently follows one narrative line: the developmentof the relationship betweenthe narrator`composite her The `short terms novel' or mother. story sequence' protagonist and are perhapsmore accuratetaxonomies for Annie John. Recent reviews of new cycles demonstratea reluctanceto employ these formal taxonomies. Peter Donahue's essayon In Our Time, appealsfor further is identity. distinct in 2003, Genre Which form's Published "The the recognition of Not One" observeshow the use of "figurative language" by Luscher and Ingram suggeststhe form's "un-fixed nature, that it can be like something- like a novel, like a short story collection - but apparently not something definite unto itself' (161

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Donahue's italics). Reviewersare however beginning to use terms which stressthe unity betweenstories and thus distinguish cycles from miscellaneouscollections. Terms such as `linked stories' and `interconnectednarratives,' appearto be growing increasingly popular, perhapsowing to their potential to cover all bases. In the Montreal GazetteMonique Polak describesElizabeth Hay's Small Change(1997) as "a collection of inter-linked short stories" ("Review"). In 2004 Alice Hoffman published Blackbird House, a cycle of stories unified primarily by their setting in CapeCod. Reviews of the cycle stressthe linkage betweenthe stories: Elaine Showalter's Guardian review writes of "12 intricately connectedstories" ("Learning"); Carole Goldberg in her Hartford Courant review usesthe term "linked stories" ("Life"); SharanMcBride from the Houston Chronicle prefers "interconnectednarratives" ("More"). One Hoffman reviewer objects to the growing prevalenceof such terms. In the Rocky Mountain News review of Blackbird House, Jenny Snark criticises the "coy language" employed by publishers who favour terms such as "interlinked narratives" and "inter-related fictions"; she views such terms as a meansof "avoid[ing] the dreadedadmittancethat Hoffman has written - gasp-a book of short stories" ("House"). Snark objects to theseterms on the groundsthat they illuminate the reluctanceof publishers to tell readersthe truth and presentthem with a genrethat, they contend, is losing its appeal:the short story collection. Whilst this may be a pertinent point, it is surely equally important to distinguish a text such as Hoffman's that deploys a number of unifying devices, from miscellaneous collections that are loosely connectedby theme only. By using theseterms, reviewers are acknowledging the linked story collection as a form in its own right.

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Form and Gender: Further Exploration Unlike Ingram, Dunn and Morris acknowledgethe influence of female writers in the short story cycle canon, and draw parallels betweenthe dynamics of the form and women's lives. Prevalentmetaphorsfor the form include the art of quilt-making.

Dunn and Morris examine those cycles that emulate this aesthetic,

including those that present quilt-making as their theme: Louisa May Alcott's Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag (1872) and Maley Bainbridge Crist's Patchwork (1898). They draw links between the methodology of female cycle writers and the principle of quilt (23). "juxtaposition and variation" such as repetition with composition

In their brief final chapter, Dunn and Morris speculateabout reading "maintain form. for They the that the a must stress story cycle reader strategies " dimensionally, " "vertically, three thinking as well as senseof connectedness, horizontally (116). Returning to the quilt as a metaphorfor "visualizing in three dimensions" they note that Julia Kristeva's theory of "spatialization" has particular for for (117). Having the metaphors story cycle reader consideredvarious relevance spatialization, Dunn and Morris summarizeits basic principle: "a reader's field, individual from distance depth, from to the to the and perspectivemust shift back again, in a dynamic process" (120). They make a tentative link betweenthis (120). In "female "shape" their concluding the of experience" and strategy reading by form between Morris Dunn this qualify and gender connection and paragraphs in form's itself to the that the changes rise of popularity owes primarily suggesting lifestyle (120). They stressthe differencesbetweenpostmodern life structuresand those of the Victorians and suggestways that these structuresdictate the shapeof narrative: "The Victorians (white-anglo-saxon-protestant-eminentones, at least) lived leisurely lives that paralleled and were reflected in their big, long, linear novels.

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But our lives are different from theirs, and it standsto reasonthat our books should be different" (120). Dunn and Morris come to doubt the relevanceof race and in form, limits they the to although acknowledge of their genderpolitics changes definition of Victorian lives. They remain certain however that the form is above all by is borne their opening theory that out sensibility: a expressive of a postmodern list As their of story cycles, they as annotated novels. well glossary of composite list begins 1820 Their by the with of publication. year organized a glossary provide and ends in 1993. The pre-twentieth century cycles occupy three pages, whilst the 1900s. As devoted the the years progress, the entries to twelve pages are remaining become longer as more composite forms emerge.

Margot Kelley continued the debateabout form and genderin 2000 with her Kelley " that Case Novel-in-Stories. Genre: The "Gender the observes and of essay "about 75 percentof the current writers" of the form are women, "often women who live in positions of double marginality as membersof visible minorities or as lesbians" (296). In defining seven "attributes" of the form she illuminates the importance of gaps in the form's structure and the possibility for intensified reader in having the (297): "Important occur events events occur off-stage ... participation be interventions to between that the of going are chapters suggests reader's spaces in importance making meaning" (298-9). In analysing the structural particular principles of the "novel-in-stories"

Kelley highlights the congruity between the

form's structure and feminist discourses. She writes:

Each story has a climax, and theseclimaxes build upon eachother. Consequently,the short stories eachhave epiphanic moments,and the action of the larger narrative follows a "rising sawtooth" pattern, creating a senseof developmentthat is not shapedby teleology ...

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This pattern resemblesone by French feminists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray as an element of a viable ecriturefeminine (299). Kelley draws parallels betweenthe form's dynamics and the relational paradigm that has becomeassociatedwith female identity. Carol Gilligan usesthe imagesof the web and the hierarchy to figure the difference betweenfemale and male sensibilities. Her studiesof children revealedthat where girls confront dilemmas through "a network of connection, a web of relationships sustainedby a processof communication," boys set up "a hierarchical ordering to resolve a conflict" (Gilligan 32,33). For Gilligan theseimagesrepresentthe "contrast betweena self defined through separationand a self delineatedthrough connection" (35). Kelley suggeststhat the story cycle enactsboth sensibilities: by incorporating "the tension betweenthe one and the many," the genre "suggeststhat a coherentor unified identity requires both autonomy and connectivity" (304). In Feminine Fictions Patricia Waugh identifies a movementaway from "separateness"and "discrete form" in twentieth-century women's writing: "It is the in identity human terms of relationship the value of construing gradual recognition of has isolated dispersal, than which ego, rather as a unitary, self-directing, and fundamentally altered the courseof modem and contemporarywomen's writing" (12-3). My own investigation will examine how women writers are using the short story cycle form both to enact and probe the relational construction of the self. Individual chapterswill build upon theseresonanceswith genderparadigmsand discover new links with the form by drawing upon a range of gendertheories. For human rights activist Grace Paley, fiction is grounded in the political; stretching from the fifties to the eighties, the Faith Darwin stories are, in many ways, shapedby the tenets of secondwave feminism. In her criticism, Joyce Carol Oatesdraws clear

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distinctions betweenmale and female sensibilities, attributing thesedifferencesto social conditioning; my chapteron Oateswill explore how her cyclic representations of genderdifference anticipate Judith Butler's theory of genderas performance. Theories of masculine identity will form a significant part of the thesis,particularly in readings of cycles by Gloria Naylor and Louise Erdrich. The thesis will also take into accountthose plot structuresand reading strategiesthat aretraditionally form female do the to confound to writers gender: use assigned a particular traditional male structuressuch as the end-determinedquest plot? Is gender identity a determining factor in reading methodology? Whilst focusing primarily on female writers, the thesis will draw Some the male writers work of male cycle writers. comparisons,where useful, with have usedthe story cycle to challengethe norms of masculine identity with more Anderson Sherwood (1919), Winesburg. Ohio In thought. relational models of for in importance the the selfquest of relationship and community emphasized its first is his documented the It Anderson text of that as well viewed actualization. kind in terms of its formal status; despitethe publication of Joyce's Dubliners years have I form invention: he his Winesburg "in the mademy own as earlier, claimed form" (Anderson Memoirs 289). Whilst critics have queried this assertionby referring back to the earlier cycles of Joyce and Jewett, they continue to recognize Winesburg, Ohio's statusas a kind of ur-text for the form. Dunn and Morris write: "Without much question, Winesburg,Ohio (1919) is the book that most people will think of when they hear the term short story cycle" (52). Mann and Ingram devote entire chaptersto Anderson. In "The Short Story Sequenceand the Semblanceof Community," J. Gerald Kennedy writes: "Anderson's influential collection ... provided a model for the story sequenceas a modem form" (97).

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Winesburg is a small Midwestern town populatedby men who guard their ego boundariesclosely. Winesburg's women exemplify the kind of relational thinking that challengesthis solipsism. As Sally Adair Rigsbeepoints out in her feminist reading of the cycle, it is primarily the women in Winesburg who embody the possibility of community: "The themesmost frequently identified as the unifying forces of Winesburg,Ohio, the failure of communication and the developmentof the artist, are closely related to Anderson's focus on the meaningof the feminine" (178). Encounterswith women like Kate Swift and Helen White enableGeorge Willard, Anderson's recurring protagonist, to break out of the paradigm of the boundedmale. In the penultimate story, "Sophistication," it is Helen's presencethat enablesGeorge to "make some minute readjustmentof the machinery of his life" so that he regards his community with "something like reverence" (233). This thesis will examine those female charactersin modem story cycles who emulateAnderson's women, taking their transformational roles further: women who embody the dynamics of the form by defying the boundariesof the text and the self. The thesis will also recognizethose masculinecycles that have servedeither as models or points of contrast to feminine incarnations. An e-mail interview with Colin Channerin 2005 offered many insights into the methodology of a contemporarymale story cycle writer. As this thesis approachedcompletion Channerpublished PassingThrough, a cycle that is in many ways paradigmatic of the form in its presentationof a common setting, recurring charactersand multiple points of view. I took the opportunity to contact Channerand gain an insight into a contemporarywriter's formal methodology. The full transcript of the interview is presentedin the appendix but my individual readings will refer to Channer's commentarywhere appropriate.

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The influence of Faulkner and his cyclic world will emergerepeatedlyin the thesis,particularly in chaptersthat focus on dispersedcyclic worlds such as those of GracePaley and Louise Erdrich. In his Nick Adams stories Ernest Hemingway uses a fragmentedform to chart the developmentof the single protagonist. He both emulatesand subvertsthe structureof the traditional Bildungsroman, a form that has becomeassociatedwith masculine identity. In "Humanbecoming: Form and Focus in the Feminist Novel, " Ellen Morgan writes: "The bildungsroman is a male affair. " After noting a few exceptionssuch as Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage she suggests reasonsfor this bias: by and large the Bildungsromanhas been a male form because women have tendedto be viewed traditionally as static rather than dynamic, as instancesof a femalenessconsideredessentialrather than existential. Women matured physically, at which point they were ripe for being loved. Then they deterioratedphysically, at which point they either disappearedfrom sight in the novel or becamestereotypes (184). Readingsof cycles by SandraCisneros,Emily Carter, Melissa Bank and Elissa Schappellwill explore how postmodernwomen have usedthe story cycle form to recastthe Bildungsroman and createnew structuresfor the self-determining woman. The work of one of the most esteemedand analysedmodem story writers must be acknowledgedhere. Story cycle critics continue to devote attention to Munro's most unified collections of stories. Who Do You Think You Are? (1972) and Lives of Girls and Women (1978) are generally categorisedas novels, but these texts are in fact composedof independentstories, someof which were published individually before being assembledinto a single form; thus story cycle critics have

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claimed them as examplesof the form. In thesetexts Munro deploys the cycle form to chart the developmentof heroineswho seekplural identities beyond the boundariesof home. Coral Ann Howells classifies Lives of Girls and Women as a Bildungsroman with a "decentralisednarrative structure" (33). Howells writes: development female to the map any attempt of subjectivity will be invents by like Del multiplicity as a girl endlessly and characterised imaginary, for idealised herself, them and some of reinvents personae by her in them to the offered role models some of created resistance (32). in her family the and social community women mother and In her illuminating essay, "Short Fiction with Attitude: The Lives of Boys and Men in the Lives of Girls and Women," Janet Beer highlights one of the most significant female Bildungsroman: has Munro the traditional the that reshaped structure of ways through her form Munro has achieved "the fracturing of any preconceptions that the inevitable incorporate teenage a natural or story of a young woman's years must is love there that toward the or married state or attainment of romantic movement

fascination dominant in life" (126). Munro's the with chord one any woman's The in feature cycles. microcosmic connection also emerges other collections which Moons of Jupiter (1982) openswith stories that concerntwo sidesof the recurring narrator's family. Munro framesthesestories with the generic title "Chaddeleysand Flemings," announcingtheir unity. In the final story of the collection she returns to this terrain as the narrator tells the story of her father's death: an event that is only referred to in the earlier stories. As a Canadianwriter Alice Munro doesnot receive individual attention in my study of United Stateswomen but the influence of her formal experimentation is noted in severalchapters.

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Questions and Case Studies As critics produce increasingly accommodatingglossariesof the short story cycle, definitions of the form are broadening;however, commentatorsare consistent in their neglect of a number of texts written by American women in the first half of the twentieth century. One cycle that hasnot escapedattention is SarahOme Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs, in many ways a forerunnerto thesetexts. The cycle appearedin 1896 and has achievedrecognition as an exemplar of the form. Dunn and Morris write a brief section on The Country of the Pointed Firs, describing it as "Perhapsthe quintessentialexample of a compositenovel organized in the first (36). Jewett tradition" the was one of cycle writers to exploit the village sketch boundaries form beyond the the threads of the and pursue elasticity of of connection device "The in Caretakers, As Louis Auchincloss Pioneers text. of single notes and Dunnet, the village in The Country of the Pointed Firs, has even the advantagethat it "A Dunnet be best Twin" Two her Queen's "The to. the and of can added of stories, " were written as sequels"(14-5). Thus Jewett pavesthe way for Shepherdess, writers such as GracePaley and Louise Erdrich, whose cyclic worlds spread themselvesover multiple texts. Jewett usesthe form to chart the developmentof a hallmark Susan Mann, has become type that, to of the story according a character Ernest Winesburg's One the thinks protagonist. writers, writer as recurring of cycle: Hemingway's Nick Adams and SandraCisneros's Esperanza. As Jewett's critics have illuminated, genderpolitics lie at the heart of her lights in Roman "Jewett dilemma Margaret the cycle. writes: on of remaining touch with one's nurturing dimension while becoming part of patriarchal society" (207). Dunnet Landing is a spacethat is "unusually void of polarities betweenmen and women resulting from rigid genderbehavior" (Roman 208). Such a spaceenables

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the narrator to reconcile values that are traditionally assignedto particular genders: the desiresfor both solidarity and withdrawal, for contact and isolation. Jewett's form both enactsthesetensionsand realizes the possibility that theseimpulses may coexist.

Other cycles have attractedlessrecognition. In his introduction JamesNagel briefly mentions Zona Gale's Friendship Village which appearedin 1908; Gale's is highly but further cycle sentimentaland often moralistic, provides evidenceof the form's utility as a tool for communal and cultural representations.Jewett's influence is clearly at work in the structure and theme of Gale's cycle: a writer visits a closeknit village, is introduced to its inhabitants and participates in its rituals; seducedby the neighbourlinessof the villagers, the writer/narrator leaveswistfully, feeling that shehas caught a privileged glimpse of a relational way of life that is quickly disappearing. Like Jewett, Gale usesthe form to develop a seriesof mini-sequences. One story leadsonto the other in a sequentialfashion. Narrative lines stretch over two or three consecutivestories and are brought to a relatively neat conclusion, dispersing than themselvesacrossthe entire cycle. The narrator may rather encountera characterin one narrative and ask to hear about his or her past, setting up new narrative terrain; this character'shistory forms the next story in the sequence. In 1920 Anzia Yezierska published Hungry Hearts, a collection of stories

about the communities of Russianand Polish Jews living in the tenementsof New York's Lower East Side. Yezierska's form observesmany of the conventions of the story cycle. Charactersrecur literally and charactertypes reappearin different stories under the guise of new identities. Strangely, Yezierska's own critics offer little analysis of her work's formal characteristicsand seemto perceive no parities betweenher collection of linked narratives and the short story cycle. Maggie Dunn

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and Ann Morris are the only cycle commentators who include Yezierska's work in their glossary. Together, the heroines of Hungry Hearts form a composite protagonist: the Jewish immigrant girl who, motivated by a highly idealized vision of America, aspires to "make from [her]self a person" by gaining access to a conventional American education, forging friendships, or experiencing romantic love (Hungry Hearts 162). Stories such as "`The Fat of the Land"' and "The Free Vacation House" concern the older generation of Jewish immigrants and present a different type: the mother figure, disillusioned by her American experience and

desperatefor prosperity after a life of drudgery. As types, Yezierska's characters epitomize the `functional signs' identified by Kennedy as a common feature of the short story cycle. Whilst they stand out within the context of their single stories as independent,far-reaching visionaries, it is difficult to distinguish one protagonist from another when reading the text as a whole. Yezierska's aspiring young women discover that America does not live up to their ideal and find themselves usually drawn back to reveries of their old community. However, their stories always end on a note of tenuoushope: either a connectionwith the outside world or a moment of reengagementwith one's community prompts a resurgenceof will and expectation. Yezierska, like many story cycle writers before and after her, exploits the form as a site for revision. In her introduction to the Penguin edition of Hungry Hearts, Blanche Gelfant refers to Yezierska's "one story," for which she is unable to find a "suitable final end," and surmisesthat Yezierska felt "impelled to tell the story of thesewomen ... again and again" (xxx Gelfant's italics). This compulsive retelling has becomea common feature of the modem short story cycle. The needto repeatone's story not only links characterswithin and betweencycles; it also often reflects the compulsions of the writers themselves. SandraCisneros,author of the

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story cycle The House on Mango Street (1984), emulateswriters like Yezierska by using the form to tell the stories of own marginalized community. In "Ghosts and Voices" Cisneroswrites: "If I were askedwhat it is I write about, I would have to say I write about those ghostsinside that haunt me, that will not let me sleep,of that which even memory doesnot like to mention. Sometimesit seemsI am writing the samestory, the samepoem, over and over" (73). Yezierska's compulsion to tell is mirrored in her characters,all of whom exhibit an urgent needto communicatetheir stories. Talking is therapy for Yezierska's silencedwomen; only when the narrator of "How I found America" has "talked [her]self out" can shebegin to move forward (178). The modem short story inscribed abounds with storytellers anxious to give expressionto suppressed cycle stories or to perpetuatethe narrative tradition that underpinstheir community. Yezierska's compulsive narrators anticipate the multitude of storytellers that Grace Erdrich's Louise the communities of other story cycles: reservation, populate Paley's Brooklyn and Eudora Welty's Morgana. Whilst the stories in Hungry Hearts appearto pursuethe samenarrative line, Yezierska useseach story as a locus for speculationon possible endings. Narrative Miracle" for "The that to closed one remain character avenues open up another. replays the narrative of the cycle's opening story "Wings, " this time granting the heroine the conventional happy ending: a relationship with an American man on equal terms. Thus Yezierska achievesthe kind of effect describedby Margot Kelley as one climax builds upon another. Such neat conclusionsread in isolation may appearexcessivelysentimentaland naive: adjectives that have attachedthemselves to Yezierska's fiction (Gelfant "Introduction" xxx). However, as Gelfant notes, Yezierska's use of repetition enablesher to query such narrative paradigmsas the

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happy ending; it is by recastingthe samestory with different endingsthat she "expose[s] the unreality" of such scenariosthrough contrast (ix). Gelfant reflects that the victory of Yezierska's heroines- breaking through the silence and articulating one's feelings with one's own voice - is "also the victory of Anzia Yezierska as she found her voice as an American writer in Hungry Hearts" (xxxiii).

Sophie Sapinsky, the young heroine of "My Own People, " is an aspiring

writer searching for her subject. She is able to formulate only "flat, dead words" until she discovers that she has been experiencing her material all along, purely by

existing as part of her community (140). At the end of the story she determinesthat she will transcribe only "the cries - my own people - crying in me" rather than discovery Sophie's Emerson (153). the voice of revered writers such as mimicking of her autobiographicalmaterial re-enactsthe experiencenot only of her own creator, Yezierska, but of future cycle writers who would use the form to traversethe line betweenautobiographyand fiction and meld the techniquesassociatedwith both. SandraCisnerosspenther young life seekingher voice and narrative material: "Poverty

becamethe ghost and in an attempt to escapethe ghost, I rejected what ...

was at hand and emulatedthe voices of the poets I admired in books: big, male for like James Wright Richard Hugo Roethke, Theodore and all wrong voices and during It ("Ghosts" 72). was only me" a writing class years later that Cisneros realized that hers was a life that none of her classmatescould know about and that it would provide the inspiration for her unique voice: "this is when I discoveredmy voice I'd beensuppressingall along without realizing it" ("Ghosts" 73). Perhapsthe most surprising omission in story cycle criticism is Katherine Anne Porter's much-admiredMiranda series;although they embody many of the conventionsof the form, the Miranda stories are credited only a brief referencein

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Mann's glossary. Dunn and Morris make no referenceto Porter in their study. Strangely, Kennedy cites Porter's collection Flowering Judas udasas an exampleof the form but doesnot mention any of the more unified collections that feature Porter's heroine. for One this neglect might be the method and order of reason recurring publication of thesenarratives. The Miranda narrativescomprise two long stories, Old Mortality and Pale Horse. Pale Rider and a sequenceof short storiespublished collectively as The Old Order. The long stories were published in 1939 with a third story, Noon Wine, which bearsno relation to the Miranda narrativesat all. The is " Noon Wine Short Novels. "Three takes the central this collection subtitle of Porter in disrupting In 1944 the the triptych, sense of sequentiality. position included Old The The Leaning that ower, a collection of short stories published Order. The eight stories in this sequencestandtogether and return to the era of Miranda's childhood, previously depicted in Old Mortality. Although Porter published the Miranda narratives in different collections linked five these years, stories anticipate many of the themesand over a period of flighty" in feature later incarnations form. "quick A that the would of conventions is, in (Porter Miranda the many ways, archetypal character recurring subject,

Collected 341). Shemoves from the centre stageof one story to the margins of in tensions that thematic story would resonance with achieve great another,wrestling identity future: between the the and the conflict autonomous and positional cycles of tension and pull of Home and Family. Old Mortality is composedof "floating ends of narrative" documentingthe lives of Miranda's ancestors;Miranda must unravel theseelliptical, shifting versions of the past, whilst seeking self-definition beyond theseprecedents(Porter Collected 176). Her attemptsto do so form a kind of metacommentary on the power and precariousnessof story: a theme that Eudora Welty

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Erdrich Louise and would develop in their cycles. As an inscribedreader,piecing togetherthe "fragments of tales" that representher past and shapeher present, Miranda Gay is a forerunnerto cyclic heroineslike Welty's CassieMorrison and Erdrich's Cally Roy (Porter Collected 176): the narrator in The Antelope Wife who setsherself the task of reassemblingthe scatteredpiecesof her convoluted family history. Miranda's developmentfollows the pattern observedby many writers of the traditional Bildungsroman. In WritingMasculinities Ben Knights identifies the "traditional formulae of the male Bildungsroman": "exile from the relative comfort of your community"; "a journey whose rules seemto be establishedby the elders,a seriesof encounters,somehelpful, somethreatening"; "emergenceafter a seriesof adventuresas the reflexive agent of your own story" (117). In the final stagesof Old Mortalfty the readerlearnsof Miranda's failed elopementwhen shereturns home. Miranda recognizesthe consequencesof this adventurein her father's reception: "There was no welcome for her, and there had not beensince shehad run away... He had not forgiven her, sheknew that" (218-9). Neverthelesssheperseveresin her pursuit of self-actualization,"clos[ing]" her mind "stubbornly against legend the of the past" (221). In confronting and eventually remembering... her "rules" the elders and their narrative paradigmsMiranda achievesa of rejecting tenuousagencyby the end of Pale Horse. Pale Rider. As noted, Forrest Ingram identifies "recurrence and development" asthe principal dynamic of the story cycle. In his analysis of the form, repetition functions primarily as a forward-moving dynamic, enabling the story cycle writer to develop discoursesand themes. My own thesis will examine how the form enactsboth the possibilities and problematicsof repetition. In Time and Narrative Paul Ricoeur

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observesthat repetition "opens potentialities that went unnoticed, were aborted,or were repressedin the past" (76). 'Many story cycle writers exploit the form to reveal the possibility of changethough revision. For other writers, the repetitive structure development form fear to the of change. Thus repetition reflects resistance and of becomesa form of imprisonment. Whether fostering revision or resistance, repetition in the story cycle itself servesas a meansof achieving narrative coherence. Katherine Anne Porter's Miranda stories manifest the complexities of immunises from beautifully. level, On the threat of the self one repetition repetition have Nannie lives, Miranda's Throughout their and old grandmother change. from has Order': Old the re`The that the a evolved structure code of observed Order, Old from The fixed, Journey, " In "The a story stablerepetitions. enactmentof the two old women try to perpetuatethis dynamic by assigningall events- past, present,future - to the past: "They talked about the past, really - always about the done like future Even the gone and with when they spoke of something seemed past. it. It did not seeman extension of their past, but a repetition of it" (327). It is this form of repetition that both attracts and troubles Miranda. One of the most discussedstories from The Old Order, "The Grave," reveals the revisionist function of repetition. The story's main narrative line relates a her her Miranda, concerning closing with epiphany childhood experienceof biological destiny. The story does not end here, however, but leapsforward to a from her life far in Miranda's the adult where sherelives epiphany, removed moment home environment.-"Irrthis new context, the moment assumesa different meaning and it is the deeply personal memory of her brother's long-forgotten "childhood face" that emergesas the epiphany's dominant image (368). Thus Porter illuminates

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how repetition "opens potentialities," unveils latent meaningsand re-galvanizes interpretive faculties. George Cheathamoffers a detailed analysis of Porter's manipulation of recurrencein his essay,"Death and Repetition in the Miranda Stories." He notes: "`Old Mortality' and `Pale Horse, Pale Rider' The Old Order," together repeat ... spanning"roughly the samechronological years of Miranda's life" (610-1). Cheathamilluminates how Pale Horse. Pale Rider posesquestionsabout the "too pat earlier conclusion" in "The Grave" (611). Having reconciled the two forces of her life - "the mythic and the personal" - in "The Grave," the older Miranda in Pale Horse must choosebetweenthe nihilism of her secular,modern self or the inherited promise of salvation espousedby her family and representedby the silver dove she found in the grave (Cheatham617). Despite the religious referencesthat pervade Pale Horse. Pale Rider, Cheathamarguesthat Miranda's doubts about inherited religious narratives qualify the story's ending. Porter engineersthis repetition of Miranda's religious ponderings"to recover not a new possibility of meaning from Miranda's experiencesbut the possibility of their meaninglessness"(624). Thus Porter revealsthrough the Miranda stories the many functions of repetition: a dynamic that enablesboth stability and change,uncovershidden meaningsor strips away meaning of any kind. In my own analysis of individual cycles, I will consider how the form becomesa medium for the many functions of repetition. Mary McCarthy's The Company She Keeps appearedin 1942 and is a further incarnation of the story cycle form McCarthy published the individual stories separatelybefore assemblingthem into a single text. Despite the independentstatus of eachcomponent narrative, the text is generally classified as a novel. Margaret Sargentis the recurring character,appearingin all six stories to somedegree;her

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shifts in narrative stancetypify the way that cycle writers employ the form to negotiatea rangeof perspectives. As an anonymouswoman she is at the centreof the action in "Cruel and BarbarousTreatment," relating her story of adultery and divorce in the first person. We can only assumethat this woman is Margaret until we read later storiesthat refer back to theseevents. Despite thesecross-references, Louis Auchincloss seemsto suggestthat the protagonist is not Margaret: "The is is fictional the called of author who counterpart collection centeredabout a Margaret Sargentin all the stories but the first, where the protagonist is a heartless following do (173). Auchincloss's the remark appearsstrange;not only poseur" but include they also provide plenty of to these opening events, references stories in Man image. "The In the Margaret's the third story, obsession with of evidence Brooks Brothers Shirt," Margaret herself ponderswhether "her whole way of life had beenassumedfor purposesof ostentation" (84). Margaret retains her position as narrator in the secondstory but, although in boss's life. her in to the the serves more as a witness events action, participating In "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt" she is once more at the story's centre, from love has the time on affair; evidently moved embarking on another shambolic first story. In the fourth narrative Margaret again moves to the margins as a dinner deploys host; the a she machinations eye over of a male guest casting a satirical is be Margaret that the and sure reader cannot universalising second-personvoice directly. In final her the the protagonist addresses pageswhen narrating until "Portrait of the Intellectual as a Yale Man," a detached,third-person voice takes over, telling the story of Jim Barnett's intermittent affair with Margaret as he, like Margaret in the other stories,strugglesto determinewhich "self' to be (226). McCarthy keepsMargaret on the periphery of the story here as she plays the role of

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the mysterious `other woman'. Referencesto `present-day'eventsthat have already occurred in previous stories such as the train journey in "The Man" suggestthat teleology is not McCarthy's concern. McCarthy, like Porter, anticipatessomeof the themesthat would dominate in latter half from heroine Joyce Like Annie Quirt, the the the cycles of century. Carol Oates's All the Good PeopleI've Left Behind, Margaret facesthe threat of fragmentationin her battle againstsocial conformity. As shesubstitutesthe insecurity of "harum-scarum,Bohemian habits" for the sterility of married life she her her "detect determined "inner the to to that own retain eye" enables remains flaws" (278,303). In the final story Margaret achievesa transient peacewhen she her life her Having to therapist. as a new ceased approach each of part visits Iillusion, life-giving "the the the the slate, clean of sense and relinquished narrative will-start-all-over-and-this-time-it-is-going-to-be-different," sheembracesthe disorder of life (278). Her realization of the contingencyof seeminglydiscontinuous form; the the one's mirrors experience and episodes reader's of encounters interpretation of the next narrative is inevitably shapedby preceding stories. During their session,therapist and patient try to evadethose issuesthat generally invoke the diagnoses, Pondering this to mutual resistance neat cliches of psychoanalysis. Margaret realizesthat: "The subject frightened them both, for it suggestedto them that the universe is mechanical,utterly predictable, frozen, and this in its own way is quite asterrible as the notion that the universe is chaotic. It is essentialfor our happiness,shethought, to have both the pattern and the loose ends" (262). Margaret's acceptanceof life's duality is a fitting image for McCarthy's rather loose form, in which the constantshifts in narrative voice and characterstatusensurethat patternsare not easily established.

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Thesebrief casestudiesdemonstratethat the first half of the twentieth century yielded severalinfluential incarnationsof the story cycle as well as the seminal forms of Welty and Jewett. Somewomen who usedthe form later in the century continue to be ignored by story cycle critics. Another surprising omission is

the work of Ellen Gilchrist, whose entire oeuvre concernsa number of recurring heroines. Gilchrist draws attention to theserecurrences,often dividing her collections up into sectionsof storiesthat focus on a particular heroine. Her works stretch along the continuum from seemingly miscellaneouscollection to highly unified composite, becoming more unified as they progress. In her first volume of (1981) leaves In Land Dreamy Dreams the readerto make the she of stories, connectionsbetween severaldispersedstoriesthat feature Rhoda,the heroine who for her heroines. become The the contentspagesof other recurring prototype would her next two collections, Victory Over Japan(1983) and Drunk With Love (1986) begin demarcating linked the the stories where more guidance, clearly reader give and end. Whilst story cycle researchersignore Gilchrist completely, her own critics place her firmly within this formal tradition. In The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist Margaret Donovan Bauer offers intertextual readingsof Gilchrist's work, illuminating resonancesbetweenher formal strategiesand those of story cycle writers Katherine Anne Porter, Ernest Hemingway and Kate Chopin. Bauer views Gilchrist's exhaustivecoverageof the lives of Rhoda, Nora Janeand her other recurring heroinesas one "organic story cycle ... that continuesto evolve as each new book appears"(2-3 Bauer's italics). Perhapsone of the reasonsthat commentatorson the story cycle overlook Gilchrist is that shehas included the novel form in what has becomea macrocosmiccycle of southernbelles.

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In recent years,Gilchrist has gone one step further than other story cycle writers. In 1995 shepublished Rhoda: A Life in Stories, in which she assembledall of the Rhoda stories,placing them in chronological order for her readers. According to Bauer, the presenceof gaps in this sequence- Rhoda's life during her forties remains a mystery in this volume - merely confirms that her Rhoda storiesare, first and foremost, parts of a cycle. Even after the publication of this collection the reader does not feel that Rhoda's story is complete and thus awaits further instalments (Bauer 9). Most story cycle critics acknowledgethe form's breadth but continue to identify paradigmsof the form. Some,like Dunn and Morris, provide a continuum in order to chart the form's developmentand createa kind of generic framework. Placing "the miscellaneouscollection" and the "traditional novel" at opposite endsof the spectrum,Robert Luscher arguesthat SherwoodAnderson's Winesburg. Ohio and Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples "serve as the midpoint, " as cycles that "illustrate a balancedtension betweenthe independenceof each story and the unity his into (163). In Cycles, " Thomas L. "Falling the as a whole" essay collection of McHaney arguesthat the term `cycle' carries more resonancefor Welty's form than those of Ernest Hemingway, JamesJoyce and Sherwood Anderson: For all their marvellous interconnectedness,in comparisonto The Golden Apples, the books

here are not only quite loosely cited ...

strung but also not so self-consciously concernedwith the broad idea of cycle and things cyclic ... The author not only weavesa story cycle of her own but also pointedly evokes cyclic tales, poems, and music from severaltraditions" (176).

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McHaney gives a fascinating and detailed analysis of all things cyclic in The Golden Apples. However it is perhapsthe cyclic nature of the reader'strajectory that affirms this text's statusas, if indeed such a conceptexists, a paradigmatic `cycle'. Of all the texts discussedin this thesis, Welty's is the one in which I found myself making more circular expeditionsas I moved from story to story. Reading The GoldenApples, one enactswhat Welty terms the "inward journey" of consciousness:"forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling ... As we discover, we remember;rememberingwe discover" (Be iýnnings 102). It is owing to this cyclic navigation that I have decidedto explore Welty's The Golden les first before moving on to further variations of the form.

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1

"The Illusory Shape": Eudora Welty's Aesthetic of Openness

"I always loved the conceptionof Fata Morgana - the illusory shape,the mirage that comesover the sea" (Welty Kuehl "Art" 88).

"The writer's mind and heart, where all this exterior is continually becoming be hence idea the the the the can't moral, passionate, poetic, shaping somethingit it form It's the takes when comesout the other side, of mappedand plotted ... its life" (Welty 1 that a story something unique course, gives -

109 Welty's

italics).

In a television interview for BBC's Omnibus in 1985 Eudora Welty identified the central theme of her fiction as the "common dilemma of trying to in fellow beings human [of] yourself understanding communicatewith your ... breaks " She "when that the and with other people. continues: with world relation down, when you can still only seeyourself, I think that's the dilemma that I use most for in (Welty A Writer's). For Welty, the medium often my writing" most useful this prevalent "shaping idea" would be the cyclic form that shechose for The Golden Apples: a form that realizesthe possibilities and problematics of connection. Welty's only short story cycle becameher favourite work, owing to this symbiosis of form and subject. Speakingto CharlesT. Bunting in 1972 she confirms that The Golden Apples is "closest to my heart of all my books" (Bunting 714). Sherecalls

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her methodologywith a senseof wonder, describing how her cyclic form evolved incrementally from instinct and perseverancerather than a premeditateddesign. She tells Bunting: I didn't begin it as a book of connectedstories. I only realized the stories were connectedafter I was about halfway through the book ... Quite suddenlyI was writing about the samepeople. All their interconnectionscameto light. That's what I mean by the fascinationsof fiction: things that go on in the back of your mind, that gradually emerge(714). Sheexplains this processagain to JeanTodd Freemanin 1984, describing her is for it detective" (192). Welty's in "belated that patient quest revelation as of a role in latter half the that of the twentieth cycle would emulate many story writers one her first for instinctive described Erdrich In 1985 Louise process a similarly century. it had didn't have Medicine: "I Love no real theory chronological -I story cycle, behind the form. I startedit way in the past then went to the present,and then ... back and forth without any real structure,just a kind of personalliking" (Grantham 16). Welty's letters to her editor, Diarmund Russell, during this processreveal that shedid not know of a definitive formal taxonomy for her new work. She describesher latest collection as "a conglomeration

...

holding everything under the

sun" and proposesthe term "Variations on a Portfolio" as a possible title (Kreyling Author 135,146). Emerging from Welty's vision of her new work are someof the hallmarks of the story cycle form. She writes that she is driven by "the hope that some over-all thing would emergefrom the group, that might have a significance greaterthan that of the stories taken one by one - by virtue of accumulation and

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familiarity and so on" (Kreyling Author 137). Resistingthe pressureto turn her stories into a novel, she asks:"why not just go my own way, writing the stories as short stories,the way they occur to me, but letting them go on and be inter-related, but not inter-dependent?' (Kreyling Author 136). Theseletters expressher growing freedom form her for by that the a of the "burden of the afforded relieves enthusiasm for this, that and the other" that tying threads up and preparing with all of novel, (137). Sheappealsto Russell: Just let the material take its natural coursewith me, and not force anything on it but just havethe flexible plan aheadof a number of far the these move stories might charactersadditional stories with from Battle Hill, [later Morgana] and up and down in their lifetimes, have Not to take them up. anywhereand any point a story might want (136for the tied to them sakes stories' short except plots and strings 7). NeverthelessWelty felt the pull of the more familiar form when writing what before longest Recital. " A "June this become the month story, cycle's would declarationof independencefrom the novel, she wrote: [later Golden Apples don't know is I long thing my story about one "June Recital"]. I've had ideasabout that - maybe fruitless onesthat it might be really a novel, in which caseI wouldn't want it it In the way same coming out as a short story, prematurely ... lately just been I've to the working on seemed me perhaps short story ["Moon Lake"] may be part of a novel too - hadn't realisedthat, till yesterdayon a cable car (Kreyling Author 134).

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The length of "June Recital" - it occupiesalmost a third of the seven-story cycle - is only one feature that hasprompted critics to query the generic identity of both the story and Welty's cycle as a whole. In "The Challengeof `JuneRecital"' Donna Jarrell arguesconvincingly that while the story's lengthy digressionsmay appearto stretchthe capacity of the story itself, they servea significant purpose within the context of the cycle. Reading"June Recital" as a self-containedshort story, Jarrell questionsthe need for the "elaborate," "novel-like" story of Miss Eckhart's history, claiming that the story's primary narrative thread- Cassie Morrison's expedition into the past and subsequentepiphany- could "be effected" follows it history (Jarrell 3). She Miss Eckhart the that the of observes without development generally associatedwith the of chronological paradigmatic structure novel. By including a detailed account of Miss Eckhart's history, Welty asksthe into" (5). Jarrell "dip "new that that the to argues of a schema novel" reader ... is `June Recital' history for "not Miss Eckhart's the essential success of although ... it "establishes [her] " nevertheless as an unforgettable character,and as a short story, (4). her `story' the the the center of structure at of seven-storysequence" places Other stories in the cycle certainly support Jarrell's reading. Excluded by the town that framesher identity with prejudice and rumour, Miss Eckhart occupiesa in its the cycle, position emerging as most mobile characters. commanding one of Her image imprints itself on the minds of her former pupils and surfacesat the most in "Music When Eugene Spaniard the encounters mysterious unexpectedmoments. from Spain" he is suddenly reminded of Miss Eckhart and expressessurprisethat he could have forgotten her: "He had even forgotten all about old Miss Eckhart in Mississippi, and the lessonshe and not Ran had had on her piano" (Welty Collected 408).

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Welty herself recognizesthe centrality and enduranceof Miss Eckhart. In One Writer's Beginnings, she identifies her not only as the characterwho "persisted in spite of herself with the other charactersin the stories" but who sits at the "solitary core" of her own consciousness:"Not in Miss Eckhart as she standssolidly and in her in her but the the characterout almost opaquely surround of story, making of inward found deeply feeling have I I most and my voice of my most self, would say in my fiction" (101). CompoundingMiss Eckhart's centrality to the cycle, Welty notes how the music teacher'srecital emergedas a paradigm for her own act of narrative composition: "what I had done in assemblingand connectingall the stories in The Golden Apples, and bringing them all off as one, was not too unlike the June recital itself' (101). When talking to CharlesBunting, Welty discussesthe technical differences betweenwriting short stories and novels. In the caseof the short story, you can't ever let the tautnessof line relax. It has to be all strung very tight upon its single thread usually, and everything is subordinatedto the theme of the story: characters and mood and place and time; and none of those things are as important as the developmentitself. Whereasin a novel you have time to shadea character,allow him his growth, in a short story a characterhardly changesfrom beginning to end. He's in there for the purposeof that story only, and any other modification is ruled out (717). For Welty the short story cycle becomesthe perfect medium for circumventing the restrictions of the short story whilst achieving some of the form's most powerful effects. By delving into Miss Eckhart's history in "June Recital," sheventuresdown

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a new narrative avenue;this enablesher to relax the story's "tautnessof line" and achievea characterdevelopmentthat would compromisethe integrity of a completely freestandingstory. Although Miss Eckhart's history is not an essentialcomponentof the individual story, its place within the larger frame of the cycle is highly significant: helps us understandthe fates of Cassie "this memory of Miss Eckhart's life-fable ... Morrison and Virgie Rainey as revealed in `The Wanderers"' (Jarrell 4). Indeedthe readerneedonly comparethe reactionsof Cassieand Virgie to Miss Eckhart to understandthe differences betweenthem. Although fascinatedby her piano teacher, Cassieconcedesthat she sharesher community's distrust and prejudice towards outsiders:"she thought that somewhere... there could have been for Miss Eckhart a little opening wedge-a crack in the door But if I had beenthe one to seeit open, ... have it 308). forever" Collected I (Welty tight thought slowly, might slammed she Cassieeventually takes Miss Eckhart's position as music teacherand, like her does Jarrell However, become, argues, an old maid. she as not predecessor,remains a "full-blown version of Miss Eckhart" (7); she is destinedto remain "a dreamer dreaming with reservations" (Welty Collected 296). In contrastto Cassie,Virgie emulatestheir teacherby resisting the insular sensibilities of the Morganansand goes further by her final Miss In the the on step striking out own. cycle one pagesof Eckhart's influence continuesto assertitself as Virgie, the recalcitrant pupil, comes to terms with the "separateness"she shareswith her old teacher(Welty Collected 460): a separateness that Miss Eckhart, bound by circumstanceto a town that will not accepther, could not fully express. Using the terms of Ian Reid, Jarrell notes how Miss Eckhart servesas a "part-for-whole-mirror" for the entire cycle (7). Manoeuvred into a marginalized position by Morgana's community, Miss Eckhart

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neverthelessoccupiesa central position both in the landscapeof the story cycle and the wider world of Welty's fiction. It is not only the length of some of the stories that prompts critics and readers to query the generic status of The Golden Apples. Welty's use of myth in each story leads critics to analyse the text as a tightly unified whole. Paul Binding writes that the unity between the characters is "shown for the living force it is, by mythology" (164). 5 In conversation with Bunting Welty reveals that numerous students have dedicated entire theses to verifying that The Golden Apples is in fact a novel: "I've had students write to me and say, "`I'm writing a thesis to prove that The Golden Apples is a novel. Please send me.... ' They want me to support them. So I write back and say that it isn't a novel, I'm sorry. They go right ahead of course" (715). Most critics are more tentative in declaring the text a novel outright; they acknowledge the potential independence of the seven stories but argue that the reader by be best approaching the text as they would a novel. In A Season of served will Dreams Alfred Appel opens his chapter on the cycle with the following piece of advice: "Although each was published separately, the seven interrelated stories in The Golden Apples can best be read as a novel" (205). Thomas McHaney justifies the impulse to define the text in such terms by tracing it to "a sincere desire to canonize an admirable piece of work within an accepted form" ("Falling"

173). As

Elizabeth Evans aptly notes, however, the inclusion of The Golden Apples in The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty in 1980, offers confirmation of Welty's unchanging view of her form and serves effectively as perhaps "her final word on the subject" (Evans 64).

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"Easter's hand hung down, openedoutward. Come here, night, Eastermight say, tender to a giant, to such a dark thing. And the night, obedientand graceful, would kneel to her" (Welty Collected 361-2).

Critics have made much of Welty's affiliation with feminist aesthetics,whilst 6 feminist recognizing that shewrote without a specific agenda. This reading of The Golden Apples will focus upon her exploitation of the short story cycle form to debunk prescriptive ideologies of gender. Without designatingWelty as a feminist, this exploration will illuminate the affinities betweenher formal poetics and someof the tenetsof feminism. If, like Nina Carmichael,we interpret Easter's extended hand as a gesturetowards transformationand connection, it becomesa paradigm for Welty's aestheticof openness. In The Golden Apples Welty usesthe short story cycle as a site both for transgressivecharacterslike Easter- those "human beings terribly at large, roaming on the face of the earth'- and for her own artistic concerns: her interest in straining generic boundariesand rupturing conventional narrative structuresto explore a more relational, open conception of subjectivity (Welty Collected 330). Many female writers have usedthe form to recastthe linear quest plot that has becomeidentified with masculineexperience. Writing about SarahOrne Jewett, JosephineDonovan notes that the quest narrative is usually representedby "progressive plots" that are "oriented toward eventshappeningsequentially or climactically" (Donovan 218,219). In The Country of the Pointed Firs Jewett decentresher questing hero by placing his narrative of enterpriseand adventureearly in the sequence. As Elizabeth Ammons notes in her reading of Jewett's cycle, Captain Littlepage's story is a paradigm of the "solitary, climax-oriented, city-

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focused literature - significantly coming from a man and totally about men - that the narrator ... accepted as the model" (Ammons "Finding" 48). Jewett presents the story at the beginning of her sequence because "It is to be confronted early on, appreciated, and then moved beyond" ("Finding" 49). In The Golden Apples Welty goes further than Jewett in her containment of this structure by denying her questing hero the privilege of narration. Constantly leaving the home to assert his ego boundaries through sexual encounters, King MacLain pursues the archetypal trajectory of the quest hero, identified by Mary Brewer as one of "adventure, project, Welty Apples In The Golden ("Loosening" 1153). exiles and conquest" enterprise, the male wanderer to the margins of the form by denying him a voice and staging the 7 his identity. fictionalisation that shapes process of

In "Shower of Gold," Welty alerts the readerimmediately to the duality of King's statuswithin the storytelling community and the cycle itself. He exists his is he discrete the of own subjectself-commandingauthor simultaneouslyas a his in the community sexualencounters and out of and negotiating quest, wandering his for its to the will and as a vehicle storytelling and women according with female Katie Rainey, Morgana's For the watchers and waiters. of energies sexual do "Why displaces MacLain King tracking unfulfilled needsand compulsions: act of I try to figure? Maybe becauseFate Rainey ain't got a surprisein him, and proud of it" (265). In her examination of narrative trajectories, Margery Hourihan notes how the heroic, conventional, quest plot moves "both towards concealmentand towards disclosure,creating uncertainty and constantly promising the readerthat all will be revealed" (46). With his sporadicappearancesand enigmatic gestures,King perpetuatesthis dynamic, tantalizing the storytellers of his home town. As readers

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and co-authors of his plot, the Morganans play along, responding "Just like he wants us to" (Welty Collected 263-4). By mapping out his latest move and speculating upon his next one, they respond to the repetitive dynamic of concealment and disclosure.

Any attemptsto elude the communal eye of the storytellers result in failure for the wanderer whose story depends upon the teller. In the final story, "The Wanderers, " King has returned to Morgana for good. In a rare moment of has, he his he he his loss tells Virgie, story: of control over articulation, registers "ended up at the wrong end" of life (443). In the final story Welty presents her hero's dissatisfaction with this ending in a series of comic moments that infantilize the aging King: he makes a "hideous face" at Virgie that is like "a yell at everything down it him including death, leaving creeping mischievously out"; we witness not the hall for food, "as if nobody could see him" (446).

In Feminine Fictions Patricia Waugh observesthat modem representationsof the male hero have integratedelementsof the "master-plots" of nineteenth-century history, perpetuatingthe image of the male self "conceived in terms of containedness, difference, autonomy" (Waugh 17). This kind of subjectivity does not always thrive in the short story cycle. As a nonhierarchic and fragmentedform, the story cycle identity fixed decentres boundaries masterorigins, queries and confounds notions of plots. The form enactsthe possibility of multiple beginnings and connectionsand kind it identities; becomes ideal for the the of as such space representing renewable subjectivity that has becomeassociatedwith the female subject: a selfhood that develops from "relationship and dispersal" rather than "the maintenanceof boundariesand distance" or "the subjugation of the other" (Waugh 22).

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In One Writer's Beginnings, Welty illuminates the centrality of confluenceto her poetics: "I'm preparednow to usethe wonderful word confluence,which of itself exists as a reality and a symbol in one. It is the only kind of symbol that for me as a writer has any weight, testifying to the pattern, one of the chief patterns,of human experience"(102). As a fluid, open form the story cycle is a particularly fertile ground for this kind of vision. Imagesof reversibility and merging permeateThe Golden Apples, as ego boundariesare tested and often erased. Cassieexperiencesa disconcertingmoment of transformation when she suddenlyrealizes that, "without thinking she could be Mr Voight" (296 Welty's italics). Transformationsare less disturbing for Morgana's female wanderer, Virgie Rainey. In "The Wanderers"she returns home to bury her mother and submergesherself in the Big Black River, sensingthat "in the next moment she might turn into somethingwithout feeling it shock her" (440). Virgie's opennessto transformation signals her rejection of the self/other depend. King's Like Katherine Anne Porter's young upon which conquests polarity Miranda, Virgie is a "quick flighty" subject. Welty initially preserves her elusiveness, exploiting the elasticity of the form to limit her appearances and comply her definition. to with resistance

The reader's first glimpse of Virgie is as a moving

image of transgression; Loch Morrison spies her leaping across the ditch with her sailor in full flight towards sexual consummation. For most of the cycle she appears only within the bounds of Morgana's consciousness; where the community mythologizes King for his defiance of their boundaries, it castigates Virgie for her air of self-sufficiency and abandon. Virgie is a member of an established if rather lowly Morganän family, yet she leaves home and returns at will, neither spurning the community nor defining herself in terms of its norms. She elides the difference

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betweeninside and outside, disconcertingMorgana's carefully constructed boundaries. In the fmal story Welty centralizesthe consciousnessof one of her for first differences "wanderers" Here betweenVirgie and the time. the autonomous the cycle's other wandererscome to light. King's identity as quest hero is predicated his Other Easter the as community's mythologizing of actions. wanderers such upon the orphan in "Moon Lake" and the Spaniardwho appearsonly in "Music from Spain" are entirely self-defining. In many ways Virgie is the archetypalcyclic heroine; she enactsthe dynamics of the form, eventually reconciling the competing demandsof personaland positional identity. Her sensibility in "The Wanderers" for future heroines Whereas the modern short story cycle. a model of provides King's senseof identity dependson the suspensionof boundariesand the separation hierarchical Virgie polarities: other, challenges of self and Virgie never saw it differently, never doubtedthat all the oppositeson but love hate, living dying; to together, to of close earth were close them all, hope and despairwere the closestbond - unrecognizable one from the other sometimes,making momentsdouble upon themselves,and in the doubling double again, amending but never taking back (452-3). Rachel Blau DuPlessisdefines this kind of perception as a "both/and" vision that signals"the end of the either-or, dichotomized universe,proposing monism ... in opposition to dualism, a dualism pernicious becauseit valorizes one side above hierarchy 276). ("Etruscans" there twain" a where makes were simply and another, This either/or thinking characterizesKing MacLain's consciousness:he is either heroic as the romantic questeror defeatedas the bounded, domesticatedhusband.

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Similarly, the Morganansexhibit this kind of absolutism;people are either integrated into communal legend or written out of it. Virgie rejects this hierarchic model for a "both/and vision" that enablesher to sit with the "old black thief' at the end of the cycle, "alone and together" (Welty Collected 461). Virgie embracesthe kind of duality that is representedby the humming-bird, a recurring motif in the cycle. The humming-bird performs the function of the `topical sign' identified by J. Gerald Kennedy as a convention of the story cycle form: presentingitself periodically throughout the cycle, it figures the possibleunity of opposites:it is "Metallic and intangible, fairy-like" (308). tangible together, splendid and and misty Genderpolarities remain firmly in place for Morgana's male wanderers;the home is designatedas female and domestic boundariesare shunned. Loch Morrison home does his King York New town. to to returns reluctantly and not return moves to Morgana when mortality catchesup with him. Virgie's wandering hastaken the form of the alternative quest outlined by DuPlessisin Writing Beyond the Ending: a from in individualism her breaks hero "the through rupture with which quest ... interplay " "a " "encompasses and sustains psychic opposites, ends, gender-based betweenboundariesand boundlessness"(142). To polarize King MacLain and Virgie Rainey as diametrically opposed belies identities Welty's aestheticof openness. paradigmsof masculine/feminine Whilst we might define Virgie's questing sensibility as ontologically female, her binaries. implies life's her "opposites" the of rejection contiguity of recognition of Much critical attention has focusedon the androgynousqualities of Welty's most femininity from In "Music Spain" Welty the of explicates autonomouscharacters! the red finger-nailed Spaniard:"he pulled in the big Spaniard- who for all his his feet, light like big on a proved woman who turns graceful once weight majestic

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she's on the dancefloor" (401). The Spaniarddismantlesmore boundariesby moving beyond this androgynousstateduring his musical performanceat Aeolian Hall: "a smile was seento have come on his face - and to be enjoying itself there; it had the enchantedpresenceof a smile on the face of a beast" (403). Miss Eckhart boundless during her impromptu in a similarly state reaches performance "June Recital": "Miss Eckhart assumedan entirely different face" that "could have belongedto someoneelse- not even to a woman, necessarily. It was the face a mountain could have, or what might be seenbehind the veil of a waterfall" (300). In "Moon Lake," Easter,the mysterious orphan, confoundsthe genderidentifications of the other children. She standsapart asthe only girl to have "started her breasts"and the "withstanding gold" of her hair distinguishesher from the other orphanswho like boys' "bangs young and old men's hair" (347,346,346). Countering this sport femininity her freedom of movement and apparentfearlessness: are pronounced "The one namedEaster could fall flat as a boy, elbows cocked, and drink from the cup of her hand with her face in the spring" (346). This androgyny is one of the Easter for that the testing the secures position at story's centre ground as a qualities becomes She the main preoccupationof the girls at sensibilities. social children's the camp; even the unshakableJinny Love acknowledgesher singularity: "`Even is this over, Easter,I'll always rememberyou... (358). after all Comparisonof these impenetrable,androgynouswanderersfurnishes further parallels; all three characterspossessan artistic intelligence that separatesthem from their communities. Miss Eckhart and the Spaniardmake their livings from music, it is surely no coincidencethat Easter,who, like her fellow wanderers,"never and did intend to explain anything unless she had to," delivers only one significant intention her herself: to becomea singer (358). EugeneMacLain's revelation about

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his tragic daughterFan is of her responseto the Spaniard's most resonantmemory of music: "When the music beganthe child had held out her little arms, saying Pierre Monteaux cameout of Babar and shewanted him down here and would spankhim" (401). Fan's gestureof receptionto the music recalls Easter's open hand and frames her as anotherpotential wanderer,had she lived. Welty's delineationsof both the Spaniard'sand Miss Eckhart's performances illuminate the attractionsof music as an alternative mode of expression:it is both a fluid and fractional form that disregardstemporal boundaries- "Miss Eckhart struck the music open midway" - and devastatesthe kind of order soughtby Morganan rituals (300). In "Eudora Welty and the Multitudinous Golden Apples," ThomasL. McHaney comparesthe dynamicsof Welty's cyclic form to those of a musical in be like he how "regarded those the as movements stories may composition: notes a piece of cyclic music, a sonataor a symphony." He adds:"Given all the references to Beethovenin `JuneRecital' ... it might evenbe that we should think of that great composer'spowerful symphonieswhich, like The Golden Apples, hold the individual movementstogether with a strong textual consistencythat comesfrom the 9 figures (611). As tonal themes and and material" previously noted, of reiteration Welty herself comparedher act of formal innovation with Miss Eckhart's Colin June Story Channeralso seesstrong the recital. cycle writer arrangementof form between the and music. Indeed musical paradigmsplayed a greater affinities part in his conception of his cyclic form than literary models. His "preferred metaphor" for his form is "the concept album" (Appendix 335). For Welty's wanderers,music representsa powerful meansof subverting the it listener: "`Play in Miss Eckhart! ' the they of again, all cried startled response for last begging the thing they wanted" (302). It is through her delineation of recoil,

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the "roaming ... lost beasts"who occupy a liminal spacein Morgana's history, that Welty unveils the subversivepotential of marginalization (330). Whilst Welty's thematicsfavour the specificity of the individual and look beyondthe prescriptive boundsof gender,her poetics clearly resonatewith the discoursesof feminism. Julia Kristeva's vision of "woman" places her, like Welty's autonomouswanderers, beyond signification: "I therefore understandby `woman', that which cannot be represented,that which is not spoken,that which remainsoutside naming and ideologies" ("La Femme" 21). The duality of marginalization is a recurring theme in feminist criticism. SusanWatkins notes: "To be on the margin or borderline is to be simultaneouslyaway from the centre and yet essentialto defining where that centre is" (4). Similarly, Toril Moi states: if patriarchy seeswomen as occupying a marginal position within the symbolic order, then it can construethem as the limit or borderline of that order

but becauseof their very marginality they will also ...

always seemto recedeinto and merge with the chaosof the outside ... they will be neither inside nor outside, neither known nor unknown (167 Moi's italics). For the Morganans,characterslike Easterand Miss Eckhart occupy this disconcertingposition. They embody the threat of the uncontainableworld beyond the communal frontier: a world glimpsed occasionally through freakish events like Miss Eckhart's explosive performance and Easter's sensationalresurrection at Moon Lake. Welty's representationof marginal charactersis paradigmatic of the ways that writers from minority groups continue to use the short story cycle to confound notions of centrality.

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Feminist critics stresspatriarchy's marginalization of women but in Welty's is no status gender specific. "The Whole World Knows" and "Music cyclic world from Spain," the fifth and sixth stories in the cycle, presentthe dilemmas of the MacLain twins as they struggle to shapean identity in the shadow of King's legacy. Although Ran MacLain's first-person voice ostensibly drives "The Whole World Knows," other discoursesthreatenconstantly to contain or obscureit. The narrative incorporatesSnowdie MacLain's maternal badgering,King and Eugene'sweighty silences,Miss Perdita Mayo's chargedmonologues,and the collusive voices of the "Circle" (380). The awarenessof outside knowledge and signification, verified by the title of the story, inhibits Ran's voice. This discursive fluidity threatensto dislodge him from the role of narrator, mirroring his tenuousposition as husband, father, provider and inheritor of King's legacy. Ran's plaintive appealsfor empathy in increasingly liminal the narrative. space occupy an Also inhibiting Ran is his ambivalencetowards the discoursesof interiority. In his study of masculinedilemmas in modern fiction, Ben Knights illuminates introspection, "deep conventionally associatedwith suspicion of masculinity's dreaminess,passivity and hencewith feminisation" (1): the kinds of activities and described by Cassie Welty "the Morrison, as girl who with we associate qualities hung back," and Nina Carmichael,the young dreamerof "Moon Lake" (Welty Beginnings 101). Thesecharactersaspire momentarily to the lives of the wanderers but ultimately retreat into preordainedroles, destinedto dream only with "reservations" (Welty Uncollected 296). Uncomfortable with his subjectivity, Ran buries his most urgent thoughts in the midst of circumstantial detail; he tentatively disperseshis revealing petitions to his absentfather throughout the narrative, if in fear them of what Henry Jamestermed "the terrible fluidity of selfas curtailing

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italics). EugeneMacLain, Ran's twin, experiencesa similar (xx James's revelation" kind of verbal paralysis in "Music from Spain" when he attemptsto explain his been life-long he had his "It trouble, never able to express wife: was a assaulton himself at all when it cameto the very moment" (421). Ben Knights attributesthis masculineapprehensionto hegemonicgender identifications: "the opposition of word and deed is tinctured with a female/male opposition ...

Ambivalence towards the feminising word marks the lore of deeds"

(117). The dynamic betweenRan's adventurerfather and Morgana's female his his King this tell than story, offers opposition; rather own enacts storytellers deedsto the feminising words of the town gossips. However Ran's attemptsto in bungled father desperate deeds: his his culminate suicide attempt and the emulate Knights Maideen. As observes: of rape Part of the problem for the man who knows that he is not living up to the heroic narratives is the senseof a gap in his own consciousness: the rankling awarenessof the disparity betweenthe model and the actuality ... Violence against self or others is one responseto the dissonancebetweenideal and real self: an attempt to act out in however self-destructive a physical form the dominancethat you believe you were promised but of which the world has cheatedyou (190-1). This "rankling awareness"haunts Ran's voice as he becomesincreasingly conscious of the hiatus betweenhis "ideal and real self." Abortive fantasiesof violence infiltrate his fractured narrative as he seeksadmission into "the lore of deeds": I fired point-blank at Jinny - more than once. It was close rangethere was barely room betweenus suddenly for the pistol to come

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up ... I was watching Jinny and I saw her pouting childish breasts, excusesfor breasts,sprung full of bright holes where my bullets had gone. But Jinny didn't feel it (385). Eugene'sattemptsto assertthe self through violence are equally fruitless. In "Music from Spain" his irrational assaulton Emma leadsonly to further disembodiment:"His act slipped loose from him, turned around and looked at ... him in the form of a question" (394). Eugene'sinternal dialogue betraysthe disjunction between"the model and the actuality"; Welty italicizes the voice that encodesthe masculine ideal, marking the disparity with Eugene's "real self": "Why her? he her And hear if thought to she would stay around only start tuning not strike he had her her business, Let think take coming. care about another and go up, she in do kindly" (395). When it the context of once read might more and not so Eugene's story, this macho discoursevergeson the absurd. In reality, Eugene female Grotesque images threat to as self. sexuality a of women plague perceives him throughout the day: the provocative mechanicaldummy in the House of Mirth her kissesassailinghim "like Emma's the sexual advance, menacingvision of and blows" (417,423). By placing her male subjectsin worlds of shifting discoursesand tenuousrealities, Welty challengesthe viability of the `heroic' narrativesthat they aim to emulate. The Morganans,however, remain determinedto make a hero of King MacLain's son. Eugeneeludestheir grasp but Ran eventually submits to communal fictions. Morgana's either/or mentality is no more apparentthan in its responsesto two potentially taboo narratives. When Miss Eckhart is reportedly raped and refuses to leavetown, the community spurnsher. However, Ran MacLain's scandal becomeshis finest hour in the eyes of the Morganans. The female storytellers weave

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their version of the narrative into Morgana's tapestry of MacLain legends,framing Ran as the "bad twin, " a role that secureshim the position of town mayor: "They had voted for him for that - for his glamour and his story, for being a MacLain and the bad twin, for marrying a Stark and then for ruining a girl and the thing shedid ... They had voted for the revelation; it had madetheir hearts faint, and they would assertit again" (433). Virgie recognizesRan's uneasinesswith this role that has beenauthoredby the community: "Ran knew that every minute, there in the door he stood it" (433). In the open terrain of the short story cycle, particular momentsor full revelations often achieve significance only within the context of other narratives. By working backwardsthe readermay verify Virgie's evaluation of Ran's displacement. A single sentencein the fifth story illuminates the absurdity of Ran's position at the end of the cycle: his rare self-revelation that, "To me, ambition's always beena mystery" (382). Through Ran's ensnaredplot Welty reveals how men themselvesfall prey to patriarchal discoursesand paradigms. As Ben Knights writes: "to collude with a systemof power it is not necessaryto be objectively a beneficiary be to that system, only persuadedthat you are a beneficiary" (6). of In "The Whole World Knows," Ran's autonomy disintegratesunder the controlling gazeof the Morganan storytellers. The eye of the story, and arguably the is whole cycle, that of Morgana. In severalof the narratives,this communal eye is figured in the penetrative,inescapableglare of the redoubtableMrs Lizzie Stark: My wife's mother - Miss Lizzie Morgan, Father- put her face to her bedroom window first thing. She'd know it first if I cameback, all right. Parting her curtains with a steel crochet hook, she looked down on Ran MacLain coming to her door, and bringing who-on-earth with him (377).

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Referenceto the self in the third personverifies Ran's statusasthe object of communal signification: a far cry from his stancein the preceding story, "Moon Lake," in which he exercisesthe hegemonyof the male onlooker at the sceneof Easter's resuscitation: Under his cap bill, Ran MacLain set his gaze he was twenty-

three, his seasonedgaze- on Loch and Easteron the table. He could not be preventedfrom considering them all. He moved under the tree. He held his gun under his arm. He let two dogs run loose, and almost imperceptibly, he chewed gum. Only Miss Moody did not move away from him (369). Even here Ran's autonomy is undermined by Welty's mock-authoritative tone, her solemn, measuredsentences,and the addition of the word "seasoned." The authority hinges from his by his their upon recognition community, signalled position of from his fifth insecurities have Ran's By the space. story risen to the surface retreat final he has by the story submitted to the pressureof communal surveillance. and Throughout the cycle Welty presentsacts of looking and signification that dynamics the traditional of genderedgazing. In "Visual Pleasureand subvert Narrative Cinema" Laura Mulvey describesthe conventional positions assignedto determining figure, its fantasy female "the the male gazeprojects onto eachgender: which is styled accordingly" (442). This split "supports the man's role as the active happen" (443). Welty's the things story, making advancing cycle presentsa of one fund of momentsthat stagea reversalof thesegender roles. As we seein Ran's it is the women who advanceand shapehis narrative destiny. In "Sir Rabbit," story, the third story in the cycle, Welty dismantlesthis traditional split by casting Mattie

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Will Sojourner in the role of sexual adventuressand signifying onlooker to a passive King MacLain.

Mattie's encounterwith King is framed by her childhood experiencewith the MacLain boys. When Mattie sensesthe presenceof the twins in Morgana's woods father. Dwelling on the outskirts of Morgana, the their meeting sheanticipates is display her familiarity legend Mattie to the eager young with of King MacLain: "Oh-oh. I know you, Mr. King MacLain! When it camedown to it, scaredor not, ... him heard to show she'd shewanted all about King MacLain and his way" (331). This time she has mistaken King's twin sons for the man himself, but she is eventually given an opportunity to enter the legend when she is seducedby King, years later. Although Mattie submits to King, she finds that, during their encounter, "she could answerto his burden now, his whole blithe, smiling, superior, frantic existence" (338). Shedestabilizesthe frame of the male quest myth, in which, to but Hourihan, "the Margery `characters' at all, women are, essentially,not quote symbols of events in the hero's psyche" (156). At the end of the story a somnolent King becomesthe unsuspectingobject of Mattie's gazeand is reducedto the comic image of a promiscuousrabbit whose "habit" is to "dance in the wood" (340): "With her almost motherly sway of the headand arms to help her, shegazedat the like head, the and a little porch column in town ... the neck sounding-off, sleeping bent leg and the straight, all those parts looking no more driven than her man's now" (339-40). The use of "motherly" infantilizes King and compoundsMattie's authority determining She in legend thus the the the voyeur. rejects of the preordained role as hapless deviance Her from the town's fictional paradigm victim. adventurer's in her itself physical position at the end of the story. Emerging from the manifests woods, shecan survey all of Morgana stretchedbefore her, "all in rays, like a giant

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sunflower in the dust of Saturday" (340). Ratherthan reflecting on her admission into Morganan legend,she re-imaginesthe more intimate experienceof her youthful tumble with the MacLain twins. By centralizing a past experiencein favour of what is ostensibly the main narrative line, Mattie Will enactsone of the key methodologiesof the story cycle reader. Other gazersin the cycle exerciseless control. In "June Recital" Loch Morrison's statusas unobservedonlooker awakenshis creative energies;the associationof gazing with narrating is played out by Loch, who assumesthe he, for it Loch, "Loch the time, the was storyteller: gave sailor authoritative stanceof him day" (278). in leniency here; he day after was giving who was commandof Loch's authority is illusory; through his telescopic perspectivehe weavesa laconic inaccuracies: full of gapsgradually emergethat the reader,as surrogatenarrative MacLain fails identify King fill. Eckhart Loch Miss to and mistakes voyeur, must for Mr Voight. Loch reassumesthe position of chief gazer in "Moon Lake." He donsthe "wizardlike" the unitary, wanderer, emulating the elusive movementsof of guise King MacLain (343); dwelling in his "tent of separation," he is a silent and invisible Puck-like figure whose presence"seriously affected" the girls (374,342). He blasts his dictates day Dip" "the the the the of of strident and pace with presidesover horn (343). In the closing vignette his authority collapsesas Welty locateshim in the samevulnerable position as the sleeping King of "Sir Rabbit"; he endsthe story feminine focalisation deflates his that the object of a near-mythic status unwitting as betrays His the narcissismthat affiliates the onlooking male. posing wandering, as him with the girls, undercutting his daily assertionsof masculinedifference: "he

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his touching there studying and caseof sunburn in a Kress mirror like theirs" stood (373). Ran MacLain succumbsto the tyranny of the communal gaze,but other charactersdiscover the meansof subverting its power. Easter,like the other in is in Apples. The Golden the the one of most watched characters cycle, wanderers As the "dominant" orphan at Moon Lake camp she is the object of constant speculationand becomesa site for the fantasiesof the young Morganans(346): "Jinny Love's gazewas fastenedon Easter,and she dreamedand dreamedof telling on her for smoking, while the sun, even through leaves,was burning her pale skin final looked beautiful "Moon (358). In the the scenes of all" and she most of pink, Lake" Easter occupies a similar position to the unsuspecting Loch and King. Sprawled across the table, naked and unconscious, she becomes the focal point for the girls' uneasy, rudimentary sexual fantasies. Unlike Ran, King and Loch, Easter's her her When she she retains autonomy. recovers, status as spectacle compounds

heighten her has to the served experience merely elusiveness: mystique; In that passionateinstant, when they reachedEaster and took her up, many feelings returned to Nina

At least what had ...

happenedto Easterwas out in the world, like the table itself. There it remained- mystery Their minds could hardly ... capture it again, the way Easterwas standing free in space, then handled and turned over by the blue air itself (372). Thus Welty revealshow, to quote Beth Newman, "the gaze however coercive, is ... how it for locus "even control' of complete and resisting that a opens a space never 458). "Situation" (Newman control" *

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Resistantspacesabound in the short story cycle, a form that enables charactersto "stand[ ] free in space"and elude the shacklesof linearity. In One Writer's Beginnings Welty identifies clock time as a divisive, prescriptive force that "spacesus apart so inhibitingly" (102). In The Eye of the Story she illuminates how the fiction writer might outmanoeuvrethe "arbitrary, bullying power" of "clock time" (165): "Fiction doesnot hesitateto acceleratetime, slow it down, project it it can expanda forward or run it backward,causeit to skip over or repeatitself ... like balloon bite life like (166). As thread" the an skin off a a moment of a or single is beginnings, form the the that cycle story enables multiple repetitions and elliptical ideal site for the fictional experimentationsdescribedby Welty. Although the stories in The Golden Apples are arrangedin chronological order, this structure is almost incidental. Cutting acrossthe linear axis are the shifting time framesof each individual story. The temporal structure of "Sir Rabbit" inverts that of its by framing "June Recital" a present-dayevent with a memory of the predecessor, like Virgie Similarly, the temporal of self-governing experiences characters past. like dream, historical "Time Morgana's to time: a no acquiescence goes challenge his in In declares (267). hard Katie Rainey "Shower Gold" how of you run" matter in does Ingram Forrest "Time the states: short story cycle, not exist a cycle study of for the sakeof hurrying through a single seriesof events,but rather for going over the samekind of action again" (24). In a text of endlesslyinterlocking cycles of Welty backwards forwards transports the reader and as moments signification, "double upon themselves,and in the doubling double again" (Welty Collected 453). Through her form Welty mutesthe emphasison historicity and teleology. In Time and the Novel: the GenealogicalImperative, Patricia Tobin links these "patriarchalism. " She how "the prestigeof the to rudiments of notes modalities

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causeover effect ... is analogousto the prestige of the father over the son" and how `Both initiate a time that may be imagined as a unidirectional and irreversible arrow, whosetrajectory is determinedby an original intention" (12). In her observationson the modern novel she noteshow linear plots have beenusurpedby more cyclic structures. Tobin contendsthat genealogyis unable to "survive the assaulton linearity" and observesthat "All the sins againstthe family - adultery, illegitimacy, bigamy

incest can be found within a spectrumof valuesthat arches and especially ...

from the tragic recognition of disorder to its joyous celebration" (12). In The Golden Apples Welty repeatedlyviolates Morgana's lines of descent with covert narrativesof adultery and potential incest. Critics have speculatedat Loch length Morgana that the on parentageof several adolescents,suggesting some 10 in Morrison, Virgie Rainey, and Easterare, reality, the offspring of King MacLain. The most disturbing of thesesublimated narrativeshas its origins in the revelation of Maideen Sumrall's ancestryin "The Whole World Knows." As Ran begins to tire of their relationship, he reveals: "And now I was told her mother's maiden name. God help me, the name Sojourner was laid on my head like the top teetering crown of a forget, forget Sojourner" Not to to to the things never of remember. name pile of (386). It is Ran's knowledge of future eventsthat heightensthe significance Maideen's name; he will forever be associatedwith her death. The readerof the fords in informed herself often a more position than a characterwho short story cycle may not be aware of other narrative threads. If the readerrevertsto the eventsof "Sir Rabbit," shewill recall Mattie Will Sojourner's fleeting liaison with Ran's father. Thus Ran's rape of Maideen in "The Whole World Knows" carries incestuousundertones;ironically, it is the deedsof the father that posethe greatest threat to patriarchal structures.

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SusanDonaldson's insightful essayon "contending narratives" in Go Down, Moses notes a similar strategy in Faulkner's story cycle; the form enablesFaulkner to rupture McCaslin's masterplot of self-reduplication with aberrantnarratives. Donaldsonwrites: if the McCaslin ledgersand the continuousthreadsthey spin suggest the totality of a masternarrative, the sevenindividual stories making up Go Down, Moses offer unceasingresistanceto all attemptsto establishunity and continuity ...

juxtaposing tales of runaway slaves,

recalcitrant tenant farmers, black grief, Indian lore, hunting stories, love affairs, and funerals, those storiespose narrative strategiesof interruption and discontinuity in marked contrast with the stifling bondageof the McCaslin ledgers. No soonerdoesone tale begin, it seems,then it is interrupted, sidetracked,discontinued,and backtracked("Contending" 139). Unlike Faulkner, Welty buries thesedeviating plotlines within her cycle rather than placing them alongside the masternarrative. As a young girl Virgie Rainey rejects temporal boundarieswhen sherefuses to play to the metronome's regulatory beat: the symbolic barrier that Miss Eckhart's in cross order to achievea more experiential understandingof time. must students By abandoningthe metronome,both Miss Eckhart and Virgie dismiss what Frank Kermode describesin The Senseof an Ending as "simple chronicity... the humanly tocic tick, uninteresting successiveness"(46). For the teacher emptinessof kairos "`passing becomes her "`waiting time"' time"' or chronos student, and "a point in time filled with significance, chargedwith a meaning derived from its relation to the end" (Kermode 47). This kind of temporality best reflects the reader's

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experienceof short story cycles such as Welty's: sequentiality collapsesand "that which was conceived of as simply successivebecomeschargedwith past and future" (Kermode 46). The story cycle is the ideal form for enacting the shift betweenchronos and kairos. In "Sir Rabbit, " King MacLain's seduction of Mattie Will casts a new,

light her refracting upon spring tumble with the MacLain twins: "They were soft and jumpy!

they were like young deer, or even remoter creatures kangaroos For ... ... ...

the first time Mattie Will thought they were mysterious and sweet- gamboling now sheknew not where" (340-1). For Mattie, chronos becomeskairos as the simple is order of events disrupted and a single point of time in the past becomes"charged with meaning derived from its relation" to her recent encounterwith King. The ending of the story signifies Mattie Will's "bundling together" of her "perception of the present,memory of the past, and expectationof the future, in a common organization" (Kermode 46). Kermode observeshow writers as diverse as E. M. Forster and Robert Musil equatethis transformation from chronicity to a more fluid temporality with "the experienceof love, the erotic consciousnesswhich makes divinely satisfactory senseout of the commonplaceperson" (46). Mattie Will's her erotic consciousness opens up a space beyond her commonplace of recovery

in Holifield. Similarly, Virgie's Junior "all-embracing" to experience the marriage is immersion the charged with erotic overtones: water and fleeting loss of the self, the "suggestionsand withdrawals" of the grassand mud, the transient union with nature (440). Feminist theories are again pertinent to Welty's representationsof time. In her study of patterns in women's fiction Annis Pratt notes how the female hero displays a "quality of consciousness"that is "alinear" and "cyclic, " transporting her

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into a "timeless achronological world" (169). Virgie displays this quality of consciousnesswhen she submergesherself in the water before the community assemblesfor her mother's funeral. This submersionfrees her of both the temporal constraintsthat threatenthe elderly Morganansand the burden of communal memory that challengesher autonomy. Sheexperiencesthe classic Weltian "still moment," in which the boundariesof linearity and corporeality dissolve: "She moved but like a cloud in skies, aware but only of the nebulousedgesof her feeling and the vanishing opacity of her will ... Memory dappledher like no more than a paler light ... She hung suspendedin the Big Black River as shewould know to hang suspendedin felicity" (440). Virgie's still moment resonates clearly with Julia Kristeva's description of "women's time": "As for time, female subjectivity would seem to provide a specific measure that essentially retains repetition and eternity from among the multiple modalities of time" ("Women's"

862 Kristeva's italics). Kristeva sets this cyclic

kind the against of metronomic time that regulates Miss Eckhart's sensibility lessons piano and controls King MacLain: time as "project, teleology, conventional linear and prospective unfolding; time as departure, progression, and arrival the ... time of history" (863). Kristeva associates her conception of "women's time" with "cosmic time, " "vertiginous visions" and "an unnameable jouissance"; emerging from this affiliation is "the massive presence of a monumental temporality which ... has so little to do with linear time (which passes) that the very word `temporality'

hardly fits"; this modality is, Kristeva suggests,"All-encompassing and infinite like imaginary space" (862). In the fmal sentenceof The Golden Apples, Welty suspendsthe readerin this kind of monumental temporality; she manoeuvresus away from the unities of time and place that have bound the stories together and

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removesthe determining frame of Morgana's eye; she erasesall temporal and spatial parameterswith a miscellany of elusive imagesthat, like Miss Eckhart's music, strainsthe boundariesof the senses:"They heardthrough falling rain the running of the horse and bear, the stroke of the leopard,the dragon's crusty slither, and the glimmer and the trumpet of the swan" (461). The notion of hearing "the glimmer of the swan" and its possibility of sensoryfusion is a fitting image with which to concludeVirgie's "all-encompassing" epiphany. *

*

Theserare, individual experiencesof boundlessnessbecomeall the more resonantwhen read within the context of a cycle in which the community asserts itself as the most prolific protagonist. Commentatorson the short story cycle have " form for identity. The the tool explored as a representing communal persistently formal possibilities of the story cycle certainly lend themselvesto explorationsof community: the form assertsthe need for integration and independenceand thus both instincts. The story cycle accommodatesmultiple queries communal and enacts in large the perspective, often presenting reader with a cast of narrators;writers shifts Erdrich Gloria Naylor forms Louise through their the and re-enact such as bind that communities together. storytelling rituals The proliferation of Bakhtinian readingsof Welty has illuminated the 12 infiltrate her texts. With its multi-faceted narration and plurality of voices that in constantshifts focalisation, The Golden Apples is Welty's most effective identity. her form Welty to the communal capitalizes of on openness of realization presenta community of narratorsand storytellers. Katie Rainey and Ran MacLain first-person the of privilege narration whilst a third-person voice are granted mediatesthe stories and memoriesof focalising characterssuch as Eugene,Cassie

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and Loch. Welty's third-person voice tells some of the storiesthat exist beyond Morgana's carefully patrolled narrative boundaries:we hear the history of Miss Eckhart in "June Recital" and we are privy to the eventsat Moon Lake, which, we suspect,Lizzie Stark may embellish on her return to "Circle. " In somestoriesthe fluctuating allegianceswith other discoursesfrustrate the reader's narrative voice's locus for the precise of authority. In "June Recital," the voice moves search seamlesslyfrom one mental landscapeto another. In Welty's representationof the from the the position of the detachedonlooker to the voice shifts narrative recital collective consciousnessof the participating studentswithin a single paragraph:"So they played, and except Virgie, all played their worst ... You expectedthe whip, forgetting before for for failing to count ten to the repeat secondending, or almost, before you camearound the curtain" (313). The most resoundingvoice in the cycle is undoubtedly that of Morgana; it tempersboth the omniscient third-person narrative voice - the recurring phrase"people said" reminds us that the sourceof is itselffocalisations the the community personalized of the narratives and many image from dominance A "June Recital" the single captures of characters. Morgana's discourseover the cycle's other voices: "Miss Perdita Mayo was talking, heels drowning drowning their they clicking out were summery and out and something ... " (280). An array of impinging discoursescompromisesthe singularity of Cassie's focalisation in "June Recital." The voices of her mother and Morgana's women seep through her narration; in her recollections of Miss Eckhart, the abrupt statementthat "Her love never did anybody any good" betraysthe influence of the abrasive formidable the town's that characterizes most gossip, Mrs Lizzie Stark vernacular (307); Welty isolates this sentencefrom the surrounding paragraphsperhapsto

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from its Cassie's largely sympathetic vision. Similarly, separateness emphasize Loch's clipped sentences and self-aggrandizing assertions in "June Recital" carry inflections of the Circle's uncompromising evaluations: "Everything she did was had She after a certain point. got off the track. What she really wanted was a wrong, draft

let her try to make fire burn in an airless room" (284). ... Other voices are entirely subsumed by communal discourses. The

Morganans inhabit a residually oral reality, in which language is valued for its function. In Interfaces of the Word Walter J. Ong notes that the performative practices of such oral communities evolve from "pre-existent, imitable, formulary elements" (283). Ran MacLain scorns the mimetic practices of Maideen Sumrall from in draws her mechanical regurgitation of the town's these elements who language: in the clear voice of Maideen where it had it was being told ... never existed - all the worse for the voice not even questioning what it said - just repeating, just rushing, old the town words. Telling what she was told she saw, repeating what she listened to - young girls are outlandish little birds that talk. They can be taught to sing a song people have ... made (378-9 Welty's italics).

In contrast,the elusive wanderersreject the limitations of the word for open, dynamic signs: the extension of the hand, the compelling musical performance,the impregnable The silence. narratives of thesecharactersappearto preclude magnetic even the third-person narrative voice. It appearsthat Welty's voice operatesin it the wanderers; preservestheir indeterminacy by shunning overt collusion with

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omniscience. Immune to the constraintsof chronological time, thesecharacters move beyondthe boundsof narrative patronage. Through her heteroglossicnarrative Welty demonstratesthe lure and power of communal discoursewhilst subtly challenging its dominance. In Eudora Welty's Aestheticsof Place,Jan Nordby Gretlund arguesthat "Welty createsa greater distancebetweenthe inhabitantsof Morgana and herself than she has done with most other charactersin her fiction" (125). Whilst the third-person voice often adoptsthe vernacularof Morgana, it frequently undercutsany senseof allegiance with Morganan discourse. At key momentsWelty allows the communal voice to take the stance of the narrator, prompting the reader's resistance. In "The Whole World

Knows," the narrative voice slips effortlessly into Morgana's idiom: They say Jinny MacLain invites Woody out there to eat, a year younger than she is, rememberwhen they were born. Invites, under her mama's nose. Sure, it's Woodrow Spights she invites. Who else in Morgana would there be for Jinny Stark after Ran, with even EugeneMacLain gone? (379) In this passageWelty's narrative voice setsup the reader as mock reader,implicating her firmly in a communal dialogue with a seriesof affirmatives, rhetorical questions form distance however direct this the to overt of manipulation serves addresses; and 13 for line begins to search an untrammelled of communication Indeed readerwho the absenceof a distinct, extradiegeticperspectiveinvolves the reader in the isolation that emanatesfrom Ran's voice. As Ran strives to read his father's silence, so must the readerscrutinisethe blanks in the story: the reverberatingellipses that follow Perdita Mayo's verbal onslaughts;the oppressivesilencesthat arrestthe dialogue betweenRan and Maideen; the unsettling blank that follows the rape of Maideen.

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"Shower of Gold" setsthe standardfor this interpretative system,by involving the readerimmediately in a nexus of felt omissions. The story setsthe readerup as a silent narrateeof Katie's tale; she is an inconsequentialpasser-by,to whom Katie intimates thoughts that sheconcealsfrom her husband:"What makes me say a thing like that? I wouldn't say it to my husband,you mind you forget it" (274). This concluding sentenceconfirms the reader's suspicionthat suppressed stories lurk beneaththe narrative surface,and finally confirms Katie's lack of control over her story. Katie's narrative confronts the readerwith two kinds of blank; at times she openly acknowledgesthe gaps in her story and her own secrecy:"I wish I can't tell you why, but I wish I'd seenhim! " she tells us when I'd seenhim! ... King makesanother appearance(266). There are other momentshowever when she betraysherself; her own involvement in the King MacLain myth is suggestedby her his location in impregnate knowledge he Morgana to of woods when returns precise his wife Snowdie: "I could have streakedlike an arrow to the very oak tree, one there to itself and all spready" (264). In this opening story Welty draws attention to the in the the the and relativizes authority voices of storytelling of other problematics cycle. In her study of the short story Armine Kotin Mortimer writes that the in form "second the stories" afford the readera particular agency:"The presenceof is in `the a special of case reader the text' ... His stagedirections second-storyreader in in directly form the text, the encoded of a createdmodel, an obvious often are include does in Mortimer her but (296). the the not story cycle exploration, guide" form provides particularly fertile ground for secondstories; fragments of storiesmay long themselves over stretchesof narrative and endings may remain buried. reveal The Golden Apples aboundswith "second stories" that the readermust both elicit

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the Catherine Morrison's unexplained and co-create: suicide; relationship between Miss Eckhart and her mother; Mr Sissum's suddendemise. We sensethe incredulity in the narrative voice when it informs us that, "Mr Sissumwas drowned in the Big Black River one summer- fell out of his boat, all alone" (297). With a laugh that is "soft and playful but not illuminating, " CatherineMorrison eludesthe boundariesof the text by constantly "slip[ing] away" until she eventually commits suicide (295 299). Mortimer claims that, in somenarratives,the construction of a secondstory "does not leavethe outcomeup in the air; quite to the contrary, it often brings closure to the first" (277). In the open, nonhierarchicstory cycle the statusof the individual narrativesshifts constantly; the main thread in one narrative may assume the statusof a "second story" within another, and vice versa. In "Moon Lake" and "The Whole World Knows" respectively,Nina Carmichael and Ran MacLain take the stanceof the foregrounding consciousness.They do not resumethis position in in However, Wanderers, " Welty "The the cycle. provides the readerwith again vignettes that mark possibleendings to thesesublimated stories; rather than using one story to completeanother, sheoffers the reader a gesturetowards closure and invites her to fill in the intervening narrative space. Welty representsNina's fate longed for in The "fiercest "Moon beautiful the girl who economy. secrets" with Lake" is engagedin safe, domestic activity (361): "Nina Carmichael, Mrs. Junior Nesbitt heavy with child, was seatedwhere he could seeher, head fine and indifferent, one puffed white arm stretchedalong the sewing machine" (433). A drives double back the to through the text and become reader solitary sentence it is Nina's story: evidently a narrative of compromise and the surrogate-narratorof Exactly how Nina herself to this yearnings. of reticent reconciled suppression

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destiny remainsa subject for the reader's conjecture. As Karen Castellucci Cox observes,the realization that one "may never be satisfied on particular points" is central to the reader's experienceof the story cycle form (155). Welty's cycle of disrupted and buried narrativescalls for reading strategies that respondto the theme at the centre of her fiction: the possibility of connection. In "Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory of Reading" Patricinio

Schweickart states:"Mainstream reader-responsetheories are preoccupiedwith issuesof control and partition - how to distinguish the contribution of the author/text from the contribution of the reader" (55). In responseto this preoccupation, Schweickart posits "the dialectic of communication" that "inform[s] the relationship betweenthe feminist readerand the female author/text" in which, "the central issue is not one of... partition, but of managingthe contradictory implications of the desire for relationship (one must maintain a minimal distancefrom the other) and the desire for intimacy, up to and including a symbiotic merger with the other" (55). Thesecontradictory implications threatenVirgie's relationship with Miss Eckhart initially love but forget. As a mature woman Virgie finally she rejects cannot whose her balance desire for to autonomy and symbiosis by recognizing and manages in love "horror (Welty Collected 460). the the separateness" accepting ... Schweickart proposesthe drive "to connect" asthe most fruitful basis for interpretation (55). In a comparisonof male/female readingsof Faulkner's "Barn Burning," David Bleich found that women accumulatedmeaning through associative patternswhilst men pursuedresolute structuresand narrative lines. Schweickart his findings: paraphrases men retold the story as if its purpose were to deliver a clear, simple structure or chain of information ... Their primary

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concernappearedto be getting the `facts' of the story `straight'. Women

the narrative as if it were an presented ...

atmosphereor an experience... they retell it in terms of interpersonalmotives, allegiances,conflicts, rather than in terms of a single character'sor the author's perspective (Schweickart "Introduction" xxv-xxvi). In her essay"Gender and Reading" Elizabeth Flynn reports that when she presentedmale and female readerswith a selection of three ostensiblyunconnected in "more the story than to the tensions men were able resolve women short stories, from form (272). Indeed the one can conclude a consistent pattern of meaning" and Bleich female Schweickart, Flynn that of and reading strategiesoffer the research for Welty's Resonances the the with short cycle. model reader of story most useful female her Schweickart's regards experienceof the text are striking. reader poetics its (55). Welty's "intersubjective commentaryon the encounter" with writer as an life "No saw over other emphasizes connection consensus: reader/writer relationship in an ordering exactly like this. So shapebegins and endssubjectively. And that the two concepts,writer's and reader's, may differ, since all of us differ, is neither so between important fact has been that the vital a connection made as strangenor so

them" (Welty Eye 144). Welty's cycle is populated by readers. In keeping with her aestheticof does Indeed to the not assign particular strategies either gender. she openness, tactics of Morgana's readersbear a close resemblanceto those of Schweickart's male Cassie Recital" "June In reflects upon the community's reading of outsiders, reader. definition: hoped "They to place their objective of permanent only primary noting

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them, in their hour or their streetor the name of their mother's people. Then Morgana could hold them, and at last they were this and they were that" (325). Other inscribed readersin the cycle move beyond these limits. They experienceprivate momentsof illumination that form a metafictional plot for Welty's reader; if pursued,this plot coheresinto a kind of interpretive guide for the cycle as a whole. "How much might dependon people's being linked together?" pondersCassieMorrison, holding a mirror up to the reader's experienceof the form (306). Mattie Will's participation in a Morgana legend illuminates the potential agencyof the readerin the text. Eugeneand Virgie's revisionary readingsof Miss Eckhart's picture demonstratethe pliability of text and its cumulative dynamism. Throughout the cycle, Welty dispersesmetamorphic momentsand imagesas intent fixed the to signs reader on pursuing warning meaningsand establishingrigid information: house MacLain the that, Cassiereflects, was "something of old chains it" (285); Cassie'stie-and-dye scarf that defeatsany seeing you saw without design "like a spiderweb" (286); the woman whose "strange beauty" premeditated Eugeneadmiresbefore realizing that "she was birth-marked and would be considereddisfigured by most people" (405); Virgie's "hard-to-match-up plaid" (430). The most fitting paradigm for Welty's reader is, perhaps,Virgie's concluding interpretation of Miss Eckhart's picture of the Perseusand the Medusa: constantly inviting new interpretations,this elusive cycle is a "constellation which the heart (460). a over many night" could read

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2

"The One and the Many": Grace Paley and the Art of Balance

"[A story] can curl around on itself, it canjust fall down and slip out through one of the spirals and go back again. That's the way I see. I seeus all in a great bathtub of time just swimming around" (Paley Lidoff 87)

"People keep reappearingfor me I don't seelife in what used to be called an ... alienatedway. I seepeople going away and coming back" (Paley Conway 10).

In her statementto JoanLidoff, Grace Paley posits the recursive nature of her favoured form - the short story - as a model for the dynamicsof everyday life. " Her investment in the retroactive power of narrative and her resistanceto an "alienated," unitary vision suggeststrong affinities with the aestheticsof the short story cycle. Even an initial reading of Paley's stories opensup further congruities form: the recurrenceof a group of charactersand a unifying protagonist, the with Faith Darwin; the explicit and well-documented metafictional dimension of her work; the continual rejection of causaland chronological plot structures;the emphasison collective experience;the representationof silence as "the space... in which little truths growl" (Paley Later 203). Paley's `Faith stories' do not appearin even the most inclusive and diverse glossariesof the short story cycle. It is the liberal and seemingly random dispersalof the storiesthat distinguishesPaley's form from the more unified cycles that appear

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in bibliographies. Using Katherine Mansfield's much-admiredstories,"Prelude" and "At the Bay," as a paradigm, SuzanneFergusonexamineslinked stories that featurerecurring charactersor settingsbut that are not presentedas a story cycle or instead dispersed they are among collections of stories that are related sequence; by Ferguson tenuously theme. only arguesthat theserelated but scattered perhaps be distinct from the short story cycle. As regarded as a should genre stories in Paley's Faith Sherman Alexie's Victor she cites stories, examples stories The Lone Rangerand Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1994), as well as Mansfield's Burnell disperse These themselvesbeyond the boundaries scattered narratives often stories. is the volume or collection, single as the casewith Paley's Faith stories. Ferguson of form is for both this the that perfect medium enactingand subverting a senseof notes marginalization. All of the examplessheconsiderswere "written by authors selfidentified as `on the margins' of the mainstreamof their society"; neverthelessthey "appeal to the mainstreamaudienceand dependfor someof their impact on its formal to their challenge:to remain outside the rules of `sequence"' resistance (Ferguson"Genre" 26). It is of coursehelpful to examinethese forms together as a however I basic that the would argue group. principles of the unified story separate further the to scattered composite are similar and enough cycle warrant comparison. Narratives concerning Faith and her friends appearin all three of Paley's short story collections, written over a thirty year period: The Little Disturbancesof Man (1959), EnormousChangesat the Last Minute (1974) and Later the SameDay (1985). Further Faith narratives,"Midrash on Happiness," "Demystified Zone," "The Lion and the Ox," and "Conversations," appearedseparatelyover a period of thirteen years, stretching from 1977 to 1986. Only one Paley critic locatesthe Faith stories within the short story cycle canon; Judith Arcana, Paley's biographer, refers

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to them as "an ongoing story cycle," arguing that they are closer in their formal propertiesto Faulkner's wide-ranging Yoknapatawphatales than Sherwood Anderson's more integratedWinesburg. Ohio (Arcana 3). Paley herself claims an affinity with Faulkner: "I seethe world very much in a Faulkner kind of way" she tells CelesteConway (10). Arcana placesPaley in the company of Katherine Anne Porter and Mary McCarthy, noting that thesewriters created"one female character... whom severalcritics refer to as the author's `alter ego"' (2-3). The subjectof formal strategyarises frequently in interviews with Paley but her personalinterest in form vacillates. In discussionwith CelesteConway, she forum for innovation form: "I think the great experiments the content as over ranks to come are not the experimentswith forms, but the experimentswith subjectbut her (12). She Kathleen Hulley later this to reiterates on notion reneges matter" dismissal of form, insisting, "I am interestedin form, despitethe conversationwe had before" (Hulley "Interview" 36). Sheretains a consistentvision however of the forms; her for form is determined by finds its Paley, of own content and evolution shapeas the writing processtakes place. Echoing Eudora Welty's aestheticof insists in formal Paley that she cannot work with a specific mind: structure openness, "The form is given by grace it descendson you. You find it. You work and you ... And (Hulley 37). This "Interview" you you work. make connections" and work Faulkner's deliberate of authorial responsibility contrasts with more abdication his Yoknapatawpha Michael Millgate highlights how of cycle. construction Faulkner assertshis position as the origin of his fictional world and form through his does Not Faulkner only of place. provide the readerwith a map representation boundaries but he "stakes his by this the territorial of world, out claim" marking his invention "existing through the geography own of new namesand the making

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in (Millgate buildings his to order and suit artistic convenience" places of relocation 37). Whilst Paley insists that the Faith narrativesdo not originate from a how he idea for design, Faulkner the entire the recalls conceived premeditated Yoknapatawphacycle in a single vision. His was, to use Ingram's terms, a "composedcycle": "I thought of the whole story at once like a bolt of lightning lights up a landscapeand you seeeverything" (Gwynn 90). Paley's most metafictional story draws attention to the pliability of narrative form. In "A Conversationwith My Father" a writer tells her father a story. Conflict insisting indeterminacy the the the upon an of ending, narrator preserves ariseswhen "open destiny" for her heroine (Enormous 162). The father, who is describedby Paley as coming from an era "when nothing could change," objects to such optimism (Hulley "Interview" 42-3). Favouring the plot which resembles"an absoluteline betweentwo points," he dismisseshis daughter's open ending as evidenceof her inability "to look [tragedy] in the face" (Enormous 162,167). When Hulley suggests formal for flexibility "irrevocability" Paley that this opens up new to substitution of 51). (Hulley "Interview" Paley concurs emphatically possibilities, By introducing the opportunity of renewal and re-orientation into her demands female from her the the of character releases writer/daughter narrative, informs This Paley's to strategy refusal structures. predetermined and causality form; instead into homogeneous Faith the shegeneratesa a stories unified, cohere her diffusive that complements story cycle aestheticof continuity and particularly in itself her that the titles announces story collections. of all aesthetic an redirection: The girl who "`never guessed"' the ending to her narrative in "Faith in the Afternoon" servesas a poignant reminder that both little disturbancesand enormous in later day (Enormous 42). likely the to occur are changes

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The Faith storiespresenta particular formal challengeto the reader,who different three establish network of connections only a across must not collections, but must keep up with a profusion of other voices that constantly come into play; at various points in the stories Ginny, Mrs Raftery, Ruth, Anna, Kitty and Jack assume the position of the foregrounding consciousness.To compoundthe reader's confusion, Paley queriesconstantly the line betweenfiction and reality, relativizing the reader's experienceof her charactersand stories. In "Love" a husbandand wife debatethe existenceof Dotty Wasserman. Whilst the husbandrecalls real-life in his insists is book" Dotty, "a that wife character a with she who was encounters "just plain invented in the late fifties" (Later 4,5). In "The Long-Distance Runner" Faith casually declaresthat recurring characterMrs Raftery was "liked by me, loved, invented and endured" (Enormous 180). In "Faith in a Tree" she assumes,as noted by Neil Isaacs,a seemingly godlike "vantage point" as she surveysthe scenebelow her, recounting the narrativesof friends and spinning new ones(Isaacs49). Undermining her omniscienceis the presenceof a footnote that disruptsthe reader's frame of reality. Faith interrupts her story to referencea teacheras its source; Marilyn Gerwitz does not play any further role in the primary narrative but sheis, Faith informs the reader,"the only real person in this story" (Enormous 84 Paley's italics). This postmodernslippage betweenreality and fiction emergesin interviews during discussions her, frequently For Paley the two character. conflates about when in determining insignificant largely the authenticity of a character. When origins are how has Faith developed, by "The Arcana to explain she states: only thing you asked Faith is is that a real person can say

Every story I write is a story of what I think ...

happened. Even if I invented it" (Arcana 4).

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The parametersof the Faith cycle grow ever more expansiveas the stories continue to grow out of eachanother. In typical Paley fashion, severalof her stories re-enactin their structurethis processof narrative proliferation. In "Somewhere Else," Joe's story of the South Bronx emergesfrom the group's experienceof during disparities China In "The Expensive their trip to three months earlier. cultural Moment," Faith's accountof her life galvanizesXie Feng's narrative facilities; her story in turn dissolvescultural barriers and unites them as women in the "eternal, universal woman's questioning of how to raise children in the real world" (Isaacs76). Paley hascommentedthat sheoften createsone story out of two narrative threads: "You really don't have a story until you have two stories. It's thesetwo stories happen" in it that against each other and connection with each other make working (Perry 99). As Neil Isaacsdocuments,"Faith in a Tree" beganas two separate form in its for Faith's the original narrative revolved around a search narratives; her lover Phillip the that story ended with acceptance prospective mate; - will -a friend final her beautiful 47). Paley later Anna, (Isaacs the with scene up added end Richard's the activist parade, gestureof recalcitrance,and Faith's resolution to with think "more and more and every day about the world" (Enormous 140). Most of thesesupplementarynarrativesemergeonly at the very end of the stories, casting a light before, has what on gone projecting the readerback into the heart of refracting the story and forwards in the expectationof new narratives. The metafictional dimension of Paley's work revealsitself in her handling of time. LiilceWelty, Paley exploits the pliability of her form to pursuelines of

connectionthat transcendthe traditionalmarkersof time. In "The Expensive Moment"sheconstructsa dialogueaboutworld tradefrom interrelatedstatements of Faith's friends, parenthetically acknowledging that Ruth's commentson the methods

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of Cubantrade helm from the future: "her remarks actually came a couple of years later" (Later 184-5). In "Listening" Paley illuminates her processof fictionalisation when shepropels the readersuddenly into the future: "Then, as so often happensin stories,it was severalyears later" (Later 209). Theseleapsbackward and forward in time are initially startling, jolting the readerout of the immediate time frame of the '5 if However we read the Faith narrativesas a cycle of interlinked main narrative. decades, theseunheraldedgapsand transgressions stretching across several stories becomeless disconcerting;they form an integral part of the cycle's retroactive and proleptic structure. Paley challengesthe reader's expectationsof narrative by demonstratinghow all stories, like the lives of her female characters,are open to revision. "Distance" and "An Interest in Life" come from different story collections, history both tell the of the relationship betweenJohn Raftery and Ginny; when yet read in juxtaposition, the conflicting versionsrelativize eachother, thereby exposing the artifices of storytelling and debunking the possibility of one incontestabletruth. Paley's fictional world demandsa particularly agile reader,as meaning is not in definitive boundaries. narratives or stable anchored Faith's stancein her stories shifts from one narrative to the next. In some first-person to the speculate as whether anonymous can only voice stories,we belongsto Paley's recurring protagonist. The narrator of "Anxiety" appearsto share Faith's social conscienceand addressesthe young father with the authority of a hint her Paley the to offers reader a confirm suspicion severalstories veteranparent. later; in "The Story Hearer," Faith mentions an encounterwith "The New Young Fathers" whilst inwardly recounting her day (Later 142). In the first story of the Faith cycle, "The Used-Boy Raisers," Faith maintains a detachedstancebefore for following the the to centre story, "A Subject of Childhood." When other moving

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voices narrateFaith recedesinto the background,assumingthe role of silent listener or group member. Although the story does not specify whether or not Faith is the narrator of "A Conversationwith my Father," the father's complaint about "people sitting in trees talking senselessly,voices from who knows where" castsa cynical eye over Faith's activity in "Faith in a Tree" (Enormous 162). By functioning as both an isolated, distinctive voice and a fluid, shifting persona,Faith enactsthe dialectic that, according to Forrest Ingram, characterizesthe short story cycle form: "the tension betweenthe one and the many" (19). It was by engagingwith this kind of tension that Paley found her form and narrative voice. By expressingherself through prose rather than poetry she found a way of balancing the demandsof the personaland relational. Shetells Perry: "poetry is addressingthe is fiction and getting the world to talk to you. When I was able to get into world I in to else's voice, when was able speak somebody other people's voices, I found (107). Seven later own" years shereiterateshow this "dialectical experience" my her "Own voice to come through, almost in opposition" (Wachtel 205). enabled Through her narrative poetics Paley strikes a balancebetweenthe one and the many. Her fictional world hosts an array of narrators but her distinctive narrative is Her is much-discussed always present. unifying narrative persona even voice it Faith, in fact than comprises pervasive a hybridity of voices: it carries the more inflections of the many social groups that appearin her stories, shifting seamlessly from one discourseto another. She is, as Angela Carter suggests,a "ventriloquist par excellence" for whom "Shape-shifting is no problem" (Carter 157). Whilst adopting the voices of different cultural communities, Paley sustainsthe impression distinctive Judith Arcana voice; writes of "the widespreadassumption single, of a in her Paley that stories the characters,narrators, and author are all readers among

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one" (2). Just asthere is no definitive version of eventsor characters,so there is no truly autonomousnarrative voice. This relational aestheticpermeatesPaley's stories level. Speakingto Cora Kaplan, Paley spells out the dangersof the on every individualism that, shebelieves,characterizesthe consciousnessof mainstream America. She speaksof: That normal American emphasison individualism and pride and religion - positions that seemanti-political, are very political really. They come from the ideology and structureof bourgeoiscapitalism a wholly private emphasis. The generalmode is one of thinking individualistically. It is the only value; it becomesthe value (Kaplan 151 Paley's italics). Resistanceto individualism underpinsPaley's fictional work. Publishedin the same interview Story 1985 "The Hearer" Faith's to this opens with avowal as year "curb" her own "cultivated individualism" that "seemedfor yearsso sweet." The has her Faith's "cultivated" that tended to signals sense society solipsistic word impulses: instincts that the older, more political Faith realizes "may not be useful in the hard time to come" (Later 133). In "A Symposium on Fiction," Paley explicates the parity betweenher fundamental tenetsof her socialist sensibility: "People the and narrative aesthetics listening in live to one another's stories ... I want to to mutual aid and concern, ought find out a way. Is there a way for peopleto tell stories to one anotheragain and to

bring oneanotherinto that kind of speakingandlisteningandattending includes 82). Paley in " (Barthelme the this `attending reader community? from her later ' By omitting quotation marks stories she erasesone of community. the conventional boundariesthat separatereader and text. Repeatedlyin Paley's

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fiction, the narrator draws the readerinto her story with direct appealsfor sympathy and engagement. In "Faith in a Tree," Faith queriesher mother's wisdom in sending her as a baby on a plane to seeher grandmother. Shesolicits the reader's assistance in analysingher mother's motives: "Why would anyone senda little baby anywhere in independent? What That I That trying to was my mother prove? was alone? ...

the sensible,socialist, Zionist world of the future, shewouldn't cry at my wedding?" (Enormous 80 Paley's italics). In any other fictional world, thesedirect addresses intrusive. In Paley's stories they appearin the midst of appear would perhaps conversationor silent reflection; they merely open up another line of communication in the highly verbal context of her heteroglossicnarratives; Paley seamlessly inscribesthe readerin her dialogic community. **

With their characteristichybridity, Paley's stories conflate the personaland the political without becoming overtly didactic. She identifies this dualism with the principles of the women's movement. In "How Come?" she writes: "The women's movement ... had been scatteringconsciousness-raisinggroups all over the country. Concluding that the personalwas political gave a way of speakingand writing and thinking, a way for women to make art, ... renametime and themselves" (287). In contrastto Welty, Paley writes from a self-proclaimed feminist perspective. In interviews she cites women's experienceas her inspiration for writing. When by Hulley in her fiction, "balance" to exactly what she was attempting she asked became dark lives "the that concerned with she of women," affirming that, states "This is what made me write to begin with" (Hulley "Interview" 43). Paley decided to unveil aspectsof female experiencethat she felt fiction had failed to represent:the dilemmas facing single mothers like Faith who raisesher children "with one hand

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typing behind my back to earn a living' ; the struggle to cultivate an autonomousand collective voice that representsthe one and the many; the role of friendship and 16 in lives (Disturbances 139). women's communication

Hulley's use of the word "balance" is most pertinent as it illuminates another have Critics Paley's guiding principles. questionedhow she determinesthe order of in which she placesher stories; why, for example,does she interspersethe Faith stories with other, ostensibly unrelated narratives? Judith Arcana revealsthe method behind Paley's arrangementof the stories:"Grace makesdecisionsabout the individual for in balance, terms of tone and (likely) the pieces of of sake placement impact" (156). Undoubtedly Paley achievesthis kind of effect with emotional juxtapositions such as the tragic "Samuel" and the darkly comic "The Burdened Man": storiesthat illuminate the double face of tragedy. In many ways Paley's seemingly arbitrary distribution of the Faith stories for formal the kind of lives her female characterslead. With its model servesas a in frame, time voice and perspective,the Faith cycle representsthe constantshifts pluralistic, fragmentednature of thesewomen's experiences. Significantly, as Faith begins to achievemore balancein her life, Paley begins to move her particular into closer proximity with eachother, gesturingtowards a more unified form. stories In Later the SameDay severalFaith stories follow on from eachother. The recurring protagonist's political activism transports her beyond the boundariesof home, enabling her to live a more balancedlife. Compounding this `unity' in the latest collection is the underlying theme of closure. The stories in Later are, as SalmanRushdiepoints out, more apocalyptic: "The passingaway of things is very Grace Paley's is Later Same Day... It theme the the collection of much a book full faced firm, the with mild, rueful honesty that makesGracePaley of endings, endings

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362). The (Rushdie structureof the Faith cycle shifts with this latest special' collection; with the emphasison closure and the presentationof a more mature begins to resemblea sequence. the scattered cycle protagonist Whilst Welty seeksto universalisethe dilemmas facing her men and women, Paley usesher stories to exposeand examinethe gulf betweenthe genders. Her stories abound with dialogues about gender difference. In "Listening" Jack

perceivesthe mutual suspicion betweenFaith and his friends, telling her that she doesnot understand"the way men talk to one another" (Later 206); in "The Story Hearer" he notesthe clash betweenhis father's and mother's time frames: "my father, into it he decent typical to a seems me settled man your nine-to-fiver a was who just it's Well, Willy, the the time of my mother middle about said, appreciation great despairs (Later 133-4). In Subject Childhood" Goodbye" "A Faith of of enough. theseconflicting sensibilities when Clifford criticises her childrearing skills: "`You don't say things like that to a woman You damn stupid jackass. You just don't ... like (Disturbances 140). to that a woman"' say anything By placing genderdifference in the foreground of her stories, Paley displays her strong affinities with secondwave feminism. In the introduction to her herself Just I Thought, as she aligns with this movement when of essays, collection discourses have her documents the that political and cultural shaped she developmentas a writer and a woman: I was a member of an American movement, a tide really, that rose out of the civil-rights strugglesof the fifties, rolling methods and energy into the antiwar, direct-action movementsin the sixties

returning ...

bold again in the seventiesand eighties in the secondwave of the women's movement (xii).

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In her analysisof secondwave feminism Maggie Humm notes its emphasis on genderdifference: "Second wave feminism, becauseit focuseson the conditions of many groups and on women's everyday `difference' from men in the streetand in the home, makesvisible the powerful realities of genderdifference" (Feminisms 12). This new wave of feminism encouragedPaley to fuse the personalwith the political: a feat that Faith beginsto achieve in the later stories as she frees herself of the shacklesof "him-itis, the dreaddiseaseof females" - andjuggles family life with committed political activism (Later 79). Paley identifies the dialogue betweenLivid and Pallid in "The Used-Boy Raisers" as the "beginning of feminism" for Faith. From listening to this conversation between her current and ex-lover, Faith develops "a sense of separation. The idea that her life really is different from the men's. That they are in a world that her (Hulley "Interview" 44). In "Listening, " from Later the not concern" was really Same Day, Faith's commentary on men and women's stories resonates back to the debate in "A Conversation with my Father, " emphasizing the role of gender identity in the conflict over plot-lines. She associates controlled, end-determined fictions

devise for that the plots men women. Sherefusesto shareany "woman stories" with him: have "you Jack, know, fallingYou telling your own woman stories. your with in-love stories,your French-woman-during-the-Korean-Warstories,your magnificent-woman stories ...

"Later 203).17 Faith dismissesJack as an

inappropriatereaderof her "woman stories," sensinghis inability to make into intersubjective an narrative encounter. For both Faith and connectionsand enter her creator, thesestories require the kind of mind that "pays no attention to time and (Later 186). chooses" and connects speedily

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Other Paley stories verify Faith's evaluation of the "woman stories" that men construct. In "Love, " the opening story of this collection, the anonymous narrator/wife tells her husbandthat shehas written a nostalgic poem about love; rather than asking to hear it, he respondsby cataloguing his romantic experiences and sexualconquestssincethe age of fourteen. His list of women featureslittle differentiation but severalcliches: "Then he told me about Sally Johnsonon Lake Winnipesaukee,who was twelve and a half when he was fourteen. Then he told me about RosemarieJohansonon Lake Sunapee... Then he told me about two famous poets, one fair and one dark, both now dead,when he was a secretpoet" (Later 3-4). Through this female narrator Paley turns this male storyteller's strategiesupon himself; she denieshim narrating privileges and his speechis containedwithin the just his female his these types as of wife, are contained within narrative. voice Genderdifference is a contributing factor to the generationgap separating Faith and her sons. In "Friends" Tonto's `realism' clasheswith Faith's optimism.

daughterof her friend Selina,wasa WhenFaithinsiststhat Abby, the deceased do "times " Tonto his to can a of what person, attacks mother's "goodyvictim in is "everything the of world which so groovy wonderful far-out goodies" vision terrific" (Later 88). Faith heedsher son's approachto Abby's story but assertsthe her denouncing limits Tonto's the own, more upbeat of philosophy, of world validity in which all things must come to an end: "Living and dying are fastenedto its into its 89). (Later Richard, Faith's more openly stuffed softer parts" and surface her to son, reacts optimism with the sameintolerance. He older antagonistic his into debate, instructing draws her to account for her actions mother continually buoyant her deflate At "The Long-Distance Runner" the to responses. end of only Faith leavesher children to return to her first home. She tries to justify her absence

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and explain the appealof her old home, by recreating the atmosphereof her experience:"I stayeda few weeks in my old apartment,where Grandpaand Grandmaand me and Hope and Charlie lived, when we were little Not so far ... from the oceanwhere Grandmamadeus very healthy with sun and air" (Enormous 198). Intent on getting the "facts" of the story "straight," Richard fails to engage with Faith's story, reacting against her emotional narration (Schweickart xxv): "What are you talking about? Cut the baby talk. " Neither Tonto nor Jack ... understandsher experiencealthough Jack invites her to tell the story again. "I repeatedthe story. They all said, What?" (198); this masculine bewilderment compoundsthe connectionbetweenFaith and the reader. In the final paragraph Faith directs her narrating energiessolely to the reader,communicating the in that the and awe men their desire for facts andjustifications have exhilaration dismissed:"Have you known it to happenmuch nowadays? A woman inside the steamyenergy of middle age runs and runs. She finds the housesand streetswhere her childhood happened. She lives in them. She learnsas though shewas still a in is (198). the world coming next" what child The women in Paley's fictional world often register their division from men through silence. Ginny refusesto provide her children with an ending to her truncated love narrative with John Raftery. In a move typical of the Paley heroine, instead leave to the story open: she chooses I didn't know how to tell the children: something about right and wrong, goodnessand meanness,men and women. I had it all at my finger tips, ready to hand over. But I didn't think I ought to take mistakesand truth away from them. Who knows? They might make a truer friend in this world somewherethan I have ever made. So I

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just put them to bed and sat in the kitchen and cried (Disturbances978). '

Ginny prefers to preservean open destiny, even when she knows the ending. Paley's representationof gender identity doesnot rest wholly upon such rigid like her her aspects of aesthetics, all reading of genderresistsfixed polarities; in Key to and points optimistically avenues convergence. of codifications moments her latest collection gesturetowards a commonality betweenmen and women. Jack's very desire to hear "stories told by women about women," signals a new female (Later 203). In "The to techniques narratives and storytelling openness ExpensiveMoment" Ruth observessimilarities betweenher conversationswith Jack female her friends: love "I the way Jack talks ... He's a true gossip talk the of and like us

...

he's the only one who ever asks me anymore about Rachel" (Later 180-1).

Here Ruth stressesJack's adoption of tactics and practicesthat she identifies with female talk: his interest in the personal- Ruth's feelings about her lost daughteris Coates Sociolinguist Jennifer "`Gossip' his that a observes sympatheticear. and term usedalmost exclusively of women's talk; it usually has pejorative Here (Coates Women. Men 135). Ruth employs the term positively, connotations"

basing her definition on the group's ability to, in Coates'swords, "build progressivelyon eachothers' contributions" and "work together to sort out what they feel" (CoatesSpeechCommunities 105,102). Where Ruth seesmutuality, Faith insists upon difference: "Don't trust him," she warns Ruth (Later 181). Faith kind female her here the talk that of protectiveness over same prevented exhibits from sharing her woman stories with Jack. The concluding stories of Later the SameDay reveal a growing tension betweenauthor and "alter ego'/narrator; Faith continues to assertgenderdifference

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and Paley, through other charactersand scenes,disclosesunderlying contiguities betweenmen and women. As Betty Friedan affirmed five years earlier in The SecondStage:"there is no way out of the deadlock,the impasse,if we keep on fighting, even thinking, in terms of women alone, or women againstmen" (89). Paley's politics of difference stand in stark contrastto Welty's apolitical, universalising eye. Both writers however use a cyclic form to challengethe restrictions of genderroles, acknowledging how men becomevictims of patriarchy at least as much as women. Paley's fictional world is populatedby disillusioned, darker versionsof King MacLain who fail to forge lasting bonds with eachother or the women they try to love; Faith's first, errant husbandRicardo is a prime example. In The SecondStaueFriedandevotesa chapterto the dilemmas of masculinity that have emergedsince the sixties. "The Quiet Movement of American Men" documentsthe effects on men of feminism and other modem political movements limits don't illuminates "They the talk of modern masculine paradigms: certainly and feelings definition It's to their the the other men. part of masculine mystique about his ' by `score, he keep his that competing against other men constantly of man guard up" (136). In Paley's fiction the male preoccupationwith resistant,self-containedforms itself body. in Peter's "A through the an obsession with expresses grandfather often Pale Pink Roast" tells his grandsonhow he would live his life if given a second body build God hisself know it how "`I'd till to tear my up wouldn't chance: apart ...

This structure

is got to be maintained"' `this me' this thing this ... ... ...

(Disturbances48). Perceptionsof the female body are diametrically opposed. Where the male body protects ego boundaries,the female body immobilizes the self. In The SecondSex de Beauvoir notes: "[Man] thinks

his body as a direct and of ...

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normal connectionwith the world, which he believeshe apprehendsobjectively, whereashe regardsthe body of woman as a hindrance,a prison weighed down by everything peculiar to it" (15). Severalof Paley's men asserttheir genderboundaries by articulating polarized conceptionsof male and female bodies. Zagrowsky how "time takes a terrible toll off the ladies" and draws attention to observessmugly the degenerationof his wife's body, complaining that shehas become"a little bit on the grouchy side," "a little overweight" and that "her legs swell up" (Later 154,159, 159). Ricardo declareshis agency in relationshipsby renaming his lovers and reducing them to physical signs; the nameslocate and exposepotential areasof weaknesson the women's bodies, so that Faith, who has fine hair, becomes"Baldy" and a shapelygirlfriend becomes"Fatty" (Enormous 34). Paley's world (both `real' and `fictional') aligns thesemen with the principles of capitalism. In "Women's PentagonAction Unity Statement"Paley is "understand" "all that that women connectedness"(146). She contraststhis claims live, the the world, capitalists she concedes,beyond the bounds of who vision with of her imagination: "I can't imagine the lives of... the corporatebossesof our dream is patriarchal whose exhaustingour mountainsand rivers ... I can't economy, imagine their lives, but I seethey are the disconnectors"("One Day" 197). Similarly, Ginny recognizesthe limits of men who define themselvesin terms of financial have have be famous, "men to they to the own money, or or on status: everybody ... block hasto look up to them from the cellar stairs" (Disturbances94). Whereas by identity in limit themselves their relationships with men, male grounding women hinges upon social status. subjectivity often Speakingin 1980, Paley statedthat, in the post-war era, men "didn't know do. fear is They to the that they to prey were weren't macho enoughwhich as what

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bad as being macho" (Hulley "Interview" 45). Shereturns to this subject in her interview with Conway, stating that, post Vietnam, "the guys were free to just wander around doing this and that, and I think that in a real sensethey were adrift" (5). Studiesof the cultural changesin post-Vietnam America illuminate the paradoxical effects of this liberation: the dissolution of genderboundariesand the destabilizationof masculinenorms. Betty Friedan identifies Vietnam as "the watershed," after which men grappled for definition: "The Vietnam war probably was the beginning of the end of the hunter-caveman,gun-toting he-man mystique ... If men stop defming themselvesby going to war or getting power from jobs women can't have, what is life?" (Second 138,137). In 1985,Time magazinepublished a " Lance Morrow statesthat special issueon Vietnam. In "A Bloody Rite of Passage, during war "the damageto American faith in government and authority

...

has a

sometimeschaotically liberating effect, breaking old molds and freeing the imagination to createnew forms, new movements"(20). In The Remasculinization Jeffords Susan liberation America "came that this adds sense of of

the expense, at ...

Vietnam but the of veteran, specifically generally of masculinity itself' (119). In Touched with Fire: the Future of the Vietnam Generation,John Wheeler writes: "Viet Nam changedAmerican notions about the virtues of masculinity and femininity. In the 60s, during the great violence of the war, masculinepower came to be subtly discredited in many circles as oafish and destructive" (24). Paley recognizedand wished to convey this senseof dislocation; she was by her driven feminist interests, but undoubtedly saw that her concernswith include to came men; thus she locatesher male characterson the marginalization in the cycle, wandering and out of the stories amidst a welter of periphery of assertive,resoundingfemale voices. Faith's father and Jack are the only fully

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developedmale charactersin the Faith cycle; however Jack is also, to a certain degree,"adrift, " as Faith exiles him to the margin of female discourses. At the beginning of "The Story Hearer," Faith notes sardonically how men sharea predilection for beginnings. When Jack confessesthat he has "always loved No one knows if they will ever get over this" beginnings," she replies: "Men do ... (Later 133). Many of the men in Paley's stories are presentfor the beginningsof their lives as parentsbut rarely seethis particular plot through. As a form that enablesopen structuresand shifts in direction the story cycle could facilitate this sensibility. Faith herself engineersseveralnew beginnings. However the masculine desireto author beginnings springs from the needto assertidentity boundariesrather than revise or reshapethem. Dorothy Dinnerstein notes this masculine in how "initiation themselves men engage with origins and observes preoccupation it is they that they who through symbolically affirm which and passionately rites have themselvescreatedhuman beings, as comparedwith the mere flesh spawnedby In Woman, " Jonathan Culler (80). "Reading a as writes: "Phallogocentrism woman" in interest patriarchal authority, unity of meaning, and certainty of origin" unites an (Deconstruction 61). Culler suggeststhat the differencesbetween maternal and paternal sensibilities representgenderedmethodsof construing all relationships: One might predict an inclination to value what are generally termed metaphoricalrelations - relations of resemblancebetweenseparate items that can be substituted for one another, such as obtain between the father and the miniature replica with the samename, the child over metonymical, maternal relationships basedon contiguity (Deconstruction 60).

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By naming his first son Richard, Ricardo lays claim to his identity as a virile male, although he eventually becomeslittle more than a "hovering shadow" in Faith's life (Enormous39). This masculine insistenceupon origins opposesPaley's postmodernist,feminist and formal sensibilities. Shedoesnot designatethe starting and finishing points of the Faith stories and eachnarrative seesFaith revising her dreamsand reshapingher ideas. Faith comesto resembleHelene Cixous's model of woman, "arriving over and over again" who "does not stand still" (Cixous "Laugh" 361). The questionssurroundingthe statusof characterslike Dotty Wassermanand Faith herself challengethis masculineemphasisupon stableorigins and "metaphorical relations" basedupon predeterminedreplication. In Paley's storiestheme imitates form as her female charactersreject or subvert patriarchal models. Severalheroinesenactthe open destiny favoured by the in "A Conversation Father. " "Enormous Changes with my at the narrator/daughter Last Minute" describeshow a daughterachievesher senseof self by substituting her father's notion of a suitable ending for a life of her own. Sherejects a preordained in death for this than that case marriage rather an open one offers ending her home she and relationship; shares with three pregnant possibilities of connection teenagers,setting "a precedentin social work which would not be followed or even journals for in five is (Enormous 134). Alexandra state about years" mentioned liberated from her father's prescriptive gazewhen he falls in the bathroom and in losing flood, his "twenty, " him begin "to thirty skull, years a enabling with cracks fewer scruplesto notice and appreciate" (Enormous 134,135). Other father/daughterrelationships are fraught with tension. Discrepanciesand tensions her father. Faith's dialogue Their conversations with arrest culminates continually frequently in stalemateas ideasand visions clash In "Dreamer in a Dead

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Language," Faith's father distinguisheshis generationas idealists, prompting his daughterto shareher own senseof idealism; she informs her father of the freedom of choice in her life, using her three concurrent lovers as an example. Faith's father however readsthis as a form of prostitution and the conversationends in mutual alienation. By debunking the authority of the father with the deviant responsesof the daughter,Paley subvertsone of the conventionsof Jewish literature. In From Shetl to Suburbia, Sol Gittelman observesJewish literature's consistentpreoccupation fiction is, in fact, father": Jewish-American "most "the taken up the rights of with her between fathers (176). In "Mother the at the essay, and sons" relationship with Center," JanetBurstein observeshow Paley redressesthe balanceby "`re-visioning' the dominant ideals of service and duty to othersthat shapedthe lives of generations life, her Paley (194). When Jewish own mother's writing about mothers" of form": it "known "Together a closed with the aunts and grandmother as characterizes he father to could strong enough and educated enough so my make sheworked finally earn enoughto take care of us all. Shewas successful" ("Other Mothers" 42). Unlike many Paley heroines,the ending is already in place for women who live to form, daughters beyond her dreams Paley Through the the moves of others. support this paradigmatic, positional identity, whilst privileging the metonymical, relational Jewish the mother. of sensibilities Faith's initial assessmentof Judaismsuggeststhat religion bearslittle influence on her everyday life. In "The Used-Boy Raisers" she outragesLivid and Pallid by assigningthe Jewish race to a liminal position: "Jews have one hope only to remain a remnant in the basementof world affairs - no, I mean something else-a in splinter the toe of civilizations, a victim to aggravatethe conscience"

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(Disturbances132). However if we place this statementwithin the context of Faith's position as a marginalizedwoman challenging phallocentric discoursesit achievesa more positive resonance;Faith recognizesthe possibility of using one's marginality to "aggravate" the dominant ideology. In the essay"Like All the Other Nations" (1988), Paley articulatesthis potential by querying the needto conform. She biblical briefly the story of Samuel,whose people ask God for a king examines becausethey "want to be like all the other nations" (49). Paley questionsthis demand,echoing Faith's words: "to be like all the other nations seemsto me a waste (49). life" statehood, waste a waste of a of energy, and a waste of of nationhood, Faith neither fully embracesnor rejects Judaism,claiming that her race is not "meant for geographiesbut for history," and holding the anti-Zionist belief in the Diaspora (Disturbances132). In "Faith in the Afternoon" Paley writes: "Faith pretendsshe is is On " American American. "Faith the same she really an and she page states: an like happiness" 33). (Enormous to true the up everyone assumption of else was raised Faith has therefore not resistedthe pull of the popularisedversion of the American dream According to Paul Levine the "conflict betweenJewish ethics and American immigrant Jewish to the experience." He observesthat the materialism was central "opposition betweenthe Jewish vision and the American dream" has established itself as "the central theme" of much "recent Jewish-American fiction" (Levine 72). "

Paley is undoubtedly interestedin the paradigmsthat shapethe lives of

Jewishwomen but shedoes not allow these issuesto dominateher work completely. Typically, Paley's charactersoffer meta-commentarieson her controlled approachto thesematters; in "Friends" Faith and Ruth debateover how much attention one identity When Faith Ruth's to categories. statementthat certain contests pay should life, both feminism discussion had has women recall an old about an easy and she

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Judaism. Ruth mocks the idea that such identifications contribute to unhappinessbut Faith assertsthat "on the prism of isms, both of those do haveto be looked at togetheronce in a while" (Later 81). Through Faith, Paley addressesthe interaction in "once a while" but doesnot needto broadcastthe of ethnicity and gender her identity between as a working mother, straddling two worlds, and her connection biculturalism. Hybridity is a feature of Faith's everyday existence. The image of Faith "typing with one hand behind my back" is a telling one; she neither fully embracesthe role of the traditional housewife nor the identity of the professional woman. "`When will you be a person"' asksher mother, anxious that her daughter's life has failed to take on any "known form" (Enormous33). Paley usesher highly fragmentedform to challengesuch unitary conceptionsof life. Freed from the in identity Faith "look those that of causality, need only at" categories ramifications the past have enclosedher female ancestorsin predeterminedforms. *

Both Faith and Paley recognizethe significance of those spacesseparating hegemonicand marginalized ideologies. In the midst of conversationFaith reflects that the silencesthat punctuatedialogue representthe "space ... in which little truths 203): form. (Later Paley's that the a realization reflects reader's experienceof growl' In Paley's highly verbal stories, silencesare laden with meaning. One of Paley's is image; the the visual trope offers closure to many of of silence most potent poetics her more discursive stories,overturning the reader's expectationsand prompting her to reassessthe narrative. In "A Subject of Childhood" Faith silently watches Clifford and her sonsindulge in playful combat. When the fighting turns too her Clifford criticises methodsof parenting, sheretaliates, attacking and physical him with a seriesof pejoratives. The story closeshowever with Faith cradling her

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Tonto and registering the complexities of maternal love that Clifford son youngest cannot understand: I closedmy eyes and leanedon his dark head. But the sun in its courseemergedfrom among the water towers of downtown office buildings and suddenly shonewhite and bright on me. Then through the short fat fingers of my son, interred forever, like a black and white barred king in Alcatraz, my heart lit up in stripes (Disturbances145). This condensedimage capturesbeautifully the contradictionsat the heart of Faith's her imposed by domestic duties the sons: with restrictions work against relationship the boundlessnessof maternal love. The image exemplifies the Paley ending, offering an opening onto other emotionsand transporting readerand character beyond the main narrative line. For Faith, the actions of her sonsoften provide in final In "Faith Tree" Richard's these a of openings. gestureof allegiance glimpses for from Faith, the rehearsed the opens up a new narrative away activists with discoursesof the "sexy playground" (Enormous 100). Theseconcluding epiphanies, in from familiar her the scripts of usually experienced momentsof silence,release in direction. reader and narrative a new sending scenes, Like many aspectsof Paley's work, her imagist endingsplace her both within is Modernist Her Modernism tradition. the vexed relationship with and outside find it difficult her the to reasons why critics and of readers so pin work perhapsone down. Whilst Paley's imagism signals her allegiancewith Modernist poetics, it also indicatesher resistancetowards someModernist preoccupations:the image enables Paley to representepiphanic momentsof consciousnesswithout plumbing her depths. depth in Indeed the psychological which Modernist writers probe characters' their characters' minds could not be in greater contrast to Paley's stories, in which

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dialogue comprisesmuch of the narrative space. Paley tracesthe significance of dialogue in her narrativesback to her experienceof Jewishtraditions of discussion book her Coat upon a Stick she writes of the In the review of and exegesis. dialogism of the Jewish community: This is a very Jewish, constantly talking work. It believesthat what happensinside a person's head is dialogue, not streamof consciousnessor third-person reporting. Free associationis just right for psychology, but

...

Jewsare madeof history and they talk in long,

hard sentences,especiallyto themselves. They are the tradition of discussion learned in (217). and shuls and yeshivas argument Faith's contempt for psychologicaljargon is unmistakeable. Asked by Jack to explain the behaviour of his parents shereplies: "I'll tell you. It's not so hard. Any dope who's had a normal life could tell you. Anyone whose headhasn't been fermenting with the compost of ten years of gluttonous analysis" (Enormous 173). In her writing Paley rejects the role of psychologist. Shetells Conway: "I wouldn't try to psychesomecharacterout" (12). The associativetechniquesof many Modernist writers signal their affiliation with Freudian models of the unconscious. In his study of Modernism Peter Childs draws parallels betweenthe stream-ofFreud's "free of association" of representation and notion method consciousness (Childs 52). Paley avoids such levels of penetration,representingthe inner workings Although through the or plain silence speaking. sheresistsprobing mind either of her characters'minds too deeply, she does not prohibit the reader from doing so; Paley Faith's the this the through offers reader resistance role of psychologist. rather father and brother tell Faith repeatedlythat she is the perfect candidatefor is Faith levels Although therapy. refuses such she of self-examination psychiatric

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willing to admit that, by eclipsing certain emotions, shemay have foregone a level of self-knowledge: "Luckily, I learnedrecently how to get out of that deepwell of melancholy. Anyone can do it. You grab at roots of the littlest future, sometimes just stubsof conversation. Though somebelieve you miss a great deal of depth by not sinking down down down" (Later 83-4). Paley and, to a certain degree,Faith, chooseto concentrateon the surface details but this does not prevent the readerfrom "sinking down" and developing their own psychological readings. Paley exploits both her form and voice as ways of "getting the world to talk" to her; shethereby facilitates the "intersubjective encounter" betweenherself and the readerthat Schweickart envisagesin Genderand Reading (55). Paley acknowledgesthe agencyof the world that she is addressing Cora Kaplan that "every story is completed by the reader" (Kaplan tells she when 152). Her solicitation of the reader's agencyis strangely at odds with the responses of somecritics and readersto her texts. When Kathleen Hulley called upon critics to issue her to special on Paley, she encounteredreservationsconcerningthe contribute in Paley's the of reader/critic role stories. JonathanBaumbachstruggled to vexed find a theoretical framework for Paley commenting that her prose "makes critical languageseemexcessive" (Baumbach304). One unidentified critic declined Hulley's invitation, stating that: "[Paley] is too direct, she leavesme with nothing to has Paley no secrets... shetells what she is doing" (Hulley "Resistant" 9-10). say. One might attribute this senseof reader-preclusionto the conspicuouspresenceof inscribed readersin Paley's stories; perhapsthesecritics sensedthat, by providing their own meta-commentaryon the action, they `write' the reader, leaving her little to do.

Lister 100 Indeedthis readeralienation could not be further from the kind of response that Paley seeks. During a conversationwith Paley and Donald Barthelme, William Gassrevealsthe method behind one of his stories and admits to the limits he places didn't "I the want the readerfilling in anything behind the reader'srole: on language." Paley replies: "Right, that's what's wrong with you. You don't leave him enoughspaceto move around" (Barthleme 63). In responseGassrecalls his frustration at the way that readersreactedagainsthis esotericdepiction of an Indiana town; he claims that by querying his representationthe readerreducesthe text by "taking the complexities" of his own "experiencedreality" and "simplify[ing] it" (Barthelme 62). However Paley insists upon her vision of a balancedwriter/reader leaves for in She the the text: always room reader relationship. What you're forgetting, what you're underestimating,are the readers... It's perfectly true I can't say everything about my block in the city. I never can, but I can say enough so that anybody who is out there ... can build up enoughof the rest of it and recognizethat block, in maybe even a better way than a kind of quantification of events and people and paving stones... I think that is art ... it's the readerand the writer, and that's the whole of the experience(Barthelme 62). Wolfgang Iser's phenomenologicalcodification of the reading processposits dynamic between form He text and reader. arguesthat textual meaning of a similar interaction between from the the "aesthetic pole" - "the of process evolves by realization accomplished the reader" - and the "artistic pole" - the author's text (Iser Act 21). In contrastto the New Critical emphasison the self-sufficiency of the text, Iser foLüsesattention on the role of the reader. He advancesthe notion of in experiential process, whicl1,meatting remainsproy}s}onaland an active, as reading

Lister 101 contingent. Blanks and silencesperform an essentialfunction in the act of interpretation and the preservationof this contingency: Communication in literature, then, is a processset in motion and regulated,not by a given code, but by a mutually restrictive and magnifying interaction betweenthe explicit and the implicit, between revelation and concealment... the gapsfunction as a kind of pivot on which the whole text/readerrelationship revolves (Iser Prospecting 34). Critics of the story cycle have presentedIser's codification as a particularly useful model for the readerof the form. Indeed Robert Luscher arguesthat Iser's is form form to the the than the more pertinent story cycle paradigm novel, reading he built his in "In theory: the than which short story sequence, around even more so the novel (the basis for Iser theories of aestheticresponse),the artist may set forth less faculties the the to whole picture and on of rely reader's pattern-making even formulate the variable connectionsand build textual consistency" ("Short" 155). Dunn and Morris use Iserian terminology to describethe interpretive methodology of the story cycle reader. They note that a number of devicessuch as recurring settings for fields" "referential the readerin her searchfor connections and motifs serveas 19 31). (Dunn Iser identifies the fundamentalprinciple of the reading experienceas "the leads formation that to the and retrospection anticipation of of the virtual process dimension, which in turn transforms the text into an experiencefor the reader" (Iser "Reading" 281). In "The Long-Distance Runner" Faith enactsthis processof anticipation and retrospection;whilst running `forwards' towards her future destination,sheruns towards her past which, when shearrives at her old house,she

Lister 102 beginsto reconstruct. Moments of reflection reveal the value of anticipation and retrospection. At the end of "Friends" sherealizes that "Hindsight, usually looked down upon, is probably as valuable as foresight, since it does include a few facts" Later 89). For both Iser and Paley the agency of the reader is double-edged;the reader interpretive freedom high level is highly of a yet selectiveand therefore wields duality This Faith's characterizes reading strategies. Her quasiexclusionary. in in "Faith a Tree" enablesher to negotiatethe voices that godlike perspective in interest her; filling blanks her, the those that of narratives most whilst surround sheclosesherself off to Lynn Ballard she centralizesthe Kitty's benevolentvoice. As she `reads' the situations of her friends in the park her own fund of stories enablesher to control the kinds of connectionsthat she makes. Sheevadesthe familiar discursive territory of a confrontation with Richard by retrieving the drown free" his digressed "I to and was out voice: memory of another story (Enormous 89). This fund of old and new narratives is rich in variety and, on the surface, inclusive. However Paley endsher latest collection with a challengeto Faith's fmal " Cassie, In "Listening, Later Same Day. the the story of selective strategies.

Faith's lesbian friend, chastisesFaith for repeatedlyeliminating her from her stories; features only as a neglectedgap, a silent and passivewitness to the adventuresof she Faith and her friends: "you've just omitted me from the other stories and I was there. In the restaurantand the train, right there. Where is Cassie? Where is my life?" (210 Paley's italics). Cassie'sclosing words form an ironic coda to the entire Faith cycle bears down her linked The the the story untold upon coda of narratives. pressure as invites the readerto reflect upon past scenesand speculateupon the possible silences

Lister 103 and absencesthat inhabit them. Paley's affinities with postmodernismemerge strongly in this final story. Cassie'scoda conteststhe ideal of community that Faith has built in the preceding stories. Not only does Faith consciously exclude Jack but both sheand her creator have assembleda community that generatesits own exclusionarydiscoursesand boundaries. Together, Ruth, Selina, Ann, Susanand Faith form the kind of `compositeprotagonist' that SusanMann identifies in her study of the short story cycle: eachvoice "bear[s] a close resemblanceto" the central in Faith (Mann in female 10). Indeed Faith's this the case voices protagonist, degree, interchangeable. do Even to those a certain are, community women who not belong in Faith's immediate world emergeas familiar types. In her introduction to The Little Disturbancesof Man A. S. Byatt draws comparisonsbetweenthose inhabit Paley's stories but do not belong to Faith's circle of friends. women who Sheplacesthesewomen along a continuum, categorizing them according to their is Faith "Anna, The Pale Pink Roast, and each with other: of a woman connections between Cindy Josephine, Faith the and nubile and and seductive, and somewhere Virginia, the prolific, sloppy, loving and deserted" (n. pag.). Faith and Paley have facets fund "woman their own of stories" whose characters of a represent compiled compositepersonality. In "The Ideal of Community and the Politics of Difference," Iris Marion Young highlights the dangersof communal sensibilities for doubly-muted women like Cassie:"A woman in a feminist group that seeksto affirm mutual identification if doubly by her be being in different feel excluded virtue of and race, class, will does identify she not with the others nor they with her" (Young culture, or sexuality 301). Ironically, the communal ideal harbours the samedangersas the individualism that Paley opposesso vehemently: the establishmentof a hierarchical structure that

Lister 104 excludesand silencesthe voices of the marginalized. Thus the final sceneof the collection compels Faith to confront her dismissal of Jack's "woman stories"; just as Jack must realize that he cannot categorizeand homogenizewomen, so Faith in the words of Helene Cixous, "you can't talk about a female that, recognizes sexuality, uniform, homogeneous,classifiable into codes" (347 Cixous's italics). *

One year after the publication of Later the SameDay Paley extendedher Faith with another story. "Midrash on Happiness"appearedin the 1986 issue cycle has been in Triquarterly and reprinted of severalanthologies,amongthem The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories and PeaceCalendar 1989: a collection that was published by the War RegistersLeague. In many ways the story exemplifies Paley's narrative poetics; only two pageslong, it records a conversationbetweentwo familiar characters,Faith and Ruth, and endswith a characteristicshift in perspective as Ruth's supplementary,corrective vision undercutsFaith's personalized "Midrash Happiness" female the on pivots on possibilities philosophy. of community, perhapsas a responseto Cassie'scriticism. The story explicatesthe female in its connection and solidarity opening; Faith bemoansthe limits of values of her experienceswith men but continuesto harbour great hopes for female relationships. Midrash refers to the Hebrew tradition of producing commentaryand debating interpretationsof biblical texts. In his essay"Midrash and Indeterminacy" David Stern draws parallels between the practices of midrash and literary criticism, both discourses: the openness of emphasizing The very nature of midrash has now come to epitomize precisely ... that order of literary discourseto which much critical writing has

Lister 105 aspired,a discoursethat avoids the dichotomized opposition of literature versuscommentaryand insteadresidesin the denseshuttle spacebetweentext and interpreter. In the hermeneuticaltechniques of midrash, critics have found especially attractive the senseof interpretation as play rather than as explication, the use of commentaryas a meansof extending a text's meaningsrather than as forum for the arbitration of original authorial intention (Stem a mere 132). One could apply Stem's broad analysisof midrash to Paley's aestheticprinciples: her rejection of authorial intention as the sourceof the text and solicitation of the interpretive In Reading the Book: Making the Bible a Timeless Text, play. reader's Rabbi Burton Visotzky stressesthe communal basis of midrash: "This ability to open the biblical text to new meaning allows us to open ourselvesto the possibility of finding meaning. We can connectto the past, we can connect to the community with dialogue read and share our with Scripture. Midrash lets us searchfor whom we is 9-10). (Visotzky It such a community that Faith has begun to establish ourselves" female friends; by her form dialogue, Paley the using of a male-authored among challengesthe tradition that restricts such privileges to men. In The Dictionary of Feminist Theologies, Rabbi Donna Berman observes direct links betweenthe practicesof midrash and feminism. Most interpretationsof biblical narrative arise from the presenceof gaps in the text. Someof the most into questionthe narrativesof silenced and absentwomen: neglectedgaps call define "second " identifies Berman that one might as stories. narratives examplesof "glaring omissions" in biblical text: "how did Lot's daughtersfeel when their father offered them to the mob of men that surroundedtheir house? Where was Sarah

Lister 106 while Abraham was taking Isaacto the top of Mount Moriah to sacrifice him?" She notes: "These white spacesprovide the canvason which to paint midrashim" (Berman Diction

Cassieaskssimilar questionsof Faith when sheconfronts her .

her in her stories. that the signifies space presence with white The effects of Cassie'sreprimand are clearly evident in this story. In the first beyond facile Faith to struggles reach generalities;as sheseeksmore paragraph preciseterms for her definition of happinessshe finds herself trapped in a kind of linguistic labyrinth: "she meant having (or having had) (or continuing to have) live first, dear By the then to meant, everything, she children, a person everything. live for long (by but time a man meant a preferably with, she not necessarily)" with, ("Midrash" 222). Faith recognizesthe assumptionsand associationsthat have becomeattachedto her terms and tries to neutralize them, thereby creating an interpretation of happinessthat is available to everyone. Shecontinuesby itemizing the memoriesand sensationsthat are essentialto her happiness. As the readerof Faith's exegesisRuth takes up a primarily silent but active stance;like most of Paley's reader/listenersher interjections provide a commentary, framing and discourse her Faith's to clarify and redefine her meaning. and prompting querying The story takes the familiar shapeof a dialogue betweenwell-known female but form from its differs other Paley stories. In a shift away from the usual voices, chargedexchangesand quips, "Midrash on Happiness"enablesthe readerfor the first time to "hear Faith out" (222). Whilst in other narrativesFaith has often avoided or abandonedcontentious dialogue - she doesthis severaltimes in "Faith in a Tree" and in her conversationswith her father - here she delivers her interpretation detail, in happiness great countering and supporting eachstatementwith of qualifications and explanations.

Lister 107 In a typically metafictional twist Ruth's responseto the midrash verifies her friend's faith in the value of female talk; Ruth both "hears Faith out" and relativizes her emphasison the personalwith a reminder of the world's problems: "When I read the papersand hear all this boom boom bellicosity, the guys outdaring eachother, I have it to change all - without killing it absolutely ... Until that begins, I seewe don't understandhappiness- what you mean by it" (222). Ruth both listens to her friend and opensup the debate,projecting it to anotherlevel, extending the meanings of Faith's univocal, autobiographicaltext. In the final paragraphof the story Faith is by her friend that assuring she aware of the world's problems and reciprocates trying to explain her momentary lapse into solipsism; whilst female conversation offers an open forum for balancedand vigorous debateit also provides a cherished sanctuaryof evasion: "Of course, Faith said, I know all that. I do, but sometimes walking with a friend I forget the world" (222). For Faith, the female conversationremainsthe most effective form for defining the self. Read as an independentstory, "Midrash on Happiness" seemsto idealization female her of community. Both women agreethat the macho, endorse competitive discoursesof men are at the roots of the world's problems. However, Faith's Many the the context of cycle, midrash proves problematical. of within read the tensions of the earlier narrativesremain unresolved; questionsof gender difference are still a point of contention. Never before has Faith's frustration with the inadequacyof the masculine word beenexpressedso vigorously: she deridesthe "silence" and "stupidity" of men on the subject of capitalism (220). Only the men definitions in by her bound absolute carefully constructedmidrash. When remain for the need male companionship,Faith assigns"that nice bunch of sheaddresses

boys flew left-wing who worried

into a dreamof paid-upmortgages"to the past ...

Lister 108 (221). By asking Ruth if sherecalls these men, Faith appealsfor confirmation that thesefigures no longer play a role in their lives; with Ruth's affirmation, she may from her them midrash. Ruth respondshowever by stating that not only eliminate but in "married is (221). Faith them, to she remains one" clearly can she remember dangeragain of reducing men to types and seemsto have assembledseveral"man stories." Clearly, Paley's feminist agendainforms her formal poetics. Her form has becomea site for reinvention and reconnection,providing multiple points of entry for her female departure characters. She continuesto expandthe cycle's and boundaries in order to accommodate the balancing acts that shape female experience. Paley's men have less staying power in these scattered stories and have difficulty in from home, the to the open plots which women may run away change adapting jobs, or take up a new political cause at any moment. In "Midrash on Happiness" Faith's current "preferred man" is not named, but grouped along with the "silent" dismissal (220). However, Faith's of men who will not speak out against capitalism is it does Interestingly, the same voice not go unchallenged. masculine sensibilities

that begins to query her homogenizationof men in Later the SameDay. In Ruth's for does disqualify him her " "woman Jack's not appreciating stories. gender eyes Moreover she has remained married to one of the well-intentioned men of the past that Faith excludes from her midrash; the marriage has not compromisedher socialist Thus the more recent stories offer tentative evidencethat men will perhaps views. find ways of securing a more stableposition in Paley's open, permeableform. Until then, it is her female characterswho will realize her vision of a world in which "people keep reappearing," "going away and coming back."

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3

Insularity

and Integration:

Joyce Carol Oates's Sequential Cycles

"One of the holiest of our myths always has beenthe unique, proud, isolated entity of a `self" (Oates"Myth" 74).

In 1989 Robert Luscher introduced the term `short story sequence'to the for taxonomies the short story cycle. In "The Short Story number of growing Sequence:An Open Book," he arguesthat whilst the term `short story cycle' illuminates the recurrenceof charactersand themes,it "does so at the expenseof deemphasizingthe volume's successiveness"(149). Luscher arguesthat the shift in term draws attention to the reader's "dominant experience"of the form which, he is first " My "sequential. chapterarguesthat the term `cycle' is most claims, appropriatefor forms such as Eudora Welty's; the reader's experienceof texts such is, Apples but is Golden The `cycle' the the term on surface, sequential, as a more journey description the through the text as she makes of reader's accurate imagery. Luscher's term is perhapsmore traces networks of and connections for linked in those narratives which the sequentialstructure remains appropriate paramount. Luscher is one of the few story cycle critics to cite Joyce Carol Oates's Crossingthe Border as an example of the form. In this case,his term is perhaps Ingram's. Luscher's In than words, Oates's text observesa "loose accurate more is disrupted by "lapses" that "merely require a more that sequentialprogression"

Lister 110 astuteperceptionof the work's thematic unity" (164-5). In Crossing the Border most of the stories chart the lives of a married couple in linear fashion; other stories are ostensiblyunrelatedto this main sequencebut illuminate thematic resonances that bind the work together as a whole. Joyce Carol Oateshas published a wide range of story cycles and sequences, most of which do not feature in explorations of the form. JamesNagel focuses primarily upon the ethnicity of the short story cycle and doesnot refer to Oates's work at all. Dunn and Morris include Crossing the Border and All the Good People I've Left Behind in their "Chronology" of the compositenovel but also cite Heat and Other Stories,a collection of short storiesthat are linked only by theme. Similarly, SusanGarland Mann refers to Oatesin her bibliography in which she cites North By Gate. She the as such omits Crossing the Border and All the collections Good PeopleI've Left Behind, two more consciouslyunified cycles. Shedoes include, however, The Hungry Ghosts: SevenAllusive Comedies(1974) and The PoisonedKiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese(1975): texts that bear a closer form. to the paradigmatic cycle resemblance Oates's interest in the form datesback to her earliest daysas a writer. She in Phillips 1978 fragmented forms in Robert that to she experimented with revealed high school, using Hemingway's In Our Time as a paradigm: I remembera 300-pagebook of interrelated stories that must have beenmodeled on Hemingway's In Our Time (I hadn't yet read Dubliners), though the subject matter was much more romantic than Hemingway's. I remembera bloated trifurcated novel that had as its vague model The Sound and the Fury (Phillips "Joyce" 76).

Lister 111 For Oates,formal boundariesare always flexible. In her interview for The Ohio Review she states:"Well, here is my theory of `art,' at least my temporary theory: any work can be expandednearly to infinity, or contractedback to almost nothing. And any `work, ' any artistic experience,can be translatedback and forth into various forms - music, painting, literature" (51). Like Paley, Oatesfeels that form: dictates "my subject matter does, in a sense,take precedenceover the content experimentation. I'm not at all interestedin experimentation for its own sake" (McLaughlin "A Conversation" 126). In The PoisonedKiss and The Hungry Ghosts OatesemulatesJewett, Hemingway and Updike, exploiting the form's hybrid statusto realize the ambivalent position of the artist20 In her essay"Between the Categories," Eileen Teper Bender examineshow Oatestests "traditional forms" and experimentswith a "variety of styles" in order to explore "the predicamentof the artist, who, like herself, is caught betweenthe categories,a medium for both the voicelessand the articulate, registering traditional contexts and an evolving `new' consciousness"(415). Teper doesnot usethe term `short story cycle', but statesthat both The Hungry Ghosts and The PoisonedKiss "could be considered`fragmented' novels - short stories that, taken together, seemto offer a coherentvision" (416). Both the cycles cast a satirical eye over the world of art and academia:the egocentricity of the artist, the individuality in Although the one's verifying and with originality. stories obsession The Hungry Ghostswere initially published separatelyin the early years of the Hilberry, fictional take they all place at a university in Ontario. Oatesuses seventies, a form that contestsorigins and notions of centrality to cast the territory of the in light bring thesepreoccupationswith identity to the fore. a new and campusnovel The cycle openswith a `framing' story that is linked to the following narrativesonly

Lister 112 by theme but the next four stories feature recurring charactersin the samesetting. Like Welty, Oatessignalsthe unity of the narrativesby prefacing them with a cast list. Her exploitation of the form's elasticity, however, resemblesthat of Grace Paley; she doesnot bind her recurring charactersand settingswithin the frame of the Characters from The Hungry in Ghosts Oates's later cycle, cycle. reappear single Crossingthe Border. As Bendernotes, Oates's experimentswith form enableher to explore "conflicting and disparateperceptionsof the self' (Bender "Between" 423). Oates's theoriesof subjectivity arise continually in her prolific collections of reviews and essaysand have becomethe subject of much critical debate. Emerging from her her formulations is deep selfhood antipathy towards egocentrism: about of welter "Suffering, [the human ego] projects its emotionsoutward into everything, everyone, into the universe itself' (New Heaven260). Oatesaligns this mode of consciousness ideology. Earth, " In "New Heaven the condensed essay, she and with patriarchal for losing, Stand her "the Last old, of male contemporaries enacting pitiful chastises the Ego, the Self-Against-All-Others, the Conqueror ... Namer and Begetter of all Fictions" (53). Such self-conceptionsbecomethe object of satire in The Hungry Ghosts. Oatesparodiesthe self-absorptionof the isolated academicby dramatizing moments that exposethe permeability of closely guardedego boundaries. When Roland Pauli for his he deceased to search copy-editor's room misplaced manuscript, entersa from his in his book versions pages similar of with own several mixed across comes As the "invisible forms" of his rivals "swayed and lunged around him," Roland disembodiment: if he had "What terrifying moment of spent all these a experiences hours putting together the manuscript of another man, and he himself, Roland Pauli,

Lister 113 would be displaced?' (22,28). Although he eventually recovers every page of his identity boundaries have been irreparably damagedand he Roland's manuscript, flees the scenefor the haven of his own apartment,awarethat "something terrible had happenedto him" (30). It is not only men who fall prey to this kind of disembodiment. In "Angst, " the final story in The Hungry Ghosts, a reclusive female author losesher senseof self when a hysterical young woman assumesher identity at a conferenceto a largely credulous audienceof readersand critics. Suddenlyunable to verify herself as the author, she leavesthe conferencebewildered had happened" "Something (200). that, and vaguely aware Similar themesemergein The PoisonedKiss, a cycle whose stories are introduced as "translations from the Portuguese." In this cycle Oatesplays with the by reader's notion of authorship presentingthe stories as translations by "Fernandes de Briao." Like Paley, who queriesor verifies the existenceof her charactersin a footnote, Oatesoffers a metafictional commentary on the statusof this `voice', frame her In the reader's of reality. preface shewrites: confounding To the best of my knowledge he has no existenceand has never existed, though without his very real guidanceI would not have had accessto the mystical `Portugal' of the stories- nor would I have beencompelled to recognizethe authority of a world-view quite antithetical to my own" (PoisonedKiss n. pag.). The stories presentmoments of disorientation as the realities of the protagonists dissolve and they encounterghostly, secondselves. Theseencountersreflect Oates's Borgesianexperienceof conceiving the storiesthrough the personaof anotherwriter, "Fernandesde Briao": "One day I wrote a story that was strangeto me, a highly did I at all; nowhere not understandthe story and in a way felt that abstractstory set

Lister 114 it was not my own" (Poisonedn. pag.). In `writing' the book sherespondedto "a great pressure,a seriesof visions, that demandeda formal, aestheticform; I was besiegedby Fernandes- story after story, some no more than sketchesor paragraphs that tendedto crowd out my own writing" Poisoned 188). After the publication of thesecycles, Oatescontinued to pursueher interest in new forms. In Crossing the Border (1976) and All the Good PeopleI've Left Behind (1978) seeminglyunrelated narrativesdisrupt a chronological sequenceof stories concerning a set of recurring characters. The thematic links betweenthesetangential stories are howeverjust as evident in Oates's cycles as they are in Grace Paley's Faith cycle; indeedone might apply Dunn and Morris's notion of the composite Oates's to texts, as modesof consciousnessrecur constantly under protagonist different guises. Husbandsand wives from one narrative becomeinterchangeable with others as marriagesundergo cycles of breakdown and reconciliation; unattached in Annie Quirt All the Good Peopleoscillate betweenconformity outsiderssuch as and alienation, both soliciting and rejecting `normality. ' In both collections cyclic intertwine. structures sequential and Speakingto Oatesin May 2005, I askedher how shewould define these forms. She describedCrossing the Border as a "novel in the form of short stories": a definition that resemblesMargot Kelley's taxonomy, "novel-in-stories," more than immediately Oates aligned her incarnation of the form with Alice any other. Munro's Lives of Girls and Women, in which the consciousnessof Del Jordan itself focal Oates distinguished her more unified the as sustained point. establishes form from cycles such as Dubliners and The Golden Apples: works for which she She Crossing the Border as a more concentrated great admiration. a views expressed form than these"linked narratives," in which charactersmay disappearfrom the

Lister 115 reader'svision for severalstories at a time. Affinities with Welty emerged,however, when Oatesdescribedher methodology. She found that the form "evolved" gradually as she was drawn back to particular characters,settingsand themes. She reflected that shegrew to "love the form" and now regardsit as a particularly useful tool for the young writer who may find writing the "unwieldy" novel "a difficult form " The serves,Oatessuggested,as a meansof "protecting psychic experience. yourself emotionally or psychologically ... if you give up on the novel you still have sevengreat stories" ("PostgraduateSeminar" 2005). Sevenof the fifteen stories in Crossing the Border follow the lives of married from Evan have In Renee Maynard America Canada. this to who and moved couple interaction for I `crossings' the examine and geographical will of personal chapter the Maynards. The only other recurring charactersare Hilberry academicsVincent Scoville and Jake Hanley; their stories feature characterswho have crossedtextual borders,moving from their original location in The Hungry Ghosts. In Crossingthe Border the Hanley and Scoville stories form a kind of diptych although they do not follow each other in the collection. In the Renee-Evan`sequence'Oatesobservesa indeed like interrupted times the collection novel. at reads an chronological structure; In All the Good PeopleI've Left Behind Oatesexperimentsfurther with Half follow life Quirt, Annie the the the structures. stories sequential of and cyclic in Annie's these narratives who single. remains narrative trajectory woman only both her doomed love of structures; although series of affairs elements combines her fmal cycle of agony ongoing and ecstasy, an stories chart the precipitates developmentof a more autonomous,self-actualizing identity. Each of the Annie its "The Leap, " "Sentimental as a status self-contained narrative: retains stories Journey," "The Tryst" and "Eye-Witness" appearas short stories in a variety of

Lister 116 is "The Tryst" a particularly malleable story, as it crossesthe borders publications. of the Annie sequenceinto an entirely different text; it appearsin A Sentimental Education, a collection of thematically linked stories of love and alienation published in 1979. The remaining stories in All the Good Peopletrace a network of married couples. In thesenarrativesOatesintroduces a cyclic dynamic which emerges final in the story, as namesof charactersrecur, revealing hitherto concealed strongly connections;the reader learnsthat charactersfrom the seeminglyunrelated stories, the `couplescycle', and Annie's sequence,attendeduniversity together. Chronology is disrupted as sectionsof the final story transport the readerback to 1960when the first Thus in the the the cyclic structure supplants sequential met. couples concluding story. In her study of Oates's short stories Katherine Bastian arguesthat Crossing the Border and All the Good Peopleare, ultimately, "sequenceswithin short story it is Norman (150). Torborg "the that to that responds equally possible assert cycles" in is flow disconnected the the of other stories and so place eight sequence embedded Oates description (203). Bastian's any other autonomous story" stories on a par with in form, the the experience capturing reader's of as cyclic accurate more seems from My the emerge seemingly unrelated narratives. reading will certainly patterns her form Oates how the exploits elasticity of primarily to examinethe explore tension betweenthese structuresand to representthe two sidesof repetition; break doomed like Annie out of repetitive patterns of relationships and characters Other in trajectories. thesestories continue to open characters embark upon more familiar; in in they their marriagesor reasserttheir the repeat patterns seeksolace boundaries through sexualconquest. ego

Lister 117 Whilst GracePaley's Faith Darwin capitalizes upon the pliability of life's jobs lovers frequently in order to rupture daily routines changes and structures- she locked Oates's familiar throughout these characters remain within scripts most of form Welty Paley For the and realizesthe possibility of plural identities and cycles. Crossing Border Oates form In the the uses primarily to foreground fixed revision. Through the convergenceof cyclic and of paralysis. and moments structures in All Good fords for People, Oates Annie, the strains narrative a way out sequential her wandering heroine. *

In Joyce Carol Oates,Artist in Residence,Eileen Teper Bender highlights Oates'spreoccupationwith the psychology of the self and observeshow she exploits the novel form as a "vehicle[] for personality in process" (9). Oatesusesthe cycle form to representthe progressof a particular kind of self. Most of the stories in Crossingthe Border are expeditions into the consciousnessof the educatedbut intersperses Good People Oates In All Annie's the wife. experienceswith alienated disenchanted in these take the concluding wives; women centre of stage narratives title story. Oates's account of the "human ego" recalls the masculinepreoccupationsin Welty and Paley's cyclic worlds: King MacLain and Ricardo's obsessionswith "conquerors" in their the roles as of self-designated women their origins and his By Ricardo himself to renaming girlfriends, aims establish as the communities. "namer and begetter" of their identities. Whilst Virgie Rainey sympathiseswith King's "hideous face" that is a "silent yell at everything" it strikes the reader Stand Last Ego" (Welty Collected 446). "pitiful the of a as primarily

Lister 118 Similarly, the men in Crossingthe Border display a traditionally masculine obsessionwith control. In "The Transformation of Vincent Scoville," Oatessatirizes the protagonist who, having yearnedto "`be like everyoneelse,"' finally substitutes an old photographof a deadwoman for a living and breathingpartner (128). When a colleague suggests that the woman in the photograph is cross-eyed, Vincent's

in fierce his emerges protestationsand comic accusationsof extremeegotism jealousy. The final phrase- "Vincent was alone again and all was well" irony (147). In "Through the Looking-Glass" Father Colton reverberateswith reflects how "He had always taught himself to control every emotion, even those that appearedto admirersto be spontaneous"(57). The preservationof the body plays a in his into liked his "he to construction of a public persona: role stride significant feel him that touch spark of excitement and as the students' eyesturned upon classes him, actions that led outward from himself and his long, lean, muscular body, kept him (49). in his body By the that alert" revelling centrifugal of power activities

he enactsOates'simageof the "suffering" egothat"projectsits emotionsoutward into everything." When Father Colton begins to fall in love with Frieda, this control dissipates;it is only by convincing himself that Frieda representsa new calling for him - "he thought of how Frieda was Christ, in her lonelinessand suffering

and ...

how he was Christ in ministering to her" (61) -that he can assimilatethe abstract into his life. love When him he in the she abandons of ends story a uncertainties disembodiment, "sifting fragments his life" through the and groping of of moment

(64). This concluding senseof estrangementhas becomea hallmark of the Oatesianshort story. In "The Golden Madonna," another story from Crossing the Border, Alexander's brush with social taboo -a sexual encounterwith his aunt -

Lister 119 leaveshim bereft of orientation: "He stared,amazed. He was somewherehe didn't recognize. It was strangeto him, new to him, evidently he was in a foreign city" (168). "Love. Friendship," another story from Crossing the Border, leavesreader and characterwith an ominous openness;Blaine's presenceeerily hauntsthe final pagesas it will continue to torment Judith and Larry. Just as theseendings strip boundaries, do they contestthe parametersof the the ego so characters' away individual story by establishinga thematic pattern that binds them together. The image of the boundedmale recurs in All the Good PeopleI've Left Behind. In her portrayal of John Reddinger, OatesanticipatesJudith Butler's theory Tryst" his In "The John Reddinger conducts relationships of genderas performance. identifications. fixed His to gender conceptionsof masculinity according polarized describes femininity Butler typify what as "the cultural configurations of and in is immediately 138). His `configuration' (Gender of manhood apparent gender" his stanceat the beginning of the story. John verifies his senseof self by regularly lawn" he his "baronial" (49,50). As "handsome sloping and surroundings surveying identical houses, he draws from his the the selfover rows of comfort gaze projects fixity his beads houses, "Like the environment: on a string of were and containment inhabited, he knew baronial, Day them and each each protected. or night solid and the knowledge madehim pleasurably intoxicated. He was Reddinger. Reddinger, John

He was in chargeof the world" (50). This stanceof ownership and ...

in final he has dispatched frames Annie to the the story; scene, after surveillance hospital, he returns to his window and, as before, mechanically recites the namesof his neighbours,reaffirming himself through this establishedand unchangingworld. John's masculine self is clearly "an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted

Lister 120 in an exterior spacethrough a stylized repetition of acts" (Butler Gender 140 Butler's italics). John's affair with Annie transportshim into new territory, as, for the first time, he relinquishescontrol, "for once ... letting a woman take the lead" (51). For John, Annie embodiesan intoxicating conflation of masculineand feminine traits; initially he is particularly attractedto her more masculinequalities - her "haphazard, promiscuouslife, " her lack of "guilt or shameor self-consciousness"(55). Annie's "long restlessrangy body" becomesthe site for John's experimentationwith gender her finger nails that are "never very clean" and her "tough, ungiving" configurations: flesh (50,50,49). Other reported episodesin the story suggesthis covert attraction to the male body. He recalls his narrow escapefrom a transvestitewith relief and disgust but his initial attraction hints at a suppressedfascination with what Butler terms "dissonant genderedfeatures" (Butler Gender24). John is ultimately unable to come to terms with Annie's duality and reach beyond familiar gender identifications. Throughout the story he re-stabilizeshimself by adopting a traditionally masculinerole: saving her from starvation, he reflects that, "it had pleasedhim to feed her, to nourish her on so elementarya level" (53-4). Annie's instinct that their relationship is simply "something you're watching is her do" his threatens proved correct; when suicide attempt carefully yourself her John his familiar to rejects and world returns constructed routine of stylized In The Profane Oates (56). Art, how in become explains men caught up repetitions this kind of bind: "A man's quarrel with Woman is his quarrel with himself - with those `despised'and muted elementsin his personality which he cannot freely acknowledgebecausethey challengehis senseof masculine supremacyand control' (35). John's responseillustrates Oates'stheory; by crossingthe border into

Lister 121 apparently irrational and uncontrolled behaviour, Annie confronts John with those "muted elements" of his own identity that threaten his precarious autonomy: his suppressed desire to experiment with gender boundaries and his fascination with between The John's dismissal of Annie and his return textual taboos. ellipsis social to the window signifies his refusal to consider the implications of his lover's act. This gap solicits the reader to query his reversion to type at the end; thus through a his final, Oates the silence, undermines validity of placed authoritative strategically gesture.

Oates's invective againsther male contemporariessuggestssympathieswith feminist ideology, yet sheremains,unlike Paley, reluctant to associateherself with l discourse one particular

Although she aligns certain characteristicswith

masculinity, sheremains scepticalabout essentialistviews of genderdifference. For Oates,the divisions betweenmen and women do not inhere in psychological dispositionsbut are a product of social ideology. In a review for The New Republic in 1979 she asserts:"Though I don't believe that there is a distinctly `female' has been female know, fate" 28). In I (Review that there course, a of sensibility, May 2005 this opinion had not changed,as she reiteratedthat genderidentity is "primarily shapedby social conditioning" ("PostgraduateSeminar"). Gender boundariesare imposedrather than inherent: "one is not born, but rather becomesa 48). As Butler "we Beauvoir (De notes, refer not only to women as a social woman" felt but senseof self, a culturally conditioned or constructed as a also category her identity" ("Gender Trouble" 324). In short story cycles Oatesboth subjective fate. `female ' Female the that this paradigms shape queries and represents find in themselves simulating selves repeatedly an attempt to emulate protagonists from In "Customs" Crossing infantilizes femininity. Border Renee the modelsof

Lister 122 herself to beguile the customsofficer. When the telephonerings in the middle of the night in "Love. Friendship." Judith considersthe various posesthat shemight assume if caught eavesdropping:

I could pretend I am curious about who is telephoning, innocently curious ... If I eavesdroppedI might learn ... an important fact about my marriage ... But I lie here motionless,afraid to move. What I must never do, must never do, what I must never do ... I must never intentionally deceive my husband(15-6). The terse dialogue and weighty silencesbetweenthe gendersin Oates's story cycles are markersof the boundariesthat define their relationships. In the title story of Crossingthe Border, Reneetries to recall old conversationswith her husbandbut fragments. She tenuous only cannot rememberwhether she has mentioned retrieves that they had to travel south to enter Canadaor indeed"if he had botheredto reply" (10). As the border between`real' and imaginary conversationsbecomesblurred she insignificance inadequacy language; in the their world, words, like and of recognizes function in familiar the as only unitary signs rituals of marriage: "Pain took gestures, the form of silence with him. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry! Euphoria: words. Excited proclamations. Apologies. Hand squeezing,forearm stroking, light airy kisses" (10). by Abiding Oates's husbands these customs and wives married-lovers' circumvent direct conflict and, collusively, construct a layer of insularity that both from Oates's the them each other and outside world. commentaryon protects the fiction of Jean Stafford hasparticular resonancefor the charactersin her own between individuals is "while narrative conflict short stories: rare, an extraordinary pressureis built up within the protagonists,who appeartrapped inside their own

Lister 123 heads,inside their lives (or the social roles their `lives' have become),and despairof striking free" (OatesProfane 123). As a form that builds itself upon the principle of repetition, the story cycle has establisheditself as a useful medium for the representationof marital ritual. JohnUpdike, Oates's contemporary,usesthe form for this purposein Too Far to Go:; 22 (1979) Like Oates,Updike published the storieswithin his Stories the Maples into independently before form. In The Elementsof them assembling a single cycle John Updike, Alice and Kenneth Hamilton highlight the compatibility of Updike's chosenform and his fictional subject: As a "thing" to be reported, married love doesnot fit easily into the short story form

...

In order to depict marriage

it is necessaryfor ...

the writer to show something of the history of the individual marriage; and that meansrecording the passageof time and the accumulationof its memoriesgiving marriage historical destiny, its unique and living character. Updike has ... found a strategyfor making the short story linking in history. involves divided This time record marriage stories, of writing, through the expedientof having them depict successive incidents in the history of one specific marriage (51-2). As a form in which the componentssimultaneouslyasserttheir unity and individuality, the short story cycle is indeed a useful vehicle for depicting a marriage is indissoluble. In Maples': tenuous that the at once a union and one of the such is " by Blood, Richard "Giving the possibility of perplexed early stories, don't "`I and relinquishment, separation retention and connection: simultaneous business having this of giving something away, and still somehow really understand it"' (56). He realizesthis possibility when he finally leavesJoan. Having adjusted

Lister 124 to bachelorhoodhe recognizesthat even though both he and his wife have taken "never him" Joan (231). He doesnot haveto lovers, will stop gesturing within other but insularity his isolation. between the safe sterile of marriage or complete choose Not all of Oates's charactersachievethis insight. Neither Oatesnor Updike champion insularity; they both point towards a commonality betweenthe genders and the permeability of genderboundaries. However, Oates's fictional world usually lies As Bender to the at the reader only. notes, a paradox possibilities such reveals heart of Oates's fiction. Although identity boundariesand categoriescontinue to fascinateher, Oates'snovels and stories"afford only the rarest glimpse of the ideal her destined (Joyce 166). Most to characters are of personality" self-actualizing dark. Welty Paley in Where the and end their cycles with visions of remain final Crossing the the story of qualifications undercut possibility, opennessand Border. Through the storm in "River Rising," Reneeand Evan achievea renewed has but their really changed. problem remains and nothing communication unity Both Katherine Bastian and Torborg Norman read the final story as a relatively happy ending to the Renee-Evansequence;communication is restoredon some level implications According Bastian fears Renee's to the the Evan about storm. quells as of their discourse- the recognition of their mutual vulnerability and their codependence- enablethem to "ultimately cure their separation(temporarily?)" and thus "raze the boundariesbetweenthem" (141). My reading differs slightly here from Bastian's; whilst she concedesthat this reconciliation of interestsmay be temporary, I would questionthe very validity of their reunion. Although the storm interaction is between dialogue the their couple, contingent upon the re-ignites familiarity of the roles it enablesthem to play. Evan in particular is comfortable in his role as the protective, rationalizing male who commandsthe situation and

Lister 125 containshis wife's hysteria. BastianreadsRenee's momentary loss of control as a meansof liberating herself from her "stifling isolation" (Bastian 141): a feeling that Evan himself has secretly experiencedin the park. In Bastian's reading this commonality draws them together; my reading would suggestthat it is rather their reversionto a familiar script that temporarily unites them. Society's models of masculinity form a barrier to true connectionbetween the couple. It is perhapsfor this reasonthat Oatesoffers only one story in which Evan becomesthe centre of consciousness.In "An Incident in the Park" Oates revealshow he has experiencedthe samefeelings of loss, disillusionment and fear as his bored and lonely wife: "Whatever identity Evan had possessedhad been abandonedon the other side of the border ... and he had never guessed,had never dared imagine, that the value of a human being might be irrevocably bound up with (209). in Even this story he projects many of his feelings outwards culture" an entire insisting the madman, upon the disparity betweenthem. By representingthis onto method of sublimation and negation this narrative castsa new light over Evan's in absencesand silences preceding stories. His silencesverify Oates's theory that facets of a man's personality remain "muted." Her analysisof masculine certain dilemmas reveals her sympathywith men like Evan. In 1972 sheasserted: "This is the era of Women's Liberation, but I really must say that I think men have a far more difficult time, simply living, existing, trying to measureup to the absurdstandardsof `masculinity' in our culture and in nature itself, which is so cruel" (Bellamy 20). In May 2005 Oatesnoted that "girls and women are conditioned more conspicuously" but boys have a "hard time in the playground" as they are driven from a young ageto Seminar"). ("Postgraduate compete

Lister 126 In All the Good PeopleI've Left Behind Oatesexploresthe possibilities of debunkinggenderbinaries. Annie Quirt emulatesother cyclic heroinessuch as Mary McCarthy's Margaret Sargent,embarkingupon a quest for unconditioned in In Annie the the first few stories is a female many ways who appears subjectivity. like free-spirited Eudora Welty's King MacLain; she wanderers male version of displays disregard through sexual enterprise and self-definition a compulsive seeks for social boundaries. Whilst she initially shows no sign of guilt over her Norman form these conquests gradually emerge, as notes, as a of promiscuity, 217). She in (Norman the self-loathing that accompaniesthese revels masochism her attempting suicide after affair with Reddinger. Sheveers encounters,even betweenthe stereotypicalbehavioursof male and female lovers, betweenselfdependency. beginning her At the of affairs Annie adopts a number containmentand his discomfort When John Reddinger typically postures. over masculine reveals of his past indiscretions,she respondswith the kind of nonchalanceone might expect I mean, from the male wanderer: "`I never think about the past, Annie said lazily ... it's indifference (52). Tempering her hell? this the all over with"' are what depression for help bouts hysteria during and and of which she cries masochistic love. her Even for and most extreme measuresare exposedas stability yearns herself "Eye-Witness" Annie In the story watches as she recovers performances. from another suicide attempt in hospital, ferociously mocking her deceptive "Annie, bitch: listen to your ugly whining self-mimicry: cruel you with strategies lies. You're (79). listen Annie's transparent" to so pathetic pitiful your voice, lapsesinto masochismare, like John's attemptsto forge an unconventional is "watching herself do. " she simply something relationship,

Lister 127 It is not until "Sentimental Journey," the fourth Annie story in the cycle, that its in her true light as a form of solipsism: "She had thought shesees willed misery that contentmentwas an indication of self-esteem,not knowing that discontent,of the kind that raged in her, was far more egotistical" (109). In her final narrative and the penultimate story of the collection, "Walled City, " she abandonsthese into self-sufficiency and isolation. In QuebecCity she performancesand retreats boundaries live "without to and without the needto erect them" (123). She aims repudiatesthe pattern of "stylized repetition" that locks the men and women of the into genderparadigms;her affair with Philip is her last attempt at social other stories integration.

As noted in my chapter on Welty, JosephineDonovan observeshow fiction "progressive "oriented that toward events narratives with quest plots" are represents happeningsequentially or climactically" (107). Annie's narrative approximatesin leads her traditional the the quest plot; each affair onto ways next, many discovers becoming in freedom more extreme, until she a qualified performances leave in her Annie "walled has her back When turned city" we she upon solitude. the "artifices" of her relationship with Philip and cut her few remaining and most basic ties with society (138). In the fmal sceneof "Walled City" shesleepswith Philip one last time, sensingas usual the "bitter, willful tension" involved in all her sexualencounters(142); this experienceprompts a further retreat into self. She opts language" has inhabited; her "world that the of she always when a couple ask of out for directions she explains in French that she cannot speakEnglish (144). In her for had been "many that, moment she realizes epiphanic years, she concluding knowing it" (144). Countering this selfalone, without perfectly perfectly safe, acceptanceare worrying questionsabout the viability and long term effects of such

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128

isolation. Annie's withdrawal from society signifies both a form of progressionand regression:she no longer seeksdefinition through performancebut, by refusing all forms of community, deniesherself more invigorating ways of construing identity. In the initial stagesof "Walled City" she accomplishedlittle during her period of disenfranchisement.In alienating herself, Annie adoptsthe strategyof the heroine. her Oatesian In study of "Unliberated Women" in Oates's archetypal fiction, JoanneV. Creighton notes: "Often the frustration of women is turned inward in a consciousor unconsciousquest for death. So often for Oates'swomen freedom in deadening lie the to of emotion, in the deliberatequest for nothingness" seems (152). Torborg Norman admiresAnnie's self-discipline, but states:"She appearsto have beenabandonedby the author in a cul-de-sacof isolation which excludes isolation is, Norman argues,"no solution" to her problems (220). " This others. Throughout the sequenceAnnie has followed a pattern of withdrawal pursuedby many of Oates's troubled heroines. In her analysis of Oates's story collection Marriages and Infidelities, Margaret Rozga examinesthis pattern in Oates's Chekhov's "The Lady Pet Dog" and Joyce's "The Dead": the of with revisions "Oates's charactersretreat from large open spacesto smaller spaces,bathroomsor cars, as if the confinement and/or reduction of spacewould simplify the world, make it proportionately more manageable,or lock out the troubling elements" (Rozga 283). This is certainly the pattern of Annie's life: she retreatsto John's bathroom when she imminent hospital their the the end of affair; ward functions as a recognizes insulates her from the walled city evasion; of sanctuary compromising relationships. Similarly, when Reneelongs to flee the confines of her home she finds solace, paradoxically, in the enclosedspacesof local museumsand libraries. This kind of

Lister 129 reduction is, to quote Rozga,"also dysfunctional and, in fact, deadly ... Being alone and in a small spacemay provide a respite, but it doesnot provide a healthy senseof self' (Rozga283,285). Like the charactersin Oates's revisionary stories,Annie runs the risk of "drifting toward boundlessness,or nonbeing" (Rozga 286): a fate that is as undesirableas that of the boundedmale. Torborg's assessmentof Annie's situation capturesthe tenuousnessof her epiphany but it cannot standasthe final word on her whole story. Ratherthan consigning Annie to a deadend, Oatesreservesan open destiny for her heroine: a fate that shedeniesthe couples in the more cyclic narrative structure. It is not Annie 23 Mandel, but Maxine the rejectedwife, who commits suicide. In the final story Fern and Alex Enright reach a "cul-de-sac" in their relationship as they grow further fully further without acknowledging or understandingtheir estrangement. apart and Oncethe marriageshave dissolved, there is no other narrative for thesewives. Oatesoffers a bleaker vision of separationthan John Updike. In the Maples stories the pull of marital love continuesto register itself after the dissolution of the Far Too Go, " Joan "Divorcing: A Fragment, In to the story of penultimate marriage. Maple contemplatessuicide as she strugglesto rebuild her life. Richard's reaction is in stark contrastto Ted Mandel's resignedattitude to Maxine's suicide. Although he has known happinesssince the separation,Richard experiencesagain the lure of the is he final For bond. tempted to a moment enact a gestureof solidarity with marital his ex-wife: "He wished to be out of this, this life and health he had achievedsince leaving her, this vain and petty effort to be happy. His happinessand health seemed had (234). In to the they the consecrated unhappiness shared" compared negligible, Come " "Here Maples, Richard finally but divorce Joan the the and story, concluding divided love by lawyers in their the courtroom, affection remain; and remnantsof

Lister 130 "Richard inertly gravitated toward Joan,the only animate object in the room that did not repel him" (255). The title of the story establishesthe mood for this final image of the Maples: by recastingthe familiar phraseof the wedding day in the context of the divorce court, Updilceimbuesthe final scenewith a surprising spirit of promise. Updike notes in his foreword that one of the sequence'saddedstories is fragment "a that cried off completion"; he underlines this resistanceto merely closurewith the title, "Divorcing: a Fragment" (Too Far 10). Updike's ending typifies his twofold view of marriage. Once the marriage has dissolved, both Richard and Joanwill continue in their struggle to establishseparateidentities. As Robert Luscher argues,the "marriage becomesthe book's real protagonist, since ... its partnersessentiallybecomesubsumedby it" (Luscher "Mapping" 109). Certainly but help However, these the threat wonder where characters go cannot will next. one is by their mutual acceptanceof the end of their marriage: a countered non-being of in foreword: is Updike his less "That that again expresses a marriage ends sensibility than ideal; but all things end under heaven,and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds"(10). Unlike Maxine Mandel, both Richard fulfil have dissolution Joan to their the continued sexual needs after of the and difficult. find feat Oates's As Creighton notes: that women often marriage: a Oatesviews the libidinal drive as dominant for all human beingshow it. they to and men no women matter may seek suppress Fulfillment in Oates's works can only come when a man and a ... woman can open themselvesup to the emotional and biological drives within themselves;only when they risk loss of control, loss of consciousself, do they have a chanceof liberating the true self within (150).

Lister 131 This kind of liberation eludesmany Oatesianwomen. Speculatingupon ways of breaking the pattern of emotional withdrawal, Creighton writes: 'Potential liberation through healthy sexuality is a possibility. But very few of Oates'scharactersespeciallyvery few women - achievethis liberation (148). Maxine takes other lovers but eventually succumbsto the lure of non-being. Aware that the stigma of the divorcee prohibits her re-entry into social circles, shecan conceive of no other for herself. space In the final story of All the Good People,we learn that Annie hasat least Oatesian herself "the the out of narrative of characteristic written woman" who "sits impenetrable for happen, builds to something or an wall around the around waiting happen" (Creighton 156). At the end of "Walled City" - the that can nothing self so last story that centresupon Annie - she has broken out of what sherecognizesas the "now-familiar cycles of the ritual" of doomedrelationships (137); Philip's delight that he and Judd once datedthe samegirl enforcesthe way in which she has been, in Judd's words, "used and recycled" (139 Oates's italics). However, shehas also cut herself off from any possibility of integration. In the final story, "All the Good PeopleI've Left Behind," we learn that Annie has reassumedher quest. Sheappears briefly in the first retrospectivesceneand her name resurfaceswhenever the formative days Ann Arbor. Annie's presence their at about charactersreminisce hauntsthe pagesof this concluding story, registering itself in the title; although the have lost left has Annie they those with whom also about contact, couplesreminisce thesecharactersbehind. The tantalizing glimpses of Annie in this story teasethe Annie but fail discover has to the remember vividly what protagonists as reader happenedto her. The characters'collective fascination with Annie reflects that of her both try to unsuccessfully map the reader; movements. As the story continuesto

Lister 132 husbands begin lives to suspectthat Annie has achieved the and wives, we of pursue her stateof isolation and moved beyond the reader's grasp. At the end of the story however Fern Enright informs Ted Mandel of Annie's successfulone-womanshow. Our final image of Annie is through Fern's eyes where she appears as part of a group,

"coming out the BrassRail with severalother people, men and women both " ... (225). This fleeting referencereassuresthe readerthat Annie's retreat into self was a 24 in development her identity transitional period, resulting the of as an artist In the 2005 lecture "The Faith of a Writer" Oatesobservedthat ` woundedness"and "isolation" are "so often at the core of creativity." At the end of All the Good PeopleAnnie emergesas a self-determining artist. It is of course is both. by " Annie "men Fern that that and women specifies surrounded significant Annie is no longer alienating women by focusing her attention exclusively on men. It is this fugitive image that, above all, constitutes the true climax of Annie's indeed image If this the the context of within other stories and sequence. we place Oates's work as a whole, it becomes all the more tantalizing; this vision of Annie In Isolated Oates's "The Myth the characters. self-realizing of of rare one represents Artist" Oates writes approvingly of "a few human beings, gifted with the ability to

`see' themselvesas `other,"' who are "not overly intoxicated with the selfnessof the self' and who "devise works of art that are autobiographicalstatementsof a hypothetical, reality-testing nature which they submit

...

to the judgment of their

(74). culture" Through her performanceas an artist Annie has broken the bonds of "selfness" by recreating herself as "other." Interestingly, her chosenmethod of selfher the of characteristics many of shares genderedperformances. representation Through her one-womanshow, she deliberately disclosesto society "an identity ...

Lister 133 in instituted in time, an exterior spacethrough a stylized repetition of constituted 140). However, her Gender (Butler through art Annie assertsher agency, acts" finding new ways to model the self and generatingdevelopmentthrough repetition. Her fleeting appearanceat the end of the cycle reflects her new freedom. She form longer her. By revealing aspectsof the which can eludes no contain ultimately fallacious past identities through her work, sheexhibits a self-reflexivity and awarenessthat reachesfar beyond that of her contemporaries. Unlike Maxine, she has found a way to reintegrateherself into society without relinquishing her senseof identity; as Oateswrites, "In surrenderingone's isolation, one doesnot surrender ("Myth" in 75). In uniqueness" a story which sexualpartnersand own one's interchangeable, become Annie emergesas the most traits ever more personality distinct identity. Her influence over the other charactersas an absentpresence Ted Mandel her. He his latest that recalls when realizes emerges young lover, Lisabeth, "had beenonly a version of Annie"; it is with "a pang of emotion" that he been Annie "had the woman meant for him all and wonders whether she remembers along" (225). Oatesusesher narrative voice to teasethe readerfurther. At eighty-two Good People I've Left is Behind" by far "All longest in the the the cycle. story pages Guiding the readerthrough the shifts in location and time is the kind of authoritative likely is find in Oates's to that more one novels than her short stories. Oates voice filters all of the other stories in the collection through a single character'spoint of detect leaving to the reader and speculateupon the gaps. Throughout the view, frequently the seesbeyond the characters' restricted and selfreader collection As the cyclic and sequentialstrains progressone usesreadingsof visions. oriented how have become locked into mechanical to characters recognize other stories

Lister 134 final In the story, Oatesmoves betweenfour perspectives,eachof which repetitions. forms a kind of commentaryon the other. Each section exposesthe limits of a particular consciousness.As the story advancesthe readerbegins to exercisea high level of agencyas she mediatesbetweenthe four points of view. However Oates both to the that third story strain reinforces and countersthis high level of addsa juxtaposition through the careful of different perspectivesand the readeragency; for the characters,the reader sensesa act of ventriloquism occasionalnarrative strong narratorial presencethat the other stories lack. Initially this presence encouragesthe reader's burgeoning senseof agency. The reader and the narrative voice move aheadof the husbandsand wives who draw upon preconceptionsof in other characters their judgements. Moreover for the first time in the collection Oates'snarrative voice intimates its knowledge, sotto voce, of future eventsto the reader. When Maxine decidesto upbraid Fern over her poor posture,the narrative her in determining future the the significance of remarks reveals of their voice "Maxine relationship:

Fern one day soon about this: must speak. to will speak ...

(But so bluntly that Fern will never really forgive her and, many years later, it is the Maxine's memory of unaccountablerudenessthat will finally not-quite-conscious determineFern's rejection of her)" (151). The use of parenthesesmarks the covert between disclosure this narrative voice and reader. Through this nature of for Fern liberates from the the the characters' narrative voice reader ventriloquism tunnel vision, mapping out the shapeof future relationships. In no other story does

the readersenseso powerfullythe insularityof the charactersand,asthey continue to misinterpret eachother, the needto `monitor' their warped visions of each other. The form of this concluding story makes further demandson the reader's attention; with its constant referencesto figures from the past, this is the story in

Lister 135 leaving Oates's active readerto untangle sequential strains merge, and which cyclic The is typically doubleconnections. reader's of potential sense of control a nexus hiatus between By the reader and characterOatesendowsher sustaining edged. knowledge This does not extendto Annie an almost godlike perspective. with reader When Mandels Enrights first the the reader's eye. and eludes who recall Annie, the in feels secure her knowledge of Annie's fate. It is only at the end of "All the reader Good People" that one realizesthat Annie has somehowemergedfrom her walled city, armed once more for everyday life. The story of her rehabilitation remains tantalizingly out of reach. By disrupting unidirectional narrative strandswith gaps Oates knowledge in tangential the the stories monitors reader's seemingly and, and final pages,cuts off her growing senseof omniscience. Through her negotiation of Annie's sequence,Oatesachievesthe effects of both the novel and short story form within one narrative strain. The indeterminacyat the end of "Walled City" typifies the modem short story with its characteristic In "The Reading to closure. and Writing of Short Stories," Eudora Welty resistance designates"mystery" as the most important componentof her favoured form ("Reading" 56). In "Defining the Short Story: Impressionismand Form" SuzanneC. Fergusonechoesthis when she writes that the "moral" of the modem short story is a "hardly won proposition, whose validity remains conditional and implicit, by both "unity of effect" and a the the authorial voice, giving story unconfirmed (228). Oates mystery" of vagueness achievesthis effect in "Walled City" certain through Annie's tenuous epiphanyand the absenceof a stabilizing narrative voice. However she choosesto enlighten the readerto Annie's future a little by concluding the cycle with an image that gesturestowards resolution and stability: a climax that is perhapsmore characteristicof the cohesivenovel form. By embeddingthis image

Lister 136 final filtering it Fern's the Annie through the cyclic structure of story and within of her heroine distances from Oates the reader and preservesthe ultimately memory, her. mystery around ***

Steppingbeyond the textual positions of the characters,one can perceive their personalstrugglesin their geographicalmovementsand locations. In both of thesecycles the tensionsthat shapethe characters'lives are commensuratewith their inhabitants Canadians As the of a post-colonial settler country, and environments. Quebecoisoscillate betweentwo positions: risking isolation by assertinga unitary integrating displaces European identity American that and paradigms, and national international the community and existing alongsidetheir cultural models, with his forfeiture In Canadian Gerald the the of self. essay on short story cycle risking Lynch notesthat "the form has held a special attraction for Canadianwriters" (35); he draws parities betweenthe dynamics of the form and the attempt to "find that between life. balance Canadian the the that one and many" characterizes elusive Lynch distinguishesthe Canadianstruggle from the American one by suggestingthat "Canadians

have been more willing to sacrifice the gratifications of traditionally ...

individualism for the securitiesof community" (Lynch 37). Studiesof Canadianexperienceand discourserefer repeatedlyto this tension Canadian life. In Understanding Canada defining of everyday characteristic as a Ralph R. Krueger writes: "Canadiansseemto be obsessedwith the fear that Canada lacks a real national identity" (21). So sensitivewas Oatesto these identity issues that she initially planned to publish the Crossing the Border stories under a "not Canadian She comfortable was with writing about experienceas a pseudonym. Seminar" 2005). In The (Postgraduate Empire Writes Back Bill non-Canadian"

Lister 137 Ashcroft exploresthe Canadianpreoccupationwith identity. He observeshow Canadianshave developedmetaphorsof difference with which to countertheir fear of anonymity and distinguish themselvesfrom the United States:the `mosaic' has become"an important cultural determinant" for Canadiansas a counterpoint to the `melting-pot' of the United States(Ashcroft 36). By implementing the image of the heterogeneity, Canadians their towards to national stance ethnic mosaic represent by the their to egalitarianism of country: sustaining the boundaries aim emphasize betweenthe disparateethnicities that constitute their nation, they respectthe differencesthat distinguish one group from another. Thus this image of boundedyet co-existing identities countersone American vision of amalgamatingdivergent ethnic groups. As Kenneth Thompsonnotes in his essay"Identity and Belief," the "balance" betweenunity and diversity has changedin American culture from one era to the next: "For the first sixty years of the twentieth century the emphasiswas on processeswhich were thought to produce unity through the assimilation of ethnic has been Since 1960s the there a shift of emphasisto a view that groups ... diversity" in (19). forty Thus image the the cultural past years celebrates of the become fitting for has American culture than that of the a more paradigm mosaic melting-pot; GracePaley's most recent collection, Later the SameDay, testifies to this shift as the various cultures that Faith encountersbegin to reclaim their heritage. Similarly, Ashcroft points out fluctuations in the Canadiansituation that indicate a continuing uneaseabout the nation's identity. Using the exampleof Canadianliterature as a cultural model he discernsunderlying tensions in this image of self-sufficiency: Canadianliterature, perceived internally as a mosaic, remains generally monolithic in its assertionof Canadiandifference from the

Lister 138 canonicalBritish or the more recently threateningneo-colonialism of American culture. Alternatively, it has striven for outside recognition by retreating from the dynamics of difference into the neo-universalist internationalist stance(36). As Oates's Reneebeginsto mix in the circles of Canadianartists, she encounters evidenceof this tension. In "The Scream" sherecognizeshow Canadianshave becomecaught up in the conflict betweenisolation and integration: between replacing old literary models with their own - some arguethat their art should "supplant" that of Chekhov and Picasso- and becoming part of the global community by insisting that their art is "international" (173). Unsurprisingly it is the former paradigm of self-containmentthat most attractsthe inward-looking Renee: "Their wild, hopelesswishes for insularity, for a kind of cultural protective tariff that from banish the outside world competition would

in a way, deeply moving was, ...

to her" (173). In Visual and Other PleasuresLaura Mulvey writes that "For the Canada delineatedby multinational, international finance, U. S. economic and political imperialism, national identity is a point of resistance,defming the border fortifications against exterior colonial penetration" (143). Similarly Oates's identity fear: to their core a stable of as a point seek of resistance ultimate characters loss of self. By retreating into her walled city Annie constructs"border fortifications" against further erosion of the self. In the story "All the Good People I've Left Behind," Alex Enright is driven by this fear. Interestingly, Oatesusesthe his describe image to apprehensionas Forrest Ingram deploys to define the same he has been "Since childhood cycle: unable to tolerate the thought of story short

Lister 139 being one individual among many - one cell lost in a vast indecipherabletissue" (146). Through her dialectical form Oatesrepresentsthe possibility of both retaining selfhood whilst co-existing with others. Annie registersthis possibility in the paintings at the provincial museumin QuebecCity. Sherecognizesthat the artists but in "derivative" also perceives eachpainting an esoteric quality that are all derivative their properties: "the paintings had their own vitality, direct, overrides light-filled" (129). Sheperceivesthe unique regionalism in the paintings that sets them apart from Europeanparadigms:"the farmhousesand snowy fields and woodlandsof rural Quebecmust have exerted a tremendousinfluence over the artists, quite apart from their Europeanmodels" (129). Just as Annie the artist standsboth independentand integrated at the end of the collection, so thesepaintings belong on the international stagebut standapart as individual pieces. Similarly each story in both All the Good Peopleand Crossing the Border isolated as meaning an narrative and as part of the cyclic and sequential achieves Stories that seemto rest on the margin of the collection - those that do structures. not directly concernAnnie, Evan or Reneefor example- move to the `centre' as impinge upon eachother, establishingnew thematic strands. For specific moments in Landscape" "Blood-swollen Oates revealswhat can happenwhen men example familiar their are robbed of structuresand routines; Martin's realisation women and that "the containment of his former life" has begun to "shift out of shape"prompts his shocking attack on the girl in the woods (68). Although he is a marginal he in does in All Good the the the of cycle context not appear character again People- Martin's assaulthauntsthe collection as an extreme reaction to the face; him in the that the hitch-hiker and the characters all we see again problems

Lister 140 in Joanne boys "The Hallucination. " These that encounters pariahs young enigmatic trigger Joanne'suncertaintiesabout the qualities of `otherness'that shemight her "And the compelling possibilities and of self-transformation: eyespossess transformedweirdly by a power shewould never dare take on, herself - what beauty might they have, not known to her ... [her husband]too was transformed, something quite exotic and unknowable, but there was no way of seeinghim, no way in" (98). Theseghostly, anonymousoutsidersemergefrom the margins of society and of the stories themselvesto destabilizethose at the centre. The unfolding of eventsin "The Scream," a Reneestory from Crossing the Border, re-enactsthe movement from margin to centre both structurally and politically. The photographof the emaciatedIndian woman and her deadchild standsout from the rest of the exhibition; it arrestsRenee'sconsciousnessand becomesthe central motif of the story. As a palliative to her guilt over her affair, Reneetries to trivialize her moral lapseby absorbing the photographic disenfranchised: faces black in "the the truly of of children representations Harlem

in the American Midwest immigrants in men and women elderly ... ...

Quebec

Reneemight lose herself in them, in humanity" (178). When she ...

encountersthe image of an unnamedIndian woman, "holding a skeletal baby out to the photographer," she is transfixed. The image is a powerful yet paradoxical deprivation; of whilst telling the woman's story and providing an representation it frames binds her her for her also and emotions, grief, containing rage and outlet it face her "her presents contorted with rage or despair,her mouth scream: silencing (178). in As Reneelooks on, however, the image soundless shriek" opened a wide, boundaries her hold the the takes the of photograph ruptures and scream woman of Indian The her Renee's woman subverts marginal position as a member of mind. of

Lister 141 for the white gaze, and assumes a central and race objectified gender an oppressed her in "Renee the consciousness: stared until vision seemed to onlooker's position her: it forced The the other around scream was everywhere woman's over. glaze sounds, the chattering of ordinary people, the sparrows' singing, into silence ... A

Immortal. Annihilating (178-9). everything scream. else" soundless In Playing in the Dark: Whitenessand the Literary Imagination Toni Morrison documentsa number of similar momentsof subversionin which discovery black by "ignite characters critical moments of or changeor performances from in by Marie literature (x). Morrison them" uses a not written scene emphasis Cardinal's autobiographicalaccount of madnessand recovery to exemplify these locates her The Words Say It Morrison In to the moment that analysis of moments. Cardinal recognizesthe severity of her condition: the "specular even spectacular in her danger is (viii). It that that she was of collapse" convinced whilst scene finally Louis Armstrong Marie's that concert at a apprehensions emerge. watching As his music overwhelms her it elicits sublimated anxieties and tensions. The in heart began is Renee's "My to the to similar experience gallery: moment important becoming bars than the the more music, shaking of my rib cage, accelerate, lungs longer ix). (Morrison As the them" so my air could no enter compressing

Morrison notes, Armstrong's music provides "tropes" for Marie's fears of boundlessnessand servesas a "catalyst" to therapy and eventual recovery: the black heals (x). Similarly, the tortured the Indian woman white psyche artistry character's in the photograph overturns the text/onlooker relationship and precipitates a dramatic "narrative gearshift[]" in Oates's story (Morrison Playing xii). She is another silent, bound figure, although within the narrative terrain of the single who, anonymous

Lister 142 story, problematizesthe relationship between margin and centre by haunting the cycle's protagonist.

Like Welty and Paley, Oatespopulatesher cyclic and sequentialstories with inscribed readers. In The Golden Apples Welty's characterspractise many interpretive methodologies,some of which becomemodels for her reader. Grace Paley's inscribed readersare so ubiquitous that critics sensea threat to their own interpretive discourses. However a closer examination of thesemeta-commentaries intended, is Paley "Every that, of entry so as spaces story completedby the reveals 152). Kaplan (Paley reader" In Oates's stories the inscribed readersperform similar functions: their interpretive experiencesreveal the pliability of the boundariesbetweenreaderand text. Annie Quirt personifiesthis fluidity; she shifts from her central position as the both life and art to that of an elusive text and author in the concluding story. readerof The inscribed texts themselvesserve as thematic mirrors for the characters'conflicts. The pictures in "Walled City" reflect the central theme of Annie's life: the conflict betweenintegration and isolation. Although Annie doesnot register this as an Quebecois these the of works artists provide the answerto her dilemma by onlooker, individual both larger as pieces and within a aestheticframework. Annie's existing failure to make this connection typifies many of the readersin Oates's fictional limited than those who populate the stories of Welty and more world who are usually Paley. Oates'sreadersrarely make connectionsbetweenthemselvesand the texts implications interpretations. fail Whilst reading Oates's the their to of pursue and interpretive does generally experience not one processesalongside the cycles Golden The Apples Both and the Faith cycle present inscribed readers characters.

Lister 143 who practise Schweickart's dialogic model of reading basedupon synchronic patternsand openness. Femalereadersare more prolific in Oates's cycles, but neither men nor women are particularly adept at interpreting. The solipsism of Oates'sinsular charactersobstructstheir associativefacilities, whilst her integrators discourses to condition their readings. Most of Oates's inscribed allow social in forming texts, closed interpretations,thus remaining partially readersseekrefuge if not entirely in the dark. As extrinsic readerswe must formulate the connections betweentext and inscribed reader:thus readerand author sharea secretknowledge that often precludesthe character. Both Annie and Reneeturn to art to escapethe lonelinessand apathy of their everyday lives. In the midst of her sinister affair with Warren, Annie immerses herself in art books at the library, seekinga sanctuaryfrom her despair: [she] spent an hour or more looking through books turning pages quickly, desperately- studying Van Gogh's drawings and Cezanne's landscapes then paging quickly again, as if she were looking for ... something specific, though shecould not have said what it was ... Then, by accident, shediscoveredwhat she must have been seeking: her breath was drawn sharply inward when she came upon the watercolors of Nolde, beautiful, indefmable, utterly perfect. Here, shethought simply (118 Oates's italics). As a readerAnnie experiencesa transient affinity with Nolde's "beautiful, indefinable" world, but it placatesher only for a moment; she draws strength from its but does not attempt to discover why the pictures move her. Art restorative qualities for Renee. Both purpose a similar charactersread texts in order to produce serves interpretationsthat accommodatetheir own lives. As she embarksupon her affair

Lister 144 with Karl, Reneereadstexts that will relativize her guilt. Shereadsmagazine in immediately Middle Class" "Adultery the and erectsa boundary articles on betweenself and text, staving off her feelings of guilt: Readingtheseparagraphsin their logical unexcited order, seeinghow the columns of print on glossy paper were sanelyarranged she ... could seehow superficial a subject it was. The mere fact that the word `adultery' might be used in this way ... with graphsand statisticsand quotations and small excited headlines ... allowed Reneeto seehow ordinary it was, how unthreatening. What had it to do with her?

it all, savedfrom it, to certainly she was superior ...

from it, by the fact of being able to read about it (71-2 Oates's italics). The controlled graphology appealsto Renee,the form and structure of the article containing the subject matter on the page. Her reading of thesearticles is as far removed from Schweickart and Flynn's model of the female readeras possible; Renee'sobsessionwith boundariescomescloser to Schweickart's description of male readerswho are "preoccupiedwith issuesof control and partition" than the "intersubjective encounter" that occurs betweenthe female readerand the text (55). Thus whilst many of Welty and Paley's inscribed readersbecomemodel interpreters, the preordained,controlled responsesof Oates's characterspush the readerbeyond their limited worlds. It is Oates's readerwho opensup the form and makes inscribed between between the their texts, readers and as well as connections individual stories. Oatessolicits a particularly active reader; she offers us no Virgie Rainey or Faith Darwin to articulate a vision of renewedautonomy or balance. By fusing the cyclic with the sequential,Oatescapitalizes on the many form She "novel-in-stories" the usesthe cyclic structure to realize the of utilities

Lister 145 imprisonment of those characterswhose fear of non-being condemnsthem to a life " However, flexibility form "stylized the the she also exploits repetition. of cycle of to engineershifts in narrative voice and plot structurethat challengethe either/or thinking that restrainsmany of her characters. By embeddinga sequentialquest finds Good People, All the she a way of representingthe processof within narrative self-determinationthat freesboth herself and her heroine from the pressureof a closedending. Annie's position at the end of the cycle reflects her particular agency as she eludesthe eyesof the charactersand the reader. For Oates,the cyclic for becomes destinies those rare women who a of securing means open sequence find their own narrative structuresand standapart from her cast of "unliberated heroines."

Lister 146

4

Resistance and Reconfiguration: Gloria Naylor's Evolving Cycles

"she was existing as she always had. Even if someonehad bothered to stop and tell her that the universe had expandedfor her, just an inch, she wouldn't have known how to shine alone" (Naylor The Women of Brewster Place60).

"with eachof `em - no matter who he was - there was always a Her in his story" (Naylor The Men of Brewster Place 8).

Where Eudora Welty insists that The Golden Apples is not a novel, and GracePaley resists formal categorisation,Naylor alerts the readerto the generic duality of her work. By introducing The Women of Brewster Place (1982) as `A 25 ' broadcasts in Stories, Naylor hybrid identity. Seven Novel Although the work's in interviews she continuesto refer to her debut as a `novel', she occasionally revises this categorization. In a recorded discussionwith Toni Morrison in 1985 she distinguishedThe Women of Brewster Place from her other works, assertingthat the text is "really interconnectedshort stories" (Naylor "Conversation" 582). Although from Naylor and usually classify the text as a novel, The take their cue critics Women of Brewster Place figures consistently in short story cycle bibliographies. Dunn and Morris and Nagel are in agreementthat Naylor's debut qualifies as an form. the of archetype

Lister 147 The matrix of connectionsin The Women stretchesfar beyondthe boundariesof the text itself; locations and charactersrecur in Naylor's later works. In "Gloria Naylor's Geography" Barbara Christian writes that Naylor has created"a in fictional Faulkner's to the similar or manner world of geographical Yoknapatawphacounty" (348). Like Faulkner, Naylor envisagedthis world at the from 255). "the Brewster (Felton her Place" there was career: quartet writing start of Together,Naylor's texts constitute a kind of macrocosmiccycle, eachtext achieving in her individual Naylor, For to the a story narratives cycle. a similar effect has finality become has that the come of shadow she a means resisting of macrocosm to associatewith the completion of the single text. Naylor speaksof the regret that her first When the completion of a novel. she received consistentlyaccompanies bound copy of The Women she called it a "tombstone becausethat's what it 586). Naylor's (Naylor "Conversation" aversionto closureregistered represents" itself again in 1998when, after completing the quartet, sheexpandedthe boundaries further. Brewster lives She Place to the to tell the of the men returned macrocosm of who lived there. Naylor and her critics have little difficulty defining the other componentsof the quartet, classifying them consistentlyas novels. Linden Hills (1985) and

am

Da (1988) certainly achievethe more totalising effect of the novel form; individual by linked do a stricter senseof sequentialitythan chapters not standalone, and are the storiesin The Women. Naylor confirms this distinction when she tells Morrison beginning her before before I "it her trepidation second could work: was while a of because [Linden Hills fear because down there this and work on was sit actually ... (582 italics). Naylor's Evidently Naylor be to a novel" experienced real going was first from found freedom Oates fear that with writing associates one's novel, the and

Lister 148 this in the looser form. Naylor's latest offerings seeher returning to the cycle form: in 1998 she revisited her original form for The Men of Brewster Place. Critics generallyrefer to Bailey's Cafe (1992) as a novel but this reading will arguethat it exhibits stronger formal affinities with the Brewster cycles than Linden Hills or Mama Day. This chapter will focus primarily on The Women, but will also examine how Naylor changesher cycle form to reflect shifts in her characters'genderpolitics. Bound by the geographicalbordersof Brewster Place,the eponymous heroinescrossthe boundariesof their individual narratives, generatingpotential lines of continuity and community. Neverthelesseach story retains its individual identity. Whilst knowledge of contiguous narrativeshints at the possibility of affinity and individual in isolation. Compoundingthis the stories achieve meaning collaboration, is Naylor's is by Unity time. the controlled negotiation of created self-containment `postludes' framing device "Dawn" "Dusk' ; this and entitled and of prepresence binds the stories ostensibly within the parametersof a single day and bearswitness to the birth and death of Brewster Place. The lyrical narrative voice of "Dawn" describesthe circumstancessurroundingthe building's birth, and returns in "Dusk" to comment on its demise. This alluringly neat framing device is, however, deceptive.Each individual story setsa different pace and structure: Mattie Michael's frames day her back the that transports thirty experience primary narrative present Browne's Kiswana Cora takes the story place within space of one afternoon; years; Lee's narrativejuxtaposes scenesfrom the heroine's childhood with events of her days. As life that several span well as placing eachof her women within a present distinctive narrative structure,Naylor locatesthem within a specific historical Castellucci Cox Karen Naylor's As notes, each of women representsa context. facet black black history in is Mattie the "daughter of and a of era culture: particular

Lister 149 the defeatedplantation South" who embarksupon the familiar trajectory to the mythical North; Etta Mae lives according to the tenetsof the Harlem Renaissance; Kiswana is "clearly a product of the Black Movement" (Cox 161). Thesecontexts identity individual illuminate the the plurality of the women: of each story and assert an effect that Naylor consciously strove for: "One charactercouldn't be the Black woman in America. So I had sevendifferent women, all in different circumstances, encompassingthe complexity of our lives" (Ebony 123 Naylor's italics). Thus Naylor nameseachof the first five stories after their heroinesand particularizesthe "Nutmeg leaned gradations of colour: varying arms over windowsills, women's legs double flights hands carried groceries up steps, of and saffron gnarled ebony laundry back lines" italics). (Women 4 Naylor's on yard strung out wet Naylor resistshomogenizationof the black female experienceby identities her heroines however the their unique of and stories; shealso emphasizing identity boundaries. form In the to the engage with and problematize uses boundaries Brewster, are often unyielding; potential connectionsare of community thwarted, or solicited as a meansof self-displacementrather than self-expansion. Langston Hughes's poem "A Dream Deferred" prefacesthe cycle and capturesthe dialectic of expansionand retreat that underpinsthe text. The poem introducesthe dream motif that transportsthe women beyond the boundariesof their oppression; however it also setsup the bathetic structure of thesewomen's lives. Fearsand inhibitions arrest gesturestowards unity just as the deferred dreamthreatensto "dry in " (Women ). the sun? it pag. up/like a raisin In Naylor's fictional world, eye contact betweencharactersoften servesas a barometerfor relationship and identity boundaries. In her first cycle, the avoidance high level denial binding the the women together and of signals contact of eye

Lister 150 qualifying their unity. Blinded by the prejudicial "yellow mist" that surrounds"The Two," the women of Brewster Placecan only track the movementsof Theresaand Lorraine with "a jaundiced eye" (131); they register their suspicion and aversionto the lesbian couple by avoiding eye contact completely: "[Lorraine] noticed that some of the people who had spokento her before had made a point of having something elseto do with their eyesas she passed,although she could almost feel them staring at her back as she moved on" (133). When Mattie Michael comparesher friendship between Etta Mae "The Two, " Etta blocks any such affinity: to the relationship with "She looked at Etta. `It kinda gives you a funny feeling when you think about it that it does, ' `Yeah, Etta said, unable to meet Mattie's eyes" (141). When though'. way, Ciel relatesher extraordinary dream of psychic fusion with Lorraine to Mattie and Etta they break eye contact again for fear of registering this unexpected,disturbing in connection each other's eyes. During their "Conversation," Naylor and Morrison discussthe various identity categoriesthat inform and shapeone's senseof self. Drawing from personal experienceand fictional representations,they perceive clear differences betweenthe identity. Casting her that construe and women men eye over literary ways incarnationsof women, Morrison notes the prevalenceof a particular female her "all the woman who places of value of her life in something outside character: herself' (584). The writers agreethat such gesturesof self-displacementform a tradition that is "peculiar to women" (585). Morrison notes: "it's interesting because the best thing that is in us is also the thing that makesus sabotageourselves, life is in that the sense our not as worthy, or our perceptionof the best part sabotage Most Brewster's (585). of women are locked in cycles of selfof ourselves" forfeiture. Etta suffers from Paley's "him-itis, " seeking self-definition through

Lister 151 sexualconquest,whereasMattie searchesfor it in her relationship with her son. Through her compulsive mothering Mattie builds a kind of perverted symbiosiswith Basil, resulting in a loss of identity for mother and son. In her essay "Women Amongst Themselves" Luce Irigaray insists that

fully-fledged selfhood if they experienceand nurture love women can only achieve for their own gender: it is important for us to exist and love one another as women if we are to love the other - man. Society and morality act as though woman, without being a full social or political person in her own right, had to love a social person: man. How is such love humanly possible without subjective status? Now, a subjective status is constituted in relation to self and to like, the two being connected(192). Etta and Mattie gradually register the significance of female relationships; Mattie has deeper loved "`loved I than that any man"' she some women ever acknowledges (141). However the ambiguousboundariesof friendship trouble thesewomen. Etta's assertionthat love for a man is "`still different'" betrays her need for stable identity in her her to that she will continue ground suggests and categories female (141). By this the unease of men portraying with power with relationships friendship, Naylor representsin fictional form Morrison's observationthat such for book because "a topic the world suitable a considered are not relationships ... knows that women don't chooseeachother's acquaintanceship.They choosemen 26 154) (McKay first, then women as secondchoice" Brewster Place is the ideal locus for the struggle between self-expansionand liminal its inhabitants This to the margins of society, space confines suppression. from the prospectof social and economic progress. However them off cutting

Lister 152 Naylor usesthe spaceto reveal the possibility of subverting marginality. Occasionallythe readerglimpsesthe origins of a community whose affinities usurp the bonds of historical and social precedents. One of the most analysedscenesof the cycle occurs at the end of "Lucielia Louise Turner" when Mattie inducesCiel's buried of grief after the death of her baby girl. Naylor's narrative voice outpouring depicts this collaboration as a powerful subversionof a female tradition: the silence that has sublimatedthe pain of history's grieving women: Mattie rocked her out of that bed, out of that room, into a blue vastnessjust underneaththe sun and above time ... past Dachau, where soul-gutted Jewish mothers swept their children's entrails off laboratory floors. They flew past the spilled brains of Senegalese infants whose mothershad dashedthem on the wooden sidesof slave ships. And she rocked on (103). Mattie transports Ciel beyond the paradigmatic discoursesof grief into a more "above time." In their distress,Ciel and Mattie sharethe suspended confluent reality kind of moment experiencedby Virgie Rainey when she submergesherself in the Big Black River and fords a reality beyond the reach of teleology: "Memory dappled hung suspendedin the Big Black River as her like no more than a paler light she ... hang know (Golden 440). Apples Like Virgie, Mattie and to suspended" would she Ciel enter the kind of female temporal modality that Julia Kristeva envisagesas "allinfinite like imaginary and space" (Kristeva 862). Through this encompassing epiphanyNaylor underminesthe abiding presenceof historicity that assertsitself through the cycle's `back stories' of oppression. In Workings of the Spirit, Houston A. Baker explores how "conjure" functions as an "agency" in the lives of African-American women (91). He presents

Lister 153 conjuring as a powerful meansof transcendingthe boundariesthat limit the AfricanAmerican woman in white, patriarchal society: "spacesthat might be deemed `separate'are dissolved in the generalmedium of the spirit. Rather than rigid formal categories... African-American spirit work is ... boundless"(76). The conjuring of African-American women relies upon transmissionfor its power. Paraphrasing Marcel Mauss, Baker writes: "gifts remain powerfully gifts only as long as they are kept in passage,for passageforestallsthe promotion of any single `possessor' to a ... hierarchical inequality. Gift passage,like African-American spirit work, assuresthe benefits of spirit only to a community" (76 Baker's italics). Most of Brewster's women appearonly half-consciousof their conjuring 27 is in her Naylor's later full It that only works women expressionto give abilities. thesepowers. In Bailey's Caf6 Eve createsa quasi-mystical spaceto liberate the from boundaries. her In lost Naylor's women essay gender on conjure cycle's illuminates in Tucker Mama Day. Lindsey the omnipresence of conjure women From Miranda Day's communicationswith ancestralvoices to the echoesof biblical influence is throughout text, the the that reverberate of conjure pervasive. narratives It is interesting that Tucker identifies Mama Day as the starting-point of Naylor's representationof thesepowers. Charting the generalcritical reception of the novel, had define brand Naylor's in "the The to that of realism come work writes: she Womenof Brewster Place andLinden Hills had suddenly, it seemed,become ingredients fantasy" (Tucker 143). I with of magic and suggestthat contaminated this discourseof magical realism originates in fact in The Women; during their transcendentaloutpouring, Mattie and Ciel momentarily transgressthe boundsof is important however, It these they to otherworldly exercise powers. as note, realism that it is the lyricism ofNaylor's narrative voice that lendsthis moment its

Lister 154 transcendent resonance. Ciel leaves Brewster shortly afterwards and when she returns in Mattie's dream the fledgling community remains united by covert fictions ignore implications denials. Mattie Etta the and of Ciel's telepathic reand imagining of Lorraine's trauma. Together they weave a facile interpretation of the dream that centres on the symbolic meaning of Brewster's wall, blocking Ciel's psychic connection to the community.

Throughout the cycle the women encountera number of texts that offer her for When Cora Lee takes self-expansion. children to a black production outlets in Night's Dream for A Midsummer the transformation she recognizes potential of her own life: The fairy queen looked just like Maybelline. Maybelline could be doing this someday for that

That girl had probably had to go to college ...

Maybelline used to like school - why had she stopped? ...

The image of the torn library books and unansweredtruant notices replacedthe tears in her eyes as they quietly rolled down her face (125). Cora's fleeting engagementwith an imaginative world echoesthe experienceof Shakespeare'slovers as they awaken from their dream seemingly unchanged,yet dimly aware of the possibility of metamorphosis. The performanceprovides Cora with an alternative narrative paradigm for her life: a model in which boundariesand patterns are permeable. However, whilst the play's imagery offers an opening onto anotherworld, its structural principle of is familiar deferral Cora. her In daily life she encounters to already repetition and her that to minister propensity for deferral whilst presenting other meta-narratives her with the possibility of changeand agency. Soap operasoffer Cora a meansof

Lister 155 both eluding and re-enactingthe cyclic mundanity of her daily existence. Recent researchon female viewing habits illuminates contiguities betweenCora's psychosis and the genre. In her study of daytime television Carol Lopate delineatessoapopera as "an infantile world, " in which "the charactersdo not have to suffer the isolation is that part of the adult stateas we know it" (48). Lopate addsthat the and aloneness inhabit that this world rarely "gain the power and autonomy" childlike prototypes that constitute the "rewards" of this adult state (50). By surrounding herself with a cast of children, Cora positions herself in her own self-serving soap opera; she both re-enactsher childhood fascinationwith babiesand insulatesherself from those momentsof solitude that might exposethe chinks in her truncated identity. Through the construction of her own soapopera, she nurtures her infantile qualities and locks herself into a safe,familiar script. For the women of Brewster, repetition is an embattledconcept; it clearly functions as a form of wilful imprisonment for Cora Lee. As a serial form that resistsclosure and turns on different kinds of repetition, the soapopera emulatesthe short story cycle form. Although bound within one inhabitant has her Brewster Place time, of each own history. The story place and like the soapopera viewer, engagewith multiple narratives and cycle readermust, histories as charactersfade in and out of the current storyline: a task that Cora must often undertakeon a grand scale,as she follows severalsoap operas:"She hated it favorite her it keep the time; two to stories came on at same was a pain when between Steve's murder trial and Jessica'ssecret abortion" (110). channels switching In Soap Opera and Women's Talk Mary Ellen Brown observesthat, "Incongruities of time are ... tolerated (and enjoyed) by soap opera viewers. Time is not necessarilyaltered to make cause-and-effectrelationships clearer or more logical

Lister 156 but to emphasize those moments of heightened emotional intensity" (90). In Naylor and Welty's cyclic worlds an ostensibly linear structure repeatedly gives way to fleeting epiphanies. The enjoyment that the female viewer derives from these temporal "incongruities" substantiates Kristeva's notion that women experience time as "monumental" rather than teleological.

Whilst Cora's obsessiveviewing signals a need for escapism,the similarities between the soap operas and her own perversely controlled existence suggest her deferred With their a as viewer. plurality of plots and constantly covert agency how freedom Brown the the to viewer. notes operas offer a particular climaxes soap female soap opera viewer cultivates an "implicatory"

viewing practice, generated by

her constant interaction with multiple characters:

identifying than rather with one characterthrough thick and thin, the in readerrecognizesmany possibilities charactertypes ... In this involve her himself an audience member will or with reading practice, draw back if happens but to that character what will a character becomesuncomfortable (52). Brown goeson to observehow this reading strategy is "audience controlled" so that the viewing of soapoperasbecomes"an active pleasure" (52). Cora adoptsthis knowledge life by her her in her "shadows" the minimizing of visit own who process bedroom and curtailing potential plots before they begin: "The thing that felt good in the dark would sometimesbring the new babies,and that's all she cared to know ... fractured jaws bruised for didn't there time or you eyes, no all give was shadows that" (114). Brown's theory of implicatory viewing practicesattributes a particular initially that the to addict might opera appearsurprising when related to soap agency

Lister 157 Cora's story. Onceagain Naylor hints at the potential of a heroine who appearsto be going nowhere. *

*

Motivated by the prospectof identifying "what it is that really compelsa good woman to displacethe self, her self," Toni Morrison experimentedwith new ways of conceiving subjecthood:"what I starteddoing ... was to project the self not into the way we say `yourself,' but to put a spacebetweenthose words, as though the self were really a twin ... or somethingthat sits right next to you and watchesyou" (Naylor "Conversation" 585 Morrison's italics). Morrison advocatesselfsurveillance over self-displacement. She confirms that, in her new novel, it is the characterBeloved who embodiesthis notion of a `twin self', functioning as "the mirror" for the other characters(585). Interestingly, the words of one of Naylor's characterspre-empt Morrison's advice. In Linden Hills Mamie Tilson warns her dangers his it `twin "`my the of of relinquishing self : grandmother called grandson in the mirror your soul ... I guessshe meant giving up that part of you that selling lets you know who you are... (59). Naylor's women are not particularly adept at this kind of self-surveillance; when they perceive a facet of their `authentic' selvesin the fellow do they their the women either avoid registering of connection or not eyes is left it. Such to the narrative voice. surveillance pursue Where Eudora Welty presentsparadigmaticreading strategiesthrough her inscribed readers,Naylor situatesmost of this authority in her narrative voice. Like Oates's distinctively authoritative voice in the final story of All the Good People, Naylor's narrative personaprovides a stablecentre that seesbeyond the boundaries that limit the charactersand their readings. Whilst Oates's narrative persona her Naylor's the end of cycle, at voice establishesitself as a locus of emergesonly

Lister 158 is It from the narrative voice that envisageseach the opening. cycle's authority in image "an the that illuminates from prelude: phoenix" a powerful ebony woman as the beginning the possibility of self-actualization and regeneration(5). Throughout the cycle it rendersthe passingof time with particular lyricism. In "Mattie Michael" the narrative voice conjures this processwhile the heroine is asleep. The shift in tenseand the figurative imagery announcethe presenceof a distinct, narrating persona: Time's passagethrough the memory is like molten glassthat can be opaqueor crystallize at any given moment at will ... It is silent and it be dammed dripped day by day; to out swirls refusing and elusive, through the mind while an entire lifetime can ride like foam on the deceptive,transparentwaves and get sprayedonto the consciousness intervals (35). at ragged,unexpected As well as framing Naylor's narrative personaas an omniscient eye watching over the characters,this passagepresagesthose moments in the cycle that freezeand expandtime. In other passagesin the cycle the narrative voice adopts an explanatorytone. Its evaluation of a particular resident, Etta Mae, speaksfor the self-displacing in "something Brewster seek verification outside" themselves: who of women Her youth had ebbedaway quickly under the steadypressureof the changingtimes, but shewas existing as she always had. Even if someonehad botheredto stop and tell her that the universe had expandedfor her, just an inch, she wouldn't have known how to shine (60). alone

Lister 159 In his study of narrative modesfor presentingconsciousnessDorrit Cohn offers a useful typology of narrative levels. He usesthe term "psycho-narration" to describethe application of narration to a mind rather than inside it. The term spans the many indirect ways of narrating consciousnessfrom the "plainly reportorial" to the "highly imagistic" (11). In The Women of Brewster PlaceNaylor adopts psycho-narrationto articulate the thoughts of the self-displacing woman. Her narrative voice moves from reportageto metaphoricalnarration to explain choices and reactionsthat the heroinesonly half comprehend. In his study of psychonarration in Balzac, Thackeray and Fielding, Dorrit Cohn notes the presenceof "a discursive intelligence who communicateswith the readerabout his characterbehind his character'sback" (25). This "discursive intelligence" resurfacesat in Naylor's When Lorraine leaves Theresabefore meeting moments cycle. pivotal her brutal death,the narrative voice transportsthe reader forwards to presentTheresa figure: haunted a as Theresawould live to be a very old woman and would replay those words in her mind a thousandtimes and then invent a thousand different things she could have said or done to keep the tall yellow in woman the green and black dressfrom walking out of that door for the last time in her life (167). The moralizing narrative personaassertsits autonomy again by identifying Theresa's mistake in letting Lorraine go: "But tonight shewas a young woman and still in fatal the and she made mistake that many young women do of of answers, search believing that what never existed was just cleverly hidden beyond her reach" (167). Naylor's narrating personamanifests knowledge that Theresais yet to learn.

Lister 160 One of the functions of psycho-narrationis to "order and explain a better himself'; it "often renders,in thoughts than the conscious character character's a narrator's knowing words, what a character`knows', without knowing how to put it into words" (Cohn 46). Such a technique is particularly useful in the representationof women such as Ciel Turner. In her marriage to Eugene,Ciel epitomizesMorrison's paradigm of the self-displacing woman. At the beginning of her story, she protestsat Mattie's apparentdisapproval of Eugene's neglect as a husband. Shetries to convince Mattie that she lets him back into her life for the sake fresh knowingly daughter Mattie her the and promise of a start. responds,"`You of but Ciel"' (92). Ciel does me, not reply silently agrees:"No, she ain't gotta convince herself. She herself it Mattie, talking talking to to she was was convincing wasn't into job let him back her life" Serena (92). The the that the and paint and new was is finally her Ciel to that admitting self-delusion. However at this readersenses it because, Naylor's take over, as narrative voice must explains: point the real truth went beyond her scopeof understanding. When she laid her head in the hollows of his neck there was a deep musky scentto his body that brought back the ghostsof the Tennesseesoil of her childhood ... The feel of his sooty flesh penetratedthe skin of her fmgers and coursedthrough her blood and becameone, somewhere, wherever it was, with her actual being" (92). The narrative voice not only articulates half realized, buried sensationsfor Ciel, but how do for her "But justification self-delusion: you tell yourself, let alone this offers he don't" loves back because So that that. who you, was of you practical old woman (92). The use of the secondpersonto render these forbidden thoughts signalsthe

Lister 161 proximity betweennarrative voice and characterconsciousness,suggestinga heightenedlevel of sympathy. In The Signifying Monkey Henry Louis Gates,Jr. examinesZora Neale Hurston's use of free indirect discoursein her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Identifying Hurston asthe writer who introduced this kind of discourseto AfricanAmerican narration, Gatesoffers a fascinating reading of the novel's polyvocality. He notesthat Hurston's "narrative strategydependson the blending of... narrative commentary ... and characters'discourse" ("Zora" 191). Hurston's use of free indirect discoursefrustratesthe reader's attempt to "characterize it either as the (diegesis) or as the repetition of a character'swords of an action representation (mimesis)" ("Zora" 208). This merging reachesits height as Janie movestowards self-actualization: As the protagonist approachesself-consciousness,however, not only doesthe text use free indirect discourseto representher development, but the diction of the black characters'discoursecomesto inform the diction of the voice of narrative commentary such that, in several is difficult distinguish it the narrator's to extraordinarily passages, 191). from ("Zora" the protagonist's voice Janie's narrative is, of course,one of incremental self-realization. Her narration is fulfils her her Pheoby, to the role of to share story; she who encourages addressed the mirror or "friend" who "watches" Janiewatching herself. GatesdescribesJanie demonstrates how "a and narration" sheusesthis skill to metaphorical of as master her first inarticulacy during ("Zora" 172). Brewster's her marriages apparent counter it is left to the narrative voice to createmetaphorical such skill and women show no

Lister 162 renderingsof transcendentmomentssuch as the communal grieving of Mattie and Ciel.

Naylor deploys different narrative tactics from Hurston to figure her her When the thought she enters consciousness processes. of characters, women's indirect identified free discourse by Gatessuch "indices" deploys the of someof she but idiom " "content, "intonation" the she assumes grammar of the and rarely and as characters("Zora" 209). At times the disjunction betweennarrating personaand the is language In Johnson" "Etta Mae the narrating persona clear. mental character's it her The Mattie. the the as ruminates upon conflict with of preacher rhetoric adopts friendship betweenMattie and Etta is threatenedby Etta's affair with Reverend Woods. Throughout Etta's story Naylor's narrative voice parodiesthe preacher's him "well-oiled to comparing a machine" that crafted oration, self-conscious, "played" with the congregation(65). After criticising her friend's advancestowards the Reverend,Mattie respondsto Etta's accusationsof hypocrisy with a restrained in her is Mattie's to tactic, the this endorse narrative voice steps silence; although actions: Sometimesbeing a friend meansmasteringthe art of timing. There is let hurl for A to to time time and allow go people silence. a themselvesinto their own destiny. And a time to prepareto pick up the pieceswhen it's all over. Mattie realized that this moment called for all three (70). The shift from past to presenttensemarks the voice's transition from merely it With its Mattie's to as solemn appraising a narrating persona. response reporting delivery and repetitive structure, this evaluation emulatesthe style of Ecclesiastical like by Reverend Woods: is "To deployed thing there a every preachers rhetoric

Lister 163 season,and a time to every purposeunder the heaven ... A time to rend, a time to sew; a time to keep silenceand a time to speak" (Eccles. 3: 1,3: 7 Holy Bible 580). By appropriating the kind of vernacularthat it parodies,the narrative voice its establishes authority over the other voices in the text. By recognizing the need for here, Naylor's narrative voice appearsto be commenting on its own aim of silence both speakingfor the charactersand enabling them to "hurl themselvesinto their own destiny." Naylor herself has spokento Nicholas Shakespeareof her needto let her charactersdevelop an autonomousidentity: "In the beginning I can put them in a do for become independent but I them to pray and grow" (Interview Gloria place ... 1989). In some of the women's storiesthe explanatory, authoritative narrative instead is the and reader presentedwith the thoughts of the heroine personarecedes further expansion. Naylor retains the third-person stancein her narration of without Cora Lee's thoughts but replicatesCora's mental languagethrough interior monologue: "Aw shit! Now shewouldn't know until Monday if Rachel had divorced Mack becausehe'd becomeimpotent after getting caught in that earthquake. Why didn't this girl just go home and stop minding her business" (118). The absenceof the narrating personaand its corrective vision indicates Cora's separationfrom the does boundaries Brewster that women: a separation not signal more stable ego other but rather Cora's removal from the reality of her environment. Margaret Earley Whitt's evaluation of Cora certainly suggeststhis: "Cora Lee lives in a dream world her location Even time and season. on Brewster Placeis ambiguous;Cora outside of Lee and her sevenchildren exist in the midst of chaos,supportedby welfare and its food stamps" (41-2).

Lister 164 Naylor's narrative and formal poetics reveal ways of formulating connections whilst her women, like many of Oates's characters,remain primarily in the dark. Given the authority of Naylor's narrative voice it is difficult to gaugejust how far thesewomen do grow. The distancebetweenthe narrative voice and the women of Brewster Placeis no more apparentthan in "Dusk, " the `postlude' that follows the individual storiesof the women. In "Dusk" one sensesan uneasydisparity between the circumscribed fates of Brewster's women and the gloss of romantic transcendentalismgeneratedby the narrative voice. The narrative voice tells of the demiseof Brewster Placeand foreseesthat the inhabitants' lives will continue as before. Italicization marks the shift to a different discoursein this concluding dreams left "they the their remnants packed up of section: and some to the arms of have they to pry open to take them, most to inherit another aging that would a world decay" (191). lyrical However its to the the privilege of clinging and street romanticism of the prelude re-emergesas the voice visualizes the resurgenceof Brewster's "daughters" (192). The spirit of Brewster Placeand its community will, the voice insists, continue to thrive: "But the colored daughters of Brewster, spread over the canvas of time, still wake up with their dreams misted on the edgeof a yawn. Theyget up and pin those dreamsto wet laundry hung out to dry They ebb and ... flow, ebb andflow, but never disappear. So Brewster Place still waits to die" (192). Undermining this romantic conjuring is the absenceof the women themselves. The image triumphant the rhetoric recalls voice's of eachwoman as a resurgent narrative ebony phoenix; this romantic conjuring again posesquestionsabout the autonomy of thesewomen. Looking back on her first work, Naylor admits, "I was romanticizing the female condition a bit" (Loris 254). Reflecting upon all her narratives,Naylor informs Michelle Loris that she habitually writes her transcendentalisminto her

Lister 165 work: "my spiritual vision as it shapesmy work is that I think the transcendenceof the human spirit, the power of the human spirit, moves throughout thesebooks, and is hope is that which transcendentwithin us will outweigh that which is bestial" my (257-8). The presence of the narrating and ventriloquizing persona of The Women

of Brewster Placemarks the limits of the self-displacing woman who doesnot know how to "shine alone." Self-actualization continuesto elude the women and it is left to the narrating personato articulate their potential. Whilst the readerundoubtedly sensesthe presenceof Naylor's transcendentalspirit in the final pages,she can only fates the of the women themselves. This uncertainty confirms Naylor's speculateon just in lives to the closure not aversion of her charactersbut in her own fictional form. In 1996Naylor expressedher resistanceto closure when shetold Loris: "I have always beena great beginner and never finished much of anything" (254). In their divergent readingsof the cycle's ending, critics focus primarily upon the final story rather than the `postlude'. Like many story cycle writers, Naylor usesthe final story to gathertogether someof the themesand motifs of preceding narratives. Whilst eachof the first six stories disclosesonly fragments of the women's deferred dreams,Mattie's dream constitutesthe main action in "The Block Party": a vision in which old friends return to Brewster Placeand the women attempt to rehabilitate their community after the violent deathsof Ben and Lorraine. Anchored in both fantasy, dream Mattie's and misleading reality everyday maintains the cycle's between harmony balance disunity, transcendenceand resignation. and precarious The dream's ideal of replenishedcommunity is highly qualified by the collusive fiction of denial that the women continue to weave around the figures of Theresaand Lorraine. Before Mattie's dream begins, the narrative voice informs us that, in their deaths, by the to the women once are again united a specioussilence. reaction

Lister 166 Although all of them have dreamt of Lorraine's rape, "only a few admitted it" (175); the daughtersof Brewster Placehave been "unable to be comforted by bewildered knew, didn't know, the reasonfor their daughters' broken and yet motherswho sleep" (176). The narrative commentary in "The Block Party" illuminates the high level of denial shaping Mattie's premonition.

The dream constantly threatens to erupt into

the stuff of nightmare: "Dark faces distorted into masks of pleasure, surprise, by thin that the warm air of the glued on and satisfaction masks were purpose, October sun" (180). The dream sequence offers no escape from cyclic structures and immobilizing repetitions. Cora Lee is pregnant again and Kiswana continues to in her incomprehension fights the of other women; she against their apart stand determination to continue dancing and only participates in the demolition at the end.

Most critics read the demolition of the wall as a cathartic and collaborative imagination. by its Mattie's as a product of qualified only status act of rebellion, Margaret Earley Whitt writes: "In Mattie's dream, all the women contribute to tearing down the wall, smashingthrough the barrier that cut them off from from is left She how (55-6). the out" notes green smoke rising possibilities: no one the bricks recalls the colour of Lorraine's dress,representinga gestureof inclusion towards the deadwoman's spirit (55). For Whitt, Mattie's vision of recalcitranceis fundamentally a unifying gesture. Although the act undoubtedly unites the women, it is for by their triggered collective nevertheless rage, a outlet an providing is Lorraine deaths. Ben's It desire the to of obliterate memory and only communal demolish bricks blood Mattie that the that to are stained with she starts realizes when the wall. Whilst one might read the demolition as a protest againstwhite patriarchal

Lister 167 ideology and a life of boundariesand oppression,one might also view it as one final act of denial. It is interesting that Donna Deitch's 2001 film production of the cycle departs most radically from Naylor's text in its representationof the ending. Deitch ignores many of the ambiguities surrounding the block party in an attempt to securethe kind by demanded the viewer. In her film the party takes place in of closure generally is there reality; no qualifying dream-frame. The attack on Lorraine occurs during the party and the viewer does not discover whether she lives or dies; instead,sheand Theresaleavethe scenein an ambulance. Thus the collective attempt to erasethe memory of Lorraine is not recorded. Ciel returns but only to assurethe viewer that leave has Brewster remain tied to the that those women who survived and she does her dream She not relate own of connectionwith Lorraine. The community. film endswith the demolition of the wall, which becomesa triumphant, unifying act of protest and an assertionof community. In her cycle, Naylor leavesthe readerto ponder how closely the women will dream; Ciel's Mattie's "open the of events such will repetition as return up re-enact down in did her dream? Mattie new readings close as she or will potentialities" (Ricoeur 76). The cycle's postlude is similarly conflicted. However, by insisting that the spirit of Brewster will continue to flourish the narrative voice concludesthe least, the very a gesturetowards continuity. at cycle with,

Naylor's aestheticof continuity remains the strongestimpetus behind her her first fictional location, her to turning the recent work returns most writing; Men Brewster In The Place into Naylor her to of quintet. a returns original quartet form, framing independent,linked stories with a metaphorical day, only inverting the

Lister 168 original frame by beginning with dusk and ending with dawn. Again, each story has its own time frame and linearity is disregarded;Basil's main narrative unfolds after Mattie's death, Eugene'sfollowing narrative recountseventsthat occurredwhilst she was alive. Naylor's narrative tactics in The Men of Brewster Place signal a less proprietorial approach to these characters. She grants both Ben and Eugene narrative Ben's their own stories. over vernacular performs the duties of the lyrical privileges

omniscient personaof the women's cycle, opening the men's cycle and even individual story. Naylor's abdicat of of narrative autonomy seemsto prefacing each have arisen from a certain uneasinessregarding her original representationof Brewster's men. In 1985 she informed Morrison of her concernsabout the negative in her fictional debut: the men portrayal of there was somethingthat I was very self-consciousabout with my first novel; I bent over backwardsnot to have a negative message come through about the men ... I worried about whether or not the problems that were being causedby the men in the women's lives would be interpreted as some bitter statementI had to make about black men (Naylor "Conversation" 579). On an initial reading of The Women of Brewster Place,Naylor's concerns certainly appearvalid: the women contendwith, among others, a philandering local boys violent gang of and an abscondingson. In The Women a preacher, Naylor's anxiety about this negative representationexpressesitself in the narrative from discursive it the sidelinesto make a casefor the most voice; emerges in aggressivemen the cycle: C. C. Baker and his gang. Before the rape of Lorraine, the voice makesone of its direct appealsto the reader's sympathy by underlining the

Lister 169 black man's ambivalent status;in a society that associatesmasculinity with autonomy and dominanceyet exiles black men to a liminal spaceoutside history, C. C. Baker's boys must find ways to counter the threat of self-cancellation: Born with the appendagesof power, circumcised by a guillotine, and baptized with the steamfrom a million nonreflective mirrors, these be bayonet into farmer, Asian to thrust wouldn't called upon a men an target a torpedo ... point a fmger to move a nation, or stick a pole into the moon - and they knew it. They only had that three-hundred-foot alley to servethem as stateroom,armoredtank, and executioner's found herself, her knees, by So Lorraine the on surrounded chamber. in human dangerous species existence most males with an erection to validate in a world that was only six feet wide (The Women 16970). This compulsion to explain Baker's behaviour emergesagain in The Men her his However Baker's Naylor tells story. representation of consciousness when Although in her the explanatory narrative voice of strategy. narrative shift a marks The Women returns in Baker's narrative, Naylor also admits the reader into his free indirect discourse. juxtaposes fragments She the of use of with consciousness Baker's responses to a policeman with narrative commentary. The opening, italicized commentary resonates back to the lyricism of the postlude and prelude in The Women: "He makes his money from petty hustling; snatching a bag or two; lady her But he dreams between and pimp of so much more; a running messages ... he dreams of escape" (The Men122). However, the next commentaries deploy free indirect discourse, confronting the reader with Baker's vernacular: "The most important thing in any man's life is self-respect. And how in the hell can you have

Lister 170 self-respectif you're sniveling and crying over every loser who gets dumpedon and taken out?"(125-6). Toni Morrison observesthat men draw self-verification from a collective Shaping is of manhood. male relationships codification an underlying consensusof discursive for masculinity; a code constitutes provides a gloss what personal insecurities: and problems Men can hide easierbecausethey can always be men. They can be abstract ... and they seemto know what malenessis. They have a posture for that ... They have an idea of how to be male and they talk about it a lot. I'm not sure that they talk to each other about the other thing, personalidentity (Naylor "Conversation" 571). Morrison's speculationsecho Betty Friedan's observation of the "masculine feelings" from "about (Friedan Second talking their that prohibits men mystique" 136). Clearly theseabstractnotions of manhood are a determining force in Baker's Baker Although this the reasoning on part of may sit uncomfortably consciousness. with somereaders,others endorseNaylor's representation. Michael Awkward writes: "In a country which has,throughout its history, consistently rewarded `manly' displays of courageand machismo,the attitudes of C.C. Baker's gang seem,no logical" (Awkward 57). Through her how repugnant,almost relentlessly matter inextricable dilemmas of Baker Naylor the registersone of most representationof black masculinity. In doing so, she illuminates the interaction of race and gender ideologies in the daily lives of Brewster's men who, like the women, struggle towards self-verification in a ghettoized space. In The Women, Naylor grants a voice to Ben and Eugeneand gives fragmentsof narrative to Baker and ReverendWoods. However none of the women

Lister 171 from her debut speak in the men's cycle. In keeping with her narratorial ownership of the original Brewster women, Naylor recalls their presence by including some of her narrative voice's descriptive passages from The Women into the prelude of The Men; however the original women of Brewster never appear as autonomous

charactersin the later cycle. Kiswana doesnot feature at all in Abshu's narrative, although she speakswith great pride about her boyfriend's social work in "Cora Lee." Naylor opensCiel's story with Eugene's voice in an attempt to make the did his death (Naylor "see that the that care about of child" young man reader "Conversation" 580); however in Eugene's narrative, she locatesCiel in the fixed handing him full his control of story. position of silent addressee, The absenceof familiar female voices in The Men may appearsurprising interest in Naylor's articulating the marginalized primary when we consider in first her black To Morrison that, she recalls writing work, women. experiencesof "My emotional energy was spent creating a woman's world, telling her side of it becauseI knew it hadn't beendone enough in literature" (579). At the beginning of The Men Ben stateshis desireto "tell the whole story"; in order to do this, he must don't know depends how "I the other: gender upon a man who each acknowledge don't know be And be a a woman who'd without woman. anywhere would italics). (7 Naylor's After recognizing the central role that a man" without anywhere in in lives, Naylor their the men's marginalizes unexpectedly men's role women play it female The characters who are granted a voice use primarily to new stories. him for being less Ben's belittle "quarter the than wife attacks men: of a and chastise fail (26); Keisha Basil's to they conceive more children questions when man" describes him. Woods betrays Reverend his her "perfect"; as wife and manhood is however her tolerance of contingent women upon other over superiority

Lister 172 Moreland's infidelities: she is "A wife who understoodexactly where he was going; hours; late the and above all, who understoodthe other women. As understood who long as he was discreet, sheremainedsilent" (109). Ironically, Annette's silence becomesher most subversivetool in her relationship with Moreland: "that silence was more effective than any argumentsor screamingwould have been. It weighed like a club that he usedto beat up on himself, promising with all his heart that it it it did happened happen (109). And never until again" again. would never The absenceof female discourse in The Men tells us perhapsmore about the in In America: A Cultural History, Place Manhood Brewster than the women. of men Michael Kimmel observesthat American men ground and asserttheir identities it's large "In their through part, other men relationshipswith other men: primarily define important American American their masculinity, not as to men; men who are in (7). Naylor's but Thus in to to each other" relation much relation women, is illuminating female in The Men an narrative strategy, voices marginalization of discourse for that the an exclusively masculine need protagonists' signalling Kimmel "Women their adds: are not view of womenabstract corroborates incidental to masculinity, but they are not always its central feature, either. At times, it is not women as corporeal beings but the `idea' of women, or femininity ... that dangers Hills, Naylor (7). In Linden the exposes of this animatesmen's actions" homogenizationof women through her representationof Luther Nedeedwho takes it to the extreme;the Nedeedbride must be pale-skinnedand be preparedto perform his dark-skinned father, that son will resemble obliterating a only one role: produce 28 Whilst the men of Brewster do not cultivate such influence. any sign of maternal figure designed ideals, to they women as collectively unsolvable enigmas, extreme lives: Max's "The they that, their agree place at white man carries all the complicate

Lister 173 black for the the up world; man gets all the blame; and women arejust messing guilt issue hundred barbershoppoliticians wouldn't be able downright that a confusing a to solve" (158). Max's place becomesthe forum for the men's categorizations. In the final barbershop has become "something like for Ben heartbeat" that the explains a story the men of Brewster (157); it provides the one environment where they may it As the the to secure of women. such, without presence men visit congregate Eye their contact again servesas a marker of the masculinity. of validation look in the the the unlike women, men can each other self-conceptions: characters' find based themselves that they will a reflection of on a mutual certain eye, is for Max's "the place only place us men to get together, of masculinity. conception to look into eachothers' eyesand seewhat we needto see- that we do more than just exist - we thrive and are alive" (167). The verb "need" betraysthe limits of this is have for "posture" " Vision "maleness. Morrison As these a suggests, men vision. images himself for Woods, Reverend limited to to who refers only of especially Reverend Woods his relies only on the mirror that reflects the masculinity. assert physical self: "Even without the attention of the church sisters

...

he had a mirror.

And thanks to good eyesight- unlike that half-blind fool Bennett - he knew exactly jump into his T. Woods, Him, Moreland it to and ready waiting what showed: destiny" (100). Again, Morrison's gender identifications resonatethrough Naylor's fictional Stepto Morrison interview Robert In with observesthat men value such an world. barber [sic] "they the shop and the pool room and so on" enjoy public spaces: (Stepto 21). In conversationwith Mel Watkins she elaborateson this, suggesting that men do not feel the pull of Home the way women do: "It's a feminine concept -

Lister 174 things happeningin a room, a house. That's where we live, in houses. Men don't live in those houses,they really don't. My ex-husbandis an architect and he didn't live there; every houseis a hotel to him" (Watkins 46). Private momentsof doubt, paralysis and suppressionundermine the men's collective notions of manhood. Although the men shun conversationwith women, they are almost as guardedin their exchangeswith eachother. Whilst Naylor's women achievea tenuoussenseof community and purposethrough the sharedrituals of childrearing and domesticity, the men spurn theserelational bonds; they haunt the periphery of the women's cycle sporadically, appearingand vanishing without any clear function. In their own cycle, Brewster's men construct less of a community than their female counterparts. They may seek self-definition by observing other dialogue is but their clearly hamperedby a mutual suspicion of the word. Their men discussionsremain firmly rooted in the political and social problems of the day; as Morrison suspects,personaldilemmas are never discussed. Ben tells us: "It's a thanklessjob, being an armchair - or barber chair - politician. The issuesthey solve boil down to three subjects:white men, black men, and women" (158). Whereasthe in unexpectedconnectionsand personal may culminate exchanges women's fractious dialogue her Kiswana's thinks of with one mother - the men revelationsin diversionary talk strategy order to evadeself-examination: a realisation a as use by being Ben: "when tired sick and you're of sick and tired, voiced eventually if low like bad, like Greasy. And that then get not or you you get us. sometimes Hoping to solve the problems of the world so that we forget - or put the knowledge (161). lives hold that attention" our own need on During her conversationwith Naylor in 1985, Toni Morrison spoke of the "Posture" of masculinity that inhibits dialogue about personalrelationships. She

Lister 175 notes:"Only when they get very much older, then they can stop posturing" (571). Naylor dramatizesthis theory in her portrayal of Ben, the Brewster male who cuts through the banter and acknowledgeswoman's role in male self-actualization. Evidenceof these `posturesof masculinity' aboundsin The Men of Brewster Place inwardly the ponder, "What does it meanto be a man?" (28). Echoing as characters Judith Butler, Michael Kimmel explores the notion of gender as performance, relating it specifically to twentieth-century notions of manhood in America. He identifies one of his "central themes" as how "masculinity was increasingly an act, a form of public display; that men felt themselveson display at virtually all times; and that the intensity of the need for display was increasing" (100). Someof Naylor's men refer to masculinity as an effect or spectacle,often using the lexicon of performanceto describefamiliar postures:Basil's first visit to his mother represents, for him, "a dressrehersalfor the day I felt I would truly becomea man" (44); in contrastto his wife's public exorcism of grief, Eugenedons "the strong-black-man in deflect (91); his to the community's condolences order after shooting mask" brother, C. C. Baker "thanks Godfor giving him the courage to do it. The courage to be a man" (129); ReverendWoods, like many alpha males before him, developsa his labelling himself "a magnificent through sensibility physicality, strong masculine is (100). It man" not only men who observesuch paradigms;Ben's specimenof a instructs her son, "Shut your mouth. Be a man," believing, like great-grandmother Eugene,that silence and self-control signify masculinity (16). This posturing finds its most powerful expressionin the words of the least authoritative man in the cycle: Greasycapturesthe predicamentof the black men in his community with the two his discourse: his that pathetic assertions,"`I'm a man"' and "`I'm comprise phrases trying"' (165).

Lister 176 By emulating conceptionsof manhoodthat foster silence, stoicism, and selfisolate Brewster's themselvesfrom each other more than their men containment, female counterpartsfor whom personalidentity is not a complete taboo. In the postludeAbshu standsalone as the sole bearerof hope for the men as the narrative his final Brewster describes Place: moments at voice And so he will leave this streetto walk into a rising sun. One man againstthe dawning of the inevitable. One man who is determinedto believe that this is the end of a battle, not the end of the war. And this one tired warrior is the best that Brewster Place has to offer the world. But one man standing is all that's needed- one manchild for the millennium- as the music plays on ... and on ... (172-3). Once more Naylor writes her spirit of romantic transcendentalisminto her ending development. however, lure hope its This time of continued struggle and with in itself feminine than consciousness a single masculine rather a collective manifests one. However, the referenceto Brother Jerome'smusic gesturestowards the for Throughout Brother Jerome's these the community men. cycle of possibility blues provide the soundtrackto the men's lives; covertly commenting on each man's individual becomes linking his Emanating the thread the narratives. music story, from Brother Jerome's musical commentary is the sameaura of mystery that burgeoning `conjuring' Brewster's Jerome's the of women. ability to surrounds lives from impulses the that are of men's emerges paradigms conjure musical traditionally associatedwith the female psyche: intuition, empathyand fluidity. It is important to note that Jeromeis the only man who does not appearin The Women of Brewster Placeand is therefore the only new protagonist in The Men. By

Lister 177 introducing an asexualmanchild into the men's cycle Naylor recognizesthe need for in By feminizing this paralysed community. presence piecing the men's narratives a togetherthrough music, Jeromedismantlesthe boundariesseparatingone man from another: His music was telling us about our lives and he didn't evenknow it. Or maybe in the smallest part of his small brain he did. Maybe he heardthe

Amen brother's coming from every brick; every piece of ...

filling iron Brewster Place Jerome and railing on as played, concrete the streetwith the sound of a black man's blues (37). Although the men try to write women out of their narratives,there is a "Her" in their " Jerome's "on (8). By the the end of cycle, music and on at playing cycle ... ... both isolation Abshu's forwards, and the senseof closure undercutting resonates (173) As a "retarded child," destinedto remain forever within the four walls of his be disenfranchised Brewster: Jerome to the most man at appears mother's apartment, "there is enough light to edgethe borders of his mind, the island where he lives alone isolation becomes his his Jerome Through (33,31). counters and music, with music" the most pervasivepresencein the cycle, appearingthroughout Ben's prefatory defies boundaries He in themselves. thus the the stories of some of narrativesand the form as well as those of the fractured male community and his limited mental faculties. In The Signifying Monkey, Henry Louis Gateswrites that the phrasesof formal form in " "stretch[ing] "elastic blues the their properties, rather than the are describes Baker kind form" (123). Houston the the of atmospherethat articulat[ing] formal "Even from this as they speakof paralyzing absenceand pliability: arises ineradicabledesire, their instrumental rhythms suggestchange,movement ...

Lister 178 continuance,unlimited and unending possibility" (Houston Blues 8). Jerome's music collapsesformal boundariesand expressesNaylor's romantic transcendentalism,assumingthe role of the lyrical narrative voice in The Women. Abshu is the only other characterwho attemptsto forge meaningful his by teaching the boys of Brewster that "They didn't with community; connections didn't like they and need mouths needguns sewersto get respect" he seeksto rewrite the discoursesof manhoodthat motivate C. C. Baker (Men141). Although Naylor for future the to the responsibility appears place on Abshu's shouldersas he leaves Brewster, the omnipresenceand perpetuity of Jerome's music reminds the readerof the tacit potential connectionsbetweenthe last community of Brewster's men. Brother Jerome's subversivemusic runs counter to the bound narrativesof Brewster's disenfranchisedmen. Through Jerome,Naylor challengesthe gender binaries that lock maskedmen like Eugeneinto scripts of silence and denial. The less Brewster spaceto Eugenethan to Lorraine and offers even community of Theresa. The hegemonyof heterosexualideology reveals itself in the word `faggot" that repeatedlyruptures Eugene'stentative narration. In Naylor's fictional world it is generally easierfor lesbiansto claim a homosexualidentity than men. Kimberly A. Costino attributes this difference to the influence of capitalism. She notes that Theresaand Lorraine are willing to forego what Winston Alcott in Linden Hills is in (45). "`How am I going to live with "full the economic order" participation not: haven't for the they even made up right words what we are to each you when his lover. David Winston Winston "' that replies asks can only exist under a other? "`nice, neat title that you can put on your desk"' (80). Like Winston, Eugene facade identity heterosexual his the the under of sexual male. Terrified of submerges from deviation he his hides behind the veil of the sexual perceived norms, revealing

Lister 179 independent,silent husbandand father, periodically ignoring his wife and deserting her. Costino notesthat Naylor challengesthesepolarized notions of masculinity by developing a "spectrum of sexuality" acrossher `novels': "she createscharacters between fall in liminal the two extremesof gay and straight" (41). the spaces who Part of Eugene'sconfusion over his sexuality arises from his strong love for Ciel desire for his believe it "And to contradict men: you can or not, but I which seems loved you. I had loved you from the first time I saw you, racing past my aunt's housein Tennessee.Those long, brown legs almost flying over the dirt roads in Coral Rock, hardly stirring up dust

" (70). Most significantly, Eugeneis attracted ...

to Ciel becauseof one common sensibility: "I knew I wanted you in my life when the years showed me that you could also dream" (70). Here Eugeneidentifies the bond between Brewster: the capacity to the men and women of strongestpotential her Michael In Women Mattie The tentatively places envision new realities. friendship with Etta further along this continuum of sexuality, querying the line betweenplatonic and lesbian relationships. In the men's cycle homosexuality is not discussedoutside the parametersof Eugene'sstory; it exists only as a form of otherness,againstwhich the men validate their manhood. In Eugene'sstory Naylor alerts the readerto the dangersof subscribing to by identifications. Eugene's Framed secretnarrative of gender established is Unable Chino's homosexuality, tale. to reconcile cautionary story a suppressed himself to his homosexuality, Chino choosesto undergo a sex change. At first sight, Chino's audaciousexperimentation seemsto signal a desireto invert and disrupt fixed genderbinaries; Eugenelearns later that the radical changebetrays a needto just ideologies fixed "It than them: to sexuality, rather of confound was conform his himself handle to think the well to contempt as as world's own of as a easier -

Lister 180 loving (79). However, loving than men" as a man as the transformation men woman discovers didn't Chino "he that really want to be a woman" and nearscompletion, fords himself "caught in limbo, and left to define himself' (79,80). He learnstoo late that imitating the physicality of a woman will not changehis inherent statusas a homosexualmale. His new body becomesa site for further self-denial: "Chino's himself but hiding to a place anchor somewhere nothing paint were perfume and from his himself by having true self to away nowhere running put managed after island is become "an (79). His to to this conflict reaction under a surgeon'sscalpel" his "spend his himself; to every waking moment god" and own own country; unto thinking of ways to cram his uniquenessdown someone'sthroat" (78). Unable to further he himself first in himself to the marginalization subjects person, speakof for by displacing isolated their becomes men comfort other artist, providing an and his own. pain with In Naylor's later works, the men becomeslightly easierwith the grey areasof friends Willie Lester in 1980s, Hills, Linden In the and rechildhood set sexuality. jokes When Willie that they Mattie's Etta questioning. of uneasy moment and enact "`might as well have beenmarried, as much time as we've spenttogether,"' Lester is is do (282). Willie's didn't together"' "`the thing reaction sleep we only responds, to cringe at the suggestionbut he is unable to deny his more feminine sensibilities. His psychic connection with Willa Nedeed emergesfrom his prescient dreamsof Hills, In Linden faceless the the male assumes character women. namelessand heightened Like Brother Jerome, Willie's female traditionally role of connector. both He `feminine' him intuition these nurtures and spurns apart. set empathy and attributes:

Lister 181 A whole week in Linden Hills and he had never heard her name. But she was waiting for him, he felt that in his guts ... Willie shuddered. Christ, now he really was turning into a woman - he soundedlike somebody's superstitiousold aunt. Wake up, man. This is the twentieth century and that's Putney Wayne outside your window. You're free, black and twenty (273). Ultimately Willie cuts through such abstractions. He leavesTupelo Drive hand in hand with his friend Lester in a rejection of hegemonicgender identifications. For the women and men of Brewster such adaptationsremain problematic. Although The Men of Brewster Place is Naylor's most recent work, her original fictional location remainsprimarily a site for resistancerather than reconfiguration. *

In the world of Brewster, genderparadigmsare so fixed that men and women formal between individual Affinities their spaces. within and own narratives require and communities emergeprimarily through moments of covert questioning and the duality Naylor the the of narrative voice. plays on conjuring of the cycle romantic form both to challenge ideologies and realize their immobilizing effects. The permeability of boundariesremains a secretsharedbetweenthe reader,the narrating few. Cafe deploys In Bailey's Naylor formal the enlightened a similar and persona its boundlessness. Published that to ten authors a community own represent model form Women Brewster Place The Bailey's Cafe recalls the of cyclic of after years Naylor's debut. SeveralNaylor critics observethe formal parity betweenthe two texts; Donna Rifkind in her review of the text writes: "Like ... The Womenof Brewster Place the new book is set up as a seriesof interweaving life portraits" (28).

Lister 182 Dunn and Morris include Bailey's Cafe in their glossary but commentatorson the include in the text their explorations. rarely story cycle The owner of the cafe calls himself Bailey and either knows the women at Eve's place personally or is familiar with their stories. One of the many thematic threadsthat runs throughout Naylor's quartet of `novels' transforming them into a is dream like inhabitants the the cycle, motif; macrocosmic of Brewster, the women in Bailey's Cafe are seekingsolacefrom "broken dreams" (144). This narrative is however, gender-specific. Framing these stories are the narratives community not, himself Bailey two and Stanley/Miss Maple, the cleanerand bouncer at men: of Eve's house. Male and female narrativesof disenfranchisementsit side by side and is locus the as single of autonomy. no voice privileged Someof the charactersnarratetheir stories in their own vernaculars,although Bailey introducesthesevoices and occasionally servesas surrogatenarrator. In he functions this role also as a meta-narratoras he gaugesthe compatibility assuming draws he his that to, teller: tale a process attention explaining and strategiesto the of he Sadie, have "I'm bring In that to the this one on case of perceives gonna reader. in by myself. It calls for telling straight out, the way it was. Pure, simple, and hand, demands On Mariam's different (40). the touch. She other story a clean" in habitually locked the taciturn Nadine must break her own silence, and so remains initially for her. in Nadine Bailey's from to narrate reads order retreat silence but his cowardice acknowledges eventually as male sensitivity to narration isn't "This delicate territory: narrative a story that any man can tell. And particularly the girl can't do it for herself; she's a little off in the head" (143). Eve, Nadine, and a third-person omniscient voice unite to deliver this difficult story. Bailey's instincts form Nadine adopts a of metaphoricalnarration to representthe are proved right.

Lister 183 amputationof Mariam's genitalia; she usesEve's slicing of the plum to figure this 29 mutilation. The contiguity and collaboration of male and female voices in Bailey's Cafe enableNaylor to establishan open narrative community and break down the dichotomiesthat inhibit male/femalerelations in Brewster. The rhythm of the blues permeatesBailey's Cafe from the beginning. The is lullaby introduces the blues as a medium of transmission which cycle's epigraph a and entry into open spaces:"hush now can you hear it can't be far away/ needing the blues to get there/

blues open/ a place never/closing: Bailey's/Cafe." These the ...

referencesrun throughout the cycle, appearingas titles of sectionsand stories. Naylor entitles Sadie's story, "Mood: Indigo," invoking Duke Ellington's jazz composition. She choosesa musical term to prefacethe women's stories which highlights the dualism of the form itself: the title "The Jam" preparesthe reader for sevensolo narrationsthat will merge together whilst retaining their separate identities. Brother Jerome's blues provide a fragmented,often ignored soundtrackto the lives of Brewster's men. The referential framework in Bailey's Cafe firmly blues formal for trope the entire cycle and thus becomesNaylor's the as a establishes fullest expressionof her aestheticof revision and openness. The mystery surrounding both Bailey's Cafe and Eve's housebelies the implied by like Although, Brewster Place, the title. these place cycle's of specificity liminal placescater for those marginalized by everyday society, they are open spaces that representa kind of mystical limbo for thesecharacters. Naylor describesthe in demise Brewster Place detail but the origins of Bailey's of some and conception Cafe and Eve's House elude identification. Like the blues, the settings in this cycle confound the conventional markers of time. The cafe appearedout of nowhere one day when Bailey suddenly "found [him]self in here from that wharf in San

Lister 184 Francisco" (27). It is situated"on the margin betweenthe edge of the world and infinite possibility" (76). The back of the cafe is an indefinable void, a "black, boundaries defies for temporal that and spatial and serves as a stage space" empty two antithetical purposes:Bailey tells us that somepeople use it to commit suicide, becomes just back "out too much to bear" (163); for a certain memory until staying fulfilment dreams. Eve Jesse Bell there to their the takes the of stages void others, had (138); Sadie bedroom Iceman Jones "the she'd as a girl" and go simple revisit there to dancebeneaththe stars (76). The indeterminacyof these settingsclouds our knowledge of their owners. Although his candid voice solicits the reader's trust, Bailey places a veil between himself and the readerby refusing to disclosehis real name. Eve is robbed of a date her birthday. her In Godfather the to of refuses reveal senseof origin when Eve's Joy Fowler Karen to the aptly place as a refers cycle review of "phantasmagoricalboarding house" (26); it has no fixed addressbut is distinguished by a gardenof wild flowers that again defy time by remaining perpetually in bloom. Throughout the cycle, the motivations of its owner remain unclear. Eve helps most her door, true sign the yet rarely exhibits any of sympathy; at arrive who women of because kind "That her the pathetic cases of woman one of most rejecting we witness hated men. And there was no room available for that kind in my boardinghouse. Esther was enough" (82). Eve governsher microcosm of misfits according to her have little influence there. over who stays economy and altruism whim; In The Women, Etta Mae Johnsonlives the life of a woman who doesnot know how to "shine alone"; Eve's story reveals exactly what might happenwhen a from. Song" draw In "Eve's Naylor her has to the recasts expulsion self only woman her Eve Naylor's Genesis that victorious and emerges self-governing. so myth of

Lister 185 her fictional throughout of western narratives reconfiguration oeuvre is well documented. In Bailey's Cafe she signifies on biblical narratives, placing the women at the centre of the story and orienting their plots towards self-empowerment. By recastingthesefamiliar plots, Naylor challengesthe fixity of establishednarrative boundaries just her formal through confounds generic as she paradigms, innovations.30 Castout by Godfather, her only guardian, for discovering "what my body was for, " Eve embarkson a journey semi-nakedand almost blinded by the delta dust (87). As she travels from Pilottown to New Orleansshe constructsher develops I "If self-belief: an unshakeable could get survival and of own system through all I'd gotten through, then I was overqualified to be the mayor of New Orleans. And much too overqualified to be the governor of Louisiana. And when I kept thinking on up the line, the comparisonswere beneathcontempt" (91). Significantly this autonomy emergesonly when Eve must relinquish any senseof it is Orleans New When she arrives at neither as a woman or genderedsubjectivity. into female but New Orleans had "I to neither male nor walk no choice a man: - mud. But I could right then and there choosewhat I was going to be when I walked back destination, debunks by her Eve Having (91). gender paradigms reached out" embodying antithetical models of womanhood: sheperforms the role of mother, saviour and madamto the other women. The charactersin Bailey's Cafe are more actively subversivethan Brewster's Naylor in the transcendence the grounds possibility of and women. men resisting She than the voice. narrative placesthe most revolutionary rather actions characters' discoursetowards the end of the text: "Miss Maple's Blues" completesthe sequence for the individual cycle's and verifies status as a vehicle narratives reconfiguration. of In his story, Stanley confronts the dilemmas that plague Naylor's men and women

Lister 186 throughout her cyclic quintet: the conflict betweenpersonalaspirationsand social strictures,and fixed and fluid gender identities. More than any other character,he both recognizesand cuts through establishedcodifications of race and gender: is he Stanley, his also answersto Miss Maple; he dons women's name although clothing during the summermonths merely to counter the stifling heat, but retains all other markersof manhood;whilst building up his own businessas a jingle writer, he is both the cleanerand the bouncer at Eve's house; he wears dressesin public but, much to the confusion of SugarMan, is neither transsexualnor homosexual. After his ninety-ninth failure to securea job despite impressive qualifications, Stanley decidesto pleasehimself rather than society. He speculatesthat the "margin" of a is black "Much a man smaller than the margin of physical accepting company (203). At Bailey the the those that of clothes offered me" end story can only comfort classify Stanley as "one of the freest men I know" (216). In someways Stanley's narrative is typically masculine as it assumesthe from His differs that of the goal goal-oriented quest plot. conventional, of structure the alpha male as he relentlessly pursuesan identity unconditioned by the dominant ideology. He entersthe cafe with the intention of committing suicide and endsthe (76). Unlike brink "infinite King the of experiencing possibility" story on MacLain's repetitive quest plot, Stanley'sjourney assumesmany forms as he spurns inherits from his father Stanley this trajectories. orientation who teaches established him to disregardnotions of manhoodthat ground masculinity in the body. Like Abshu in The Men Stanley's father construeshis manhood through the masteryof language,teaching his son to retaliate againstprejudice with words. Stanley's father instructs his son to dismiss the "babble" of prejudice and "learn[] your own language, in " "identify (182). Through to yourself order as a man" standards, own set your

Lister 187 languageStanley learnsto counter the white man's homogenization of his race; he he became "dizzy" tracing the lines of his mixed race ancestry, that where recalls "The Americans had no problem with our identities they imported one six-letter ... word to cut through all that Yuma-Irish-Mexican-African tangle in our heritage" (171). Stanley spendsthe rest of his life confounding the white man's classifications. In the Brewster cycles eye contact betraysthe characters' resistanceto momentsof potential devianceand self-recognition. In Stanley's story it marks the dismantling of boundaries. In an extraordinary moment Stanley's father erasesracial barriers by sharing his passion for the word with a Klansman, the head clerk at the freighting office. When cratesof Shakespeare'sworks arrive, Stanley's father be because, "There's thirty-eight that there should volumes a separatevolume reports for the poems and sonnets" (177). Petersrecognizesthe black man's superior knowledge and, for a moment, they are united by their wonder at the presenceof the books. Stanleyrendersthe moment in languageusually deployed for an illicit love: looked into forbidden knowing "And then the each other's eyes, recognition of father's doing knowing (177). Stanley's they they couldn't stop" were while what creed reverberatesthroughout Naylor's cyclic quintet. When he confronts the men he defile Stanley's "There is tells them: graduation gift, no greater strength who than what isfound within. There is no greater love than reaching beyond boundaries to other men" (186). Personalidentity is not a taboo subject for Stanley's father. In his review of Bailey's Cafe, Peter Erickson writes that, in her portrayal of Miss Maple, Naylor "breaks new ground": "The legacy from the first three novels in the quartet is a line of failed, incomplete, or uncertain male characters"(32). When Nicholas ShakespearequestionedNaylor on her negative portrayal of men she

Lister 188 defendedher male representationsin Mama Day but concededthat: "Ninety per cent of the time my conflict bearersfor my major female charactersare the men in their lives" (Interview Gloria 1989). Whilst this remainstrue for the residentsat Eve's house,the major male charactersin Bailey's Cafe perform a different function. Bailey respondsto eachwoman's story with as much sensitivity as Nadine and Eve. As connectors,Gabeand Bailey assumea similar role to Mattie Michael. When Gabe,Stanleyand Bailey assembleto blessbaby George, Bailey registers his faith its Jewish the and emphasison community: "that's what I like of appreciation the most about Gabe's faith: nothing important can happenunlessthey're all in it together as a community" (227). When Georgeutters his first cry, the three major in join in hands the cycle celebration: "Gabe grabbedme, whirled male characters dance his Miss Maple hand and the three to took and we started other me around, ... in hands feet floor, the the middle of raised and stomping" (225). of us were out Accompanying this joyous moment of cross-cultural sharing are the have that questions come to characterizeNaylor's endings. Whilst uncertaintiesand Bailey recognizestheir sharedhistory of oppressionand marginalization, he is under illusions about their relationship: no This man is not my brother

This man is simply someonewho ...

doesn't have to run around trying to guesswhat I really think about him becauseI tell him so. And if you're finding that heart-warming and refreshing, it showsyou how far the world still is from anything that even looks like peaceamong men (220-1 Naylor's italics). A common sensibility unites these men however; they both refuse to "compar[e] did Who's highest bodies" to the the what whom most. got who on pile of notes (220). This resistanceto competitive discoursemarks a shift away from the norms

Lister 189 of male speechand is a fitting model for Naylor's narrative strategy; in this cycle no voice claims authority over the other. Like The Women of Brewster Place Naylor grounds the possibility of transcendence in communal moments rather than individual stories. Although Stanley ends his journey with a clear view of his prosperous future, the fates of Eve's

women remain unknown; their narratives, like the circumcision itself, are primarily about "survival" (226). As an Ethiopian Jew bringing the community together, Mariam becomesthe figure of hope for the other characters;however her sustained death is troubling. When she cleansesherself after the birth, she silenceand eventual entersthe void to "create a running streamto bathe in"; for Mariam, the void becomesa place of death when it produces"endlesswater" (228). Bailey recognizes duality the of this ending as a realistic reflection of life: "If this was and endorses like that sappyviolin music on Make-Believe Ballroom, we could wrap it all up with a lot of happy endings ... But I don't believe that life is supposedto make you feel good, or to make you feel miserableeither. Life is just supposedto make you feel" (219). Whilst the birth of George forges a fleeting spiritual union betweenthe insists is Bailey that the cafe not an environment in which to establish characters, he his customerswill seeGeorge again. Only outside the bounds nor origins; neither individual follow his this cycle may we story; we must read Mama Day to learn of the outcome of his narrative. Thus Naylor directs us back through the macrocosm, again warding off the shadow of finality. Before he tells his fmal story, Bailey by his father's Naylor's to resistance closure contesting advice: "My old man voices finish It's Always to what you start. a soundprinciple, but it can't work in say, used this cafe. If life is truly a song, then what we've got here is just snatchesof a few

Lister 190 in in folks All they their stories and go transition; these come midway are melodies. is in father's fictional Naylor's Bailey's (219). equally redundant principle on" be "quartet" `novels' Her a of must now extendedto a of conception original world. Moreover, Gloria Naylor Brewster Place. include The Men to of websites on quintet Sapphira Wade, "is telling that on a new novel entitled working" currently she report the story of the slavewho brings back Cocoa in Mama Day (Erin "Gloria"). Like Brother Jerome'sblues, Naylor will continue to reinvigorate her flexible cyclic form to `play on ... and on" (Men 173).

Lister 191

5

"Power from the in-between": Louise Erdrich's

Macrocosmic Cycle

"I don't have a central metaphor for my life. I only have chaos. I now read that there is somekind of order even in chaos,and that's comforting" (Erdrich Pearlman 155).

"The story comesaround, pushing at our brains, and soon we are trying to ravel back to the beginning, trying to put families into order and make senseof things. But we follows, soon another person, and and another one and still another, until start with in (Erdrich Bingo 5). lost the connections" we are

Whenever interviewers ask Louise Erdrich to define her form, sheemploys its illuminate in When 1993Nancy Chavkin that autonomy and pliability. metaphors it be her forms "an organic her to that say would accurate work whether asked like "It's (240). interview In Erdrich the more a compost replied: pile" same whole" junked her first in "the front, Tracks, describes the manuscript, as old car yard she for (238). Erdrich's homogeneity to parts" resistance and raided continually definition registers itself in the easewith which she alternatesformal taxonomies in interviews. She frequently interchangesthe terms `novel' and `story cycle', settling definitive When first the classification. she wrote a storiesof Love on neither as Medicine, her debut, she "had no real theory behind the form," moving "back and forth without any real structure,just a kind of personal liking" (Grantham 16). In

Lister 192 discussionwith her collaborator, Michael Dorris, and Laura Coltelli, shedoes not take issuewith Dorris's description of Love Medicine as "a story cycle in the traditional sense"(Coltelli 22). In the sameinterview, sherefers to the book as a in formal this shift statusto Dorris's assimilating vision: "I am novel, attributing indebtedto him for organizing and making the book into a novel" (26). She speaks in four books her first the sameway that cycle writers often speakabout their of books the and are elusive and origins endings continue to reflect upon each stories: don't know books begin "I these when will and end, and the movement really other: is so circular" (Chavkin "Interview" 234-5). In 2001, after the publication of three familiar her featuring long "one to texts characters, she refers as novel"; more works however she continuesto place heavy emphasison the independentidentity of each books. it is have hard But I "I the to try to make think read other useful very work: is in its book. its book. It But book they all connect someway" own own each (Mudge "Louise"). I prefer to `classify' Erdrich's work as a macrocosmiccycle, individual Whether Gloria Naylor's it text or quintet. not each alongside placing for debate; however, a cycle remains subject as a whole short story constitutesa these linked texts certainly operate as a cycle, sendingthe reader back and forth in the searchfor connections. Most critics classify Erdrich's works as novels, whilst recognizing the independenceof many of the `chapters'. SuzanneFergusonhighlights the duality of Erdrich's texts in her essay,"The Short Stories of Louise Erdrich's Novels." She distinguishesErdrich's early texts from paradigmatic cycles and tentatively suggests that Erdrich has createda new form. She arguesthat Love Medicine and Tracks "are identified that to those collections are similar as `cycles' or not generically `sequences',like Winesburg, Ohio ... or the like," because"the `stories' have

Lister 193 become`chapters,' and the intermittently reappearingnarrators achieve independent, important lives as charactersin their own narratives as well as in those of the other (Ferguson "Erdrich" 541). However Fergusonalso recognizes character/narrators" the inaccuracyof the term `novel' for texts whose individual components"rub juxtaposing different frames, times narrative voices, each other, and styles, against creating productive dissonancesof signification and feeling" (541). She settlesfor dual inclusive `definition' the that registers statusof the story/chaptersas an freestandingnarrative entities and parts of a unified whole: "Erdrich's `new' kind of 31 (541). story-sequencenovel" Erdrich critics illuminate the parities betweenLove Medicine and the story do her In form, this taxonomy. they always use not review of the text, although cycle Ursula Le Guin commentson the "onenessand manyness"that characterizes Erdrich's debut cycle and observeshow "passion and compassion,desolation and humor all center in a perception of what it is to belong and not to belong, to be a 6). The (Le Guin be the to resonanceswith the theories of of people" one person, Forrest Ingram are obvious. In their studiesof Erdrich, story cycle critics focus form. Dunn Morris Medicine Love the and as an example of almost exclusively on include Love Medicine, The Beet Queen,and Tracks in their "Chronology" of the in form. but Medicine Love their to the glossary of refer only compositenovel JamesNagel does not look beyond Love Medicine in his chapter on Louise Erdrich, "The Ethnic Resonanceof Genre: Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine," although Erdrich had published several more `cycles' by 2001. Love Medicine and Tracks remain the most popular texts with critics and readers. In someways they adheremore closely to the story cycle model than Erdrich's other works. Writing about the 1984 edition of Love Medicine, Hertha

Lister

194

Wong arguesconvincingly that the text is a "network of stories" by illuminating the "numerous connectivedevices, such as the repetition of the sameevent narrated from different perspectives"and the way that "the reader is forced to integrate, interpret, and reinterpret the narrative(s)" ("Narrative Communities" 96,90). Tracks is the only text whose individual stories follow each other in chronological order; however, unlike some of the compendiousstories in Tales of Burning Love and The Beet Queen,the more protracted narratives in Tracks, like those in Love Medicine, retain their statusas self-containedpieces; thus, as a whole, Tracks and Love Medicine function more like Forrest Ingram's model of the short story cycle: a form that displays "a double tendencyof assertingthe individuality of its componentson the one hand and of highlighting, on the other, the bonds of unity which make the many into a single whole" (Ingram 19). Whilst The Bingo Palaceis divided into chaptersand the stories in Tracks observeostensibly a chronological structure, the in in Love Medicine themselves accordancewith the temporal arrange narratives sensibilities of the characters. As CatherineRainwater notes,the characterssharea concept of time that is "cyclic rather than linear, accretive rather than incremental, daily, few distinctions between events and momentous ordinary events" and makes (Rainwater "Reading" 171) 32 Viewed as a macrocosmiccycle, Erdrich's entire body of texts disrupts in If to them order, one would begin with Tracks. chronology. one were read followed by The Beet Queen,Love Medicine, and The Bingo Palace. Erdrich's later texts frustrate chronology further, asthey revisit familiar locations and sidelined frame broadening the time of the macrocosmiccycle. The Last Report on the stories, Miracles at Little No Horse reachesfurther back than Tracks and further forward than any other reservationcycle and Four Souls fills in one of the many gaps in

Lister 195 Fleur's complicated narrative that hauntsthe final pagesof Tracks. The Master Butcher's Singing Club returns to the North Dakota of The Beet Queenbut again reachesfurther back. The Beet Queenstretchesfrom 1932 to 1972,whilst the later text spansthe years from the end of World War One to the 1950s. When Hertha Wong questionsErdrich on her movement betweenformal categories,she dismissesthe needto "quibble about the form," claiming, "I don't even worry about it actually" ("An Interview" 47). Having recognizedthe hybrid statusof her forms, Erdrich anticipatesfurther fluctuations in their dynamics:"The forms of the work are loosening up" she informs Coltelli as early as 1985 (29). Erdrich's vision of a pliable form was fulfilled when she revisited Love Medicine it in feel is 1993, "I three this after adding new stories: an ongoing and republished discrete untouchablepiece of writing" (Streitfield 15). work, not some Speakingto Wong after the publication of The Beet Queen,Erdrich and Dorris outlined their conceptionof a particular formal framework. Like Gloria Naylor, they envisioned a kind of macrocosmiccycle, constituting a quartet of `novels'. Considering Erdrich's resistanceto fixed formal configurations, she spoke framework, incorporate her this to an revealing plans with relative enthusiasmabout into the quartet: elaboratemythological scheme

We really think of eachbook asbeingtied to oneof the four elements... It's the number of completion in Ojibway mythology. There are different myths, but one of them is the bear coming through different worlds, breaking through from one world into the next, from the next world into the next world. The number of incompletion is three and the number of completion is four, so four is a good number (45 Erdrich's italics).

Lister 196 One of the four elementsbecomesthe central motif in eachbook in the opening tetralogy. Erdrich and Dorris confirm that the motif for Love Medicine is water, Tracks is earth, The Beet Queenis air, and The Bingo Palaceis fire (Wong "An Interview" 45). In theseearly interviews there are however warning signsthat Erdrich, like Naylor, will eventually abandonthis framework. Emerging clearly from these discussionsis her resistanceto closure and limits and her insistenceupon the possibility of continuity. For Erdrich, publication doesnot foreclosethe possibility of revision; as evidencedin her 1993revision of Love Medicine, she considersthe publication processmerely a method of "temporary storage" (Chavkin "Interview" 232). For both her and her characters,there are no definitive versions of a story. Shetells Chavkin emphatically that, "There is no quantifiable reality. Points of view changethe reality of a situation and there is a reality to madness,imagined events, and perhapssomething beyond that" ("An Interview" 224). Erdrich's macrocosmiccycle currently comprisesa nonet of texts: Love Medicine (1984,1993); The Beet Queen(1986); Tracks (1988); The Bingo Palace (1994); Tales of Burning Love (1996); Antelope The

Wife (1998); The Last Report

on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001); The Master Butcher's Singing Club (2002) and the most recent addition, Four Souls, subtitled "A Novel" (2004). However, boundariesare always elusive in Erdrich's world. The publication of The Antelope Wife in 1998 complicated matters as Erdrich shifted the focus to Minneapolis, the home of a different branchof the Chippewa tribe featured in the preceding cycles. However, strong thematic links place The Antelope Wife in the macrocosmic framework: the powerful workings of history and tradition; the insuperableforce of interaction love; the obsessive of the mundaneand the mythical. Erdrich cannot

Lister 197 resist gesturingtowards the possibility of continuity and connectionwith the other texts in the macrocosm;she includes an early, fleeting referenceto one of her most prolific charactersfrom the other novels. As the narrator of "Seaweed Marshmallows" recountsher family history, sherevealshow "One Shawanoman stoppedwith a Pillager woman" and was subsequently"lost" (35). Readersof Erdrich's opening tetralogy will recognizethis woman potentially as Fleur Pillager, a her form, in freely Erdrich's own out of around weaving and characterwho moves disrupting lines. genealogical and other characters'storiesand The boundariesof Erdrich's macrocosmstretch beyond those works Erdrich issue Monthly in book form. 2001 The Atlantic In February the of published Miracles formed Last Report The the that at part of on originally published a story Little No Horse. "Sister Godzilla" tells the story of recurring characterDot Adare's decided deformed Although Erdrich to edit nun. experienceat convent school with a this narrative from The Last Report, shegave it a place in her larger macrocosmic form by publishing it as a short story both in the journal and on the Atlantic Online in her 1987, Erdrich Speaking Joseph Bruchac to presents volume of poems, website. Jacklight, as an integral part of her `compost pile' of `novels'. Like Naylor, Erdrich identifies her predilection for continuity as the shapingforce behind all her forms: You want [the poems] to have somekind of continuity in their life ... You can seethe themesthat were being worked with in Jacklight go into into in " "Family Reunion, turns the part on writing other ways ... of "Crown of Thorns" ... The Beet Queentakes place in that sort of butcher shop world and incorporatespeople who are and are not in thesepoems. It's a very different book but also one which I think

Lister 198 flows naturally out of both Jacklight and Love Medicine (Bruchac 102). Readas a whole, Jacklight enactsthe structural principles of Erdrich's prose works; it solicits both cyclic and sequentialreadings. The collection constitutesthree `cycles' of poemsorganizedaccording to thematic resonancesand a fourth that has a direct narrative function, telling the story of a butcher's wife and the community that images for in her her. As the reader's story cycles, metafictional surrounds form threads that the of whilst offering a eludes reader abound, capturing experience in in Mustang" Lady Pink "The the narrative voice the and synthesis: connection /where itself, is in distance "There the the that, road meets where a point assuresus "no in into (17); kiss "Clouds" that the notes voice one" coming and going must /escaping / how I them, they take my a new shape, careful watch matter before I /They /they disperse/and themselves. melt extinguish slip and concentration, half unfathom their forms" (44). The thematic resonanceof Jacklight continuesto pervadeErdrich's more Strange People" The "The tells the story of an antelopewho poem recent work. by human between the the assumingthe shapeof a spiritual world and mediates human being; Erdrich would draw on this myth fourteen years later when shewrote The Antelope Wife. Jacklight moves to the centre of the macrocosmwith the later. Like Club Singing The Master Butcher's twenty years almost publication of The Beet Queen,the action unfolds in the "butcher shop world" portrayed in the fourth sequenceof poems. Step-and-a-HalfWaleski, the subject of several individual poems, is a fully-fledged characterin The Master Butcher's. Although some of the nine primary texts in the cycle achieve a more totalising effect than others,they all incorporate a cyclic dynamic. Familiar stories

Lister 199 such as June's final journey towards home and Sister Leopolda's attack on Marie constantlyresurrectthemselvesin different texts and from different viewpoints; such narrative resurgenceinvites the readerto place and read eachtext within the larger frame of the macrocosm. Uncharacteristically, Erdrich distinguishesher latest work with a definite generic statusthrough her use of the subtitle, `a novel'. Four Souls, however, occupiesa significant spacein the larger, macrocosmiccycle; its narrative fills in one of the most tantalizing gapshaunting severalof the more cyclic reservationtexts: Fleur's marriageto John JamesMauser. Despite its clearly designatedgeneric status,the juxtaposition of multiple narrative voices and trajectories in Four Soulsemulatesthe form and structure of the earlier, cyclic Gheen Polly Elizabeth Mauser's the sister-in-law, macrocosm. componentsof narratesthe story of the marriage and Margaret Kashpawtakes over the narration Fleur's finally home. Polly Elizabeth's Cutting Fleur of across account returns when seductionof Mauser is the voice of Erdrich's most prolific storyteller, Nanapush, who narrateseventsduring Fleur's absence,focusing mainly upon his tempestuous Nanapush's Margaret Kashpaw. Fleur's speculation about with relationship disappearanceoffers a commentaryon Polly Elizabeth's story by delving into the her its He Fleur's examines ancestry, mysterious protagonist. revealing past of for first is however Four Souls time. to the the one of the reader maternal origins destruction in The Fleur's the story of marriage and macrocosm. most unified works few Mauser of the `Polly Elizabeth' chaptersare proceedschronologically and of self-contained. Each of Erdrich's texts has its own unique structure and she deploys different in for her to to the a sense of unity and create guide search methods reader fewer backward in There are glances The Beet Queenthan the other connections.

Lister 200 texts; many of the stories in this text are more compressedthan those in Love Medicine and Tracks, generatinga more episodic structure. Neverthelessas one readsThe Beet Queenone developsa greaterawarenessof a structural systemthan in theseother texts. A cursory glance over the contentspagerevealsthat Erdrich has structuredthe text around a particular formation; each chapter is divided into two parts, the first of which is narratedby a character,whose name forms the framing title. The secondpart is narratedby a third-person omniscient voice and usually focuseson a different character. Many of thesesecondstories capture a `still moment' in the narrative by briefly foregrounding a particular consciousnessat night. The titles underscorethis repetitive pattern by simply identifying the centreof consciousnessand the time of day: "Sita's Night, " "Karl's Night" etc. Thus these secondarystories form a kind of sub-cyclewithin the larger frame of the text. Not only must the reader link thesenocturnal sub-narrativesbut she must also query the juxtaposition of the first-person story and the third-person vignette. Erdrich achieves a similar effect in The Bingo Palacein which someof the chaptertitles juxtapose a interspersing By `luck'. the the narrative of Lipsha's name with word character's " like "June's Luck, "Shawnee's Luck, " and with chapters self-actualization "Lyman's Luck" Erdrich signals one of the central thematic threadsof the novel: the significance of chance. Given the multiplicity of networks and structural avenuesin The Beet Queen, it is perhapssurprising that Erdrich pinpoints a referential centre in the text. In an interview with J. H. Tompkins she identifies a particular image in The Beet Queenas "the real heart of the book" (Tompkins "Looking" 15): the "tiny white spider" in its floss" "moonlit the making nest of Dot's baby hair: "it seemedto vibrate, throwing out invisible strings and catching them, weaving its own tensile strand.

Lister 201 Celestinewatched as it beganto happen. A web was forming, a complicatedhouse, that Celestinecould not bring herself to destroy" (Beet Quee 176). Erdrich recalls: "Everything bouncedoff that little section. Somehowthat's the emblem of the book" (Tompkins "Looking" 15). This double formation of a complex, centripetal web and a pliable unitary strand capturesaptly the unique dynamic of a book that interweavesa sequentialnarrative line with a cyclic structure. By designatinga image heart book, Erdrich demonstratesher willingness to the the as of specific acknowledgethe presenceof `centresof meaning' for her readers. Despite her complex, shifting structuresErdrich ensuresthat her readersexperiencewhat Jack Mauser terms "the grounded feeling of a connection" Tales 55). However the in fictional her world remain flexible; sheprovides her readerswith multiple centres points of entry and return. Most critics and readersof Love Medicine identify the death life June's of and mystery as the `centre' of the cycle, as it repeatedlyentices the charactersback to the sameposition as speculativereaders. Malcolm Jones however specifiesLulu Lamartine as the "human pivot round which much of the novel's action turns" (7). Louis Owens placesLipsha Morrissey "at the center of the Other "the (Owens toward character circling gradually self-knowledge" as novel" 27). Tales of Burning Love also distinguishesitself from Erdrich's other texts with a more schematicstructure. In many ways Tales resemblesa compositenovel. Apart from The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, this is only text in the macrocosmwithout a contentspage, suggestingthat eachchapter is merely part

of a greaterwhole. Howeverseveralof the chaptersin Talescould easilyfunctionas individual short stories. As William J. Scheick documentedin 1999, "A Wedge of Shade"was first published as a short story in 1989 and has "a narrative integrity of

Lister 202 its own" (Scheick 118). Scheickmistakenly statesthat this story "has never been reprinted in any of Erdrich's books" but illuminates the narrative's connectionwith Erdrich's macrocosm,correctly identifying the narrator as Dot from The Beet Queen (118). Halfway through Tales of Burning Love, Erdrich setsup a relatively stable narrative pattern when Jack's wives are trapped in the car and decide to sharetheir experiencesof the man they married. Although eachstory observesa linear structure, the women's experienceswith Jack Mauser impinge directly upon eachother, generatinga cyclic dynamic. Once again, Erdrich incorporatesa microcosmic story cycle within the larger frame of what appearsto be a novel. Erdrich attributes this formal flexibility to her mixed blood heritage;she describesher writing style as "a mixture of the Ojibwe storyteller and the German system-maker"(Sprenger"More"). In The Novels of Louise Erdrich Connie A. Jacobsexplores how Erdrich negotiatesthis "mixture, " writing it into her characters. In The Beet Queenthe reservationis no longer the central location for Erdrich's characters,but rather a shadowypresenceon the text's geographicalborders. German immigrants living in the small town of Argus dominate the book and Erdrich deploys a relatively systematic,linear narrative with which to tell their in book Indian blood "narrates As Celestine James the the only narrator with stories. the significant momentsof her life in a more traditional Indian manner" (Jacobs68). She constructsher own narrative around particular, pivotal events, leaving gaps for the readerto fill. In Tales of Burnin Love, Erdrich interrupts the more western,teleological narrative model with a communal storytelling cycle. Dot is the only woman with Indian blood in the wives' storytelling community; therefore the women's narratives loss linear however, love Jacobs As to conform an ordered, and of structure. notes,

Lister 203 their reliance upon narration as a mode of survival mirrors the American Indian culture of tribal storytelling. In The Master Butcher's Singing Club the narrative of German-AmericancharactersFelix and Eva again observesa relatively stable chronology comparedto Delphine's laconic narrative, which must reach into the past to resolve itself. This circularity enablesErdrich to preservethe aura of mystery that surroundsthe origins of both Delphine and Cyprian Lazarre: a mixed-blood and a bisexual who strugglesto find a narrative and hovers uneasily on the bordersof the novel. Thesedifferent structureslend themselvesto a variety of configurations of from history In Tracks the there two are only narrators, relating same narrators. divergent viewpoints. In The Bingo Palacean anonymousthird-person narrative intimate, first-person Lipsha Morrissey's A third, punctuates account. voice

frames the novel, opening and closing the narrative. narrative voice communal Thesemultiple, relativizing acts of narration establishthe primacy of story in the illuminate the mobile, chimerical nature of the of macrocosm and community for instability is both delight frustration The story a source of of and narrative. Erdrich's narrators. In The Antelope Wife Klaus Shawanois afraid to tell the story of his failed friendship with Whiteheart Beadsbecausehe recognizesthat the act of telling demandsthe sacrifice of narrative control: "if I ever begin to tell the story it will all flood out of me. It will be gone, unfixed, into the mouths of others. I'm afraid the story might stop being mine" (42). At the end of "Raspberry Sun" in Tracks, Pauline completesher history of Fleur by contestingthe community's version of events;as the old men of the it " "turn[] "comes up different every time, and has no the over, story community ending, no beginning. They get the middle wrong too. They only know they don't

Lister 204 know anything" (31). Paulineherself cannot be entirely trusted as a narrator as she too falls prey to the mutability of story and remembersspecific momentsdifferently; recalling the rape of Fleur she sometimescredits herself with locking the men in the freezer, and yet at other times "that moment is erased" (27). The elusivenessof story is one of the few points on which both Pauline and Nanapush,the conflicting narratorsof Tracks, concur. Nanapushprefaceshis narrative about Fleur by distinguishing betweenthe unknowable, unreachablestory itself and the versions that one can generateonly in retrospection. "There is a story to it the way there is a is it happening. Only after, when an old man sits to story all, never visible while dreaming and talking in his chair, the design springs clear" (34). Nanapush'sacknowledgementof story as an ontologically solid presencethat both springsto life and vaporizes in the mouth of the teller exemplifies the doublenessat the heart of Erdrich's fiction. Similarly, in Four SoulsNanapushuses the analogy of an owl's coughball to representwhat he regardsas story's ineradicableontology: The coughball of an owl is a packed lump of everything the bird can't digest - bones,fur, teeth, claws, and nails

A perfect compression ...

of being. What is the essence,the soul? my [sic] Jesuit teachersused to ask of their students. What is the irreducible? I answer,what the in is is left That the the owl pukes. also story - what events all after their juices and chaosare reducedto the essence.The story - all that time does not digest (71). Having acknowledgedthe "irreducible" essencethat constitutesa story, Nanapush describesthe processthrough which the community generatedthe narrative of Fleur's absence;it is one of mere speculation:"Fleur left the reservation. Of all that

Lister 205 happenedday to day, all the ins and outs of her existence,we have what cameof the accumulation. We have the story" (72). Whilst Erdrich refusesto define her unique form, she both recognizesand its plays upon cyclic properties. Forrest Ingram contendsthat the `doubleness'of the form proves problematic; he writes that the form "struggle[s] to maintain a balanced tension betweenthe demandsof eachshort story and the patterning of the whole cycle" (17). For Erdrich, this tension remainsthe most essentialcomponentof a form that must retain, aboveall else, its fluidity. Her representationof the relationship betweenthe one and the many distinguishesher from the other writers in this thesis. As Ursula le Guin notes, "onenessand manyness"characterizesLove Medicine, a cycle that representswhat it is "to be a person" and "one of the people" (Le Guin 6). Other writers use the form to expressthe tension betweenunitary and collective identity; only at the end of some cycles do characterssuch as Virgie Rainey and Annie Quirt resolve this conflict. Erdrich usesthe form to foreground the co-existenceof individual and communal identities in everyday, Native American life. In The SacredHoop, Paula Gunn Allen elucidatesthe differences betweenAmerican Indian and western literature. She arguesthat the Native American writer doesnot tell stories to assertego boundariesor to query the individual's place in the larger community. The American Indian writer doesnot write from a needto consolidateor assertidentity boundaries: The purposeof traditional American Indian literature is never simply pure self-expression. The `private soul at any public wall' is a concept alien to American Indian thought. The tribes do not celebrate the individual's ability to feel emotion, for they assumethat all people are able to do so. One's emotions are one's own; to suggestthat

Lister 206 others should imitate them is to imposeon the personalintegrity of others (55). In American Indian art, "the greater self and all-that-is are blended into a balanced whole"; it articulatesthe vision of its tribespeoplewho "see all things as being of equal value in the schemeof things, denying the opposition ... and isolation (separateness) that characterizenon-Indian thought" (Allen Sacred55,56). Similarly, in The Politics of American En lgish David Simpsonwrites: in the native languagesthere is no ego distinction, no abstract in has be to things that principle of selfhood combined with various the world that are initially posited as alien to it. The self neither takes its definition from the world imposesitself on it; rather, a nor ... composite self-in-world is there from the start (221 Simpson's italics). It is only fitting that the "formal structure" of American Indian ceremoniesis "holistic, " incorporating many different forms, and that literary forms are "interrelated" (Allen Sacred62). The short story cycle is therefore a particularly for the American Indian experience. appropriatesite Above all Erdrich's form has becomea canvasfor many varieties of `doubleness'. Only Welty's most autonomouswanderersenact or experiencethe coexistenceof the seemingly dichotomous. For Erdrich's American Indian characters is display living by `both/and' Few this them characterized sensibility. of everyday the needto define identity boundariesand establishorigins. In The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Agnes/FatherDamien ponders the sourceof her its devil in "Still, Had the ability: question one sometimesnagged. resurgentmusical

form her tempter's returned art, or hadGod?" Sheconcludesby resisting original the urge to trace her art to a specific origin, asking, in typical Erdrich fashion, "what

Lister 207 did it matter?' (221). When askedto clarify whether a characteris one type or invariably Erdrich gives the sameanswer: he is both. Nancy Chavkin another, in is described both Christ-like in Karl Adare The Beet Queen 1993 that as observes final is decision Satanic; Erdrich "There to to no come about replies: reason a and for is incorporates both" he He (220). The the writing process other. one or whether Erdrich arisesfrom a kind of double vision. Asked by Chavkin whether Sita and Russell's mutenessis a "coincidence" or "a deliberateparallel," Erdrich statesthat, "It is both, as often is the casewhen some resonantincident occurs in thought and Pearlman it (224). Speaking Mickey keeps back to to again" again and coming one in 1989 she confirms that the "treks andjourneys" in her work enact"both a desireto leaveand a longing to return" (153). However, Erdrich's charactersare not immune to the threat of self-dispersal. Jude Miller recognizesthe threat of dispersalin The Beet Queen;when he tries to immersehimself in the crowd at the paradehe experiencesa terrifying premonition him held the "All together the that when and now was crowd, self-fragmentation: of in drew he disperse, finally too, they so many apart would over and paradewas back hands him his the the way that could shape of own clever not even work pieces he was" (315). Many of Erdrich's charactersfind themselvesreturning home to re-establish identity boundaries. Whilst Erdrich works againstclosed structuresformally, she her Mickey Pearlman the askswhether acknowledges value of enclosedspaces. fictional spacesare open or closedand cites Adelaide Adare and June Morrissey as limiting become "closed, that ultimately examplesof women who seekopen spaces freezes in death (Pearlman 52). June to the expanseof the snow and entrapping" family. from her Erdrich deeply her from Adelaide wilful suffers severance and

Lister 208 replies that whilst Junehad "headedout into that open space" she endedup "heading home

into that wonderful and difficult mixture of family and place that ...

mysteriously works on a person" (153). She refers also to Dot, describedby Mary Adare as "a born traveller, meantto go places," who returns home after her flight in The Beet Queen(198). The only characterwho doesnot make that returnjourney is Adelaide who, Erdrich asserts,"flies off into becomes"a that a nothingness" ... madnessfor her." Erdrich contendsthat whilst open spaceoffers "freedom" it is, in" "nothing (Pearlman 153). Sheendorses that someone stays ultimately, dispersal in than the words though, and expansion rather reconnection complete even is lure Morrissey, home "coming Bin 13). Lipsha The never simple" of o of return emergesas one of the most activating principles of Erdrich's macrocosm,reflecting 33 bringing her form thematic unity to the reader's recursive experienceand In Erdrich's later works questionsof identity and origin begin to surface. The Antelope Wife and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse are

Erdrich's most fragmentedtexts and, formally, perhapsthe most challenging to the reader. In his review of The Antelope Wife Mark Shechnerdescribesthe text as If in the earlier books Erdrich's "most cryptic and unfathomablebook thus far ... keep Wife in Antelope The to track chart of characters, a genealogical you needed in In (qtd. 4). Beidler to top them a computer program stay on of all" you need typical Erdrich fashion, the text offers a paradigm for the reader's experienceof its `design': Zosie's beadwork defies the observer's pattern-making instincts: "No visible beginning or end to the design. Impossible to find the starting knot, the final tie. Unseeablethe place where the needlewent in or out" (209). In these later texts, it is more difficult to identify potential `centresof meaning' than in more overtly The Beet Queen. texts such as structured

Lister 209 Erdrich divides both texts into parts and chapterswhich in themselves comprisea mosaic of set pieces,stories-within-storiesand sketches. In The Antelope Wife the narrative voice changesconstantly, leading the readerin several directions in quick succession. Contributing to this fluidity are the narrative voices dogs: join Windigo Dog Almost Soup Cally Roy, Klaus Shawanoand two and of Rozina Whiteheart Beadsin the cast of narrators. Erdrich deploys her lyrical yet but third-person to voice narrate other stories unobtrusive she also adopts a direct to the voice open and close novel with appealsto the reader. personalized Unlike the impersonalomniscient voice of Love Medicine, this narrative persona posesmetafictional questions,relativizing the text's many narrative strandsand inviting the readerto contemplatethe very nature of story, its origins and its form In the concluding paragraphof the text the voice draws upon the recurring motif of the beadsto posequestionsabout the boundary betweentale and teller: Did theseoccurrenceshave a paradigm in the settlementof the old scoresand pains and betrayalsthat went back in time? Or are we is details Who the strictly working out minor of a random pattern? beadingus?

Who are you and who am I, the beaderor the bit of ...

colored glasssewn onto the fabric of this earth?(Antelope Wife 240). The motif of the beadsservesas an extendedmetaphornot only for the fluid formal dynamics but for The Antelope Wife the narrative community of of narrative the entire macrocosm. Klaus Shawano's beadwork is literally createdby the hands friends branch in "relatives tales and whose off an ever more complicated set of of barriers" (27). With their endlessly shifting configurations, the beadsembody the family these stories, whilst signalling the possibility of connection and pliability of continuity. Connie A. Jacobstracesthe image of the beadsback to the "mythic

Lister 210 Anishinabe story" of twin sisterscompeting to find the beadthat will "complete their mythic design" (115). Jacobswrites that the myth of the twins "represent[s] women's rituals, and their stories are used as example stories for young girls" (116). In The Antelope Wife it is Cally, the young narrator, who takes up the mantle of her female ancestorsto trace and perpetuatethe design of her convoluted family history. Both Antelope The

Wife and The Last Report distinguish themselves from

Erdrich's earlier works by incorporating a relativizing, self-referential discourse. In earlier works Erdrich deploys particular images as metafictions for the reader's procedures: in Tales Jack's aroma "fired old neural pathways" through Eleanor's mind that "branched into an elusive pattern of associations" (61); in The Beet Queen the reader sees her own textual experience reflected in Celestine's attempts to trace the pattern of the jumper that Mary knits for Dot. As she struggles to negotiate the "tangle of pathways across the chest, down the undersides of arms, across the shoulders" she realizes that there is "no way out" (277). She is trapped in a cycle of interlocking structures. Erdrich's readers become familiar with this sense of cyclic enclosure as they encounter repetitive narrative structures that both clarify and distort their original perception of a particular story.

In the more recenttexts Erdrich openly queries the nature and origin of her form through her narration. SheconcludesThe Last Report with some "End Notes" her family the support of acknowledging and editor and documentingthe sourcesfor the text. As usual, Erdrich stressesthe mystery surrounding thesesources;some her in dreamsand someparts of the book appearedto write to charactersappeared themselvesas she was sleepwalking. Such sourcing preservesthe enigma of the but also stressesthe fictional premise of the novel. However Erdrich writing process countersthis fictionality by including in her notes a letter from the Vatican, the voice

Lister 211 in is Father Damien, herself to authority, which she referencedas "a of patriarchal local has "included a quantity offirst person to your region" who writer certain body her fictional (Last in the of otherwise phantasmagoric works" and confessions Horse 358). Theseconfessionsrefer specifically to Marie Kashpaw's conversation in Father Damien the that concerning events of a story was originally published with the first version of Love Medicine: her physical and psychological battle with Sister Leopolda. Thus having establishedherself as the creator of a fictional work, Erdrich then blurs the boundariesbetweentext and writer, questioning the origins of her material and her own authority. As her works haveprogressedher questioning of authorshiphas become imagery direct, from to querying narrative personato moving metafictional more dons In Antelope Wife Erdrich The the mask of a self-interrogation. authorial between Last lines The In teller to the tale, probe and reader. persona narrative Report she shedsthis disguise,openly questioning her status as Louise Erdrich, selfher She the the experiences as author of narrative. same reservations proclaimed fictional storytellers over her statusas the bearerof meaning, and exhibits the same in I handwriting "sometimes, the the as scrutinize autonomy of story: wonder at those early drafts, I wonder. Who is the writer? Who is the voice? Sometimesthe last flourish in is hand the the trained careful spidery unfamiliar of a early script 358). is At I Horse Last times am other am sure, positive my own" century. -I -it In Other Destinies: Understandingthe American Indian Novel, Louis Owens identifies some of the characteristicdiscoursesof modern Native American fiction. He notes that the modem American Indian novel has becomea tool for questioning notions of authorship. Owens's observation marks a shift away from Allen, who

Lister 212 perceivesno tension betweenself and community in the storytelling practicesof Native American tribes. Owens writes: Native American writing representsan attempt to recover identity and authenticity by invoking ... the world found within the oral tradition the reality of myth and ceremony- an authorless"original" literature. Yet through the inscription of an authorial signature,the Indian writer placeshim- or herself in immediate tension with this communal, authorless,and identity-conferring source,at once highlighting the very questionsof identity and authenticity the new literature attempts to resolve: "Who really spoke? Is it really he and not someoneelse? With what authenticity and originality? " (11). Owens's delineation of this tension betweenthe authored and the autonomoustext heart in Erdrich's the strikes at of querying her "new" texts. However Allen's point still stands,as Erdrich seemsto feel no pressureto resolve this tension but rather to register the many sourcesof her narratives. Andrew Dix's illuminating reading of ShermanAlexie's The Lone Ranger in interesting Fistfight Heaven Tonto light on the issueof authorship throws an and in Native American culture. Dix seesa clear distinction betweenLeslie Marmon Silko's cyclic dramatization of storytelling and Alexie's. ParaphrasingArnold Krupat, Dix writes that Silko's cycle "strategically resistsany senseof the writer herself as a centrally authoritative or uniquely personal presence"(155). Silko's dialogism demonstratesAllen's theory; the "narrative impulse, in Storyteller, remainsconstant and culturally valued. Laguna experiencesacrosstime are still felt to lend themselvesto emplotment in story form" (Dix 156). Whilst Alexie usesa similar form to Silko, the "predominant effect," Dix argues,is "one of dispersal

Lister 213 rather than concentration" (158). His characters,"struggle to imagine themselves acting out significant storiesacrosstime" (156). The senseof unity is compromised by the "variety of tribal voices competing to be heard" in the cycle (158). Dix identifies severalof the factors inhibiting Alexie's Spokanestorytellers. Storytelling is representedas "social embarrassment,autistic behaviour, even psychotic The (160). Dix "in the anxious, of writes: more self-reflexive moments compulsion" Lone Ranger, then, the Native American necessitynow may be graspednot as italics). from but (162 Dix's by into stories" stories rather an escape escape or Erdrich's storytellers stand somewherebetween Silko's and Alexie's. Whilst the instability of their authority frustratesher inscribed readersand narratorsPauline in particular aims to establishherself as an authoritative source- it also energizesthem. Storytellers like Nanapushand Pauline recognize that whilst authorial ownership and formal control eludesthem, these communal, authorless her leave By to themselves own open revision and manipulation. registering stories in final The Last Report, Erdrich the of provides a pages ambivalence authorial dilemmas her large by the cast of on encountered meta-commentary refracting storytellers. **

"There is a spirit that pervadeseverything, that is capableof powerful song and in The that the and out and moves of mind. colors of this spirit movement, radiant is At Woman" (Allen Sacred 13-14). the center of all multitudinous are ...

In The SacredHoop Paula Gunn Allen aims to recuperate"the feminine" in the traditions of Native America. She observes:"for millennia American Indians have basedtheir social systems

on ritual, spirit-centered, woman-focused ...

Lister 214 worldviews" (2). Shedraws the samedistinctions betweenAmerican Indian and "non-Indian" thought as genderspecialistsdraw between men and women. Allen's delineation of "non-Indian" thought recalls Carol Gilligan's metaphorof the hierarchy for masculine sensibilities: non-Indians believe that "a great hierarchical ladder of being exists" and that "the personwho controls the eventsaround him is a hero" (Sacred59,149). Many of Allen's observationson the workings of `the feminine' in American Indian traditions are enactedby the women of Erdrich's macrocosm. Any readerof Erdrich's texts will recognize immediately Allen's paradigm of the "self-defining, assertive" and "decisive" American Indian woman Sacred2). Erdrich's commentaryon the creation of Jack Mauser, the wandering freein her for Tales Burning Love, realizing confirms predilection of male seducer ranging, hyper-sexualfemale characters. In conversationwith Robert Spillman she likens Jack to Lulu - both have a "sort of scoundrelly way with the opposite gender" in a way to make [Jack] a woman" ("Creative "wanted that she reveals and Instinct"). Above all, however, she wanted the female storytellers "to havethe borders. book" book's Jack to the the a man, consigned so remained of center Many of Erdrich's women enactthe masculineurges that drive male wandererslike Eudora Welty's King MacLain and Grace Paley's Ricardo. Lulu Lamartine's eight sonsof different parentagetestify to a sexualappetitethat rivals King's. Through his seductionsKing aims to consolidatehis position as the alpha he hero; seeksto subjugatethe woman and thus maintain the conquering and male in between Sexual division Lulu the self and other. culminate experiences strict with dissolution of theseboundaries. ShereleasesBeverly Lamartine from the bounds of like love his brother's him funeral: hung "She they to make after on genderwhen they were riding the tossing ground, her teeth grinding in his ear. He wasn't man or

Lister 215 woman. None of that mattered ... it hardly matteredwho was what." In typical Erdrich fashion, this moment assumesa paradoxical doublenessas Beverly also 4 he'd been" "he (Love Medicine 120). than was more of a man sensesthat ever This sexualunion dismantlesthose markers of gender that alienate men from women, whilst simultaneouslyaffirming Beverly's physical senseof masculinity. In Erdrich's fictional world one might retain one's gender identity in the processof sheddingthe hegemonicideology that posits man as conqueror and woman as conquered. Although Erdrich's representationsof genderare characteristically fluid and in binaries She texts some gender are clearly at work. explicatesand plays complex, in difference in Love Tales Burning the text than of any other more on gender draws dynamism The to the composite novel attention of specifically macrocosm. female forces, shapingthe action. Eleanor, Jack's secondwife, begins her particular tale of love and loss by naming her mother as her narrative's point of origin: All of our love stories begin with our mothers. For although it is our fathers, we are told, whose love we seek, it is our mother whom we imitate. If she was a huntressthen we beat him through the woods ... If she was a temptresswe are standing in the clearing as he emerges, slowly removing our clothes. A whiner? We draw him toward us through quick tears (209). In Narrating Mothers: Theorizing Maternal Subjectivities, Hertha Wong writes that Native American women "have long beenassociatedwith the both tribal tradition, through childbearing and through transmission of continuance in (174). it be However that stories" values she would also observes of cultural facile to align Erdrich exclusively with this female oral tradition. Erdrich herself has

Lister 216 stressedhow her father's stories, as well as those of her mother, left an "indelible" print on her mind (Wong "Interview" 39). The role of mothering is not confined to the female charactersin her novels. As Wong points out, Nanapushmothers"most consistently" in Tracks, not only caring for Fleur and Lulu, but shapingtheir minds with his endlessfund of stories (185). It is therefore perhapssurprising when Eleanor singles out "our mothers" as the founders of women's love narratives; her distinction betweenpaternal and maternalroles indicates Erdrich's intention to structureTales upon a specifically feminist aesthetic. Erdrich announcesthe centrality of the women in the title of the book. "Tales of Burning Love" is also the title that frames Part Three of the text: the women's narratives. It is only after the have love loss denounced latent their the and rivalry shared stories of and women that they can achieve fully-fledged subjecthood;through their storytelling they enact Luce Irigaray's model of achieving identity in terms of "self' and "like. " Indeed Eleanor can only resumeher love affair with Jack after she has shared her story with his other wives. By enabling eachof Jack's four remaining wives to take centre stageand tell her story, Erdrich circumscribeshis position in the narrative framework: as the connecting force of the women's tales, he standsat the centre of the text, but his silence excludeshim, exiling him to its margins. At no point in the his he becomes for does Jack tell the the story; own rather of signification site novel he As occupiesa vexed position similar to Eudora Welty's King such, women. MacLain: the would-be wanderer silencedand containedby the voices of the female community and the omniscient third-person narrative voice. Thus Erdrich underminesJack's centrality and he finds himself in a narrative no-man's land, a he in he in day that the a status presence: enacts present ghostly narrative which death. his own stages

Lister 217 For most of the novel Jack pursuesa self-designatedmasterplot, displaying the kind of mentality that Carol Gilligan identifies as an archetypeof masculinity: the "wish to be alone at the top," figured by the image of the hierarchy (Gilligan 62). The narrative voice informs us that Jack is motivated by his desire to reach"the top of something,the place we all want to get"

ales 159). In his 1984 study, Reading

for the Plot, Peter Brooks explores "the dynamic aspectof narrative that which makesa plot `move forward"' (xiii). He identifies masculineambition as one of the forms of desire that activatethis process: Ambition provides not only a typical novelistic theme, but also a dominant dynamic of plot: a force that drives the protagonist forward

the ambition provides an armature of plot which reader ...

recognizes,and which constitutesthe very "readability" of the narrative text, what enablesthe readerto go about the construction of the text's specific meanings(39). By blocking Jack's ambition plot and displacing it with the women's cyclic storytelling venture, Erdrich foreclosesthis narrative avenuefor the readerand Jack; it is precisely at this moment that the western reader must relinquish familiar in for The the search meaning. readermust ceasereading Tales as a quest structures individual in fords difference. the through self-definition which of narrative assertions Similarly Jack must relinquish his goal to establishhimself as the one at the top by his existenceas part of the many. As Brooks writes: recognizing Ambition is inherently totalising, figuring the self s tendencyto appropriation and aggrandizement,moving forward through the encompassmentof more, striving to have, to do, and to be more. The ambitious hero thus standsas a figure of the reader's efforts to

Lister 218 construct meaningsin ever-larger wholes, to totalise his experienceof human existencein time, to grasp past, present,and future in a significant shape (39).

June's timely spectralappearancesand the wives' cyclic storytelling session undermineJack's attemptsto mould past, presentand future into a structurethat he can controL Brooks's delineation of ambitious heroesof the nineteenthcentury resonates clearly with Erdrich's portrait of Jack Mauser. Brooks describestheseheroesas "`desiring machines' whose presencein the text creates narrative movement ... through the forward march of desire ... Etymology may suggestthat the self create a circle ... around itself, mainly in front of itself, attempting to move forward to the circumferenceof that circle and to widen it, to cast the nets of the self ever further" (40). Jack literally enactsthis processof self-amplification when he conceivesthe for building his company: "Mauser and Mauser, Construction. Jack twice. name There was no other Mauser, no partner,just himself. He had doubled his name becausehe thought the title looked more stable,as though there were generations involved" (150)35 Jack displays the samepreoccupationwith origins as King MacLain; it is this desire to author beginnings that motivates Jack's multiple it is by ignoring half his Ironically heritage Jack that one of genealogical marriages. limits himself to the unidirectional masterplot identified by Brooks. Able to recall images his his Ojibwa disregards Mary Stamper, Jack mother, of only amorphous Native American origins, claiming only the German-American identity inherited from his father: "Since the Ojibwa part of Jack was inaccessible,he was a German in his inner life hidden is him" (153). It trapdoor to soul, an a still with only when Jack accessesthis buried, relational Ojibwa sensibility that he may continue his love

Lister 219 story with Eleanor. Through her negotiation of Jack's quest plot Erdrich illuminates the dangersof the compulsion to designatethe self as origin without recuperating 36 heritage. one's maternal June is the vehicle through which Jack contactshis buried Ojibwa self. In the closing paragraphof the novel Jack finally recognizes"The depth of what he felt about Eleanor" (452). At the samemoment he respondsto June's spectralpresence, engagingwith the narrative of his deadwife for the first time. It is only by acknowledging his treatment of one wife that he is able to "bear the pain of coming back to life" with another (452). From the beginning of the text, June's haunting from him into Jack him: by the the that pursuing only motivates prevents plot pulling his through she cuts projected narrative of self-improvement and development. past, By instigating a shift from a linear, end-determinedvision to a relational, cyclic one, Junereshapesthe dimensionsof Jack's narrative and setsthe standardfor the reader of Tales of Burning Love: a text that, despiteits much-documentedproximity to the novel form, ultimately enactsa cyclic dynamic by finally returning to June,a in pervasivepresence the macrocosm. Jack himself anticipatesthe qualification of his commanding position as destiny. his his When first for two the time and start own of of wives author meet identifies himself been Jack had "Mauser the their as cause of crying, sharedpain: irritated but comfortable with their weeping. Over me, he thought" (78 Erdrich's italics). His position as prime motivator of their experienceis destabilized however as their weeping gains force and a relational, shapeshiftingcurrent begins to emerge from their act of sharing: It wasn't as though they had decided to stonewall him, but rather, that they couldn't be bothered

to so much as register the sound of his ...

Lister 220 voice, for they were transforming, reconfiguring themselves... The weeping had fused unseenconnections,circuits had clicked into place, their stories matchedcadenceby cadence he knew that he was in ... the car with something else, a different shape,alien, brilliant, ultrafemale, somethinghe didn't want to look at Jack knew he was lost ... (78-9). The tension betweenJack and his bonding wives is capturedby Carol Gilligan who describeswhat happenswhen the masculinecollides with the feminine and the hierarchy and the web impinge upon eachother: theseimagescreatea problem in understandingbecauseeachdistorts the other's representation. As the top of the hierarchy becomesthe edgeof the web and as the center of a network of connection becomes the middle of a hierarchical progression,each image marks as dangerousthe place which the other defines as safe (Gilligan 62). Jack's uneaseis hardly surprising. The transformational abilities of the wives place them in the company of the macrocosm'smore elusive shapeshifterslike Fleur and SweetheartCalico. These women embody the kind of power that SherwoodAnderson merely gesturestowards in his Winesburg women. In Four Souls,Margaret Kashpaw, one of Erdrich's most formidable heroines,identifies women as the agentsof transformation: To sew is to pray. Men don't understandthis. They seethe whole but they don't seethe stitches We women turn things inside out ... and set things right. We salvagewhat we can of human garmentsand piece the rest into blankets. Sometimesour stitchesslur and slow. Only a woman's eye can tell. Other times, the tension in the stitches

Lister 221 be too tight becauseof tears,but only we know what emotion might went into the making. Only women can hear the prayer (176). Jack is not the only characterin Erdrich's fictional world to be disorientedby female transformationalpower. His uneaseis echoedin The Antelope Wife by Cally, the fathom SweetheartCalico: young girl who cannot I don't know how to take this, don't know what to make of it, have never known and do not now want to know a personlike Sweetheart Calico. For shealters the shapeof things around her and she changes the shapeof things to come. Sheupsetsme, then enlightens me with her truthless stare. Shescattersmy wits (106). The metamorphicpowers of theseunreadable,shapeshiftingwomen mirror the dynamicsof Erdrich's form. In his hesitant accountof Fleur Pillager's history in The Bingo PalaceLipsha Morrissey speculateson her rumoured immortality; she appearsto embodythe spirit of continuity that characterizesErdrich's everexpanding form: "Rumour is, there's no limit to her life" (128). SweetheartCalico's "truthless" gazeboth enlightensand further mystifies those who try to read her. All both Erdrich's this to reveal and concealand to women exhibit power unreadable of fragmenting Like the thoughts them whilst simultaneously onlooker's crystallize Welty's androgynouswanderers,thesewomen confound boundariesdefining centre and margin; as objects of signification June,Fleur and SweetheartCalico standat the centre of the macrocosmand yet as predominantly silent, absentcharactersthey haunt its margins. Colin Channerachievesa similar effect with figures such as Wilfredo who passthrough his cycle as elusive, shapingpresencesrather than fullyfledged characters. Channerstates:"Some charactersin PassingThrough are designedto be felt to a greaterdegreethan they are seenor heard" (Appendix 336).

Lister 222 The stories involving Erdrich's women becomelandmarks in the reader's be "felt" more than "seen or heard." the to as shapeshifters continue consciousness The laconic narrative of June's life and mysterious death is a focal point for the in interview In the macrocosm. an with Laura Coltelli Michael Dorris communities describesLove Medicine as "basically

June's the the of of story reverberation ...

life" (21). The word "reverberation" capturesthe powerful boomerangeffect of June's story. After her death she becomesa magneticpoint of return for her lovers Gordie Kashpaw, Gerry Nanapushand Jack Mauser - and her son, Lipsha Morrissey. In "Crown of Thorns" Gordie perceivesJune in the "black and endless" look of the deer he kills on the road. Her gaze,like SweetheartCalico's, disconcertsthe it into it both hidden Gordie "stare[s] some place" - and penetrates onlooker; 37 him (Love Medicine 221) "block[s] out" It is significant that Junetakes the form of a deer to ensnareGordie with her forms Sweetheart Calico the assumes of antelope and spectral,enigmatic gaze. literally between the possibility of mediation seemingly enacting at will, woman boundedworlds. It is in her volume of poetry, Jacklight, that Erdrich first draws from the myth of the antelopepeople to query boundaries. In "The StrangePeople" has from her doe to tells the a man antelope after of metamorphosis woman story a bind her. doe Sweetheart Calico, her. Like to the the attempts resists man's wounded She seduceshim and endsthe poem by "crawling back into my shadowy body," 69). (Jacklight "dream the one of who could really can wound me" she where Erdrich prefacesthe poem with a description of the antelopepeople transcribedby Frank Linderman. This description projects the readerof the macrocosmforward to Klaus Shawano'sobsessionwith Sweetheart:"The antelope are strangepeople

...

They appear and disappear; they are like shadowson the plains. Becauseof their

Lister 223 beauty, follow the antelope and are lostforever. Even if young men sometimes great thosefoolish onesfind themselvesand return, they are never again right in their heads" (Jackli ht 68). In Tales of Burning Love Jack tries to control June's spectralactivity by blocking out the imagesthat haunt him: "Wife one. That was JuneMorrissey. Freezeframe. Don't think about her. Back in order" (106). This resistancebreaks down when he submits to the guilt associatedwith her death: "Why was he being let her? June? did I Because That What I of oil-field woman? or what punished? her do?" (108 Erdrich's italics). Although Jack himself never makesthe connection, he experiencesfeelings of impotencewheneverhe fords himself in conflict with the death, June's Forever the readerregisters the of of circumstances mindful elements. her presencein the novel's numerousreferencesto the snow that constantlythreatens to freezethe characters. At the beginning of "The Hitchhiker, " the third-person lollapalooza latest "she": "TV to the that the meteorologist" refers as narrator notes "She was the sudden,frontal, take-no-hostagesdrop attack of the low-pressure impressive damage. She was the lingering depth of cold that causedsuch system that killed" (187). Whether or not this parallel betweenJune and the menacing female blizzard is deliberate,one immediately sensesthe threat posedby Jack's herself in first the recessesof the characters' minds. who positions wife enigmatic By resisting petrifaction, June channelsher Indian heritage. According to Paula Gunn Allen, "Stasis is not characteristicof the American Indians' view of things ... The tribal systemsare static in that all movement is related to all other is harmonious that and balancedor unified" (Sacred56). As a free movementborderland between life death, defies Jack's June the and attempts navigating spirit to petrify her into a static, contained image. Her mediation betweenthis world and

Lister 224 the ghost world verifies the belief of her ancestorsthat the spirit continueson into the next life, often assuminga different form. Allen examinesmany of thesetribal tenets,including the belief in "transformation of objects from one form to another, the movement of objects from one place to anotherby teleportation ... communicationwith animals, plants, and non-physical beings ... the compelling of the will of another, and the stealing or storing of souls" (Sacred22-3). Again Allen associatesthis sensibility specifically with Native American women: "The male principle is transitory; it dies and is reconstituted. The female principle, which is immanent in hard substances(like the earth, minerals, crystals, stones),wood, and water, is permanent;it remains ... He is what comesand goes, she is what continues, stays" (267). Fleur Pillager embodiesthis female principle, dismantling boundaries but retaining her essentialself: "She laid the heart of an owl on her tongue so she could seeat night, and went out, hunting, not even in her own body"; "She takes the future of others and makesit her own, sucks it in through a hollow reed, through a bone" (Tracks 12, Bingo 128). As a ghost June achievesthe samekind of a straw, power that the more mythic Fleur and SweetheartCalico practise while still alive. Having lived a narrative of containment she forges her strongestconnectionswith the people in her life as a ghost, finally claiming Lipsha as her son. Like Welty's autonomouswanderers,Erdrich's shapeshiftersresist containment,redirecting many of the macrocosm's constituent narrative strands. However Erdrich privileges none of thesewomen with a narrative voice; they stand at the centre of other people's stories but never tell their own. Rather than limiting the agencyof thesewomen, however, their silence becomesthe most significant index of their power. In his study of Gustav Flaubert JonathanCuller locatesthe lure of Flaubert's prose in its silences:"It is precisely the silence of the text, the

Lister 225 blanknessof a self-sufficient narrative surface,that makesone's interrogation often fascinating" (Culler Flaubert 214). therefore the gratuitous and more seemsomewhat This self-sufficiency characterizeseachof Erdrich's elusive, metamorphicwomen; they embodythe magnetismof the unreachablestories that provoke tellers like Nanapush. Erdrich's fugitive women clearly designatetheir position as silent, selfinto in Luck" The Bingo Palace Erdrich In "June's texts. offers a glimpse sufficient June's past to reveal how sheconsciously construedher elusiveness;when her her into boyfriend June "escaped a part of mind" where she rapes she mother's forever hold Erdrich's "Nobody (60 to out of ever me again" reach: vowed remain, italics). June's resolution setsthe pattern for her narrative behaviour throughout the defies hands death Her to the containment even which, will escape of macrocosm. like her many readers,fail to hold June in her entirety: in the opening section of Love Medicine the third-person narrative voice claims that "Even when her heart it her turned crackling cold didn't matter, becausethe pure and skin clenchedand nakedpart of her went on" (7). The self-designated,reverberatingsilencesof Erdrich's women differ greatly from the mutenessof someof her men. In her comprehensivestudy of Erdrich's first identifies Nanapush Connie Jacobs `novels', as "the only traditional male who six highly his " She Lipsha, Erdrich's that argues own voice. only other speakswith vocal male, articulates competing discoursesas "both the inheritor of the old ways and reflector of the price of acculturation" (66). However it is important to note that the two most sustainedmale voices in Erdrich's macrocosmbelong to men who embody the spirit of continuity that motivates her female wanderersand form her Those who turn their backs on their heritage and emulate characterizes

Lister 226 more western models of manhoodremain, for the most part, silent. Nector Kashpaw in Love Medicine; Jack Mauser and Lyman Lamartine - the one story narratesonly inheritor of Nector's role as the reservationbureaucrat- narratenone. Both Lipsha and Nanapushuse their storytelling abilities to securethe preservationof tribal it is Therefore traditions. and only those men who embracetheir tribal customs identity and wish to serveas connectorswho exercisediscursive power in Erdrich's fictional world. Silence eludesdefinition; it signifies either void or plenum. For women like Juneand Fleur, silence is a meansof ensuring their position at the centre as ignite inscribed that the narrative subjects relational sensibilities among compelling for desire intensifies Lipsha's Jack's June's activity and awakens spectral readers: like For Jack, Gordie, and King and Russell men connectionand understanding. Kashpaw, silence signifies a denial of self. JaneTompkins identifies this macho hero trait the and highlights its dangers. In West of of western reserveas a common Everything she attributes the white hero's resistanceto speechto: a desire for complete objectivization. And this meansbeing consciousof nothing, not knowing that one has a self... By becoming a solid object, not only is man relieved of the burden of relatedness and responsivenessto others, he is relieved of consciousnessitself ... primarily, consciousnessof self (Tompkins's italics 56-7). Similarly in Phallic Critiques Peter Schwengernotes this masculine resistanceto subjectivity, observing, like Ben Knights, the masculinealignment of consciousnesswith femininity: "Any consciousnessof manhood(besidesmere selfimplies female just from a element, a place congratulation) outside of manhood its (31). By shying away from language,Erdrich's alpha to contours" view which

Lister 227 males circumvent consciousnessand, like Welty's King and Oates's Reddinger, lock themselvesinto the paradigm of the bounded,non-relational male. In her essay,`Blurs, Blends, Berdaches:Gender Mixing in the Novels of Louise Erdrich" Julie Barak examinesErdrich's use of a "gender role available to her through her Native American background- that of the berdache"(51). Barak definesthe berdacheas a figure who, although ontologically male or female, assumesthe dressand mannerismsof the opposite genderand embracesits values, in feminine sensibilities everyday life. Becauseof their conflating masculineand hybrid statusberdaches"were freed from the restrictions of the usual, fearedand respectedfor the powers grantedthem by their difference" (Barak 53). Barak's essaypredatesThe Antelope Wife, in which Erdrich recognizesexplicitly the kind of power exercisedby such figures; she makesa fleeting referenceto a berdachewhen she describesthe figure chosenby the community to renameBlue Prairie Woman: "This namer was namelessand was neither a man nor a woman, and so took power from the in-between

The namer walked like a woman, spoke in a man's deep ...

(14). All Erdrich's of self-defming charactersrecognizeand harnessthe voice" in-between. from her "the " In that arises essay,Barak notes how Erdrich's power fit autonomouscharacters the model of the berdacheto varying degrees. Fleur, June, Lulu and SweetheartCalico are ultra-feminine yet they are also controlling, courageous,independentand hyper-sexual. By embracing his mothering skills as well as his storytelling faculties, Nanapushwields more power than the cycle's younger generationof alpha males: one thinks of King Kashpaw's meaningless his Gordie's towards wife and violence eventual descentinto alcoholism. Barak's helpful study of genderconflation in Erdrich's fiction also predates The Master Butcher's Singing Club, in which one particular charactertakes power

Lister 228 from her "in-between" statusto engineerthe plots of the other characters. Step-andjunk itinerant is the collector who hauntsthe outhousesof Argus, recycling a-Half the community's unwanted scraps. She first appearsin old photographsin the guise look in her `Minnie', Delphine's "blur "made that absentmother, a of movement" of is Step-and-a-Half, junk lively" (66). As the collector she presentedas a magnetic, so physical presencecapableof constantmotion and a prowesssuggestiveof masculine intimidating. hers because The Step-and-a-Half "She the was name was physicality: length of her stride was phenomenal. She loved the night and could be seen,her beanpolefigure in a trance of forward movement,walking the town streetsand Calico, bewilders back (83). Like Sweetheart porches" she other checking first had her "Her seemed gaze: gaze at unfathomable mobile, characterswith hatred, but by now suddenlyshe shifted, looked at Delphine powered a sharp,cryptic with an unreadableexpressionof melancholy" (83-4). Step-and-a-Halfis, like Fleur, Juneand the antelopewife, a shapeshifter, predicting the narrative patterns of other characters' lives and directing their plots. When she informs Delphine enigmatically that, "`They're digging their own graves"' discovery bury Waldvogel boys' Delphine's the to of scheme anticipates she themselvesalive and predicts Markus's near-brushwith death (208). It is only at the fully Erdrich Step-and-a-Half influence s that the novel reveals over the end of is in It Argus. shewho discoveredDelphine as an abandoned network of relations baby and left her with Roy Watzka, forging a father/daughterrelationship based upon secretsand lies. When Step-and-a-HalfrescuesDelphine she setsthe for had life: baby's "She the that the series of near-misses will characterize precedent heard its one cry before it sank the incremental inch that coveredup its mouth. And it was always, she thought, watching Delphine grow up, exactly the margin by which

Lister 229 the girl escapedone dirty fate after the next" (382). Step-and-a-Halfexploits her insider `in-between' status as peripheral, and outsider to shapethe courseof other characters'narratives. As Erdrich's texts becomeincreasingly self-referential, her charactersstart to function as literalisations of the discoursesthat pervadethe earlier texts. They literally embody the forms of doublenessthat occur in the opening tetralogy. By successfullybreastfeedinghis baby daughter in The Antelope Wife, ScrantonRoy physically enactsthe male mothering instincts implicit in Nanapush'srelationship with Fleur and Lulu. In The Master Butcher's Singing Club Step-and-a-Half functions as a kind of meta-author,recastingand manoeuvring plots. As a recycler, her storytelling tactics mirror Erdrich's methodology. When she reflects on these her imagery for Step-and-a-Half s Erdrich's use of recalls own metaphors strategies, forms: "Now, when she looked at the streetsaround her and all the people, shesaw them from a junker's point of view... She knew them not from what they wore or the facadethey showedto the world, but from what they tossedout ... Sheknew them by their scraps,and their scrapstold their stories" (380). This recalls Erdrich's description of Tracks as "the old junked car in the yard front, continually raided for parts" (Chavkin "Interview" 238). The final image of The Master Butcher brings to mind Erdrich's delineation of her macrocosmicform as a "compost pile" (240): "Step-and-a-Half hummed in her sleepand sank deeperinto her own tune, ajunker's hunter's itinerants tattered the courting verse and wisdom of and or pile utterancesof from bit that sprang a of grassor a scrapof cloud or a prophetic pig's words knuckle... " (388). Other charactersare lessadept at exploiting their in-betweenstatus. Karl Adare and Cyprian Lazarre fail to finds a spacein which to claim their bisexuality

Lister 230 and resign themselvesto skirting communal margins. Towards the end of The Beet ueenKarl reflects upon his life of invisibility and anonymity: "as I sat there and the shadowsgatheredand the lizards scrapedalong the tiles, I made less and less sense... until I madenone at all. I was part of the senselesslandscape. A pulse, a strip, of light. I give nothing, take nothing, mean nothing, hold nothing" (318). This senseof dissolution and non-being is however preferableto someof the performanceswhich other charactersforce themselvesto deliver. Although Karl "shut [his] eyesagainst" this feeling, he emergesfrom the darknesswith a powerful senseof "sweetness"that compelshim to return to Dot (318). Despite his secrecy, Karl's liminality does not prohibit him from forging true connectionswith other human beings.38 In her non-reservationnovels, The Beet Queenand The Master Butcher's Singing Club, Erdrich revealsthe damagingeffects of hegemonicparadigmsof in in Living Argus the town the thesetexts sexuality. of characters and gender living than those the of social pressures more on the reservation. experience weight Those who choosea bound gender identity find themselveslocked within straitened impaired bodies Russell Kashpaw Sita Queen Kozka's In The Beet and are plots. physical manifestationsof their short-sightedness.Both characterssubscribeto hegemonicgender ideologies and end the novel impotent and isolated. Russell and Sita asserttheir genderboundariesby performing trite posturesof masculinity or femininity. At the beginning of The Beet QueenSita establishesher pattern of behaviour for the rest of the cycle when she usesher sexuality to re-establishherself friendship triangle. Aware that Mary has usurped her place as the centre of a at Celestine's best friend, Sita takes drastic action by putting her femininity on display:

Lister 231 "My breastswere tender. They always hurt. But they were somethingthat Mary didn't have

I took off my undervestand cuppedmy breastsin my hands" (35). ...

Having returned from his "latest war" in Korea, Russell Kashpawrapidly degenerates,living only for the opportunity to be paradedas a symbol of masculine heroism (Beet Queen 111). Celestine's description of the paraderitual satirizesthe machismoassociatedwith Russell's sacrifice: "Now he must wait until some statehouseofficial scoresthe other veterans,counting up their wounds on a paper tablet, and figures out who gaveaway the most flesh" (111). When the parade finally takesplace, Dot's narration emphasizesRussell's passivity: "Russell's strappedinto the wheelchair with harnessesthat look like they are part of his uniform. All his medalsare pinned on, a bright patch that spills down his chest" (330). The impotence Russell's "spill" underscores and conjures imagesof a decrepit, use of degradedold man. Like Ran MacLain, Wallace Pfef secureshis position in society by denying his homosexualityand indulging the community's appetite for romancenarratives. He usesa picture of a young girl as a prop in his performance of heterosexuality, claiming that she is his "`poor deadsweetheart"' (The Beet Queen 159). Taking its cue from Pfef, the community spins a plot of heterosexualromancearound the from dead Argus that they take the girl's no could conclude woman ever picture; him from hold him. "`She has the to too releasing pressure marry: a strong on place, He can't forget her', they say" (160). Through the picture, Pfef generateswhat Judith Butler terms "the illusion of an interior and organizing gendercore," thus hierarchy into field "cultural a of gender and compulsory gaining entry heterosexuality" (GenderTrouble 136,139). Although Pfefs performancesecures his position in the community, he is destinedto remain forever "dissatisfied" (Be

Lister 232 Queen 161). He is still creating illusions at the end of the novel when he rigs the Beet Queenvote to placateDot and place her in the false position of the town's beauty queen. Erdrich's stanceon genderidentity is characteristically open. A family discussionin The Antelope Wife articulatesone of the questionsat the heart of her fiction: is genderan essentialidentity category or a performancegroundedin social conditioning? When GrandmaMary suggeststhat, "`As a species," women are "less apt to commit a crime,"' her granddaughterCecille replies: "`Women aren't a species,GrandmaMary, we're a gender'." Zosie and Frank, both membersof the older generation,agreewith Mary that women are indeed "`a separatespecies"' (Antelope Wife 205). In The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Erdrich dramatizesthe complexities surroundingthis debate. Sherevealsthat FatherDamien, the white priest who lives on the reservationand appearsfleetingly in the opening tetralogy of the macrocosm,is in fact a woman. When Agnes DeWitt discoversthe `real' his Father Damien, the of she steals corpse clothes and assumeshis identity, Little No Horse under the guise of the priest. Throughout the text she arriving at identity her to masculine and speculatesupon the effects of strives maintain prescribed,socialized notions of gender. Her meditations on her transformation form a kind of meta-commentaryon the gendereddoublenessof Erdrich's characters. Fleur, June and Nanapushachieveautonomy through their disregardof easy gender boundaries;Agnes/FatherDamien consciously melds the masculine and the feminine day. Like theseearlier characters,Agnes retains an essentialistnotion of her every identity whilst rejecting socialized norms. gender Erdrich's narrative voice recognizesthe work of hegemonicgender ideology in the early pagesof The Last Report. Before her transformation, Agnes falls in love

Lister 233 Vogel. Berndt Both characterssensethe inevitability of their sexual with relationship but the narrative voice makesa clear distinction betweentheir for Berndt this experience. must draw on other intenseexperiencesto preparations gear himself up: "Having draggedarmy caissonsthrough hip-deep mud ... having seenhis best friend suddenlyuncreatedinto a massof shrieking pulp, having lived intimately with pouring tumults of eagerlice and rats plump with a horrifying food, he was rudimentarily preparedfor the suffering he would experiencein love" (18). In contrast,women are qualified for this experiencefrom an early age: "She had also learnedher shareof discipline and in addition - for the heart of her genderis stretched,pounded,molded, and temperedfor its hot task from the age of two - she was a woman" (Last Report 18). Erdrich's choice of verbs here is highly suggestive of social conditioning. As soon as Agnes assumesthe raiment of a masculineself in distinct shift the kinds of social interaction available to her. shenotices a Travelling towards Little No Horse alongsideKashpaw she observesthat: Even now, the driver treatedher with much more respectas a priest than she'd ever known as a nun'... As Agnes, she'd always felt too inhibited to closely question men. Questionsfrom women to men always raised questionsof a different nature. As a-man,she found that Father Damien was free to pursue all questionswith frankness and ease(61-2). When Agnes draws up "Somerules to Assist in My Transformation," she beginsthe processof genderconstructionthat Judith Butler identifies in Gender Trouble: shewill becomea man through a "stylized repetition of acts" (Last Report 74 Butler 140). She instructs herself to emulatemasculinemodesof speech:"Ask form in the of statements," "Make requestsin theform of orders" (74). questions

Lister 234 Thus Agnes makesthe samedistinction betweenmale and female styles of in her examination of languageand gender. Jennifer Coates communicationas Coateswrites: "men pursuea style of interaction basedon power, while women pursuea style basedon solidarity and support" (136 Women. Men Coates's emphasis). By assertingthe unitary self rather than her relational self Agnes hopes to forge an authenticidentity as a man. The text itself doesnot sustainsuch rigid notions and performances. It is in fact Agnes's doublenessthat enablesher to win the trust of the community. Both Kashpaw and Nanapushmarvel initially at the priest's influence over their people. When Agnes becomesthe first outsider to make a connectionwith Kashpaw's disturbed wife Quill, he reflects: "This young priest possesseda surprising power, it he one seemedunawareof which made all the more effective. The young priest

hadcalmedQuill andmadeher happy. His merepresencehadaffectedthe change" Last 101). Despite her rules and resolutions, Agnes's buried relational self emerges, enabling her to form deep spiritual bonds with both Quill and her daughter,the silent Mary Kashpaw. Through her disguise,Agnes discovershow to elicit "power from the in-between." In The Last Report, Erdrich presentsthe reservationas the perfect environment for this slippagebetweengenders. The narrative voice describesthe

fluid definition, "a " place still as of appearing map, solid only on a reservation (75). discover Both "boundaries Kashpaw Nanapush came and went" and whose Father Damien's secretearly on and seeno reasonto act upon it; Nanapushreveals his knowledge to Agnes only to distract her during a chessgame. Whilst writing her article on the community for her superiors,Agnes notes how the Ojibwe incorporate

Lister 235 the fluidity of the land into their society by adopting a languagesystemthat doesnot register genderboundaries: theplace of the noun in the Ojibwe mind distinctions

...

is unprejudiced by gender

Yetthere occurs somethingmore mysterious. Alive or ...

dead. Each thing is either animate or inanimate, which would at first seemremarkably simple and sensible,for in the westernmind the quality of alivenessor deadnessseemseasyto discern. Not so. For is not the Anishinaabeg, the quality of animationfrom within ... limited to animals and plants. Stones,asiniig, are animate, and kettles, akikoog, alive as well (257). The community has deviseda languagethat doesnot function as a stablesystemof signs but adaptsin accordancewith personal interpretation: "Amid theprotocols of language, there is roomfor individual preference, too. Someold men believe their had Nanapush his baggy trousers" (257-8 are animate. sometimes chastised pants Erdrich's italics). Performancesof genderare futile and unnecessaryin such a community. As Agnes reflects upon the apparentsuccessof her physical transformation, shereachesa clearer understandingof gender conditioning. Sherealizesthat her former identity as a woman and a nun constituted as much of a performanceas her disguise: "Between thesetwo, where was the real self? It cameto her that current both Sister Cecilia and then Agnes were as heavily manufacturedof gestureand pose as was Father Damien. And within this, what sifting of identity was she? What mote? What nothing?" (76). Countering the threat of non-being however are momentsof re-engagementwith an essentialfemale self. Developing her theory of Judith Butler as performance, writes: gender

Lister 236 That the genderedbody is performative suggeststhat it has no ontological statusapart from the various acts which constitute its reality. This also suggeststhat if that reality is fabricated as an interior essence,that very interiority is an effect and function of a decidedly public and social discourse,the public regulation of fantasy through the surfacepolitics of the body (Gender Trouble 136). Erdrich's representationof Agnes's experiencedoesnot entirely support this view. ShepunctuatesAgnes's performanceof masculinity with moments of destabilization when her pre-socialisedfemale identity emergesfrom the deeperstrataof the self: "There would be times that she missedthe easeof moving in her old skin, times that Father Damien was pierced by womannessand suffered" (65). For months sheprays for the cessationof the "uselessaffliction of menstrualblood" yet when her period finally vanishes,sheexperiences"a pang, a loss, an eerie rocking betweengenders" (78). When Agnes's lover, Father Wekkle, implores her to leavethe reservationand italics). him, he her: (206 Erdrich's Agnes "`You are a woman"' reminds marry but insisting, by her "`I (207). However a am nothing priest"' protracted responds does her from Wekkle to not fully verify this claim. As she separation response lover from her her womanhood re-assertsitself: "Her loss the to of struggles recover womannesscrouched dark within her - clawed, rebellious, sharp of tooth" (209). When Father Wekkle returns years later Agnes recognizesexactly why she banishedhim; even the passionatelove affair through which sheexpressedher

fallen has prey to socialideologiesof gender:"The difficulty essentialwomanhood it, in Wekkle but Father her. He to that subtly condescended all was unawareof was by less" he her they treated stood situations, where side side, as somehow worldly

(303). In calling her Agneshe merelyreinforcesthis essential"womanness"that he

Lister 237 cannot know or understand;she feels fiercely protective of the "irreducible part of herself that only shewas meantto possess.That Agnes

...

That stonemade

translucentby pressure. That was absolutely hers" (303). In the final paragraphof The Last Report, Erdrich capturesAgnes's both/and statusbeautifully. When Agnes finally dies, Mary Kashpaw transportsher body onto the lake. Even in the processof dying, Agnes maintains her in-betweenstatus: "As the dark water claimed him, his featuresblurred. His body wavered for a time betweenthe surfaceand the feminine depth below." However "the feminine depth below" is her final resting place (351). Agnes eventually attainsthe kind of power that distinguishesErdrich's most identity her shapeshifters, retaining essential gender whilst rejecting autonomous identifications. Erdrich's She the through also reflects reader's excursion socialized inhabits fringes in looking Agnes the the of reservation, and trying to macrocosm. its histories, legends. When Father of rumours and narratives, unravel network Damien/Agnesdies, Father JudeMiller decidesto stay on the reservationand into its history; where Sister Leopolda was the subject of Father the enquiry continue Damien's report, Father Damien now becomesFather Miller's subject. The Last Report acts as a kind of frame for the entire macrocosmiccycle, transporting the reader further backward and forward than any of Erdrich's other individual texts. It castsa backward glance over all the preceding cycles involving the reservation. As one progressesthrough the text, one sensesa narrative impetus towards completion; the text ties up someof the loose endsof the other cycles, in filling gaps. Erdrich acquaintsthe readerwith details revisiting old narrativesand of Lulu's time at boarding school; sheprovides someof the background story of Fleur's improbable marriage to John Mauser and reveals the destiny of her Awun Mist, in the earlier cycles. The text continues a son mere shadow mysterious

Lister 238 the narrative of JudeMiller, the Adare baby who was separatedfrom his brother and sister in The Beet Queen. In typical Erdrich fashion, however, the metafictional questioning in the "End Notes" works againstthis movementtowards closure. Like all of Erdrich's texts, The Last Report yields imagesand narrativesthat embody her founding aestheticof continuity. Fittingly, one of the most resonant imagesdescribesan Ojibwe custom: "So it was that Father Damien was introduced to the endlessOjibwe visit, in which a get-togetherproducesa perfectly convincing reasonto seekanother,and then that visit another,and so on" (89). Such a dynamic drives Erdrich who continuesto exploit the in-betweenformal statusof her story hate Like Gloria before Erdrich Naylor her, "I the confesses wholeheartedly: cycles. processof finishing anything" (Chavkin "Interview" 244).

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6

Anticipation

and Retrospection:

Postmodern Variations on the Form

As the lines betweengenresbecomeever more permeable,how helpful are distinctions betweenthe novel, short story cycle, and story collection? This compositechapterwill examine postmodernincarnationsof the story cycle form, someof which are commonly identified as novels or short story collections.

Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street, Caramelo and Woman Hollerin!

Creek "I have gone away to come back" (MM p)110).'9 In the introduction to the 1999 edition of The House on Mango StreetSandra Cisnerosexplains the methodology behind her form Shereveals how her original identity text's the generic shifted as the narrative beganto assumeits conception of own dynamic and shape:"I thought I was writing a memoir. By the time I had finished it, my memoir was no longer memoir, no longer autobiography. It had evolved into a collective story peopledwith severallives from my past and present, fictional in time and neighbourhood" (xi-xii). As she continued to write one placed developed insists a clearer vision of what she she was an unfamiliar form; her description of this vision readsexactly like a definition of the short story cycle: I knew I wanted to tell a story made up of a seriesof stories that would make senseif read alone, or that could be read all together to

Lister 240 tell one big story, each contributing to the whole - like beadsin a necklace. I hadn't seena book like this before ... I would discover thesenovels later: Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha, Nellie Campobello's Cartucho

...

(xvi-xvii) 4°

Cisneroscertainly aimed for the kind of duality that has becomeassociated form: "I wanted to write a collection which could be read at any the story cycle with having knowledge point without any of what came before or after. Or that random in her be big ("Do describing You" 78). In to tell read a series one story" could methodology Cisnerosusesan image that hasbecomeone of the defming metaphors for the story cycle form She tells Pilar E. Rodriguez Aranda: "I had no idea how thesepieceswere going to fit together. I was making all these little cuentitos, like little squaresof a patchwork quilt, hoping that they would match, that there wouldn't be a big hole in the middle" (74-5). She arrangedthem in an order "so they would be clear and cohesive" but, like Erdrich, recognizedthat "in real life, there's no Cisneros (Aranda 74). In Street Mango that retrospect, states she wrote order" her "lazy " She sketches calling poems. explains: "each of the stories could naively, have developedinto poems,but they were not poems. They were stories, albeit hovering in that grey area betweentwo genres" ("Do You" 79). In 1988Julian Olivares speculatedon the generic statusof Cisneros's debut, asking: "Is Mango Street a novel, short stories, prose poems,vignettes?" ("Sandra" 160). At no point in his article does Olivares use the term short story cycle or sequence. Just as Cisneros insists on the originality of her formal vision, Latina writers have their claimed the genre as their own. Like many contemporary critics and identity, dual they see in the form the potential for expressinga ethnic writers of communal senseof marginalization and for emulating the oral tradition central to

Lister 241 that community. In Breaking Boundaries:Latina Writing and Critical Readings, Eliana Ortega and Nancy SaportaSternbachclaim: Latina writers have not only occupied new literary spaces,they have also creatednew genres. The majority of Latina literature hastended to be poetry, but recently they have developeda genreof their own, still to be defined and still emerging, which specifically articulates Latina experience. It draws on the Latina as storyteller and situates the speakingvoice in a genre somewherein betweenpoetry and fiction, blurring the line betweenthe short story and the novel, betweenconversationand literary discourse(17). In a footnote Ortegaand Sternbachcite Cisneros's Mango Street as an exampleof this genre. Thematic concernsplace Cisnerosfirmly in the company of female short between the unitary and the communal,the tension the story cycle writers: boundaries. function home, the the towards of storytelling, querying of ambivalence Someof the lengthier titles of Cisneros's individual vignettes remind one of Paley's titles with their explanatory, deceptively simple tone that appearsto deliver the story before it has beentold: titles such as "Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & PapayaJuice Woman Had She Old She So Children "There Was Many Tuesdays" an and on Didn't Know What to Do" strike a similar note to "In This Country, But in Another Language,My Aunt Refusesto Marry the Men Everyone Wants Her To" and "This is a Story about My Friend George,the Toy Inventor" from Later the SameDay. Although Cisnerosdoesnot draw formal parallels with Paley's work, shenames Paley as one of her favourite writers (Cisneros "Interview").

Lister 242 Although Cisnerosclaims that, prior to writing Mango Street she"hadn't seena book like this before," sheacknowledgesthat formal paradigmsbeganto influence her as her narrative took shape. Shetook as her model Jorge Luis Borges's Dream Tigers stories: "I liked how he could fit so much into a pageand that the last line of eachstory was important to the whole in much the sameway that the final lines in poemsresonate I wanted stories like poems,compact and lyrical and ... ending with a reverberation" ("Do You" 78). The resonanceswith Paley are again clear: one recalls how the closing image of Faith's heart, "lit up in stripes," like a "black and white barred king in Alcatraz" reverberatesback through "A Subject of Childhood" and how Mr Darwin's sudden"explosion of nausea,absolutedigestive disgust" refracts back upon "Faith in the Afternoon" (Disturbances145, Enormous 49). Similarly, Cisnerosusually placesher most arresting imagesin the final in jolt inject to the the story with a renewed order reader's attention or paragraph intensity: one thinks of Esperanza'ssignature image of herself as a "red balloon ... tied to an anchor" in "Boys & Girls"; the poignant picture of Sally's ceiling, "smooth as wedding cake"; the image of Angel Vargas who "dropped from the sky like a sugardonut ... and exploded down to earth without even an `Oh"' in "There Was an Old Woman" Man o 9,102,30). JamesNagel devotesa chapterto The House on Mango Street in his study of the form. The cycle also appearsin Dunn and Morris's annotatedlist of composite in "Rites Passage, " their chapter on of and novels which they explore cycles that "feature

focus the a narrator-protagonist as and significant of element ...

interconnection" (49). Esperanza'sjourney towards adulthood constitutesthe main in line The House on Mango Street. Her voice narratesall forty-four of the narrative vignettes, whether they concernher own story or that of a neighbour, family member

Lister 243 friend. her Susan In Garland Mann examinesa number of cycles that study or emulateand reshapethe conventional structure of the Bildungsroman and, more künstlerroman: the the narrative charting the maturation of the artist. specifically, Mann makesno mention of Cisneros'scyclic narrative of maturation but her observationson this sub genreof the short story cycle are pertinent to The House on Mango Street. Mann writes: "Frequently with thesecycles, subordinatecharacters for disappear being two then a only story or and entirely surface with no explanation Cisneros disperses (9). thesesub-narrativethreadsthroughout the usually necessary" text, so that they form microcosmic cycles that the readermust assembleherself. Characterslike Marin and Alicia make the samekind of narrative leapsas Selina, Dotty and Ginny in Paley's Faith cycle. Marin first appearsas the eponymous heroine of her own vignette, dancing by herself, waiting for "a star to fall, someone to changeher life" (27). She doesnot resurfaceuntil "Geraldo No Last Name," forty pageslater, where she no longer dancesalone but with men whom she barely knows. Mann notes that many cycle writers have used the form to explore the processof maturation through the representationof a "composite personality" (10); the personality traits of the primary, foregrounding consciousnessare sharedby other characterswho appearin seemingly tangential stories that do not focus exclusively Hemingway's Mann heroes from In the the cites cycle protagonist. collective of on Our Time as an exampleof the maturing composite personality. Nick Adams, the in first five the appears stories but figures only "irregularly" recurring protagonist, is 10): felt, (Mann "His this presence nonetheless,becauseother protagonists... after bear a close family resemblanceto him" (10). Cisneroscreatesa similar composite personality with Esperanzaand the women of her neighbourhood. The resurgent theme of Esperanza'snarrative - the longing for escapefrom Mango Street and its

Lister 244 boundaries- weavesits way into stories concerning her friends and neighbours. In "Sally" Esperanzapaints a sympatheticportrait of her friend and the problems her beauty. from In the final paragraphEsperanzaasks Sally if she ever arising experiencesthe urge to spurnthe boundariesof home. "Sally do you sometimes have home? didn't " (82). Although she posesthe questionto Sally, to you go wish Esperanzais clearly using her friend's narrative of oppressionto expressher own desire for self-definition: "You could close your eyes and you wouldn't have to because belonged here what people said you never anyway" (83). worry Cisneros's female-centredcycle differs from Hemingway's male-oriented cycle in that her protagonist's voice unifies the stories; Esperanzathe character disappearsperiodically but Esperanzathe writer is ever present. As narrator, Esperanzainsists on the potential individuality of her female friends and neighbours. A single image, often appearingin the title of a new character's story, particularizes the women who sharea common narrative of oppressionand silence: one thinks of "Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & PapayaJuice on Tuesdays"or Minerva who "Writes Poems." Hemingway's men are a more concentratedcollective, bound together not by a stable,empathic narrative presencebut an inescapablealienation that, accordingto JosephDeFalco, typifies Hemingway's representationof a "whole have irrational in their who encountered contemporary men elements of race have forced been deal to and with them" (26). environment Cisneros's commentson her methodology emphasizethe centrality of the Channelling other voices did not compromisethe single relational aesthetic. Bildungsroman. line Indeed when the memoir paradigm gave way to the of narrative the "collective story," Cisneroswas able to accessand articulate buried facetsof the self. Doubts and questionsexpressedthemselvesthrough a plurality of voices:

Lister 245

Mango Streetceasedto be my story. I arrangedand diminished events ... to speaka message,to take from different parts of other people's lives and createa story like a collage. I mergedcharacters from my twenties with charactersfrom my teensand childhood I ... askedquestionsI didn't know to ask when I was an adolescent" ("Introduction" xvii-xviii) 4' Cisneros's experiencerecalls Paley's responseto her shift from poetry to prose: "When I was able to get into somebodyelse's voice, when I was able to speakin other people's voices, I found my own" (Perry 107). Indeed Cisneros attributes her for Paley has to the that way she managedto find a distinctive voice that admiration (Cisneros "world "Interview"). a reader" addresses Like most cycles, the tension betweenthe one and the many informs both the formal and thematic dynamics of Cisneros's text. Throughout the cycle Esperanza insists on her statusas a self-determining individual, as she grappleswith a senseof displacementin her community. Her strongestconnection is with the "four skinny trees" that, like her, "do not belong here but are here" (75). She aims to distinguish herself from the many silencedwomen of Mango Street and become"the one who leavesthe table like a man" (89). In order to resist the security of a purely positional identity, she must emulatethe trees"whose only reasonis to be and be" (75). These impulses expressthemselvesin Esperanza'sdesire for a home of self-determining her own. Like other cyclic heroines,she must first reconcile her conflicted feelings towards her community. Esperanzais surroundedby a variety of plots in which home either binds or groundsthe self. The text is populated with women for whom home representsenclosure:Rafaela,who is "getting old from leaning out the locked indoors becauseher husbandis afraid Rafaela will run gets window so much,

Lister 246 is beautiful too to look at" (79); Sally, who leavesher tyrannical away since she father only to marry a man who forbids her to look out of the window; Louie's "girl but in "can't doorway a lot, all the time the who come out cousin" stands ... ... however, (23-4). Characters like Mamacita, singing" show Esperanzathat home can function as a powerful metonymy for one's identity. Brought to Chicago by her son, Mamacita is unable to function away from home and "still sighs for her pink house" in Mexico (77). Although Esperanzarejects suchrigidity, recognizing finally the in "home heart, homesickness " Mamacita's the of a possibility prefigures the bond that will eventually draw Esperanzaback to Mango Street(64). When Lucy's aunts come to stay in "The Three Sisters" they make fates Esperanza's future. in Greek tragedy, Reminiscent the about of predictions they prophesythat shewill "go very far" but place great emphasison the return home: "When you leave you must rememberto come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You forget know. You can't who you are" (104,105). Louise can't erasewhat you Erdrich has noted that most of her itinerant heroineseventually return, seekingreengagementwith known, closed spaces. The Aunts' image of the circle suggests inescapable to an and a return essential, self. However the readersenses completion that, for Esperanza,re-engagementconstitutesa further steptowards autonomy; as " Andrea O'Reilly Herrera suggestsin her essay"Chambers of Consciousness, "Esperanza'sprojected mental return to Mango Street is spiral rather than circular" (196). Esperanzawill make the samekind of return as Virgie Rainey in The Golden Apples. Virgie, like Esperanza,becomesthe subject of communal projections into the future; Virgie's SundaySchool class "think of her in terms of the future - she would go somewhere,somewhereaway off, they said then, talking with their chins

Lister 247 sunk in their hands" (Welty Collected 291-2). Although Virgie comesback to Morgana she returns with a new way of seeingthat enablesher to re-integratewhilst maintaining her "separateness"(460). One can foreseeEsperanzaachieving the balance kind of when shereturns to Mango Street,whether physically or same imaginatively through her writing. In contrast, the concept of home remains a pernicious one for Hemingway's

hero. is In Nick Adams domestic home the the stories cyclic a dark, emasculating space:in "Now I Lay Me," a story published after In Our Time, Nick recalls how he and his father returned from a hunting trip to find that his mother had cleanedout the memorabilia of his father's former hunting days, negating the significance of their experiencethat day. In "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" home is representedas the suffocating domain of a mother whose biblical philosophy has little bearing on the reality of the world occupied by father and son. At the end of the story Nick 42 his father back home. Nick to the than to woods rather return accompany chooses for longings both Esperanza; to the a young characters yearn similar experiences be. " beyond "be the they of social paradigms where and strictures can simply space For Esperanzathis spaceis a home of her own, whereasNick seeksthe anonymity of the natural world. For Esperanzathe return home no longer signifies a threat to self; Nick's return to Michigan in "Big Two-Hearted River" is fraught with anxiety. He does not re-engagewith his community but camps out in the forest where he fords a transient equanimity. Although Esperanzaemergesat the end of the cycle as the one who will step beyond the barriers of Mango Street,her narrative destiny is shapedby a collective both Alicia her the aunts and predict narrative of escapeand return and women: of Aunt Lupe foreseesEsperanza'sopen destiny, telling her that her writing will "keep

Lister 248 free" (61). Although thesewomen speakto Esperanzaseparately,they resemble you the female storytelling communities of Louise Erdrich and Grace Paley, shapingthe form with their speculativenarrative paradigms.

Cisneros'sdebut has begun to establishitself as an exemplar of the short story cycle form. Her secondprosework blurs the line between collection and cycle. The main difference betweenThe House on Mango Streetand Woman Hollering Creek is that the latter doesnot feature a unifying protagonist. Only the final two stories feature recurring characters,although "Tin Tan Tan" servesmore as a prelude to "Bien Pretty" than a story in its own right; the sketch consistsof fragmentsof letters from `Rogelio Valesco', a pseudonymdonned by the lover of Lupe, the heroine of "Bien Pretty." However, Cisnerosobservesin her characterizationthe development" Ingram "recurrence that of and associateswith the story structure in between form; these the stories similarities voice and situation are such that cycle familiar in even and appear when characters voices appearing new contexts. new Theseresonancesset up a network of connectionsthat operatesboth within and beyond the boundsof text. The structure of the collection compoundsthis senseof continuity. Cisneros again observesthe trajectory of the Bildungsroman, dividing her collection into three deal that respectively with childhood, adolescence,and adulthood, so that each parts its forms a microcosmic cycle of own. The secondsection comprisesonly section two short stories narratedby different characters. The first and third sectionsare longer and feature charactersand narratorswhose behavioursare so similar that they, like the women of Mango Street, form a composite protagonist. Changesin voice do little to distinguish the characters,especially in the first section. It is often difficult

Lister 249 to know where one personality endsand anotherbegins; only when the narrator is addressedwith a different namedoesthe readerrealize that she is engagingwith a new centre of consciousness.Indeed,readerswho are familiar with Cisneros's debut may well presumethat the narrator in the opening stories is Esperanza. Like Paley, Cisnerosdoesnot always identify her narratorsbut provides textual evidenceto suggestthat we have returnedto the world or consciousnessof a familiar character. We cannot be surethat "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn," is the sameLucy her in likely, however, Good Day. " It Esperanza "Our befriended that seems who in Good Esperanza both In Day" "Our Rachel narrates appears collections. sister that, "Rachel is skinny enoughto get on the handlebars"of the bike Man o 16). In "Eleven," the secondstory in Woman Hollering Creek, Rachel wonders if the teacherpicks on her becauseshe is "skinny" (7). In "Mexican Movies" the reference to little brother Kiki signals a possiblereturn to Esperanza'sconsciousness.The familiar tone of the story seemsto verify this connection. Stories in this collection resonateforwards as well as backwards;Cisneros, like Erdrich, capitalizeson the elasticity of her forms to createa macrocosmiccycle features "Mericans" boundaries remain permeable. narrator/protagonist whose Michaela, "the awful grandmother" and "Auntie Light-Skin": characterswho life in Cisneros's Caramelo, that the composite novel of charts reappear narrator/protagonistLala. In someof the storiesthe narrator retains her anonymity be has As the that cannot whether she consciousness. sure entered new reader a so the storiesprogress,one becomesless concernedwith such rigid identifications. Just begin beyond fixed individual to the women move genderroles, so the reader as disregardsthe need for strict characterboundaries. The acceptanceof plurality

Lister 250 emergesasthe prevailing theme of thesenarrativesand setsthe standardfor the reader. The third and longest section marks a break away from the kind of world we in encountered Mango Streetas Cisnerostakes her protagonist/narratorsinto adulthood. Most of the narratorsin this section are namedand there is no evidence to suggestthat they are Esperanza,the young girl who cameto terms with her duality and longed most for a home of her own. Cisnerosdevelopsa different kind of compositepersonality in this final cycle. Someof the women are victims of adultery and violence, whilst others are, ostensibly, more independent;they reject the security of marriage for the excitementof playing the `other woman'. However one dominating sensibility unites thesewomen: the desire for "passion in its purest crystalline essence"(Woman Hollering 44). Thesewomen who come from a variety of cultural backgroundsare merely at a different stagein the samejourney. All the women in the final cycle display symptomsof the "him-itis" that affects Faith Darwin and her friends: they sharean appetite for the ideology of romanceand a fascination with mythological heroes. The narrator of "Eyes of Zappata" is a more vengeful version of Morgana's Snowdie MacLain. She falls in love with a revolutionary who visits her only at intervals betweenimpregnating land; her outrage is temperedhowever by the irresistible thrill the young girls across in of participating the myth that surroundsher lover. Even the more worldly heroinesin Woman Hollering Creek prioritise romanceat the expenseof selfdetermination. Although someof thesewomen avoid marriage, they do so for exactly the samereasonas other heroineslong for it: a thirst for romance. In "Never Marry a Mexican," Clemenciastatesthat she is "too romantic for marriage" and

Lister 251 because I believe too much in marriage" that shedoesn't seeka "It's that, explains husband(69). In 1981JaniceRadway carried out a study on female readersof romance. In "The Readersand Their Romances"Radway identifies those conventionsof the draw back that to romancenarratives:the genre's "characteristic genre readers is love-hate `a typically termed with what preoccupation relationship"'; the creation of "conflict to keep the romantic pair apart until the proper moment" (Radway 589). The significance of thesecharacteristicsemergedwhen the readersconsistently "placed heavy emphasison the importanceof developmentin the romance's love" (589 italics). Radway's of portrayal The stories in Woman Hollering Creek set up thesestructuresand dramatize Most to them. the the turning point only subvert stories of conventions heroine fictional in her the rejects adjusts paradigms notion romance when and of burgeoning her with senseof autonomy. In the title story, Cleöfilas accordance hope in in is daily the the that of experiencing unbridled passion marries replicated the telenovelas. Continual abusefrom her husbandforces her to admit that he is not "the man I have waited my whole life for" (49). Like most other female cycle writers, Cisnerospresentsfemale community as an outlet for self-expansion. Throughout the story Cleöfilas sensesan affinity with the legendaryhollering haunts her home. Woman Hollering's cries articulate the the creek near who woman frustrations of the heroinesin all three sectionsof the text; shetherefore claims the title of the entire cycle. Clebfilas's identification with Woman Hollering blocks in fascination by her the the other women with village who are mystified connection Her legendary fruitful, furnishes the the affinity with myth. woman a more with from different is kinship Felice with a woman a a unexpected culture altogether.

Lister 252 friend of the nursewho seesCleöfilas's bruises,inflicted by her husband;she fulfils the role of fairy prince when she rescuesCleöfilas, exercising a kind of autonomy that is completely alien to a woman defined primarily by her statusas daughterand wife. When Felice arrives Cle6filas regardsher mainly as a curiosity; she anticipates how shewill make her brothers laugh when shetells them about this husbandless Texan woman who drives a pickup. However Felice is the only person in the story who sharesCleöfilas's fascinationwith Woman Hollering. By commenting on the legend she encouragesCleöfilas's interest in alternative narrativesand reawakensher interpretive faculties. Felice offers a different reading of the holler when she explains how, for her, it calls forth irrepressiblefeelings of joy: "Can you imagine, when we crossedthe just startedyelling like a crazy ... Who would've thought? Who arroyo she would've? Pain or rage, perhaps,but not a hoot like the one Felice hadjust let go. Makes you want to holler like Tarzan, Felice had said" (56). It is the sound of Felice's hoot that unleashesthe "gurgling", from Cleöfilas's throat, "a long ribbon of laughter" (56). This collaborative laughter cuts acrossthe cultural boundariesand for hackneyed beyond Cle6filas her: the the to a space narratives creates available "grisly" stories of batteredwives that fill "the pagesof the dailies" or the romance in is heroine "capable of `defying the hero,' softening him, and showing him the which the value of loving and caring for another" (Woman Hollering 52, Radway 581). Almost all the heroinesin this cycle emerge from their truncated romance narrativeswith a revitalized senseof self. In her essayon closure in Woman Hollering Creek, Rose Marie Cutting arguesthat the ending of "Bien Pretty," the final story, brings completion to the entire collection as it "helps solve" the between the "desire for romanceand sex" and the conflict primary collection's

Lister 253 "desire for autonomy" (Cutting 69). This reading exemplifies Gerald Lynch's theory that the final story in a cycle "bring[s] to fulfillment the patternsof recurrencein a is further Lupe Pretty" 40). In "Bien (Lynch along the road to autonomythan cycle" her heroines. learn however We that the she shares a past with other many of identity her fallen in has has love to she gladly relinquished predecessors; when she her lover. However, her statusas an artist enablesher to query actively the ideology. Cutting Lupe As takesthe stance notes, paradigmsof romance traditionally assignedto men as sheprojects her gazeupon the bodies of her male legendary Her the of subvert reversing roles and myths, paintings recast subjects. figures such as PrincessIxta and Prince Popo; thus they provide a commentaryon beyond in in the the the myths women eventually see which other stories moments that tie them to their lovers. "Bien Pretty" certainly offers the most prolonged statementon female identity and affirms the text's cyclic properties. However, other narratives demonstrateeffectively the tension betweenideological paradigmsand selfdefinition. One of the stories in the final section enactsthe possibility of plurality both in its form and subject matter. "Little Miracles, Kept Promises"juxtaposes fragmentsof prayers, offerings and letters from a variety of sources. Someare cries for help with financial problems, others are prayers for a cure, and severalexpress frustrations dilemmas the and of the cycle's composite personality. with new voices Thesefragmentsrepresentthe different stagesthat the heroinespassthrough in the individual stories. Barbara Ybanez from San Antonio appearsalready to have for "man for her her man" a with romance new autonomy; she prays need reconciled be himself, " looking "ashamed is to seen cooking or cleaning after or who not intelligent, just long, I'm "I've too too too that, put up with much and now explaining

Lister 254 too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserveanything less" (117,118). TeresaGalindo retractsher original supplication for "a guy who would love only me" having found that, once inside the romancenarrative, she missesher independence:"So what is it I am asking for? Please,Virgencita. Lift this heavy cross from my shouldersand leave me like I was before, wind on my neck, my arms swinging free, and no one telling me how I ought to be" (122). The final letter is one of thanks; the Virgencita has grantedChayo her wish and relieved her of the burden by a suspected pregnancy revealing that shehas a "thyroid problem in my throat" of (127). In her letter to the Virgencita, Chayo expressesher determinationto resist the models of womanhood embodiedby her mother and grandmother. Having escaped their fate, sheassertsher desire to remain childless. The letter not only records Chayo's self-acceptancebut also her recognition of the multifaceted identity of the Virgencita de Guadalupe. Sheadmits that has beenunable to pray to the Virgencita in the past becauseof associationswith her mother; for years she was the symbol of "self-sacrifice" and "silent suffering" (127). Karla Sandersexplores these in her Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. She notes that Marie study of associations Lazarre Kashpaw lacks any senseof self and so identifies with the Virgin Mary, a figure: identification female, that results in the needto "embrace religious an strong, Sister Leopolda as a maternal figure" (Sanders134). Sandersobservesthat this associationof the Virgin Mary with maternity subjugatesMarie and offers her only one kind of grounding. Marie's eventual rejection of the Virgin Mother is a rejection ideal "the the abstract symbolic, of womanhood, not the real person ... not a of human bond" (136)43 For Cisneros's Chayo, communion with the Virgin Mother is viable only when she perceivesthe multiplicity of this iconic figure: "When I could

Lister 255 seeyou in all your facets,all at once the Buddha,the Tao, the true Messiah,Yahweh, Allah, the Heart of the Sky the Lord of the Near and Far, the Spirit, the Light, the ... Universe, I could love you, and, finally, learn to love me" (128). Whilst Cisnerosusesthe final story of Woman Hollering to comment upon recurring discoursesand themes,shealso placessuch paradigmsthroughout the look forwards back. Chayo and Cle6filas the to encouraging reader as well as cycle, both write themselvesout of limiting, preordainedstructures,by rejecting their immediate communities and forging unexpectedconnectionsthat open up a plurality of identities, discoursesand narratives. *

Critics and readersof Cisneroshave posed fewer questionsabout Caramelo's it her it is three than texts, other classifying unreservedly as a novel; generic status times the length of Mango Streetbut its formal characteristicsare fundamentally the is The text composedof eighty-six vignettes, all of which tell the stories of same. Lala Reyes,her family and her ancestors. Cisnerosdivides the text into three parts, family devoted to the story of membersfrom a particular era. The first part each narratesthe eventsof Lala's childhood and the secondregressesto the time of the Mexican Revolution and picks up the narrative of SoledadReyes, `the Awful Grandmother'. Lala prefaceseachpart with an explanation of her next move, setting the sceneand preparing the readerfor a temporal shift or changein narrative gear. Owing to theseexplanatory frames,the text makesfewer unexpectednarrative leaps than Mango Street. Lala's detours into the past emergefrom a needto explain the present-daybehaviour of particular family members:thus the quest for causeinforms the structureof the text. However cyclic properties cut acrossthe text's sequential impetus. Lala's searchfor causedoesnot always drive the narrative in a linear

Lister 256 direction. In one of her footnotesto her grandmother'sstory she explains, "Because a life contains a multitude of stories and not a single strand explainsprecisely the who of who one is, we have to examinethe complicated loops that allowed Regina to becomela SenoraReyes" (115). The individual vignettes are, for the most part, self-contained. The first is filtered impressionistic Lala's through childhood eye and most resembles section the cycle form; multiple charactersmake fleeting appearances,weaving in and out of the main narrative line at random. Cisnerosintroducesthe first part of the text with a form, its fractured explaining how shehas melded threadsof remembered note on narrativeswith pure fiction: "The truth, these storiesare nothing but story, bits of string, odds and endsfound here and there, embroideredtogether to make something new. I have invented what I do not know and exaggeratedwhat I do to continue the family tradition of telling healthy lies" (n. pag.). Perhapsthe most fitting formal taxonomy for Caramelo is Dunn and Morris's term, `compositenovel'. Dunn and Morris suggestthe term as a replacementfor Ingram's but, as I arguedin my introduction, thesetaxonomiesserve different purposes. In The House on Mango Streetnarrative boundariesare firmer. Unlike some of the vignettes in Caramelo,the integrity of the individual stories and sketchesis always apparent. Dunn and Morris justify their use of a more totalising formal model by noting that whilst "a novel is by linear involving it a structured plot, narration causation, can be structured usually by is, by juxtaposing images, that themes, or association events, alternatively, in and/or characters some sort of coherentpattern" (5). Cisnerosemploys both in Caramelo. The caramelrebozo shawl that is causal structures associativeand from her down Lala to grandmotheris the text's central associativeimage; passed like the beadwork in The Antelope Wife it servesboth as a symbol of female

Lister 257 community and a paradigm for the aestheticdesign of the narrative itself: "it was as if all the mothersand daughterswere at work, all one thread interlocking and doublelooping, eachwoman learning from the woman before, but adding a flourish that becameher signature,then passingit on" (93). Lala, like Erdrich's Cally Roy, learns to read the shawl's symbolic meaningand, having yearned for independence,fords her own place in this compositedesign: "Each and every personconnectedto me, and me connectedto them, like the strandsof a rebozo. Pull one string and the whole thing comesundone" (389). Cisneros's `novel' featuresother conventionsidentified by Dunn and Morris. They observethat somecomposite novels "contain frame-piecesor interleaving that, be titled, are not really able to standon their own" such as they might while "Prologues and epilogues,forwards" and "framing vignettes" (9). The prefacesin Carameloare a perfect exampleof such `frame-pieces'. Dunn and Morris note also the prevalenceof metafictional discoursesin the composite novel form: "the process has become fiction making" a "principle of organization" for many composite of in novel writers order to establish"interconnections" (16). Such compositesmay feature a narrator who communicatesthe difficulties of storytelling to the reader. In Caramelostorytelling becomesthe central theme as Lala repeatedlystressesthe elusivenessof absolutetruths: "After all and everything only the story is fades like blue ink on a cheapembroidery the truth the and away pale remembered, pattern" (n. pag.). In the secondpart of the `novel' Lala constantly arrestsher rendition of her debate direction its to the the story of narrative grandmother's with protagonist. Like Erdrich's storytellers, Lala and her grandmothersoon discover the tendencyof beyond the teller's control. Soledadfinds it particularly to narrative proliferate

Lister 258 difficult to stay within the boundariesof the narrative as deviant threadspresent themselves;she must settle for telling Lala, "that story is another story, inside inside a story" (122). Lala herself choosesto interrupt her own anotherstory, her narrative with grandmother'sstory, placing it inside her own. She learnsthat is every story part of greaterwhole and lines betweentale and teller are fluid. When Lala returns to her own present-daynarrative the reader learnsthat the Awful Grandmother' has transgressedthe most insurmountableboundary of all: her death pre-datesthe storytelling sessionwith Lala. When shereported her history, constantly contestingher granddaughter'srendition, she did so as a ghost. These spectralnarrative interruptions attestthe strong bondsof this woman-centred storytelling community. Cisnerosqueriesthrough her narrator the line betweenstory and experience, imagination and reality. In the opening stories Lala alerts the readerto the capricious mechanismof memory, pondering the origins of the familiar storiesthat her and characterize childhood. Driving along a mountain road, sherecalls, evoke "Once a truck fell off and rolled down the canyon in slow motion. Did I dream it or did someonetell me the story? I can't rememberwhere the truth endsand the talk begins" (20). Echoes of Erdrich are clear. Lala articulates the same questions and doubts that crowd the endings of The Antelope Wife and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. Running counter to this narratorial anxiety are the footnotes to the vignettes that, like Paley's footnotes, lend a sense of documentary realism to the text; they provide historical facts about the places the family visit and the cultural influences of the time.

Cisneros's fictional world resemblesthat of Louise Erdrich in its presentation but a potentially unifying as of storytelling precarious act. Whilst the threadsof old

Lister 259 identity her boundaries Lala to the of ground within alluring narrativesenable belie history, `the the truth' the elusiveness of and pliability of story community and the possibility of a stable centre and origin. In her prose works Cisnerosusescyclic heroines between to who mediate community-authored structures represent infuses impulses her individual Cisneros composite and visions. narrativesand its and sequentialstructures,thereby suspicion of narrative a postmodem novel with like binds the together tradition that the communities strong storytelling undercutting Reyesfamily. However, unlike ShermanAlexie's alienated,displacedmale storytellers, Lala acceptsthis uncertainty and will perpetuatethe storytelling tradition, adding her own design. All three of Cisneros's prose works representthe Cisneros's the the personal. use of the story cycle communal and co-existenceof form placesher in the community of female American writers who resist the imposition of genre in order to subverthegemonicideologies. By constantly dispersal, form levels her and she continuesto open of unity with shifting reshaping 110). for (House Mango Street lines "the cannot out" on oneswho up narrative

Lister 260 Susan Minot: Monkeys

"after a while, one saw that only bits got recognized,never the whole person,some bits by this person,other bits by that, but one was never completely connectedup with anotherperson,one was never altogether recognized,except, shesupposed,by oneself' (Minot Folly 272).

LukeEudora Welty, SusanMinot resistsstrict categorisationsof her forms but is emphatic in her rejection of the term `novel'. When she initially sent three of the nine stories that compriseher debut work, Monkeys, to E.P. Dutton, the editor formal for her She to to novel. work such a restrictive a contract a refused offered by less fiction' `work `novel' the the specific word was replaced of and model (O'Malley 14). Since its publication in 1986, reviewers have continued to classify Monkeys as a novel, although they often qualify this categorisationby recognizing the independenceof each `chapter'. In The New Republic Anne Tyler refers to the text as a novel, but notes that eachof the nine stories "could stand alone" (34). Indeedthe SundayTimes review that appearson the front cover of the 1999 Vintage first "An Monkeys astonishing novel, wise, tragic, elegant and as, praises edition funny" (Review 1986). Where the professionalreviewer seesthe text through the lens of established formal paradigms, it is the studentreaderwho celebratesits departurefrom more familiar structures. Documenting her responseto Monkeys in an Internet review, Lauren Murphy, a studentof Mater Christi in Dublin, describesher delight in the text's accessibility and duality. One of the "things" she"liked most" about Monkeys is family life. in " Vincent "each the that one part, one chapter episode, one event was

Lister 261 In particular Murphy enjoyed the freedom that the form offers her from the ramifications of plot: "A reader can open the book at practically any chapter, begin by first few have basic the the paragraphs, and outline of what was reading, happening" (Murphy "Monkeys"). The self-containmentof each "chapter" doesnot intimacy feels in the the one with characters a novel. Murphy growing prohibit observesthat although eachchaptertells only "one mini-story at a time," the reader "begins to feel an affinity with thesecharacters as the story goeson, you can see ... how eachof the children developsinto their own character" (Murphy "Monkeys"). Minot's resistanceto formal definition emergesrepeatedlywhen she speaks insists fictional is, first her Like Welty that she works. she and about any of foremost, a short story writer who conceivesnarratives in snapshots. Shetells Anne O'Malley: "I try to get at what it's like to be alive and can only do it in theselittle fictional her (11). flashes" In Minot's world charactersoften articulate this small way of seeing. At the end of Folly (1999), one of Minot's most unified works, Lilian Eliot reflects that the most significant experiencesof her life compressthemselves into moments:"slivers into which I pack my greatestfeeling" (231). Even when Minot refers to her texts as novels, she emphasizestheir potential for fragmentation.

In an interviewwith DaveWeichshedescribesFolly as"a seriesof vignettesall put 11 together to tell a larger story" (Minot "Back"). Evening (1998), another `novel', is "made up of a lot of very little short stories.,, mature (2002), generally referred to began "a "Four (Minot "Back"). as very, very short story" of pages" as a novella, Short story cycle critics have queried the easycategorisationof Monkeys as a independence by Maggie Dunn Ann Morris the of each story. and stressing novel include Monkeys in their annotatedlist of `compositenovels' and JamesNagel devotesa chapterto the text, going so far as to cite Monkeys as a "classic example of

Lister 262 the contemporary short-story cycle" (80). On reading Monkeys one senses immediately that each story was written as a separate entity. In several of the stories, the narrative voice reintroduces the Vincent family, briefly detailing a history with which the reader of previous stories is familiar.

Such repetition has become a target

of criticism for reviewers; in The Times Literary Supplement Katherine Bucknell complained: "It is mildly annoying to be told more than once, in so slim a volume written in so spare a style, that there are seven children in the Vincent family ... " (78). Superficially, this re-grounding signals Minot's desire to preserve the integrity individual it story each whilst placing of within a larger formal frame. However reiteration serves other purposes for Minot. The seemingly unnecessary repetition of the hierarchy of Vincent children, the `monkeys', establishes familial position as the identity for the characters. Moreover it creates the surface primary constituent of

impressionof regimentedorder and ritual, inscribing the reader in the atmosphere that surroundsthe Vincent children. The family's movementsare dictated by a regime of scheduledvisits and traditional outings such as the annual Thanksgiving trip to Motley and the summer break in Maine. Through his analysis of the individual stories Nagel presentsa convincing argument for the text's cyclic status. He examineshow the meaning and focalisation of particular stories shift when one readsthe narratives as single, self-contained integrated than as of rather part an whole. Concerning the story "Allowance" entities Nagel observes:"In context, the crux of the matter is the disintegrating relationship betweenMum and Dad; in isolation, the central focus is on Gus" (90). One can apply this argumentto severalof the stories in Monkeys. When one reads "Accident" as a short story, one focusesalmost exclusively on Sherman'scar despair his the and alcoholism, causedby the death of his mother. When accident,

Lister 263 one readsthe story within the wider frame of Monkeys the unexpectedreferenceto Mum's death assumesprimary significance, overshadowingthe story's more immediate action. This contingency of meaning upon form is undoubtedly one of the short story cycle's defining characteristics,setting it apart from a collection of short storiesthat offers, at the most, thematic linkage. On closer readingNagel's categorisationof Monkeys as a "classic" short story cycle seemsa step too far. Despite her determination to reproducethe original content of the stories,Minot reorganizedthe order of the stories to createa more form. follow In Monkeys linear the organic narratives a structure, although unified, they were published in a different order altogether. One suspectsthat the evolution form deliberate her Welty's The Golden Apples. than that perhaps more of was of Her methodology suggeststhat Monkeys is an "arranged cycle" rather than a "completed" one; as such,the threadsof connection are more immediately apparent. In Monkeys Minot works within stricter boundariesthan many other cycle writers by family of recurring characters. Togetherthe Vincents form a representinga single kind Dunn Morris "collective the term collective of personality. and use particular describe Hemingway's home-resistant to groups of characters such as protagonist" inhabit story cycles and, whilst they may never meet, exhibit similar males, who traits (Dunn 63). A different kind of "collective protagonist" forms when characters are already part of a group; no particular characteremergesas the protagonist and focalising privileges are shared. They note that "extended family" narrating and in Go Down. Moses Love Medicine presentsthe tribe that and protagonist as serves it is (66). inevitable Whilst that certain characterswill protagonist as a collective from the their statusas part of a group. sense collectivity of other, stems emulate each It is this kind of collective protagonist that Minot presentsin Monkeys. However the

Lister 264 tension betweencollective and individual sensibilities grows ever more apparentas the traits of the individual monkeys gradually reveal themselves. Minot setsup Sophie,the secondoldest Vincent, as the potential `protagonist', handing her forgets Nevertheless, the that the reader never opening story. narrative control of thesecharactersare part of a family. In keeping with the relatively high degreeof unity in Minot's text, spatial boundariesare firmer in her cycle than in Welty's. Although Welty locatesfive of her sevenstories in Morgana, one sensesthat Ran MacLain's consciousnessis far forges his Cassie Morrison. Eugene MacLain from Katie Rainey that of or removed deep Spaniard Virgie taciturn the a and experiences most profound connectionwith family Vincent Eckhart. The Miss moves around the text as a affinity with outsider lies Secrets and collective, creating a pervasive senseof enclosureand containment. is family differentiating Sophie the that the a the realizes self. only meansof are "bunch of snoops" and that "if you wanted to saveanything you had better hide it, " for barricading" The in her desk, (Monkeys 86). "cubbyholes good so she makes This in location the spatial of containment. sense only enforce scheduledchanges from Welty's I distinguishes Minot's text temporal which, would argue, unity and form. the cycle servesas a more useful paradigm of In no other cycle in this thesis are the bonds betweenthe constituent list like her Welty, Minot, a of cycle with prefaces protagonistsmore pronounced. has different Vincents to the This the effect a register of slightly characters. central list of Morgana's "Main Families." Both lists mark the borders of the cycle's central black families in do figure list Eckhart Miss the the of and not community Morganan families - and provide a meansfor the reader to keep track of some of the be list There little for in to the the appears stories. a cast of need relationships

Lister 265 Vincents. As previously noted, Minot reminds us repeatedlyof the Vincent hierarchy. However the register, like Welty's list of Morganans,gains in significance as the storiesprogress. Minot entitles her list "The Family" and includes the middle namesof the children, most of which replicate old family names, stressingthe continuing agencyof genealogicalheritage. The irony of this precision becomesmore pronouncedas we encountermultiple narratives of infidelity, alcoholism and the longing to escape. There is more than a suggestionthat the seventhmonkey, Miranda, is not in fact a Vincent. In my chapteron Welty I used Armine Kotin Mortimer's terminology to note the presenceof "second stories" in The Golden Apples: the cycle aboundswith fragmentsof narrativesthat solicit the reader's speculation. We do not know why or hits if her Eckhart Miss mother, whether shewas raped, or whether many of the even biological the characters are children of King MacLain. Similarly, younger Monkeys is replete with secondstories. Silences,interruptions and ellipses inhabit impression the story, surface unsettling of unity and transporting and punctuate each the readerback and forth. In her essay,Mortimer writes that the secondstory "may into hidden full-blown first (276). Where Welty's the or story" quite erupt remain hints "hidden" Minot typify the the second story, narratives offers reader embedded that, from the opening narrative, threatenconstantly to "erupt." Indeed the title of the opening story, "Hiding, " servesin retrospect as a clue to the presenceof covert narrativesand closely guardedsecrets. Minot's form is more concentratedthan We1ty'sand she presentsa smaller cast of characters. Most of the secondstories infidelity from Mum's the samesource: and Dad's drinking. Hints are stem for the text the careful reader, setting up future events and throughout scattered deviance have been that of camouflagedor suspended. opening up stories

Lister 266 Mrs Vincent's ghost story of the spurnedwoman who commits suicide is a rather obvious kind of secondstory, in that it is overtly presentedas a narrative in itself; it gains retrospectivesignificance when Mrs Vincent dies in what appearsto be an accident after her lover rejects her. Thus a strategically placed secondstory signifies upon the central mystery and defming event of the cycle: Mrs Vincent's `accident'. Neither the monkeysnor the reader learnsthe truth about Mum's death. However the text seemsto sustainthe reader's speculativeconnection betweenthese in the third-person when narrator reports passingthat Sherman,one of the narratives Vincent boys has "certain theories about the accident, and about the family" which he hides from his sisters(113). As the cycle progresses,Mrs Vincent's infidelity setsoff a chain of secondstories. One of the most pointed clues to a secondstory involves the parentageof Minnie, the seventhmonkey. Mrs Vincent gives birth to Minnie shortly after her affair with Mr Kittredge. As she nursesthe baby, she draws between hands Minnie's to the and those of Mr Vincent, as resemblance attention though attempting to extinguish immediately any secondstory: "She uncurled the fiddlehead fists and showed them to everyonelolling around. `You see?' she said. `Her father's handsexactly"' (73). Minot herself statesthat Monkeys "is madeup of nine short stories that tell individual in Golden (Minot "Back"). Some The the of narratives an overall story" Apes

shapethemselvesaround pivotal events: Easter's resuscitation,Eugene's

liberating elevation through the air. However it would be difficult to reducethe " Vincent's death is Mrs "overall `overall the to the story. one pivotal point of cycle loss in Mum Monkeys; the of reverberatesthroughout the sequence, story' impinging poignantly on the opening stories that emphasizeher centrality to the

Lister 267 children's lives. Anne Tyler refers to this event as "The thread that draws the stories into a novel" (36). Like the deathof June Morrissey in Louise Erdrich's macrocosm,Mum's in for becomes the them a point of return remaining characters,unifying absence their quest for recovery and order. She is an absentpresence,haunting the children. Whilst watching the cats "mov[ing] about the housesoundlessly" Shermanremarks, "`It's like they're Mum"' (134). WhereasJune's death opensup new narrativesfor the characters- Lipsha discovershis heritage and Jack finally engageswith his buried, relational self- Mum's death almost closesthe narrative down. Minot's death is in To Virginia Woolf's Lighthouse than the to akin of more representation Louise Erdrich's. Having establishedMrs Ramsay's centrality in the first part of the her death devotes Woolf to and explores sentence only a single parenthetical novel, its repercussionsin the remaining text. Similarly the death of Mrs Vincent credits incidental reference:"The girls never stop talking, worrying about their only an boyfriends, worrying about Dad, always having fits - especially since their mother died" (109). Like the children, the readercan only gradually assembleclues to the immediately its but this confront must effects. event, crucial of cause Fluctuations in the narrative voice register the monkeys' shifting identity boundariesas each child tries to differentiate herself from the collective. In many in focalising the weaves and out of minds, narrative voice a range of story cycles first-person between third narrative stances. However the writer's and alternating imprints itself descriptive those on passagespunctuating the prose style usually lyrical into In The Golden dense, Apples Welty's mind. a character's expeditions her five her In third-person the narration of of seven stories. style characterizes but her Erdrich the Louise enters consciousness of a characters multitude of cycles

Lister 268 distinguishes her third-person narration. In Monkeys, the poetic prose exuberant, inflections discourse the often adopts narrative of the characters'discourses;Minot's lucid, zero degreestyle signals her strong identification with the children and again intensifies the senseof enclosurewithin this world. As Anne Tyler notes: "Susan Minot reproducesthe clarity and deadly accuracy of a child's speech" in her own how Tyler observes eventhe more sophisticatedexpressionsreflect how narration. "children can sometimestoss off an amazingly graceful phrase" (36). In "Accident, " the pivotal story that breaksthe news of Mrs Vincent's death, the narrative voice usesthe presenttensefor the first time, reflecting the panic that takes over the house after the suddenloss of its central figure. This synthesisbetweenthe narrative discourseand the languageof the primary charactersprovides a further dimension of

unity. Although Minot penetratessporadically the minds of the five oldest children, only Sophie,the most insightful of the girls, narratesa story in the first person;her voice opensthe cycle in "Hiding. " Sophie's consciousnessis also the primary focal point in "Party Blues," the story in which she confronts her alienation from the other Vincent girls: "Things were a certain way and Caitlin and Delilah were that way had been dropped down in jungle felt If have Sophie them. the she would along with 44 : home" (77) This sensibility establishesSophie as the potential female more at wandererof the cycle. Like Annie Quirt, Virgie Rainey and Alice Munro's Del Jordan,she sensesher othernessand, to a certain degree,resistsHome and Family. As noted previously, the individual narrativeswithin a story cycle asserttheir independenceby illuminating the possibility of changein repetition. Sophie in believes such a possibility. In "Party Blues" she moves around the evidently houseperforming a familiar ritual, actively seeking signs of change. Although she

Lister 269 doesn't expect anything to have altered, she sensesthat "there was always a feeling of possibility. Things might be different. You might find something you'd forgotten about" (86). In this story Sophie is aware only of a senseof "dissatisfaction" but cannot place its source(81). Like Annie and Virgie she shows signs that shewishes to assertherself as a unitary subject. Just as the young Annie tries to quell these tendenciesby losing herself in love affairs, Sophie seeksrefuge from her deviancein her relationship with Duer: "she kissed and kissed, trying to kiss it away, to kiss herself into somecalmness,or peaceof mind" (81). As often occurs in Minot's cycle, fictional meta-narrativesenact the latent desiresor fears of the characters. At the end of "Party Blues" Sophie lies in the arms of Duer, wondering why "something was still wrong" (89). She suddenlyrecalls a story that her mother usedto tell her that mirrors her unease. The story concernssome schoolchildren who go to Paris on a trip with their teacher:"In the middle of the night, Miss Clavell wakes up. `Something is not right! ' she says. That was the feeling. Miss Clavell checksthe long row of bedswith a flashlight and when she gets to the last bed, finds it empty. One of the little girls is gone" (89). Whilst Sophie relatesto Miss Clavell's fear, she from the the group. child with who ran away connects also By privileging the perspectiveof the family's potential `outsider', Minot beyond family-centred the path a possible official narrative. Like many of opensup the potential escaperoutes in this cycle, this avenue is, at least temporarily, closed down. Unlike the other cyclic heroines, Sophie is the characterwho remainsat home death. SheresemblesCassieMorrison more than Virgie Rainey her mother's after by the end of the cycle. It is she whom the other girls blame for forgetting to buy her father's Christmas for stocking. cream shaving

Lister 270 As the storiesprogress,the narrative discoursedistancesitself from the monkeys' minds, settling into the role of the omniscient narrator. This narrating personaoffers glimpses of the Vincents in the future, indicating knowledge stretching beyond the boundariesof the cycle. In "Wedlock, " Caitlin, Sophie and Delilah playfully discussplans for their weddings; the narrative voice undercutstheir hilarity by stating that, "None of them would be getting married for a long time" (139). This hiatus betweenthe narrative discourseand the children foreshadowsthe processof fragmentation as the monkeysceaseto exist and function as a collective protagonist. *

Whether they are collections, cycles or compositenovels, all five of Minot's fictional works centre on genderpolitics and insist upon the differences betweenmen and women. In the fragmentedtitle story of Lust (1989), a short story collection, Minot isolatesa single sentencefrom the narrative's short, terseparagraphs:as the her boys, halts contemplates unsatisfactory affairs with she suddenly young narrator her account and writes: "It was different for a girl" (7). This sentiment echoes throughout the collection of stories; the line itself resurfacesseveralnarratives later in "The Man Who Would Not Go Away": "The woman cried, `But it's different for a from her (145). division hope In ' "Rapture" All the voice" seemed gone woman! betweenmasculine and feminine sensibilities informs the structure of the text as it from juxtaposing to the one perspective other, masculine and shifts continually feminine readings of the sameevents. Monkeys remains Minot's most powerful representationof gender difference. It is with great economythat she portrays the tensionswithin the Vincents' marriage. The circumscribed focalisation and fragmentedform enableMinot to hint at

Lister 271

divisions without openly dissecting them. All the marriagesand sexualrelationships in Monkeys are unhappy. A single exchangeat Thanksgiving betweenUncle Charlesand Aunt Ginny revealsthe tensionswithin that particular family dynamic; when Uncle Charlestells Aunt Ginny to "`shut up,"' the conflict registersitself in their son's face: "all his featuresflattened out, stiff, into a mask" (38). Minot's fiction is riddled with the kind of boundedmalesthat inhabit Joyce Carol Oates'scycles: men who posit themselvesas "the Self Against All Others." Mr Vincent rarely participates in family activities; the repetition of "he just stands" in the opening pagesof "Hiding" anticipateshis position for most of the cycle (2,3). Mr Vincent's stancerecalls imagesof Virginia Woolf s Mr Ramsay:"It was his fate, his peculiarity

like a desolateseabird,alone" (Woolf 61). to stand, ...

Minot illuminates the differencesbetweenMum and Dad beautifully when Mum fox. from has that to the outhouse claiming she seen silver excitedly a visit a returns Dad's blunt dismissal of Mum's story -"No such thing"' - reflects the kind of 62). Schweickart Flynn (Monkeys He that associate and with male readers approach is interestedonly in "getting the facts of the story straight" (Schweickart xxv). This in finds his delivers Dad expression assertions of physicality. controlling sensibility blunt dismissal whilst "thumping at a flimsy mattress" (62). In contrast, Mum, the text's primary creative force and storyteller, narratesher story, true or not, "as if it (Schweickart or an experience" xvi): "`It streakedacrossmy were an atmosphere Silver Orient"' (62,63). Similarly, when Sophie speculates As the as silver path ... in hushedtones that the crockery she finds on the beachmight be "from the Indians," Dad immediately quashesher romantic notion and replies that it is "probably debris" (13). Dad's dismissal of Mum and Sophie's creative narrative impulses echoesMr Ramsay'spredilection for "facts uncompromising" (Woolf 8). Dad's declaration

Lister 272 that there is "No suchthing" as a silver fox servesthe samepurpose as Mr Ramsay's final judgement that "`it won't be fine"' the following day; both men close down the rhetoric of possibility and romancethat sustainstheir wives and children (Woolf 8). The other men in Monkeys sharethis separatist,unyielding vision. Pa,the children's senile paternal grandfather,intimidates his family with vicious imperatives and abrupt negationsof stories that have escapedhis memory. Photographsof a young Pa reveal that before his illness he kept a tight rein on his emotions. "You never saw Pa smile ... except in one picture the Vincents had at home, of Pa with the senator In the picture, his grin is closed, like a clown's" (32). ... Mum's lover, Mr Kittredge, is a wandering male like King MacLain who has multiple extra-marital affairs and travels the world, sendingMum postcardsand "strange items from strangelands" (64). However the narrator's blunt revelation that "He made bombs" underminesthis exoticism (63). WhereasDad discredits Mum's fanciful narratives with his obsessiveneed for facts, her storiesachieve great significance within the dynamics of the text itself. Her ghost story of the spurnedlover becomesa meta-narrativefor her own rejection by Mr Kittredge and leavesa hint for the readerof her possible suicide. Like many female charactersin short story cycles, Mrs Vincent appearsto function as the stable centre for the other characters;she is the model of the relational self, holding the group together. However the unspokentheories surrounding her death and the affair with Mr Kittredge raise questionsabout her contentmentin this role. In "Hiding" Minot presentsMrs Vincent's acts of mothering as a seriesof performances:the her do ice "make the spin" a children on and she performs a tap dancefor them, "staring straight at Dad" who ignores her (9,11). Key moments exposeher endless maternal enthusiasmas a sham. Surreptitious glimpses of Mrs Vincent in isolation

Lister 273 reveal her deepunhappiness:Sophie spies her "lying on her side, facing the wall ... her shoulders

down" (86). Moreover the Vincent girls learn to shaking and up ...

read their mother's face and distinguish between forced and authenticexcitement. They discover that their mother is having an affair becauseher eyesare "lit with a brightness" that only appearswhen she witnessessomething magical (62): when she seesthe silver fox, when she listens to her sister Grace's "New York stories," living vicariously and "giggling now and then in an odd, excited way " (62). Mr Vincent is lessproficient at the performanceof parenthood. However he carries out severalrituals to verify his statusas father. The children know that when he comesdownstairs bearing his golf putter, they will be called upon to act as breakfast "Around the table there was a gentle craning of necks as the spectators: invisible ball rolled over the straw carpet. When Dad unfroze, it meantthe ball had (47). The mask slips more readily they so could stop paying attention" stopped, from Mr Vincent than his wife, as he is often under the influence of alcohoL Disembodied from his surroundings,he reverts to his pre-paternalself: "Dad glanced around the table. Perplexed,he saw six children, six hopeful faceslooking back at him. Down at the other end was a woman in a pink dress. What did they want?" (49). In the opening story his wife and children gleefully hide from him when he leavesthe house. When he returns, he enquires if anyone is home but refusesthe in family He in front the ritual. settles easily of the television to watch role of seeker the game. Like Joyce Carol Oates,Minot recognizeshow hegemonicgender paradigms alienate men and women, masking underlying commonalities. Both Mr and Mrs Vincent construct fraudulent selvesin order to sustainthe fixed structuresof Family and both find the meansto elude theseconstraints, albeit temporarily. By

Lister 274 circumventing direct conflict and participating in a collusive silence,Mr and Mrs Vincent fail to articulate this common resistanceto familial boundaries. Characters in the cycles of Welty, Paley, and Erdrich sharethis ambivalencetowards the identity; home and collective as a consequencethesewriters create conceptof forms in in leaps time and spacefacilitate the need for escape. which relatively open Minot usesthe form in a similar way to Oates;her cycle representsimprisoning repetitions. Her cycle is a relatively closed narrative spacewhere reprieves are only transient. The chronological organization of the stories and the unwavering focus on family in life the of a claustrophobia collective which narratives enacts one particular is in images deviance However there the the covert. closing of cycle must remain of fmally fmal destinies In that the are opening up. story, "Thorofare," the a sense Vincents scatterMum's ashesa year and a half after her death when their father has first leave lifts for As time they the the the claustrophobia scene senseof remarried. in the cycle: "Up the ramp they went, in single file, feeling something lofty in their procession... following at one another's heels, no one with the slightest idea, when they raised their headsand looked around, of where to go next" (159). This closing freedom farewell Vincents' to the that the accompanies precarious sentencecaptures the primary shaping force in their lives; the image of the monkeys proceeding file in gesturestowards a time when they will perhapsreconcile the upwards single demandsof the positional and the personaland learn to exist alone and together. Where Mrs Vincent differentiated herself primarily through her imagination, Sophie her be finally to pursue own secondstory to the end. able may

Lister 275 Toni Morrison: Paradise

"Except for a crack here, a chink there everything in Ruby was intact" (Morrison Paradise112).

"I think one of the interesting things about feminine intelligence is that it can look at the world as though we can do two things or three things at once - the personality is more fluid, more receptive. The boundariesare not quite so defined" (Morrison Moyers 270)

Readersand critics of Toni Morrison refer to her texts as novels almost universally. However, strong affinities with the story cycle form emergerepeatedly from the welter of commentarieson her narrative technique. Critics continue to examine Morrison's negotiation of repetitive structures,her disruption of fictional hermeneutic function her W. Linda the of and silences. sequentiality, Wagner comparesMorrison's debut, The Bluest Eye, to William Faulkner's story it Moses, Go Down. that shares"many of the difficulties" of Faulkner's noting cycle text, "in which separatechaptersappearto be independentof any main narrative line" ("Toni" 195). In "Memory, Creation, and Writing, " Morrison explains the formal methodology behind The Bluest Eye. Her terminology resonatesclearly with that of the short story cycle writer: As I begandeveloping parts out of pieces,I found that I preferred them unconnected- to be related but not to touch, to circle, not line up - becausethe story ... was the story of a shattered,fractured perception resulting from a shattered,splintered life. The novel turned out to be a composition of parts circling eachother, like the

Lister 276 galaxy accompanyingmemory. I fret the piecesand fragmentsof memory becausetoo often we want the whole thing ... Chapterand Part designations,as conventionally used in novels, were never very much help to me in writing. Nor are outlines. I permit their use for the sakeof the designerand for easein talking about the book. They identified are usually at the last minute (388). In "The African American Voice in Faulkner's Go Down, Moses," John Carlos Rowe comparesthe form of Beloved to Faulkner's story cycle. Where Faulkner usesthe form to juxtapose what SusanDonaldson calls "contending narratives," Morrison deploys it to centralize and privilege suppressedstories. Rowe writes:

Although in the popular imagination, Toni Morrison will continue to be hailed as a "novelist, " she strikes me as a storyteller who understandsthe need for communal and collective tellings that will transcendthe limitations and bourgeois ideology of the novel. Like Go Down, Moses,Beloved is not a "novel," but a collection of stories, less separatedthan those in Faulkner's sequence,to be sure, but nonethelessstories that cannot be read apart from their disparities. The difference betweenBeloved and Go Down, Moses,however, is that the stories of Beloved belong to Sethe,Paul D, Sixo, Denver, StampPaid, the Cherokee,and that runaway servant, Miss Amy Denver of Boston, and other victims who are redeemedin part and in

passingby their abilitiesto tell the storiesof their oppressionand thereby imagine alternativesto it (Rowe 94-5).

Lister 277 In The Bluest Eye Morrison usesthe namesof the seasonsto divide the text into four main parts but marks the boundariesof sub-narrativesonly with textual gaps. Of all her fictional works Tar Baby and Song of Solomon, her adaptationof the male quest narrative, bear the closestresemblanceto the conventional novel; numberedchaptersmark narrative boundaries. In Beloved and Jazz narrative lines becomemore fluid; Morrison usesonly gapsto mark textual divisions. Paradise.the text that followed Jazzto completewhat Jill Matus calls a "loose trilogy, " marks a shift in formal strategy(Matus Morrison 155); it is the first of Morrison's texts to identify `chapters' with individual titles rather than a date,number or a mere gap in the text. By framing eachsection of the text with the name of a female character, Morrison signals its potential statusas a single, self-containednarrative entity. All of Morrison's texts are composedof multi-layered, elliptical narratives that test the skills of the most dexterousreader. This is especially true of Paradise,in which Morrison representsa wider range of charactersthan before; as Matus notes, "the focus on any particular character[is] diffused" (Matus Morrison 156). As well her Morrison cast of characters, melds cyclic and sequentialstructures. as expanding In his review of ParadiseRichard Eder writes: "To read Toni Morrison is to advance draw Olympic wrestling master,we confidently near, only to be hurled onto upon an in direction" interview (Eder 2). James In backs the set opposite an and with our Marcus, Morrison statesthat she structuresher books to reflect the circular workings back forth, "Our are always minds moving and planning, of consciousness: (Morrison "This Side"). Her alinear, cyclic structures regretting" remembering, dominate to the that narratives popular culture: stories whose offer an alternative structuresdo not representthe temporality of our everyday lives: "People's for linear, is intense because than ever more now chronological anticipation stories

Lister 278 that's the way narrative is revealed in TV and movies. But we experiencelife as the presentmoment, the anticipation of the future, and a lot of slices of the past" (Morrison Marcus "This Side"). Further affinities with the structural dynamics of the story cycle arise in an interview with Nellie McKay. In responseto McKay's commentthat her books tend to haunt the reader,Morrison, like many story cycle writers, acknowledgesthe influence of the oral tradition of her work: "I am very happy to hear that my books haunt. That is what I work very hard for becauseI ... think it is a corollary, or a parallel, or an outgrowth of what the oral tradition was ... The point was to tell the samestory again and again" (McKay "An Interview" 146). The nexus of cross-referencesin Paradiseis particularly challenging; Morrison locatestantalizing segmentsof story within the frame of more contained individual Throughout the narratives. stories of the Convent women's lives, she dispersesreferencesto Ruby's ongoing quarrel over the Oven's motto, drawing the into back the burgeoning narrative of communal unrest. In "Seneca," the reader fourth `chapter', a white family from Arkansas stops in Ruby for directions and sets off again despitewarnings of an impending blizzard; the reader doesnot learn of their destiny until "Lone," the eighth `chapter', where the midwife reports that the buzzardsfed on a "family feast of people lost in a blizzard. Arkansasplates" (272). In "Grace," Dice tells Gigi about the two treesthat "grew in eachother's arms" near a lake in Ruby, Oklahoma (66). Gigi never fords the landmark but, four stories later, Deacon shows Consolatathe tree, resurrectingthe image and answering a diverted in Several the reader's mind. question residentsof Ruby visit the women in the Convent when their own lives stray from the town's script of communal conformity. Morrison presentsthesetransgressivejourneys only in flashes, scatteringthem

Lister 279 throughout the personalhistories of the Convent women. The readermust fragments into a cohesivestory. these narrative reassemble Like Naylor in The Women of Brewster Place,Morrison binds individual female histories within the frame of a single day that, in one way, signals an end for thesewomen. The opening and closing `chapters' of Paradisedescribethe presentday action of the massacreat the Convent where a group of ostracizedwomen has built its own community. This narrative frame is more plot-driven than Naylor's lyrical pre- and postludes;through it Morrison establishesa suspendedsequential haunts individual the that all stories. Linda Wagner notes that whether structure Morrison "misdirects" or "frames," she always "moves with steadydirection towards her finale" (203). Paradiseis no exception. It is this movement towards a designatedclimax that distinguishesMorrison from cycle writers such as Eudora Welty. The readermay suspectthat Welty will end The Golden Apples by returning to Virgie's relationship with Miss Eckhart, but she can never be sure. Morrison's demands however `chapter' closure. opening In many ways, Paradisebearsthe closestresemblanceto Louise Erdrich's in Tales Burning Love, of which the cyclic narrative community of composite novel, the women works againstJack Mauser's narrative. Like Erdrich, Morrison arrests the unidirectional impetus by incorporating a cyclic structure into the text: an open in individual impinge which stories of struggle community, and renewal narrative functioning both In together. alone and other, placing the women's upon each histories within the frame narrative of masculineviolence and destruction, Morrison for formal the women's ability to take, in Louise Erdrich's words, paradigm createsa "power from the in-between." By embedding a cyclic dynamic within a sequential

Lister 280 one, Morrison presentsa counter-modelto the structuresof Ruby, a town obsessed with boundaries.

The formal and thematic similarities betweenParadiseand Gloria Naylor's debut are striking. Each of the Convent women's narratives bearsher name as a title. Like the women of Brewster and Eve's roomers in Bailey's Cafe, Morrison's women from Convent the strictures of a phallocentric, white the seeking refuge arrive at isolation is by Their their proximity to Ruby, an all-black compounded society. in its that, attemptsto define itself beyond theseboundaries,succeeds community only in replicating them. Constructedand controlled primarily by the men of the town, Ruby's community fosters an exclusive notion of blacknessand shunsthe women of the Convent whose racial origins are, in some cases,ambiguous. Indeed Morrison does not always deem it necessaryto specify the racial identity of these ideologies. have hegemony The text the of race and gender rejected women who first, but line, " "They the the shoot white girl never statesdirectly which openswith of the women is white (Paradise3). The men of Ruby act upon the samepreoccupationsthat motivate alpha Mauser King MacLain. Deacon Steward Morgan, like Jack the twin and and males leadersof the town, seekcontrol of the community through self-reduplication; they by Ruby's replicating their own racial purity and population must regulate diversity: of a threat that they associatedirectly with eliminating any possibility 45 Convent her African-Brazilian Consolata,the ringleader, and protegees As Patricia Best recognizes,"everything that worries them must come from women": the temptation of adultery and the potential consequenceof blurring the racial boundaries(217). For the Morgan twins the women of Ruby must subscribeto an ideal of womanhood that they witnessedas young boys: nineteenbeautiful, nameless,

Lister 281 ladies" laughing for "Negro and posing a photograph(109). With their smiling ambiguousorigins and gesturesof self-ownership,the Convent women embody the its female disconcert boundaries. fear They to sexuality with potential of men's breed female, " "new threateningthe paradigm of the of and obscene a represent live forever in dreams" ladies (279). For "scheduled to pastel shaded nineteen ZechariahMorgan, the founder of Ruby, women representthe threat of dispersal. Patricia speculatesthat he namedhimself after the "Zechariah who had visions ... The one who saw scrolls of cursesand women in baskets" and who saw "the result (192): disobedience" of The punishment for not showing mercy or compassionwas a scatteringamong all nations, and pleasantland made desolate. All of that would fit nicely for ZechariahMorgan: the curse,the women

lead hidden in house, into basket lid a with a of and away a stuffed but especially the scattering. The scatteringwould have frightened him

He would have been frightened of not knowing a jawline that ...

identified family, that a cast of eye or a walk another. one signified Of not being able to seeyourself re-formed in a third- or fourthgenerationgrandchild (192). The collective memory of the Morgan twins forms the foundation of Ruby's Elizabeth Kella Steward Deacon history. As notes, and obsessivelyrecount official the story of Ruby's construction, securing its statusas the community's "master distrust (212). The the town ways of seeing other men of narrative" and excluding because her Lone the vision circumvents the mechanismsof midwife and ostracize history and memory: "She knew what neither memory nor history can say or record: the `trick' of life and its `reason"' (272). The reading strategiesof the town's leaders

Lister 282 serveas a warning to Morrison's reader. Whilst the younger residentsview the Oven's motto as an open text, freighted with plural meanings,older citizens attempt to elicit one prescriptive interpretation and foreclose all others. Patricia Best is the town's most active reader;she assignsherself the role of town historian and attempts to transcribethe story of Ruby's past. However, she fords that fragmentsof covert impinge threads of gossip on her reconstructionof the master narrativesand narrative, belying the reality of her neat genealogicalnetworks and sequentialplots of communal reconstruction. Thesediscontinuousstories require a different kind of from in "The Sunday school classes town's official story, elaborated pulpits, reader: had life. footnotes, Any a sturdy speeches, public ceremonial crevicesor and keen imagination be took to put and the persistence of a mind questions

histories" (188). Patricia burns her history oral with apocryphal when uncomfortable Be draws between history begins Ruby the that to query official and gossip, oral she Such and reading and writing. momentsof renewedvision are narrative, and written for dissolution binaries. Patricia's the the story cycle, of a site of paradigmatic realisation also resonateswith Morrison's politics: Morrison tells JamesMarcus that 46 distrust (Morrison "This Side") either/or solutions" she"tend[s] to Like Welty, Morrison illuminates the limits of the community's master form `spatial' that time rather than teleology. through a privileges cyclic, narrative In Welty's The Golden Apples Virgie entersthe water and frees herself of the In Naylor's Mattie Ciel burden history the cycle relieves memory. of of shacklesof by encouragingher to expressher maternal grief. Similarly, the women in Paradise functioning beyond the separatistdiscoursesand selective reality conjure an elevated In Naylor's Ruby. cycle momentsof spiritual transcendenceare transient of memory

Lister 283 and elusive. Morrison's women engagefully with thesepowers to createan open community that fosters self-defmition and renewal. Both Naylor and Morrison use the cycle form to destabilizethe notion of borders; indeedNaylor claims that the experienceof reading Toni Morrison alerted her to the possibility of breaking generic boundaries:sherealized that "the barriers it is flexible; language, if the at core of all and you're skilled enoughwith that, were you can createyour own genre" (Naylor "Conversation" 568). In Morrison's Paradisethe disenfranchisedwomen give full expressionto their conjuring skills to develop new ways of conceiving the self. Like Eve's Place in Bailey's Cafe the Convent becomesa quasi-mystical spacewhere personaland communal epiphanies form a counter-hegemonyto the rigid hierarchiesof Ruby. Consolatainherits her mentor Mary Magna's gift of "seeing in[to]" anotherpersonby stepping into her body (247). This erasureof corporeal boundariesis a physical enactmentof the discourses bind Both Naylor's Eve these that together. women and relational Morrison's Consolataconjure visions for their protegeesthat offer the chanceof bind Eve's four Where to the silence continues several of women women, renewal. Consolata's Convent to the uninhibitedly respond conjuring. at Before the attack on the Convent takes place, Consolatatells the women of a boundless in "gods space where and goddesses sat the pews with the paradisaical, congregation," "sidewalks met the sea" and "fish the color of plums swam alongside In begin (263-4,263). to this the the cathartic response vision, women children" begin fill in they to the templatesof themselvesthat self-signification; of process Consolatahas drawn, fully realizing hidden stratifications of the self. In these final in fictional form Morrison the processof self-surveillance that she represents scenes discussedwith Naylor in 1985: "what I starteddoing was to project the self not ...

Lister 284 into the way we say `yourself,' but to put a spacebetweenthose words, asthough the self were really a twin ... or somethingthat sits right next to you and watchesyou" (Naylor "Conversation" 585). This questioning, relativizing twin self performs a different function to the self-validating reduplication that gratifies Ruby's twin leaders. When SenecaleadsPallasthrough the Convent for the first time, the new herself here but "she that might meet an unbridled, authentic self, senses arrival in (177). house's `cool' the thought she of as a self one many rooms" of which Discussingthe influence of William Faulkner in 1985, Morrison revealedhow she herself learnedto practisethis method of self-definition by reading herself as a writer: "the effort is to write so that there is something that's going on betweenmyself and Patricia (Morrison 298). "Faulkner" writer and myself as reader" myself - myself as Best emulatesthis practice of self-observationwhen she readdressesher replication beyond "sturdy to the Ruby's the and acknowledges need reach master narrative of history (188). Similarly, life" the convent women see the town's official of public beyond familiar stories when they fill in the templates,rereading and rewriting their past lives; they register and contemplatesabotagedaspectsof themselvesuntil, "unlike somepeople in Ruby, [they] were no longer haunted" (266). Through their initiation kind by Luce the the of women experience endorsed sharedstorytelling Irigaray; they achieve a "subjective status" that is "constituted in relation to self and to like, the two being connected" (192).

Morrison's negotiation of structural and thematic repetition suggestsfurther identification with the methodology of the story cycle writer. The possibility of her it haunts does Louise Erdrich's through narrative as repetition change identifies Krumholz in J. dynamic her Linda this structural analysis of macrocosm.

Lister 285 Paradise:"the novel... containsnumerousdoublings of scenes,characters,and points of view that generatea constantprocessof repetition with a difference for the ideologies (21). Where the rigid of Ruby reveal the problematics of reader" mechanizedrecurrence,the storiesof the Convent women enact the possibility of growth through repetition. Inspired by Consolata's Edenic vision, the women repeat their storiesto eachother, this time including the "Half-tales" and the "neverdreamed"parts of their histories, expandingon stories already familiar to Morrison's reader(264). They re-enacteachother's experiencesuntil they are "exhaustedand dreaming" "loud they to to their although vow never submit again, they enraged"; know that they will relive their stories,poring over the ambiguities and complexities of eachother's pastsand vocalizing many of the reader's questions(264): was Senecadesertedby her mother? Who is the father of Pallas's baby? For thesewomen repetition "opens potentialities that went unnoticed, were in (Ricoeur By 76). the repressed past" commenting on each aborted,or were fluidity the the women collectively register of narrative and probe the other's stories boundariesof memory and history. Morrison exploits her form to illuminate how "puts the seal of temporality on the entire chain of conceptsconstitutive of repetition historicality - heritage,handing down, taking over, history, co-historicizing, fate, brings historicality back its in 76destiny (Ricoeur to temporality" origin and and 7). This "chain of concepts" forms the basisof the mechanizedmasternarrative that the men of Ruby vow to hand down to their children. In his examination of the story cycle Forrest Ingram comparesthe form's basic dynamic to "the moving parts of a mobile." He explains: "the interconnected parts of some story cycles seemto shift their positions with relation to the other parts, forward in its typical pattern of recurrent development" (13). the cycle moves as

Lister 286 This describesaptly the kind of narrative community that Morrison's convent women have generated,in which the significance of individual stories shifts in accordancewith the reiteration of other, linked narratives. This processof narrative reconfiguration mirrors the reader's activity as fragmentsof sidelined stories in with renewedsignificance the light of new narratives. In unexpectedlyresurface Gloria do Naylor's of women contrast,most not perceivethe possibility of changein it functions for them primarily as a safeguardagainst change. repetition; Gloria Naylor undercutsthe triumphant demolition of Brewster's wall by framing it with the qualifying context of Mattie's dream. Morrison placesno such boundary around the Convent women's collective catharsis;their recreation of themselvesis an act of collaboration that confirms both their senseof solidarity and individual identities. Unlike Naylor's women, the Convent women register their autonomythrough eye contact, finally seeing into each other for the first time. Through Consolata'sconjuring the women are able to "look at eachother," and Consolataherself finally removesthe "dark glasses"that throughout most of the text have shielded her "awful eyes" (262,265). In the postlude of The Women the absenceof the women themselvesproblematizesthe narrative voice's romantic furnishes In Paradise Morrison the readerwith confirmation of the gesturing. final haunt In "Save-Marie" the the to the section of women return rebirth. women's be form The thesewomen now take: their past. reader cannot sure what of people did they survive the massacreor do they now inhabit borderland territory, mediating betweenone world and the next? Such questionsbecome,like the race of the irrelevant. women, Foreshadowingtheseappearancesby the women are the spectralencounters that take place earlier in the text. As J. Brooks Bouson notes,the appearanceof an

Lister 287 unidentified man wearing mirrored sunglassesanticipatesConsolata'srecovery of hidden facets of the self. Observingthe physical similarities between Consolataand the man - they both have greeneyesand "tea-colored hair" - Bouson suggeststhat this masculinepresencerepresentsthe "core part of Consolata's identity - the deity within or beloved part of the self' (Morrison Paradise252 Bouson 209). The mirrored glassesand Consolata'ssuddensenseof disembodimentsupport this reading: as the man approachesher she feels "light, weightless, as though shecould move, if shewanted to, without standingup" (252). Theseopportunities for self-surveillanceare not exclusive to visionaries such has in her Dovey Morgan, Steward, Consolata. wife of a similar experience as

her finds herself "Friend, " to with a stranger whom she relating encounters repeated "Things she didn't know were on her mind" (92). Dovey's acceptanceof her Friend as "hers alone" suggeststhat she subconsciouslyregistersthis presenceas a physical identity: her the self that queriesthe argument embodimentof submergedaspectsof

believes it, it, its Oven's "Specifying that the motto and particularizing nailing over futile" intuits down, (92,93). She "once that and accepts sheasked was meaning him his name,he would never come again" (92). It is of course highly significant that both of thesereflexive selvestake the form of men, undermining Ruby's strict identities. Through their own spectralappearancesthe polarization of gender Convent women destabilize the boundariesbetween life and death; they resist definition and containment and, like Erdrich's shapeshiftingwomen, function as an in has Patricia, that, to a community according conveniently written absentpresence death out of its history: "`anybody who died did it in Europe or Korea or someplace final (199). In the town"' this story Billie Delia remembersthe women and outside

Lister 288 internally voices the questionthat Ruby's men are trying to dismiss; shepondersnot if but "When will they return?" (308). By editing death out of their master narrative, the men of Ruby declaretheir separationfrom the historical climate of mainstream,post-Vietnam America; they perpetuatethe original conception of their community as the one rather than simply one among many. Although Soaneand Deacon Steward's sonsdie in Vietnam, the community makes few referencesto the war and its consequences.Morrison deploys a number of voices and techniquesto challengethis willed alienation from America's public history. When askedwhich of the men in the text shemost identified with Morrison replied: "the one that is closestto my own sensibility about be Maisner [sic]" Richard ("Salon the would young minister, moral problems Interview"). Misner insists that Ruby's isolation is untenable;the town cannot history: live in "' its "` We the an self-perpetuating world, of exclusive, sustain myth he tells Patricia, "`The whole world

Isolation kills generations. It has no future"' ...

(210). For Misner, Ruby's self-imposedboundariesare illusory. He refers to America's history as a barometerfor developmentsin Ruby; he equatesthe incipient like bewildered K. D. African-American the the anger of with of men anarchy following Martin Luther King, Jr.: "It was as though the murder of community had been lost. That was what the ticket claim pawned and something valuable Destry, Roy, Little Mirth and the rest were looking for" (117). Morrison's narrative

it Misner's Ruby's America's corrective vision; counters negation of verifies voice in by history the specifying year and repeatedly month which the present-day public July 1976, America's Bicentennial. As Katrine Dalsgard takes place: notes, action this context compoundsthe tragic resonanceof the massacreat the Convent; it

Lister 289 becomes"a tragic inversion of American ideals" such as harmony, inclusivenessand 9). (Dalsgard social responsibility Whilst Ruby doesnot directly register the social effects of Vietnam, the town is neverthelesstainted by the uneasinesspervading post-war America. In 1976the from dilemmas Ruby those the war: the same as returning are wrestling with men of the destabilizationof masculinenorms and the grapple to re-establishfirm identity from Vietnam Paley's Grace that were men returning observation categories. "adrift" is equally applicable to the men of Ruby who, sensingchangesin their (Hulley "Interview" begin their to authority of asserting seek new means community, 45). The Convent women becomethe target of this masculine frustration; as for "chose themselves company" the women seemto who autonomoussubjects justify the masculine fear of redundancy(276). By attacking thesewomen, the men has been discredited. identity feel that they reclaim a masculine Morrison registersthe parallels betweenAmerica's disillusioned veteransand Ruby's angry young men indirectly. SoaneMorgan recalls that, "during the war ... however the "Ruby thrived"; also senses she other places" while smallpoxed anger burgeoning frustration and unrest behind the clenched fist painted on The Oven (102). Soanequeriesthe sourceof such anger in a town where "There were no incense (102). By (moral to them" subtly agitate or around or malevolent) whites debunks Morgan's draw Morrison Zechariah to these the parallels reader soliciting founding ethos of self-isolation. As Morrison tells Elizabeth Farnsworth: "isolation

its destruction because times change,other the of own as seeds carries ...

things seepin, as it did with Ruby. The 50s, that was one thing; the 70s, that was deal (Morrison to the times" they changing with refused another, and

Lister 290 "Conversation"). In contrast,the conjuring Convent women are, to quote Morrison, "examplesof the 70s" (Morrison "Conversation"); theirs is a community of flux. By refusing to specify the racial identities of some of the women, Morrison it, have believe finally "flag then to the to and and erase reader raise aimed - after know everything about thesewomen you

information you that the one piece of ...

don't know, which is the race, may not, in fact, matter. And when you do know it, know? Whilst Paradise do " (Morrison "Conversation"). raisesquestions you what difference, the text appearsto sustainpolitical readings the of racial relevance about is Convent difference. It "blessed the that excites the of malelessness" of gender Pallas and draws the women of Ruby to its doors (177). Kristin Hunt observesthat genderdifference expressesitself in relationships dream, leaders American land. In the town's their the the view the pursuit of with land only as a commodity. Morrison informs us early on that the land claimed by the The families belonged Arapaho founding "eight-rock" to tribe. the originally nine in When Zechariah Morgan Native American Ruby culture. are rooted origins of he decides kneeling Whilst figure the there. the to ground settle on a mysterious sees learn female Anna Flood lose to Ruby this citizens such as culture, sight of men of its history: hears "Wind land the that scouredcold stone" she the she when and read feels a connection to the past, rememberingthat it is "The samewind that once lifted hair" (Paradise 186). As Hunt Convent Cheyenne/Arapaho the notes, streamsof land home Arapaho their that the the with around emulates of women's relationship tribe; they "do not concentrateon owning their spaceand therefore do not attempt to (Hunt 125). boundaries" strict establish Even those women who do not visit the Convent display a common need for discursive boundaries her Dovey Morgan beyond the town; the of creates a space

Lister 291 her private garden. Although a collective of men runs the town, own paradise with the women form their own network through which they express silenced, desires. frenzied horticultural activities of Ruby's The and unsanctioned opinions women testify to the presence of suppressed creative energies demanding expression:

Exchanging, sharing a cutting here, a root there, a bulb or two became so frenetic a land grab, husbandscomplained of neglect ... The women kept on with their vegetablegardensin back, but little by little its produce becamelike the flowers - driven by desire, not necessity (89-90). Whilst the men safeguardand recite the town's official history, the women speculate between its the the masternarrative's lines. Reflecting on silences on gaps,reading the argumentover The Oven's motto, Dovey Morgan realizes that the conflict is "fueled in part

...

by what nobody talked about: young people in trouble or acting up

behind every door" (83): a theory that she sharesonly with the community's women.

Morrisonrefusesto relinquishhopefor Rubyandits alphamaleleaders. Final glimpses of DeaconMorgan presenthim breaking through norms of Deacon for deaths but After the the massacre, claims responsibility masculinity. Stewardremainsresistantto change. When Steward shootsConsolata,Deacon steps beyond the duplicated vision that has consolidatedthe twins' authority as town leaders:"for the first time in twenty-one years the twins looked eachother dead in the eyes" (291). No longer seeinga reflection of himself in his twin, Deacon surveys himself clearly for the first time, mirroring the women's act of seeing into eachother. Until the massacreDeacon has resisteddialogue for the samereasonsthat JaneTompkins identifies in West of Everything: to relieve himself of the burden of Ruby the the that to questionthe prompts women and younger men of consciousness

Lister 292 town's history. Guilt over his rejection of Consolatahauntshim after her deathbut from him the boundsof masculinesilence. In her `death' Consolata also releases fulfils a similar role to JuneMorrissey in Tales of Burning Love. Deaconrealizes that, before engagingin dialogue with Richard Misner, "All of his intimate had been his brother wordless ones conversations with or brandishing oneswith in (301). As noted companions" my reading of Naylor, Morrison hasexpressed male limits dialogue. When Deaconconfesseshis remorseto the of about male suspicions Richard over disregarding"the needy, the defenseless,the different," he establishes the roots of a new masculinenarrative community; he finally authors his own story rather than repeatingthe old one of exclusion and isolation (302). Thus Morrison illuminates the possibility of releasingthe self from the shacklesof gender identity: a by possibility embodied Deacon's confessor. In his attemptsto reshapethe community with a more balancedethos, Richard Misner practisesand promulgates the kind of sensibility typically associatedwith women. Steward Morgan scorns Misner and his new "notions of manhood" that emphasizerelationship and if had do "backtalk, to changes name as word magic anything with communication: the courageit took to be a man" (95). It is precisely Richard's "word magic" that galvanizesDeacon's rejection of the `either/or' thinking that continuesto govern his brother," the owner of "the only locked door in Ruby" (90). Although Morrison will always be regardedprimarily as a novelist, her texts defy categorisation. The framing `chapters' that chart the main narrative line of Paradiserely upon eachother for meaning and completion but the fluid dynamics of the intervening stories place this text in the cyclic worlds of Welty, Naylor and Erdrich. The final, elusive movementsof the women confirm that "scattering" can be a form of empowerment(Morrison Paradise192).

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7

"Terminal The Contemporary

Uniqueness":

Short Story Cycle and the Plural Self

Elissa Schappell's Use Me and Melissa Bank's The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

"He said to me once, when I was young, `You gotta have an outline. Once you have fatherly ' I A (Schappell thing to very say, guess, not much of a surprise" plan a ... "Beatrice").

For contemporaryAmerican women writers the short story cycle remainsa for lives: forging tensions the that to continue shape women's a unitary, site powerful identity whilst retaining a relational self; subverting the pressureof self-determined lure lines the paradigms; of conventional resisting plot and entrenchedgender structures.

Melissa Bank, Elisa Schappelland Emily Carter follow in the footstepsof like form Katherine Anne Porter, the to recastthe quest using writers mid-century debut have Bildungsroman. In their the traditional these works writers of narrative incarnations form the to enact new ways of achieving selfof unique constructed determinationand to expressthe postmodernthreat of fragmentation in a world that 47 identities influence before Again, than to the ever women more offer of appears Alice Munro is worthy of note here. In both of her story cycles Munro recaststhe traditional structure of the Bildungsroman by using her multi-layered form to

Lister 294 incorporatedisparateyet co-existing conceptionsof identity. The title of Munro's first story cycle, Lives of Girls and Women, belies the very notion of the unitary self. Responsesto contemporaryadaptationsof the form testify that the terms `short story cycle' and `short story sequence'are yet to gain wide recognition as genericcategories. Reviewersof Elisa Schappell's Use Me (2000) and Melissa Bank's The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (1999) deploy one of two strategies in classifying thesetexts: they either briefly acknowledgetheir hybridity, or place them unreservedlyin the categoryof short story collection or novel. In a Guardian interview with Melissa Bank, "A Polished Act, " Simon Hattenstoneproclaims the it from its blurred Girls' Guide The and rescues generic status,declaring unity of boldly: "A [sic] Girls' Guide is undoubtedly a novel" (Bank 'Polished"). As always insist hybrid texts, one question must whether reviewers on their unity and their with for commercial or cultural convenience;readersare perhaps merely statusas novels drawn debut located firmly be familiar likely to to texts that are within generic more borders. Writing for The Washington Post Book World Liesl Schillinger placesThe Girls' Guide in the only other available category familiar to its readers,heralding Bank's debut as "One of the most satisfying, effortless story collections to come in long (Schillinger Other less label "Review"). time" to critics, new a eager around texts, are more accuratein their descriptions;they draw attention to the text's generic duality but do not usethe term `short story cycle.' Mark Koplik, from Writers Online, describesBank's text in terms that align it with the form: "The Girls' Guide toHunting and Fishing ... is neither a novel, nor a conventional collection of stories, but a sequenceof stories involving a single characterand arrangedchronologically" (Koplik "Review").

Lister 295 Reviewersof Elisa Schappell'sUse Me deploy similar terms. The blurb of the Perennialedition emulatesthe phraseologyof Gloria Naylor's subtitle for The Women of Brewster Place:Use Me is "a novel told in ten stories." Stephanie ZacharekdescribesUse Me as a "collection of discretebut linked stories,which readslike a novel' and commentsthat the stories"somehow come together as a vital whole, even though they deal with seeminglyrandom anglesof Evie's teenageyears interview In (Zacharek "Use"). her the to their aftermath" and preface with SchappellShelly Ridenour describesUse Me as "a novel masqueradingas a is (Schappell "Using"). Ridenour's terminology stories" collection of short interesting, given that such suggestionsof generic hoodwinking are generally reversed;one is more likely to find descriptionsof short story collections posing as 8 novels than the other way around. When reflecting upon her writing processto Ron Hogan, Schappellstressesthe integrity of the text's parts. Sherecalls: "I really it interconnected. like I wanted the with seeming a novel, or wasn't concerned be I them to to wanted snapshots"(Schappell"Beatrice"). stories standalone. Through her formal vision Schappellopensup the quest narrative for her heroine; by sustainingan episodic structure shecontinually navigatesEvie away from paradigmaticplots and roles. Although Evie forms long-term relationshipslifelong friendship has Mary Beth children a and maintains with she marries, - she forges connectionsthat are chargedwith ambivalenceand that transport her beyond her roles as wife and mother. Stirrings of sexualattraction shift the parametersof friendships with Mary Beth and Sister Corrina. Like Naylor, Schappellusesthe form to probe those relationship boundariesthat seemto offer the most stability: "I'm interestedhow, at somepoints, we becomeparentsto our parents,or a spouse like lover. friend Or friendship like Evie Mary become than a a a and more can

Lister 296 Beth's can have an erotic charge. All this gray ambiguity and eroticism that exists betweenpeople" (Schappell"Beatrice"). Like June Morrissey, Evie becomesa postmodernfemale version of wandering alpha males such as Eudora Welty's cyclic hero, King MacLain who seekreinvention in the open spacesbeyond the bordersof home. For Evie, identity boundariesare constantly realigned through new and reinvigorated connections,whilst for the male wandererthey are only reaffirmed by conquest. The similarities in form, tone and subject matter betweenUse Me and The Girls' Guide are suchthat it is worth examining them closely together. Glamour illuminates the proximity betweenthe texts in a comment that appearson magazine the blurb of Use Me: "Fans of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing will devour this grittier, grabbier take on the path from addled adolescenceto equally perplexing heroines " Both tell their storieswith dark, sardonic humour, asthey parenthood. reinvent floundering careers,resurrect failed love affairs and reassemblethemselves after crushing moments of self-doubt. Both Schappelland Bank centralize one of the staplesof the traditional male Bildungsroman identified by Ben Knights: the "loss of the father" (117). Like their creatorsEvie and Janemust confront the deathsof their fathers from cancer:an experiencethat becomesa pivotal, shapingevent in the for search a unified self. The largely chronological order of the stories in The Girls' Guide and Use Me generatesa marked senseof sequentiality that differs from the almost incidental chronology of Eudora Welty's cyclic paradigm. The most appropriatetaxonomy for thesetexts is therefore Robert Luscher's preferred term, `short story sequence'. Although both story sequencesobservea chronological structure and chart the developmentof a protagonist/narrator,the individual stories within the texts remain

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remarkably self-contained. One could take any of the stories out of their context and readthem as independentnarratives,and yet both writers have createdthe senseof a tightly unified whole. Like Welty, Schappellwrote her linked narrativesas individual stories and did not recognizethe connectionsbetweenthem until halfway through the writing process. Sherecollectsthat at no point did she plan to turn her independence into the that their a and stories asserted novel until the end: sequence I'd beenwriting thesestories about thesetwo women for a while. But it wasn't until I had five or six of the storiesthat somebodypointed out to me that they were all about the samethings - women and their fathers, women and men trying to negotiate power through sex and

intimacy. It was only then that I realized that was true. I wrote the rest of the stories, and went back to rewriting and editing them so that they felt cohesive(Schappell"Beatrice"). Bank tells Simon Hattenstonethat shepursueda similar process,writing the `Jane She twelve years. continuesto speakabout the narrativesas period of over a stories' `novel' describe her the term to text. than chapters and rarely uses stories rather Given the determination of both writers to preservethe integrity of their is Schappell the the within sequences striking. absence of repetition and stories, Bank rarely repeat information in order to re-establishthe context of their characters' lives: an aspectof SusanMinot's Monkeys that Katherine Bucknell found have in I Minot's that tedious. argued such reiteration sequencereflects particularly the hierarchical order that binds the `monkeys' together as a compositeprotagonist. Whilst Janeand Evie value the unity furnished by familial relationships,the opening from both family the mark estrangements sequences of as the girls seek narratives home: forges Jane bond her beyond brother's Julia, the a with girlfriend connections

Lister 298 and Evie has her first romantic experiencewith a mysterious French boy. Although both of thesestories end on momentsof reconnectionwith their fathers,these heroinesremain largely isolated figures throughout the rest of the text. Both Bank and Schappellretain a forward-looking focus on their protagonists. In The Girls' Guide it is JaneRosenal'svoice that dominates,narrating six out of the in Evie Wakefield Use However Me. the ten narrates eight of stories sevenstories; both writers disrupt this discursive continuity with more isolated voices. The fourth is in Guide, " The Girls' "The Best Possible Light, literally story narrated central and by a new centre of consciousness.Nina, a mother of three adults, has only a tenuous by Rita Jane; the owned rents apartment previously great-aunt she connectionwith is in downstairs Jane is Jane's to the story and referred only once neighbour. and Nina herself does not feature at all in Jane's stories. However, common themes identity been live has Nina the that to to assigned up positional struggles emergeas to her. At a family reunion Nina comesup short in her performanceas the is father baby her be his fiancee's hearing Upon to that to son a redeemingmother. I'm Nina "Then, his turns to though narrates: everyone me, as ex-wife's, as well as in head kind I deliver these to of what voices my of pronouncement. get some going The Mother is supposedto say- maybe something about how it will all work out. My own mother would say something definite, fmal" (121). Reviewersof The Girls' Guide have largely neglectedthis story, perhapsbecauseit disrupts the main ignore insist is line; Bank's to that those a who sequence novel may prefer narrative a story that challengessuch categorisations. Shifts in tenseand narrative perspectiveoffer openingsonto other identities. Bank changestensein the sixth story, "You Could Be Anyone," in which Jane future herself The to tenses the to as protagonist. name shift present and not chooses

Lister 299 and detachedsecond-personnarration enablesJaneto distanceherself from her most harrowing narrative: her discovery that she has breast cancerand the breakdownof her relationship. The self in this story remains strictly provisional; by casually narrating a scenarioas though it is familiar to the reader,Janedemonstratesthat it could therefore happento anyone. When she learnsthat she has cancershe gives an in her boyfriend's reaction the future tense,enabling her to gloss over the accountof his experienceand present responseas generic: "After your first chemotreatment, before you lose your hair, he will take you wig shopping. He'll make it fun, and annoy the saleswomanby trying on wigs himself' (219). In the samestory the anonymousboyfriend feels compelled to sharehis justify fantasies to them with the theory of about other women and sexual `transference':"He's oblivious. He says,`It's transference,' putting himself on the loving he's hating he did his his Fantasies the and you way mother. way are couch: (213). Jane's her boyfriend's towards power" cynicism your escaping psychology of from dry, her detached however, As strongly narration. a narrator, she emerges in her by her feelings transference; own act of projecting onto a secondengages her darkest persona she eludes narrative. person,anonymous Interviewers have pressedBank persistently on the question of the autobiographicalcontent of The Girls' Guide. Like SandraCisnerosbefore her, Bank admits that shewrote many of her own experiencesinto her protagonist's freely between Whilst her love life the she speaks about parity and Jane's narrative. losing father, does the experience of a she shared not confirm whether she and herself has had breastcancer. It is the only subject that Bank refusesto discussin "A PolishedAct. " Shetells Hattenstone:"That is actually something I don't talk about. I just feel that's a private experienceand it's not one contained in my writing, " but

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then concedes:"Well I feel real comfortable talking about it in Jane's life" (Bank "Polished"). If Bank has indeed suffered the sameexperienceas Janeshehas used the story sequenceform both to expressand contain her own pain: the experienceis locked safely within the parametersof the single story and is not mentionedagain. In Schappell'sUse Me, Evie Wakefield sharesnarrating privileges with her best friend Mary Beth who narratestwo stories; the first of these,"Novice Bitch, " predatesthe friendship with Evie but the other, "Garden of Eden," featuresEvie as a character. Questionedabout whether she worried about the balanceof the sequence, Schappellrevealsthat although she "started off being very interestedin Mary Beth," followed her instinct Evie "Use Me, " began an story, and simply with and `wrote she it balanced, I I "At to that thought myself maybe should one point, make more more": but then I thought, `No, this really is Evie's book"' (Schappell"Beatrice"). For Schappell,her form enabledher to representthe haphazardnature of the lives of girls it isn't didn't being Life "I care about perfect. perfect. Thesearen't and women: dark It's these the aren't women about perfect ambiguity, about perfect stories, ... like "Beatrice"). don't (Schappell talk to about" we stuff This `imperfect' form also enabledSchappellto examine the permeable boundariesof intimate relationships. "Gray ambiguity" obfuscatesthe most firmly both in father/daughter In the sequences, shifts relationship connections. established form landmarks in the journey toward selfhood as the line betweendaddy's little girl daughter becomes increasingly blurred. The independent, self-determining and bring fore both fuelled family by to the tensions sequences of opening stories feel have been holiday Both "hostage" that they taken girls on with relationships. their parentsas they are forced to visit endlessmuseums(SchappellUse Me 3). Evie intimacy Family the Jane the of opening stories shunning most of and spend and

Lister 301 trying to establishthemselvesas individuals rather than co-dependentmembersof the family unit. For both girls, the senseof shamethat taints this positional identity is undercut by momentary,urgent desiresto reclaim the role of oldest/only daughter. Both girls project this needonto their fathers. Evie confesses:"I'm embarrassedby how good it feels to be so close,the four of us, but he doesn't put Dee down and put his arm around me like he should I just let go" (20). It is to her father that Jane ... finally admits she missestheir old holidays at Nantucket (39). The death of her father robs Janeof the centre from which she draws definition. Shenotes a suddenshift in her perspectiveas the pressureof the paternal gazedissolves: Somethingchangedthen. I saw my life in scale: it was just my life. It was not momentous,and only now did I recognizethat it had once seemedso to me; that was while my father was watching. I saw myself the way I'd seenthe cleaning women in the building across the street. I was just one person in one window. Nobody was (189). except me watching, Although initially disconcerting, this epiphanymarks the opening up of Jane's destiny. In this way, Bank emulatesthe structure of the traditional Bildungsroman, in which the hero, having pursueda "journey whose rules seemto be establishedby the elders," finally breaks free of them (Knights 117). Soon after this awakening Janefinally resigns from her job. Her father's mantra, "Don't take the easyway out, Janie" ceasesto have much currency in her narrative (192). The mantra echoesthe in father Grace Paley's "A Conversation My He Father. " the story, with mentality of look "refusal [tragedy] in face" feels daughter's his to the as open ending a and reads that she has chosenthe easyoption (Paley Enormous 167). No longer deferring to

Lister 302 her elders for direction, Janebecomes"just one person in one window" rather than the protagonist of her father's projected plot. For Janeand Evie, rejection of paternal paradigmsis only the first step towards self-determination. Their resistanceto neat solutions and schematic itself in their responsesto cultural discourses:the jargon clearly structuresexpresses of popular psychology and the soundbitesof the media. Both sequencesexpress deepsuspiciontowards the rhetoric of guidebooksand the advice columns of heaps Evie Use Me In scorn on her mother's attemptsto hone her magazines. parenting skills: "Ever since my mother took this dopey Parent Effectiveness Training Course,to `learn how to talk so your kids will listen,' she wanted to discuss things" (77). In the opening story the young, lesscynical Evie tests the seduction tips of Cosmopolitanmagazineon the French boy at the chateau:"`You've got to keepthemguessing. Be mysterious. Be playful like a tigress.' That's what the if is I French this tell wineglass the one Cosmosaysthe magazines you ... wonder fit into? is breast Or " (25,26). to that was a champagne supposed glass? perfect "Try an Outline," the eighth story, follows Evie's grieving processafter the death of her father. The story is a parody of twelve-step programsrecommendedby form to terms the takes the to coming with people grief; story of a counsellors designed imperatives to guide mournersthrough their trauma such as sequenceof "Imagine Cancer" and "Take Charge" (229,230). Under the headingsEvie vents her true feelings of resentmenttowards the healthy people in the world, creating her own is "Hate Everyone babies, babies Even guide: everyone. evil. survival subversive lives because (231). Two their they've them" got whole ahead of stories evil are later Evie admits that she has strayed"off the grieving time line altogether" (288); line for has pre-determined plot another a provisional one. rejected she

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In The Girls' Guide Bank debunksthe jargon of self-help by presenting various soundbitesand guidelines and subverting them with the stories. Sheprefaces eachstory with quotations designedto dispel anxieties arising from the difficulties of modem life. Her sourcesrange from The Junior Scout Handbook to Benjamin Spock's The Common SenseBook of Baby and Child Care. The framing presence of thesequotationsenhancesthe statusof eachstory as a separatenarrative entity, much in the way that J. Gerald Kennedy observesin his study of story sequence 49 conventions. Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider's best-sellingguide to snaringa husband,The Rules (1995), not only prefacesthe title story of the sequencebut infiltrates the narrative itself; the two authors becomespeakingsubjectsin Jane's imagination, goading her on as she plays hard to get with Robert. By juxtaposing

contradictory piecesof advice and exposing their simplicity with the contextsof the narrativesthemselves,Bank challengesthese goal-oriented structures. The from ff Jane "I `Self-Help? I these texts the think, of worry start: could contradictions help myselfI wouldn't be here"' (240). Bank parodiesthe rhetoric of popular psychology but her intertextual indicate in lack his In the the of a stable system postmodernworld. referencesalso is Hans Bertens "It the awarenessof the absenceof states: study of postmodernism languages, higher discourses, is that the most striking centres,of privileged ... difference with Modernism" (46). Edmund Smyth writes that such "ontological is its fragmentation "central "the to postmodernism" with emphasis on uncertainty" However Smyth (10). literature the to present the also uses example subject" of of this uncertainty as a "liberating" characteristicof postmodernism. He writes of "the intertextual and referencing: the multivocal, heterogeneousand mixing of writings heteroglossicnature of postmodernwriting" that has"broadened the scopeof

Lister 304 borders fiction" "The that so of genreshave becomemuch more fluid" contemporary (14). The uncertainty of this climate is reflected in these heroines. Forever dispersal, threat they approachthe possibility of plurality with the of mindful of both line, jobs dating They the abandon paternal giving up steady and caution. but " In "centres. "Sisters Sound" to the continue seek older men, of a unsuitable in loving from "`escape Evie to to a convent where go order retreats women pregnant husbandsand sick fathers"' (154). Evie herself recognizesthat this narrative of deviancesignifies merely anothersearchfor "rules and rituals that imparted meaning to life's suffering" (153-4). The forms of thesetexts realize this ambivalence towards the "liberating" effects of postmodernism;both writers observethe fundamentalconventionsof the linear quest plot - sequentiality and causality in its disrupting tangential and with narratives shifts unity perspective. whilst Paley's decentredform provides a helpful contrasthere. She deploys a highly fragmentedform to debunk patriarchal structuresand challenge masculine female Her origin. elliptical, scattered representation of preoccupationswith father line" favoured by becomes "absolute to the the a counter-model experience figure. Most of Paley's heroinesare single mothers, adjusting to lives that lack less Jane Evie to adapt and readily new plots. and react structure and control efficiently to this postmodernuncertainty. Discoursesof the sixties and seventiesremain relevant to thesecontemporary Jane's " Old Man, Archie, "My Bank the story of prefaces relationship with women. female identity: Betty Friedan's that assert polarized notions of quotations with Feminine Mystique is from The that the only possible claims creativity quotation for for "The self-determination any gender: achieving only way a woman, of means

Lister 305 is know herself by for to as a person, creative work of her own" (Girls' 75). as a man, In The SensualWoman (1969), `J' offers advice that directly opposessecondwave feminism; she insists that the modernwoman needsto recognizeand nurture her essentialstatusas an object of gratification: "Pin up on your bed, your mirror, your know it in lady, being: destined We to until you every of a sign, part your wall, were delight, excite and satisfy the male of the species. Real women know this" (75 J's italics). Janeoscillates betweenthesepositions of autonomouscreator and posturing The Rita the throughout narrative. actions of great-aunt challengethe object sex discourses; ideals Jane these that these she of shows are not mutually absolutism has As talented a successful and novelist she achievedcreative autonomy exclusive. but her advice to Janeon snaring men could easily have come from The Rules or The SensualWoman. Shecounselspassive,stereotypically feminine behaviour: "` When finds (79). Jane to the paradigm of the passive try appear captivated"' out you're ... female difficult to resist. At severalpoints in her relationships she suffers from the finally Faith Darwin that managesto combat: "him-itis, " the "dread sameaffliction diseaseof females" (Paley Later 79). Janewryly acknowledgesthat she enactsthe inwardly for "He Paris that takes to she condemns: you your stereotypes very birthday. Your friends say he's going to proposeand you find yourself dressing for the event that you'll both reminisce about years later. You even put makeupon. After a few ringless dinners, though, you stop posing for the memory, and relax" (213). In "Use Me," Evie adoptsthe personaof the more sexual Mary Beth to impress author Michael Morris: "I leaned into the table a little so that my blouse breasts. felt like he I Mary I the tops see of could my was channeling and parted

Lister 306 Beth. I never talked like this. I liked it. I liked it a lot" (114). Just as Schappell `channelled' Mary Beth for two storiesbefore returning to her more representative heroine, Evie soon returns to her authentic if rather precariousself. Despite their gravitation towards stereotypes,both Janeand Evie shareFaith's underlying feminist like Faith, Janeobjects to the masculine bias in everyday speech. Both sensibility; for boyfriends their using `balls' as a metaphor for courage. In women criticise Later the SameDay Jack attackshis father for succumbingto his wife's requests, demanding,"Where were his balls?" Faith reactswith silence: "I will never respond to that question. Asked in a worried way again and again, it may become responsiblefor the destruction of the entire world" (Enormous 172). Similarly, when Archie tells Janethat shehas "balls" for giving up her job, shereplies: "`Could you put that someother way?"' (195). In Later the SameDay Faith scornsJack's "woman stories" with their stock female charactersand contrived plots. In The Girls' Guide, Archie displays a similar he Jane, Jack to concocts stories about embellishing real events when compulsion her her a comic role, crediting with witty one-liners. When Janequeries and giving thesefictions and proteststhat shedoesn't want "`to just be some made-upcharacter in your anecdotes,"' Archie merely corrects her use of the split infinitive (92). Less is bring his Archie to unable relationship with Janeto a conclusion, adept at endings, his for his lines. He to satisfy predilection resolution novel and absolute uses and ties up the loose endswith a happy ending that strips hero and heroine of their flaws. Janeregisters her scepticismin her flippant evaluation of the novel: "Most of it is true ... except that the hero quits drinking and the girl grows up. On the last page, the couple gets married, which is a nice way for a love story to end" (104).

Lister 307 The endingsof both sequencesoffer the readera kind of completion that does integrity final the the of stories. Evie's epiphany at the end of not compromise "Here is Comfort, Take It" is triggered by her discovery of an event that occurred in in Beth Garden": lingers Mary "The that the the stories, an episode earlier one of Evie In the as accumulating significance stories progress. consciousness, reader's her diversion of this storyline Schappellusesher form to teasethe reader; in "The Gardenof Eden" shebuilds the sexualtension betweenMary Beth and Evie's father just four For to touch. the they the next storiesthe as are about reader off cuts and Chas Wakefield Mary to the touch of responded wonder whether can only reader Beth's hand. Schappellprovides the ending to this story only in the final narrative is by kissing father. initially disgusted Evie Evie's Beth Mary casually recalls when this image, but her friend's confessionactuatesa vital shift in her narrative. Having Evie between the and of self-assertion, appearsto paradigms acts established veered have surrenderedto an entirely positional identity. The final story openswith the image of Evie nursing her son, Charlie, and whispering that she"`won't ever let you Evie become has Charlie through (286). seeks another channel which evidently go"' definition. He has becomethe only personto make her "want to keep on living"; she is him he (287). Mary Only breastfeed three to although almost when continues Beth challengesEvie's image of her father is Evie able to extricate herself from this let final line her "I " The the to son, of story, go, refers ostensibly co-dependence. but resonatesback through the entire sequenceto the opening story in which Evie "let go" of her father (320,20). Her act of relinquishment paradoxically yields a her; for first his death those to the time closest of she since greaterunderstanding for is. father. he "I My father her there close my eyes a moment, and clearly: sees

Lister 308 The sight of him in motion takes my breath" (320). Thus Schappellreveals how the "gray ambiguity" of relationshipscan be redeeming. The Girls' Guide closeson a similar act of relinquishment for Janewho her have Robert. Bank through to appears relationship with achievesself-acceptance lure happy for female; however the traditional the the to of ending single succumbed her least Jane that than a empowers relationship rather compromises grants sheat identity. Both Janeand Robert accepttheir equal statusas "hunters and prey, fishers " Finally "say I Jane fish" (274). to able whatever want now, rejects the and jokes in "stored her up and anecdotes" previous relationships which she of posturing in head. final " (274,91,91). Thus "practiced the them paragraphsof each my and for heroine. Ignoring the the postmodern moments of readjustment capture sequence by heroines the these espoused guidebooks, achieve an either/or absolutism impulses. from in than their that spite of relational emerges rather autonomy

Lister 309 Emily Carter: Glory Goes and Gets Some

"it's typical of me - Glory at her most self-centered,self-involved, self-pitying, and favorite list terms that start with my word -'self " (Carter Glory Goes 82). of other a

Before fmding her form, Emily Carter adoptedthe samemethodology as SandraCisnerosand GracePaley and begantelling storiesthrough verse. She describesherself as a "prose poet, a ranter and raver," echoing Paley's sentimentthat for is "addressingthe world" (Carter "A Word," the most powerful medium poetry Perry 107). If poetry is the most effective form for self-expression,fiction, Paley argues,offers a meansof "getting the world to talk to you" (Perry 107). Like the Faith Darwin narratives,Emily Carter's short story cycle, Glory Goes and Gets Some(2000), satisfiesthe urge for both `ranting and raving' and dialogue. Throughout the text Glory reiteratesher needto hear stories as well as tell them In the story "Minneapolis" she describesher reluctant move to a St. Paul rehabilitation fording hopeful in She the the prospectof the a story on note, solace ends centre. town's inevitable fund of stories: "I'm gambling that my whole life has led me here, for whatever reason,and that the city will at leasttell me some stories. If I can make I'll (56). tell them to them at all, you" of any sense Carter's stories fuse elementsof the poetic with the prosaic; beautifully impulsive for images alongside appeals sympathy and metafictional sit crafted In "Glory B Ice-Man" Glory the themselves. the tells the narratives of and querying tale of her friend Katashawho, after watching scientistsdig up the frozen corpse of a lost explorer on television, reactswith unqualified outrage; three days later Katasha introducesher new boyfriend who has a suspiciously spectral appearanceand a

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frozen hand. Before revealing this strangeturn of events, Glory offers the reader identity boyfriend's the to and, at the story's climax, stepsbeyondthe severalclues frame of supporting characterand acknowledgesthe predictability of the plot's outcome:"You've guessedit already of course. I don't know why I'm bothering

Alfred's hand was cold" (40). Despite Glory's dissatisfactionwith the ...

tale itself, the sensationof touching the frozen hand is worthy of description: You know that, but you can't know how cold. It was like touching a silver ice tray with the palm of your hand. It was like holding a piece of frozen tuna, but colder. It's also hard to describethe cognitive jolt that went from his hand to mine, because,while I held it, I knew againstall logic - that I was touching something that was very, very far away (40-1). Metafictional questioning doesnot rule out the possibility of creating a resonant image. When Glory's scepticismthreatensto undercutthe story completely, she jolt. into her back "cognitive " This the with a establishesa experience reader pulls fails her Glory the to throughout the that cycle. never convey of runs reality pattern emotions and physical sensationsalthough she often standsoutside this reality, casting a querying eye over episodesor relationships. The resonantfinal image becomesa staple of Carter's cycle: she concludes "Cute in Camouflage" with the poignant visualisation of the late Millicent's hats "hang[ing] for a split secondagainstthe kid's-book-blue of the sky, like large, jewellazily floating birds on an afternoon updraft" (206); the sight of the "sixth colored from like "sparkling littlest" the emerging parachute cover, girl quietly a candied and in image final "ParachuteSilk" (98). Affinities with Paley and Cisneros is the plum" Cisneros's description here. Indeed in The House the of narratives on again emerge

Lister 311 Mango Streetservesequally well for someof the sketchesand stories in Glory Goes and Gets Some:they are "like poems,compact and lyrical, ending with a reverberation"(Cisneros"Do You" 78). Like The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Glory Goes and Gets Someis composedof storiesthat are the product of"11,12 years worth of work" (Carter "Encyclopedia"). As the storiesprogress,the symbiosisof form and fictional subject becomesincreasingly apparent;changesin the form reflect shifts in Glory's psychological state. As somebodywho "talk[s] first and think[s] later," Glory needs enoughspaceto improvise but also enoughfreedomto cut herself off when sheruns out of steamor decidesto revise her original outburst. For her, jazz is the art form closestto her personalstyle: "Take jazz, all right, let's usejazz as an analogy, parallels are always good. Now, what I mean is, what - do you think every time Bird sat down to blow he had the whole musical score right in front of him? Did he have the whole thing thought out? He did not" (19). As a site for recapitulation,the story cycle form facilitates Glory's distrust of idea At the to the rehabilitation centre she objects absolutes. of making an "I Will Never" list because"It's no good to think like that, in such grandioseand sweeping language It's better not to think in theseagonized,religious extremes.Better to ... just break it down into smaller, more manageableunits of time" (97). The sketches her in cycle are the narrative equivalentsto theseunits of time, the shape and stories distribution Glory's her to of which remain subject entirely whim; narrative of and is fragmented is to the twelve-step that a units counter-model programs she mobile, forced to follow in the rehabilitation centres. Unlike the twelve steps,the vignettes dependent for upon each are not other significance and their positions and narratives form fixed. Carter herself the not are expressesher deep suspicion of such within

Lister 312 have that they come to representa particular postmodern programsand states American sensibility; it is the tension betweenthese discoursesand the solitary voice became her that the central concernwhen writing the cycle: outsider sceptical of I do find the whole recovery, 12-step phenomena distinctly American

is decency this of optimistic, sense, common sort common very uniquely American. I wanted to explore what happenswhen a cynical, secular,humanist background is presentedwith the optimistic spiritual philosophy. I thought the clash was interesting" ("Encyclopedia"). Carter's choice of form signals a rejection of thesequintessentially American into deals is divided The six parts, each of which roughly with a cycle structures. in in history: her Glory's experiences at rehabilitation centres particular period Minneapolis; her troubled schooldays;her long days living in the St. Paul boarding house. Any senseof linear progressionis undercut as, within these "units of time," Glory makesimaginative shifts backwardsand forwards to other incidents. The tale for kind linear forms Glory doomed her the story, which saves a of mini marriage of however, the the towards referencesto this painful cycle; end of narratives in experienceappear earlier stories. Glory's representationof her HIV statusexemplifies her aversion towards her in She to the condition a seemingly announces reader preordainedstructures. in in her burying fashion, the midst of a sentence an early story, revelation arbitrary "New in North Town." The random location of this announcementbelies a willed her impose life. kind HIV her that the to of structure status might upon resistance Glory contains this narrative thread by dispersing any events that relate to her HIV the other stories, consigning amongst narrative to the status condition medical

Lister 313 of subplot. Sherecalls the moment when she first discoveredthat she was at risk in "Ask Amelio, " immediately trivializing this plotline by emphasizing its have be brilliant "Do to you a plot-predictor to guesswhat it was predictability: Amelio had to tell me, and how he thought I should know and go get the test? ' (64). The readermust wait until "The Bride" in Part Four to discover how Glory gained her Glory's of suspicions. resistanceto "common sense"structures confirmation becomesevident as she describesher attitude to her condition. She admits that she forgets to follow the regime for taking her pills and insists that she cannot account for these lapses:"I knew it was just that I forgot, but it must have seemedto be disciplined. I If you were stupid, it that to was simply choosing not everyoneelse but bright. forget be How incredibly to take a thing, can you're you one would four day? italics). " (232 Carter's times a pill simple Like Paley and Cisneros,Carter interspersesepisodic stories and sketches life friends her thematically with related stories of and protagonist's about describes how feels Glory In "WLUV" she a strong affinity with the neighbours. late-night callers whose voices emanatefrom her favourite radio station: It's one in the morning and you have an opinion. You are awake and is looked hours You've else asleep out everyone your window ... before and the neighborswere calling to their children and standing in their yards drinking sodas... Other people's conversationsflow around you in currents, and you are a rock in the stream,a rock with an opinion (79). The image is a fitting metaphor for Glory's place in the cycle; sardonic yet

her flow less familiar the a offers comforting constancy voice amidst of sympathetic, dialogue. fragments of and voices

Lister 314 Glory's narrative status changes from one story to the next although she narrates all the stories and is the recurring protagonist in most of them. As narrator, her role shifts from that of inscribed listener and commentator in early stories such as "Glory B. and the Baby Jesus" to that of detached observer in later stories like "Bad Boy Walking" and "Zemecki's Cat. " The early narratives suggest an acute awareness of her status as narrative subject: she tries to retain her mystery but is also eager to establish her presence even when she is not the primary character in a five in first feature her in Four the the the of story. stories section name particular title although she plays only a minor role in two of them; in "Glory B. and the Baby Jesus" she is the frame narrator of Ex-Sister Jacqueline's story and in "Glory B. and the Ice-Man" she is the sceptical witness to strange events. The name "Glory B. " does not appear again in the entire cycle, as Glory sheds this particular persona in favour of others. She uses the opening narratives to experiment with identity boundaries and blur the line between fiction and reality.

In later stories Glory herself acknowledgesthis tactic. In "WLUV" she describesher narrative strategy after relating the events of her day to her neighbour Kostelowicz: "I tried to make it sound amusing, casting myself as the beleaguered heroine of a seriesof ludicrous mishapson the way to a job interview" (77). In "The Bride" sherevealsthat she "tagged along" with the boys on their trip to Portland becauseshe "was the only characterin this heroic tale of youthful iconoclasts, between (124). Glory cohort and mascot" somewhere uses sassily perched highlight the to the variety of roles that she throughout cycle capitalization from three the "Madwoman of Your pages she within morphs consciously assumes: Local Tower of Abandonment" to the "Blue Angel" to the "Free Spirit Sans Underwear" (127,127,129). This constant projection of the self as caricature is

Lister 315 innate insecurity both of an and an egotism that Glory herself readily symptomatic is When she advised by her counsellor to focus on `positive, relaxing acknowledges. images," before she falls asleep,she cannot resist revisiting the "cavalcade" of "Glory's Most Painful and EmbarrassingMoments on Parade" (82); whilst these feelings humiliation of and regret, they nevertheless place Glory memories re-ignite

at the centre. Glory recognizesherself as a victim of the "Terminal Uniqueness"that the rehabilitation counsellorswarn against, and derides her compulsion to asserther her "favorite word" is "`self" (208,82). However she has that singularity, admitting little respectfor those who acceptthemselvesas representativeof `the many'. In "Minneapolis" she usesher signaturetechniqueof capitalization to pour scorn on those who sacrifice identity by conforming to social norms: "America Is Full Of Towns Just Like This, Foaming Happily With Hardworking Citizens Who Know Their Way Home" (54). As the cycle progressesGlory begins to shedher many fifth, intent longer In the on self-projection. penultimate section of the no personae, from However begins to the recede action. she remains a strong presence cycle she in the brief sketchesthat prefacethe stories in this section, where she adopts a describe her darkest deaths to the of style some moments: stream-of-consciousness intoxication. her daily for Like friends Melissa Carter her Bank, arrests and uses of the form as a meansof containing painful narratives. Glory's oscillation betweenself-doubt and self-aggrandizementis just one her both contradictory nature; she of embracesand eschewssolitude, manifestation boundaries. Having in insists Minneapolis, arrived she on her seekingand rejecting immunity to the pull of Place: "Certainly I'm no citizen. Of here, or of anyplace Nelson immediately Algren The (56). cycle's epigram quotation else" -a -

Lister 316 establishesGlory as an outsider with few outlets for her needs:"The city was full of lonesomemonsters/whocouldn't get drunk anymore" (n. pag.). Glory is christened "Bride of Frankenstein"at school, an identity that gratifies her appetite for selfcaricature. Shewelcomesthe affinity with Shelley's creature,placing herself firmly within the narrative of the fictional outsider: "I saw myself, heroically, like the monster driven out from the ringleted Swiss family to whom he secretly became attached. He wanted them to like him, and they did not. Party-crasher,Banquo's ghost, I took my revenge by inflicting myself upon them" (115). In the following however, Glory recognizesthat certain identity boundariesare inescapable: story, You can take the girl out of wherever, but you can't take wherever out of the girl. Except, I hear, in California, where people get instant new identities, free of cultural or familial baggage, the second they cross the state line. Now be realistic, and don't romanticize. There is no way the HIV-positive Jewish child of professional intellectuals is going to be beloved to a group of conservative working-class Polish Catholics (59).

When comparing her statusto that of social pariahs like Amelio, however, for her is roots: "I'm living in the love of my family and the bosom of she grateful my world ... within the warm, firelit circle of privilege, under a whispering Midwestern sky" (65). When she is at her most disoriented, Glory insists on the function borders identity the of and and essential existence of Place: It may be that a million baby billionaires have dot-commedreality ... itself into a digital distillation of everyplace-all-at-once but there ... is still such a thing as being somewherephysically. There is still somewherethat is only where it is, a place with its own smells of

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food specific cooking ... Boundaries have not yet evaporatedto the point where it's no longer necessaryto know the name of the state live in (163 Carter's italics). you Glory's ambivalencetowards boundariesaligns her with several other heroinesof the modem short story cycle. Her attitude emulatesthat of the more adventurous heroine: female the story cyclic young wandererwho resiststhe limits of Home and Family but eventually arrives at an appreciation of certain boundaries. In her story cycle Welty offers glimpses of wandererswho achieveselfdefinition by roaming the earth; however she also representsthe dangersof the unanchoredlife. In many ways Glory's quest recalls EugeneMacLain's odysseyin "Music from Spain." Like Glory, Eugenereacts againstthe daily routines of the city with seemingly unaccountablebehaviour; one morning he hits his wife and realizes that "It was out of the question ... that he should go to work that day" (Welty Collected 396). Both Eugeneand Glory find refuge in the company of strangers. After striking Emma, Eugenerealizesthat "no familiar person could do him any decides to "seek a stranger" (400). WheneverGlory's life threatensto good" and in spiral out of control, she seekssolace sexual encounterswith strangemen. When her marriage begins to break down this becomesa regular pattern: "Even though on didn't have bed, days I the to energy climb out of on others I was able to certain into it. With In little bachelor someone else. someone else's pad" (234). climb As Welty's Eugenemoves through the city with the elusive Spaniard,the pull impression He boundaries the reflects upon resurfaces. of opennessthat emanates of from the streetsof San Francisco, and considersrevealing the city's boundedstate to the Spaniard:"This city ... often it looked open and free, down through its longin bright, light. hill But the all washing streets, and hill, cloud and cloud, all sighted

Lister 318 back of the other ... they were any man's walls still" (407). Unlike shimmering one his father who fends off boundariesuntil his final days, Eugeneregistersa need for thesewalls. He continues:"And at the sametime it would be terrifying if walls, his Emma's the and room, the walls of whatever room it was that walls of even closeda person in in the evening, would go soft as curtains and begin to tremble" (407-8). Like Eugene,Glory fearsthe threat of alienation and non-being more than the boundariesof home. Echoing JaneRosenaland Evie Wakefield, she distrusts the theoriesof lifestyle guides that extol the virtues of isolation for the postmodern lifestyle features if, "Even transitioned thousand greasily silky-smooth, as a woman: tell us, we are spendingmore time alone ... everyone is very busy forgetting the last time they were lonely" (207). Glory counts feminism as one of the more deceptive ideologies of modem culture. Her mother's feminist values ring hollow when Glory learned her from I her "What stepfather: my mother's with relationship observes devotion to this man was simple - requited love is boring, but necessary. And you it have to simply, no a man, or, put you nothing, without are nothing, nothing, Glamour without one" (111). When her mother tells her that "there's nothing in the feminist become, " Glory "These twilight adds: cooings were quickly world you can't drowned out by reality's sonic boom" (113). JoannaRuss observesthat the quest for a man has come to subsumeall for female her Can In "What Bildungsroman the the protagonist. a essay, aspectsof Heroine Do? Or Why Women Can't Write," she states:"For female protagonists the Love Story includes not only personalrelations as such, but Bildungsroman, worldly learning failure, the career, exposition of character, crucial experiences, or success the transition to adulthood, rebellion (usually adultery) and everything else" (9). In

Lister 319 her opening story Glory recognizesthe dangersof defining and assessingone's self in purely positional, sexualterms. In a reaction against her mother's phoney brand of feminism, she begins a life in which genderbecomesan exhausting but necessary first The sentencesof the cycle presentGlory as the compliant object performance. of the male gazeand illuminate her potent awarenessof her sexuality. She remembersstrutting down a Manhattan avenue,revelling in her self-willed statusas a sexual sign: "They honked and squealed,barked, drawled, groaned,purred, hissed, begged down in borrowed I twitched the and raggedly at me as street a whispered, dressthat was as red as the stoplights" (15). The image of Glory "twitching" in a borrowed dressframes her immediately as a performer. At the end of the story Glory recognizesthat her searchfor sexualvalidation obliterated all other heard When the men's approval she "couldn't she possibilities of self-defmition. hear much of anything else for a long time" (18). Russ doesnot abandonhope for the female Bildungsroman. She offers two longer female in "no How She Fell Love to the cares about or author who avenues How She Went Mad." The choicesshe presentsare "lyricism and life. " By lyricism she means:"a particular principle of structure ... that consistsof the organization of discrete elements

lyric The thematic around an unspoken or emotional center. ...

its is chronology or causation; principle of connection mode exists without italics). (12 Russ's associative Although Glory insists on the necessityof requited love, this drive rarely threatensto subsumeother aspectsof her quest. Cutting acrossthe stories of Glory's failed love affairs and sexual encountersare narrativesthat tell of "crucial learning friends humour, with and strangers, connections expressions of and experiences": declarationsof independence.Glory's 6love narrative' never coheresinto a

Lister 320 particular structure;the storiesdealing with her failed marriage, "Glory Goes and Gets Some" and "A, " are separatedby Glory's narration of her great-grandfather's involvement in a horrific train crash: a story that she narratesto her husbandStephen in order to warn him of the "strand" of her "genetic rope" that "is threadedwith drunkenness,manipulation, grand gestures,and train wrecks" (215). Rather than devote all of theseclosing stories to Glory's road to marriage, Carter privileges a more associativedynamic and satisfies her heroine's love of storytelling. Glory's stanceon genderdifference is typically conflicted. Whilst she flaunts her physical difference to the opposite sex she also rails against the way that like difference that times shapes society, so at she sounds an advocateof the gender feminism she is so quick to condemn. Glory's feminist self sometimesemergesas doctor her her When to tell the a arrives male results of merely another persona. blood test shedemandsa female. Upon hearing from the man that "`delivering this information is a genderlesstask"' she replies emphatically, "`Nothing is genderless"' (137). Having got her way, she concedesthat the results are "exactly the sameas if the male doctor had given them to me" (138). Other momentspoint to a latent desire to be truly `genderless'and suggestthat the imperatives of genderare in fact in disregarding her She the occasionally rejoices accoutrements of escapable. identity Ironically, the self. rejection of gender as an essential gendered,sexualised in by donning is By a change costume. one of Millicent's category prompted inspiring caps, she castsoff the surface identity shapedpurely by her sexuality and finds a new agency: Young girls especially liked her caps. In them you could walk around look looked important things than at and what you and at was more how you looked. You could grab a little of that sparklethat was

Lister 321 for usually reserved the other gender,you could be a mischief maker, you could be Huck Finn. If you wore one of her hats the question of whether everything you said, thought, felt, tasted,touched and did was besidethe point if nobody wanted to fuck you - all that just disappeared (196).

Most prohibitive are the restrictions that heterosexualideology placeson female humour. Like Faith Darwin and JaneRosenal,Glory feels that her senseof humour is one of her most attractive qualities. She finds however that her talent for joke-telling and wordplay incites as much disapproval as laughter from a society that ideology. by In Grace Paley's Conversation "A with my patriarchal shaped remains Father" the writer-daughter suggeststhat she make her junkie heroine's parents"`the first to be divorced in their county"' to satisfy her father's senseof social propriety. Her father refusesto seethe funny side of her flippancy: "`With you, it's all a joke, "' he tells her (Paley Enormous 163). He interpretsthe open ending as a further her: flippancy As "`Jokes tells that's this a writer and your main symptom of ... trouble. You don't want to recognize it"' (166-7). In The Rules, the dating guide that JaneRosenalturns to, Fein and Schneider instant funny "`But I'm "' humour to repellent. attracted protests an man men, as cite Jane,not realising that this doesnot give her licence to take the initiative with joketelling: "` We're not talking about who you're attractedto, silly! Go out with clowns just don't jokes if "' (Girls' 241 to want make any yourselfl and comedians you ... Bank's italics). Janespendsher first dateswith Robert trying to resist answeringhis has Similarly, Glory difficulty fording for quip or pun. a witty an outlet with queries her joke "devastating (115). When terms tells wit" she a what she self-mockingly

delivery herself fords a masculine style emulating of andnotesregretfullythat she

Lister 322 humour and female beauty are regardedas mutually exclusive: "I negotiatedsocial inappropriate jokes delivered in the sameloud, game-showyvoice I situationswith had heard men use. I hadn't heardmany women tell jokes, and the onesthat did were all ugly, which was mainly what they told their jokes about" (113). Patriarchal ideology is only one of the forces prohibiting the full expression 50 in humour Glory like Jane Faith, Jewish and who, of are of ancestry. In his study of Jewish humour, What's the Joke?,Chaim Bermant statesthat Jewish culture polarizes humour and femininity: "whether women have a senseof humour or not, there is certainly among Jewsa fairly deep-seatedfeeling that they would be better off without it. If Jewish tradition has frowned on laughter in general, it has regarded laughter in women, not only as unwomanly, but as unforgivable" (220). For Glory, however, her ability to appreciatea punchline becomesher saving grace. In "The Bride" she explains how she becameenchantedwith the image of living as the bride ideology by in isolated Frankenstein's Arctic the monster, unrestricted social of landscape. Glory explains that all the other girls at school "understood the notion of is, literally, (114). The "single thread" thread" a status symbol amongst a single thesegirls: the "thread of color in the pattern of their argyles that matchedthe color functions let breathe "secret the that turtleneck" the wintergreen the as sign you of head held high" later is imagining (114). Years her destiny she still as your air with the monster's bride, when she leavesthe treatmentcentre and the halfway house; by her by "fellowship" the offered counsellorsand fellow abusersshe unconvinced love the to unconditional she would receive as the monster's bride continues crave (135). It is only when she hearsa terrible pun on the radio that she feels a senseof belonging and a need for social interaction.

Lister 323 The thread also servesas a symbol of conformity to social rules that Glory cannot follow and the single narrative structurethat shecircumvents through her fragmentednarration. When shehearsan awful pun years later - "`We'll be back after this word from Ovalteen- the clothing store for irregularly shaped adolescents"'(140) - and snortswith laughter so that somerecently swallowed pills fly out of her nosethat sherecognizesthe thread in her own life: her senseof humour. As the one essential,unchanging facet of her identity it is her "emotional center," enabling her to integratewhilst retaining her subjectivity (Russ 12): I should have known that any attempt on my part to merge into ... oceaniconenesswith the eternal would end in what young children generally call a `noser.' And that was the thread I'd overlooked. I hadn't seenit becauseit was woven so tightly into my fabric - the punchline ... They could control your fate, but not your ability to get a joke ... Bride of Frankenstein:RIP (140). Thus shewrites herself out of the Frankensteinnarrative to which she had already scripted an ending: "The credits rolled over a shot of our skeletons,collapsed in a heart-shapedpile, slowly disappearingunder the blowing snowdrifts" (137). Glory favours the narrative structure of the joke becausethe ending, the punchline, is interpretation; her is understanding and such upon a narrative a welcome contingent dictated by forces that to those other endings are such as her HIV status, alternative the hegemonicLove Story, or the expectationsof society or family. Glory's position importance the this the signals again story of establishingthe right kind of end of at boundariesand structures. Like EugeneMacLain who finally "race[s] up the stairs" to his wife, Glory choosesthe pull of social interaction and boundariesover the

Lister 324 boundlessnessof the Arctic landscape:a congenial setting for the caseof "Terminal Uniqueness"from which she has suffered until this point (Welty Collected 425). The final sketch of the cycle verifies Glory's development. In "Clean Clothes" Glory choosesto visualise the "merciful end of time" rather than speculate upon her own ending (237). Glory closesthe cycle with a communal scene,marking her developmentfrom the solipsistic days of the opening sketch; she pictures the end of time making its first stop at the local laundromat, "City Coin Wash & Dri" (237). The unidirectional honks and barks of the male onlookers of the opening sketch are laundromat by the the that set off multiple associations:the sounds of replaced "jangle" of the manager'skeys reminds one customerof "the church bells in his hometown of La Crosse,Wisconsin

(238). The love chiming all at once" ...

into the the background,the predictable ending previous stories recedes narrative of is HIV the sufferer ignored, and the romantic destiny of the outsider is rejected. of By closing the cycle with this sketch Glory shows that she hasreleasedherself from the "Terminal Uniqueness"that posesjust as much of a threat to self as these image destinies. The cycle ends on an of collective recognition, predetermined describedin a way that recalls Glory's individual experienceof connection with the "people standand stareat eachother with the sameexpressionon world: outside their faces,as if they'd finally gotten the samejoke" (239).

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Conclusion: Open Destinies

There is increasingevidencethat scholarly interest in the short story cycle is becoming more widespread. Commentatorscontinue to coin new taxonomies and definitions and the form's international scope is currently the focus of study. In his form's international for the volume of status, Robert M. an exploratory proposal Luscher recognizesthat "one cannot claim the form exclusively as a North American from by literatures, the examining cycles a range of national narrative aesthetic": forward "extend to aim study will previous criticism and recognition of the new S1 Not (Luscher "Calls") adaptability and vibrancy" only are critics genre's but distinct they are also acknowledging the short story cycle as a genre recognizing the form's multiplicity. Interviews with contemporary women writers reveal a growing consensus that it is no longer necessaryto define the formal identity of one's work in absolute terms. In a recent radio interview Alice Munro assertedthat she no longer feels the need to produce a novel: a pressurethat hauntedthe writing processin her early years: "I don't worry about things like that anymore ... I usedto always think I've got to write a novel and I startedmany, many novels and they changedinto stories" (Munro "Open"). Her freedom from generic paradigms is evident in her latest `collection', Runaway, (2005) which includes a linear mini-sequenceof three linked stories. By placing cycles and sequenceswithin the framing context of other, unrelatedstories, Munro underlines their statusas linked narrativesrather than a truncatednovel. My thesis suggeststhat the form offers possibilities for the female writer in particular; twentieth-century women have found in the short story cycle the perfect

Lister 326 identity for boundariesand representingreplenishmentand medium mobilizing plurality. As Lala discovers in Cisneros's Caramelo, "a life contains a multitude of stories and not a single strand explainsprecisely the who of who one is" (115 Cisneros's italics). Plurality has,of course,always beena facet of women's experience. Modem heroinessuch as Edna Pontellier recognize "the dual life - that outward existencewhich conforms, the inward fife which questions" but struggle to come to terms with this multiplicity (Chopin 57). The growing popularity of the short story cycle amongstwomen writers suggeststhat the plural self is becoming a more viable identity for the postmodernheroine. As generic and identity bordersbecomemore permeable,so do relationship boundaries. The contemporaryfemale cycle writer usesthe form to probe even the formalized connectionsand query the relational sensibility that has become most female consciousness.Representationsof friendship in the late associatedwith twentieth century are a far cry from the nurturing, affirming female communities in earlier cycles such as The Country of the Pointed Firs and Friendship Village. All of the writers I have examined query the foundationsof female community to some Canadian Elizabeth Hay writer presentsthe unsettling hypocrisies of female extent. friendship in her elliptical story cycle, Small Change(1997). Hay prefacesher cycle from Toni Morrison's Jazz: "You have to be clever to figure out with a quotation how to be welcoming and defensiveat the sametime" (Hay n. pag.) Morrison's words reverberatethroughout the cycle as Hay's recurring protagonist, like Schappell's Evie Wakefield, struggleswith the "gray areas" of friendship. "Baffled" by the "paradox at the heart of friendship" - the desire for friends both to fail and to succeed,the simultaneousurges to divulge and hold back one's secrets- Beth longs for a balancebetweencontact and isolation, autonomy and connection: "This is the

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detachmentwe seekand usually fail to find in friendships - an unbegrudging,clearinfinitely interesting and natural presence"(49,31). Beth notes eyed, undemanding, that such ambiguity is a feature only of platonic relationships betweenwomen: "Not for the first time she envied the more active life of men and their peaceableif almost knew friendships. had many friends" (123). Few the of men she non-existent Ultimately postmodernwomen writers seemto shareGlory Bronski's theory that although we are living in an era that endorsesisolation, community and connection are worth the effort. Whilst contemporarywomen continue to question for dispersal" boundaries, "relationship the capacity and remainscentral relationship to self-definition (Waugh 22). In the final story Hay's Beth registersan "overwhelming desire for peaceful friends" (244). In a more affirmative form forged Jennifer Paddock the to the uses celebrate connections representation, through friendship: connectionsthat, she insists, endure despite losing contact with fifteen (2004) Paddock in friends. A Secret Word lives In the presents years of one's three school friends. Individual `chapters' alternatenarrative perspectivesand her life. Although the text carries that the chapters chart girl narrates voices: each the subtitle of `Novel', Paddockherself affirms the self-containmentof each `chapter'. In the question and answersessionat the end of the text she recalls: "I thought it would be effective if each chapter, at least up until the end, could stand on its own as a viable story" (Secret n. pag.). Like Welty, what "fascinates" her most is the "connectedness"of people's lives: "What I hope will resonatewith readersis how we all weave in and out of eachother's lives and brush against eachother in known ways, of course, but perhapsmore often in unknown ways that can be just as influential"

Paddock insists that whilst the intensity of these friendships wanes,the

in "connected ). (Secret that a way will remain essential" n. pag. girls remain

Lister 328 Other media provide further evidenceof the form's affinity with form in The the the cycle of story principles are clearly at work postmodernism. films that presentthe viewer with postmodern of many structures narrative seeminglydiscontinuousyet self-containednarrative threadsthat feature recurring films The of Robert Altman are often recognizedas the charactersand settings. first for Altman these composite productions. experimentedwith a paradigm fragmented,multi-layered structure in Nashville (1975) in which he interwove twenty-four individual stories,and used it again in Short Cuts (1993) and Gosford Park (2001). Whilst one cannot ascertainthat Altman is aware of the short story is form itself influence definite his distinct the story a on work. short genre, cycle as a The material for the independentnarratives in Short

is derives from nine

Raymond Carver short storiesand one Carver poem. Altman turns thematically linked narratives into a cycle in which characterscrossover the boundariesof one story to enter another. Anderson's Magnolia (1999) is one of the most admired examplesof the A dynamic collage of ten self-containednarratives, on celluloid. at work story cycle families between emergegradually as the separate the connections charactersand deploy Altman Anderson a range of strategiesto createa sense and stories unfold. is latent in home hammering that the connection a message possibility of unity, often for loners like Glory Bronski. isolation, the postmodernera of even Unlike the story cycle writers discussedin my thesis, the directors of these films feel compelled to tie up and unify all narrative threads,rewarding the viewers disasters both Anderson Altman the and as natural use senseof resolution; with bring devices to characterstogether and securethe possibility of redemption unifying 52 for their characters. Of course Emily Carter deploys a similar techniquewhen

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Glory envisions the "end of the world" in the final story. However, this event remains bound within the realms of Glory's imagination; as a metaphorfor the it Glory's vision appearsless contrived. expansionof It is the opennessof the short story cycle that continuesto excite the twentieth-century female writer: eachof the writers examined in my thesis usesthe form to open up the plotlines for their wandering heroines. The more dispersed forms of GracePaley and Louise Erdrich resist closure completely; the shapeshifting women of Erdrich's reservationand the multi-tasking activist mothers of Paley's Brooklyn asserttheir open destiniesas they continue to appearin individual stories that are published independentlyof unified collections. Both Gloria Naylor and Toni Morrison conclude their cycles with mythic imagesthat anticipate or capture moments of rebirth for their female protagonists. As ebony phoenixesand spectral spirits, thesefemale wanderersopposethe threat of containment. In SusanMinot's cycle the potential female wanderer choosesto retreat; she becomesthe one who "cannot out." However, the pervasivepresenceof `secondstories' signals the destiny becomes An death the a probability escape. open of after of Mrs possibility Vincent. Joyce Carol Oatessecuresan open destiny for her most mobile cyclic heroine, granting the readeronly a tantalizing, indirect glimpse of Annie Quirt. The closing paragraphsof The Golden Apples gesturetowards closure as Virgie returns to Morgana and finally addressesthe most fascinating connection in the cycle: her relationship with Miss Eckhart. Re-engagementwith old connections heroine's threaten the self-designatedopen destiny. and sidelined narrativesneednot As my thesis has repeatedlyshown, it is the ability to balancethe personaland the distinguishes female from her the that cyclic wandering of male many positional Nick Adams and King MacLain. Female cycle writers have such as counterparts

Lister 330 usedthe form repeatedlyto dramatizehomecoming as an act of potential empowermentand to endorsethe principle of advancementand retreat. Hovering over Virgie's final momentsof reconciliation with her past are the words of Cassie who, in the cycle's final story, fulfils the role of her namesakeand prophesies Virgie's next departureinto the outer world: "`You'll go away like Loch A life of ... your own, away - I'm so glad for people like you and Loch, I am really"' (457). Through closing imagesof renewal and expansionthese modem American women createnew spacesfor plural identities and open destinies. Their enthusiasm for such forms and structuresperhapsfinds its most powerful expressionin the words of Joyce Carol Oates:"We never come to any conclusions ... It's a continual it. don't It's exciting not to cometo I to the think we come end of mystery. really the end of something" (Kuehl "Interview" 11).

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Appendix

Lister 332 An Interview with Colin Channer.

After contacting Colin Channerin March 2005 via e-mail he kindly offered to his regarding story cycle PassingThrough. He responded answermy questions immediately, generouslysharing his ideasabout the form. Any typographical errors have been amended. Otherwisethe transcript remainsthe same.

RL: Did you have a specific formal vision in mind before starting PassingThrough find form did form Did that the the evolve gradually? you or gave you particular opportunities that more totalising forms have denied?

CC: PassingThrough did not begin with a formal vision. The first story was written as a one off for an anthology. I did not want to contribute to the anthology becauseI am just not an anthology type of guy. On top of this it was an anthology of erotica framing found by black I little dull. However, the the and men and subject a written the editor told me he wanted a story in which the erotic and the political were twinned. With this direction from him I wrote what I thought was a one-off story, "Revolution" which I set on the fictional island of San Carlos in 1975. After writing "Revolution" I becamefascinatedwith the characterof St. William Rawle, the location of the Metropolitan Hotel and the setting of the island of San Carlos. Providentially, I was under contract to produce a collection of short stories. I wrote island the set on of San Carlos and submitted it to the editor a collection of stories began had I "Revolution" taken my old editor's place. with and wrote who backwardsthrough "The Girl with the Golden Shoes" and "The High Priest of Love." After this I worked forward through time via "How I met my Husband,"

Lister 333 "Poetic Justice" and "JudgementDay." When all the stories had beenrevised and I was sure that they compriseda narrative whole, I wrote the letters to the editor. So thesecame at the very end. My idea was that these letters would carry information betweenstories,work as narrativeswithin themselvesand also work as a larger narrative when taken as a whole. The ideawas to have several layers of storytelling going on at the sametime. Each story was designed to work on its own when read in any sequence. But the

book was designedso that readingthe stories in chronological order would deliver its Each letter to that reading any story on own. would was superior an experience in letters its little But together taken the chronological order story. work as own do Rawle. I like St. William the tell their not story of older own story would feel lot hodgepodge. A tend the to them, ones, of good even collections very much. I wanted to write the kind of story collection that I like to read -a collection that has idea kind expressedthrough either characteror place. of controlling some If the form gave me any opportunities, it was in relation to the story knew I designed Because that the the to collection was and not novel. collection deliver its best experiencewhen read as a whole, I didn't feel pressuredto make the is four The Passing Through that truth comprises novellas short. stories particularly and three stories. With this many charactersand with this great spanof time - the Through have been difficult Passing the to twentieth novel would century entire from The to explore a complicated allowed me place multiple points structure write. distracting is hip that something can come off as or self-consciously which of view, done in to the ordinary reader when unsatisfactory a novel. or simply But there is something else. I am heavily influenced by music, specifically, by reggae. I could say that I am a reggaewriter in the way that Rick Moody can be

Lister 334 describedas a rock and roll writer -a particular kind of music shapesmy literary approachin observableways. I approachedPassingThrough as an album. I took cues from great albums like Marley's Exodus. When consideredas the literary carnation of an album, PassingThrough makesperfect sense. The stories/tracksare designedas distinctive componentsthat relate.

RL: Have you read any other incarnationsof this kind of form that you've have liked? Are there that you admired for other any other writers particularly reasons?

CC: I am sure that I have, but nothing comesto mind. When I look back there were impressed in that me college, most notably Updike's Too Far some story collections to Go. But I cannot say that I was thinking of thesecollections in a consciousway while I worked. I think that I am most aware of previous and current incarnationsof this form from reading about them. It is very hard for me to read whole collections in is do It too much of a stop and start that obvious ways. not relate of stories have land. But did I As to take off again, soon as you you not have to experience. influence. for inspiration literary The models already existed to or examples go great in the music that I love.

RL: Writers and critics have useda number of terms for this kind of form: short story cycle, short story sequence,and composite novel to name a few. Reviewers tend to prefer "collection of linked narratives." Do you like /dislike any of these terms? Which do you think most aptly describesPassin Through?

Lister 335 CC: I have no preferencewhen it comesto namesreally. I refer to PassingThrough as a collection ofconnected stories. I think that it could be describedas a "loose be "loose " But novel" when you could be a collection of connected a why novel. stories? A loose novel is a novel that isn't quite there. A collection of connected stories is a story collection for which you've gotten extra credit!

RL: A number of writers have devised metaphorsfor the form such as web or patchwork quilt. Do any spring to mind?

CC: My preferred metaphor for the form is "LP" or "concept album." That is what for form best is from It to the next, transferred one narrative works me. a metaphor it in between forms the the two a more readily apparent so expresses connections way than web or patchwork quilt.

RL: Commentatorson the form have noted its popularity with femalewriters or issues foreground to wish of gender or ethnicity. PassingThrough who writers featuresseveralstrong female characters. It also includes lots of referencesto boundariesand imagesof shifting borders. Did you find that the form enabledyou to destabilizegender/raceboundariesin a new way? Do you generally find that your fictional subject is reflected in the form?

CC: This is a big question. I have consistently beendestabilizing boundariesof race form from The to me allowed write multiple points of view and this and gender. flexibility was vital to the work. Becausemy ambition in the final analysis was to look at the evolution of a society over the hundred years of the twentieth century it

Lister 336 look for from to the the marginsto the at movement me of certain natural groups was center. And in the Caribbeanthose groups would naturally include women and anybody who wasn't white. But there is a part of me that believesthat the form is because is it form that think that exists of as marginalized people we a with popular largely on the margins of taste and popularity. As such, it is not a form that requires publishers to take the large financial risks associatedwith a novel. The kind of advancespaid for novels are in a sensereserved(but not exclusively) for membersof groupsthat are considered"in" - like white men. So there is an economic imperative at work as well that has madethe form popular with many membersof marginalized groups- enoughof them can't get sustainable from for mainstreampublishers. novels contracts

RL: In your cycle certain charactersremain on the margins of the stories;we are fascinate influence tantalizing the or of people who glimpses offered only in feature but Other one particular characters may story never appear protagonists. again in the flesh. You preservethe mystery that surroundscertain characterssuch did do Wilfredo this? you why as -

CC: You can't tell everybody's story. It is as simple as that. Some charactersare in like fiction. In my reading Passing other any work of are minor major and some Through is about two families that descendfrom Father Eddie, a mixed race priest. One family emergesblack and one family emergeswhite and we track the fortunes families historical like World War Two time two these over against major events of first Cuban Marley's the the and release of revolution solo album I think that and layering is the hallmark of all things well crafted: wine, painting, music, food. The

Lister 337 fiction. Somecharacterscome through in hints, some ring strong samegoeswith instruments All the are substantial. notes and some on the album do not get played at the samevolume; neither are they all treated with the sameeffect. The mystery is in the mixing. Somecharactersin PassingThrough are designedto be felt to a greater degreethan they are seenor heard.

RL: You engage the reader in a journey that gives her a great deal of agency. You offer hints at connections; sometimes I sensed that a voice was familiar before gaining confirmation of a character's identity. Did you aim for this effect?

CC: Yes. There is an elementof mystery in the familial relations. But the great initially like Although that. they are are satisfactory, you only hear certain albums things when you listen to them a secondor third time. I did not include a family tree becausedoing that would give the stories a crutch and I wanted them to be able to stand on their own. A readermust be able to appreciateShooky without is he Estrella's son, must be able to feel the emotional that understanding complexities betweenRawle and St. William knowing that they are related by blood. So yes, the effect was intentional. I wanted the readerto feel a senseof wariness while moving through an unfamiliar world, a world that will remain unfamiliar in is book the closed. certain ways even when

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Notes

Lister 339 In theseendnotesI continue to adopt the method of parenthetical referencing. In my bibliography I have placed all works cited and consulted together to easethe reader's searchfor references.

1 Although Ingram uses Sartoris as an example of a Faulknerian novel,

Faulkner scholarshipis in continual debateabout the problematics of Faulkner's texts and their formal status,not least, Sartoris. 2 This is further complicated by Faulkner's classification of Go Down. Moses. He recalls his responseupon receiving his first copies of the book to Bob Hass:"`I but (mild) I I title the the got saw printed page shock when nobody remember ... Random House seemed to labor under the impression that GO DOWN MOSES

is indeed be Moses (Faulkner: `and A titled a novel"' other stories' should ... Biography 1102 Faulkner's capitalization). 3 Marjorie Pryse discussesthe statusof these later Dunnet Landing stories in her essay"Women `at Sea': Feminist Realism in SarahOrne Jewett's `The Foreigner"' (G. Nagel Critical 89-98). She notes: "Whilst it is helpful to place `The Foreigner' within the context of Dunnet Landing and read it in light of The Country it is do Firs, Pointed to the not necessary so" (90). of

4 Welty tells Linda Kuehl: "I'm a short-story writer who writes novels the hard way, and by accident" (Kuehl "Art" 86). 5 For one of most influential of the exhaustive essayson Welty's use of myth seeRuth Vande Kieft, Eudora Welty. Seealso Shinn, "The Wheel of Life: Eudora Welty and Gloria Naylor" in Women Shapeshifters"Transforming the Contemporary Novel 19-40 and Pitavy-Souques"Technique as Myth: The Structure of The Golden Apples" in PrenshawThirteen 146-56.

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6 For feminist readingsof Welty's works, including The Golden Apples, see Franziska Gygax, SeriousDaring From Within: FemaleNarrative Strategiesin Eudora Welty's Novels; SuzanHarrison, Eudora Welty and Virginia Woolf: Gender. Genre and Influence and Louise Westling, Eudora Welty. In "Welty, Tyler, and Traveling Salesmen," Carol S. Manning looks at how Welty and Tyler "undermine the male fantasy of the free-spirited hero" and `unmask (112). In "Eudora Welty: The Three Moments" the romantic quester" and unhorse John A. Allen writes that "the tendencyof Eudora Welty's fiction is indeedantiheroic; that is, it makes legitimate fun of the posturing male hero-adventurer" (13). 8Carol Ann Johnstonexaminesthe androgyny of Welty's wanderersin Eudora Welty: a Study of the Short Fiction, 87-105. 9 Like McHaney Michael Kreyling deploys musical imagery to figure the dynamics of Welty's form: "The shorter intermezzo stories

...

function as bridges

from one major voicing to the next" (Achievement 79). In Fiction of the Homeplace Helen Fiddyment Levy notes: "Music assumesa greater importance in The Golden Apples than in Welty's other extendednarratives,representingimmediate connection, incapableof misunderstandingand freed from paternal legalisms" (181). 10For a discussion of Virgie's origin see Denim and Curley, "Golden Apples

Kreyling "Mrs. be " 140. Michael Morrison Silver Apples, writes: might one of and [King's] partners; Loch's Perseid behavior clearly does not come from Mr Morrison,

father of record" (Understanding 123). 11In her readingsof cycles by Louise Erdrich and Gloria Naylor Karen Castellucci Cox notes: "the heteroglossiaof the story cycle servesnot to tell any one fully but to submit eachstory to the larger goal of characterizingthe unity more story (155). In "The Long and the Short of It" Mary Louise disruption of community" or

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Pratt suggestswhy the story cycle has been adopted as a regional form: "cycles do a kind of groundbreaking,establishinga basic literary identity for a region or group, laying out descriptive parameters,charactertypes, social and economic settings, principal points of conflict for an audienceunfamiliar either with the region itself or in (105). that region print" seeing with 12For Bakhtinian readingsof Welty seeYaeger 561-86, and Harrison. 13Walker Gibson usesthe term "mock reader" in "Authors, Speakers, Readersand Mock Readers." The term representshow the narrative voice involves the reader in a "between-the-linesdialogue" (3). 14A shortenedversion of this chapter appearsunder the title "'The One and the Many': Grace Paley and the Short Story Cycle" in Short Story. SeeLister for full reference. 15Paley tracesher experimentationwith fictional time to her poetry writing: "Once you write poetry you get a certain courageaboutjumping and making leaps"

(Wachtel206). 16Speakingto Nellie McKay in 1983,Toni Morrison notes the reluctanceof fiction writers to presentfemale friendship as the primary, defining relationship of a is for book. Hamlet between life: "friendship topic a suitable women not a woman's have but don't, because friend, have Achilles the world women one, can and a can knows that women don't chooseeachother's acquaintanceship.They choosemen first, then women as secondchoice" (154). Paley's story "Friends" endswith Faith's is friendship female that as vital as any relationship with a man: "I think a realization bond was sealedthen, at least as useful as the vow we'd all sworn with husbandsto longer (Later 89). married" no we're whom

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17Other heroinesin Paley's stories expressa similar contempt for male conversation. In "Lavinia: An Old Story," the narrator writes: "My opinion: What do don't to take more time than sneezing A man restlessall the on earth men got ... time owing it to nature to scramble for opportunity. His time took up with nonsense, you know his conversationgot to suffer" (Later 63). a In "Chaste Compactness"Ronald Schleifer

notes: "It is room that Ginny

wants for her children, room ... for happinessbeyond (or within) the plottednessof kind of radiation outside of the world; she prefers a senseof time as a ... plottedness" (43). 19Iser writes that the blank in a text "makes possible the organization of a referential field of interacting projections" (Act 197). 20As noted in the introduction, SusanMann observesthat the form has becomea meansof representing"the difficulty of being the artist" (12-3). 21"Intensely feminine, Joyce Carol Oatesis not a doctrinaire feminist" writes Walter Clemons ("Joyce" 38). 22Most short story cycle critics classify Too Far to Go as an example of the form. SusanMann devotes an entire chapterto this cycle, and it appearsin Dunn and Morris's glossary along with Olinger Stories and Bech: A Book. There is little

his Updike's In among critics. categorization of Updike's works, Robert consensus Detweiler strangely lists Olinger Stories and Too Far to Go under short-story

books Bech the and under short story cycles. collections 23In the May 2005 postgraduateseminarOatesdiscussedBlonde, her fictionalization of the life of Marilyn Monroe, and spoke of the "invalidism of intense femininity. " As an "overtly sexual being dramatic, exciting presence," a ...

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Maxine falls prey to this invalidism and seemsto run out of identity when Ted leaves her at the end of All the Good People(Oates All the Good 176). 24In 1973, Oatesspokeof her intention to representan independentfemale subject like Annie. Shetells Michael and Arianne Batterberry that her novel Do With Me What You Will is in fact "a celebration of love, and of marriage since I ... believe that for most women this path leadsto a higher freedom through the awakening of love, is the pathway" (42). She adds: "However, there are women who honor I be independent I them, alone. and must stand will write about who must them anothertime" (42 Oates's italics). 25The subtitle "A Novel in SevenStories" appearsin the 1982Viking edition in but does text the not appear all editions. In this chapter all pagereferences of come from the 1983 Penguinedition. 26Toni Morrison again recognizesthe significance of female friendship in the between is Tate: "Friendship Claudia for to women special, self-definition quest different, and had never beendepicted as the major focus of a novel before Sula ... Relationshipsbetweenwomen were always written about as though they were is This (Tate 118). true they're to not of men" playing. subordinate someother roles 27Annie Gottlieb classifies The Women as "mythic fiction, " as "Nothing its in it, happens yet vivid, earthy characters... seemconstantly on the supernatural into (3-4). breaking out magical powers" verge of 28In "Reconstructing History in Linden Hills, " Teresa Goddu notes how the "master narrative of the Luther Nedeeds reduceswomen to a single sign" (216). ... 29For a detailed reading of Gloria Naylor's metaphoricalrenderingsof Stokes, "Ripe Plums Pine Tell Karen Trees: Metaphor Using to and see violence Stories of Violence in the Works of Gloria Naylor and Charles Chesnutt."

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30SeeKaren Schneider'sessay,"Gloria Naylor's Poetics Emancipation: of (E)merging (Im)possibilities in Bailey's Cafe," for a particularly illuminating reading of Naylor's recastingof biblical narrative. 31Ferguson'sessayoffers fascinating readingsof several Erdrich stories. She suggeststhat the way one readsthesetexts dependsa great deal on the way that the story is initially presented. She arguesultimately for "recuperat[ing] the individual is it in their purest form that one can "most clearly chapters" as short stories,as perceive how the meaningand value arises from experiencethrough the processof making it a story" (Ferguson"Short" 555). Given Erdrich's metafictional foregrounding of the storytelling process,this perceptionof the value of storytelling has particular relevancefor her readers. 32For a detailed examination of Love Medicine's cyclic properties seeHertha Wong's essay,"Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine." 33The representationof Home as a problematic spacelinks many of the June Virgie Rainey, Morrissey and Dot Adare in Gay, Miranda this thesis. cycles seekdefmition outside its confines but return to re-engagewith their old home begin to these as a spaceof grounding as well recognize women communities; feature heroines Similarly, Alice Munro's short story cycles who are as constraint. from home break Howells "` Who Do You Think to completely. away notes: unable You Are?' is obsessedwith homecomings" (63). When Rose visits her stepmother her herself dutiful two the she romanticizes return, re-imagining as years after daughter. She is, however, painfully aware of the impracticality of her vision: "She thought how shewould clean and paint Flo's kitchen, patch the shinglesover the leak spots

She wasn't so far gone as to imagine Flo fitting comfortably into this ...

picture ...

But the crankier Flo got, the milder and more patient Rose would

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become

This vision did not survive the first two days of being home" (224). ...

Connectionswith her home town are renewedwhen she encountersRalph Gillespie, an old school friend with whom she developeda tacit intimacy. When she learnsof his death she sensesthat this early relationship retains somekind of hold over her, like Miss Eckhart's hold over Virgie: "What could she say about herself and Ralph Gillespie, except that she felt his life, close, closer than the lives of men she'd loved, dramatizes from her " (256). Julia Alvarez the ambivalenceof own? slot over one leaving home in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: "We are free at last, but here,just at the moment the gate swings open, and we can fly the coop, Tia Carmen's love revives our old homesickness.It's like this monkey experiment Carla in kept long, baby These they wouldn't come cage a so monkeys were about read ... (131). finally left doors the open" were out when 34All quotations from Love Medicine come from the 1993Flamingo-Collins edition. 35In The Antelope Wife Almost Soup,the narrating dog, affirms his identity through self-reduplication. When Cally saveshim from castrationhe revealsthat, for dogs, the loss of this function signifies a loss of self: "she savedmy life, but also brothers, know. I (And from the specifically address my now you worse savedme know for in little big The C. The The their all we and watch words n. snip-snip. doghood full ) me saved my male and allowed plans and conversations. ... she dogness. I have had, as a result of her courage,the honor of carrying our dogline down the generations. For this, alone, could I ever thank her enough?' (81-2). 36Julie Tharp states:"Failure to know one's actual mother within Erdrich's for failure is to graspone's own significance within tribal novels a metaphor traditions, within history" (171-2). Erdrich herself statesthat shecould not write

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does know. if When she mothers not people whose asked about she could contemplatewriting a novel about Puritans living in New England, she replies: "I've in feel New England I I can understandto somedegreethe that time enough spent landscape,but not the people

I really love the day-to-day stuf, but I don't know ...

their moms, their connections. I don't know where they're coming from" ("Creative Instinct"). 37Erdrich's critics note repeatedlythe centrality of June's narrative to Love Medicine. Robert Silbermanwrites: "Somewhat in the mannerof a murder mystery, the death becomesa meansof exploring not only the victim's life but the lives of those around her. Love Medicine could have been called `Who Killed June Kashpaw?' or rather `What Killed Her?' since the responsibility and guilt are shared by many individuals embeddedin an entire way of life, a complex meshof biographical and historical factors" (Silberman "Opening" 103-4). 38Louis Owens readsKarl in a similar way; he statesthat Karl plays a "paradoxically positive role in the novel" (207). 39All quotations from The House on Mango Street are taken from the 1991 Vintage edition of the text. 40Affinities with Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha are apparenton several levels. Brooks generally refers to her form as an autobiographicalnovel, but her description of her writing processresemblesthe method of the story cycle writer: "Well, I had first written a few tiny stories, and I felt that they would mesh,and I is it If form I the there them one others around character. and a would say centered least in beginning, imposed, I the when startedwith those segments,or at was Report 162). Commentators describe (Brooks frequently Maud Martha on vignettes" her vignettes as prose poems,placing her in the sametradition as Paley and Cisneros.

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D. H. Melhem writes: "certain chapters seemto interspersethe work with prose ... poems" and aligns Brooks's form with Winesburg Ohio and In Our Time (84). Barbara Christian writes: "[Brooks] selectsmomentsthat accomplish two things. They reinforce the outline of a pattern that is repeatedin many other lines and is being reenactedhere, while paradoxically they focus on Maud Martha's individuality

The tension betweenthesetwo elements,a pattern that seems ...

prescribedand Maud Martha's transformation of it, moves the narrative" (249-50). Maud Martha doesnot appearin any studiesof the short story cycle. 41In her essayon Chicano literature, RosauraSancheznotes that many Chicanawomen writers "have gone beyond the representationof feminine subjectivity in essentialistterms and have chosento focus on the diversity of subjectivities and on the collective experiencesof women in Chicano/Mexicano/Latino communities" ("Discourses" 1019). 42Hemingway's home-resistantmale has becomea paradigm of alienated how, Scholes in In Hemingway's Genders the Nick Adams notes masculinity. interior, dark in lurks, is Mummy "The that to be avoided" (28space which stories, 9). 43In "A Healthy Balance," SandersusesKristeva's theories to demonstrate the complexities of female identification with the Virgin: connection with the demands "a sacrifice of the semiotic maternal body" (134). mother symbolic Sandersilluminates how Marie eventually achievesa balancebetweenthe symbolic independence her both from her role asNector's the when she asserts semiotic and herself her vision of as Saint Marie. wife and asAlvarez's Garcia sistersexperiencethe needto establishtheir own identities away from the family: "At moments like this when they all seemedone

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organism - thefour girls - Sandiwould get that yearning to wander off into the United Statesof America by herself and never come back as the secondof four girls so close in age" (168 Alvarez's italics). Like Minot, Alvarez useschangesin narrative voice to enactthe tension betweenthe one and the many in the Garcia family. The narrative voice in each story shifts as the different sisterstell their stories. In storiessuch as "A Regular Revolution," the sistersnarrate as a collective. asAs Jill Mattis notes,the obsessionwith self-reduplication is figured by the in Ruby's history: Deacon and Steward, Coffee and Tea, Brood twins proliferation of identity largely Steward's Apollo. senseof rests upon his knowledge that a and physical reduplication of himself exists. He tells Anna Flood that being a twin makeshim feel "`superior"' (Paradise116). 46Philip Pageoffers a detailed analysis of the reading paradigmsin Paradise. He identifies Patricia as "a kind of model author and reader": "by showing us her active responsesto the town and to the raid, Morrison implicitly opensthe door for (640). text the the and events" own with our engagement 47On the point of submissionof this thesis my attention was drawn to Karen Weekes'sarticle on Lorrie Moore's Anagrams,a cycle featuring recurring characters form how Weekes Moore the to representthe uses examines and settings. "episodic "fragmentation" the the of and self experiencesof postmodern how (104). Weekes have notes existence" women capitalized on the contemporary disruption of linearity in modern texts and, like Margot Kelley, suggeststhat form's female dynamics to "sort through the the exploiting writers are contemporary female in (95). Moore their to this protagonists" a available attempts now roles Melissa Bank than way radical more and Elissa Schappellwho observea perhaps fairly stable chronology in their cycles. As my readings will demonstrate,both

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familiar follow the structure of the Bildungsroman, deviating only for writers particular stories. 48SueGaisford describesstory cycles and composite novels by English "masquerade[] (Gaisford 71). that story collections as novels" as writers 49Kennedy writes: "cycles generatemeaningsthrough their formal both includes Textual the physical arrangementof stories and structure organization. those devices(such as prefaces,epilogues,or chapternumbers) used to signal 15). divisions" ("Toward" relationshipsand 50Janenever refers to Jewish heritage in The Girls' Guide but Mark Koplik detectsa "faint Jewishness"in her humour. 51An example of the readingsin this forthcoming volume is my essayon A. S. Byatt's story sequences,"The Short Story Sequencein the Homeland of the Novel. " 52As Marianna Scheffer notes in her essay"Hollywood Misses Postmodernism," Altman's Short Cuts shunsthe postmodern"blank terror" that characterizesCarver's endingsand unites the characterswith the sharedexperience of an earthquake. Similarly, Anderson points to the possibility of redemption when a plague of frogs rains down on all the characters,prompting an epiphany for those who wish to be saved.

Lister 350 Works Cited and Consulted

Abel, Elizabeth,MariannaHirsch, and Elizabeth Langland,eds. The Voyage In: Fictions of FemaleDevelopment. Hanover: UP of New England, 1983. Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. 1993. New York:

Harper, 1994. Allen, John A. "Eudora Welty: The Three Moments. " Desmond 12-34.

Allen, John Alexander. "The Other Way to Live: Demigodsin EudoraWelty's Fiction." Prenshaw Thirteen 26-55. Allen, Paula Gunn. "Introduction. " Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales And Contemporary Writings by Native American Women. London: Women's,

1990.1-26. " Ballinger Gunn Allen. Franchot "A Interview: Brian Swann. MELUS Paula and -. MELUS X (1983): 67-87. in American Indian Traditions. 1986. Hoop: Feminine The Sacred Recovering the ---. Beacon: Boston, 1992.

Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Got their Accents. New York: Penguin, 1992. Ammons, Elizabeth."Finding Form: Narrative Geographyand The Country of the Pointed Firs. " Conflicting Stories: American Women Writers at the Turn into

the Twentieth Century. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 44-58. Witches. " Nagel Critical 165-84. "Jewett's -.

Anderson,Sherwood. SherwoodAnderson'sMemoirs. New York: Harcourt, 1942. Ohio" Wine Text Authoritative Backgrounds Ed. Contexts Criticism. sburý" and -..

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