I talk about literature for once
Nov. 19th, 2020 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brideoffrankensteinSo, I have a difficult bit of my PhD I'm struggling with. I have the thing written, but I feel like I rush it and use too much jargon without pausing to explore what I mean. So, because I'm a hellion, I'm going to explain it to the black void of dreamwidth where my friends live, because I need to be talking At someone to process this.
Point 1: William Sharp found that his physical body and looks were seen at odds with the literature he was producing
Point 2: His texts are read alongside his body. William Sharp, the presence in everyone's literary circles, is a known person, and his intentions have often been misread because of his physical existence. There are certain expectations on him because of that embodiment. He cannot escape censure for his texts, because he is accessible (if you hate his poem and think he's too obsessed with sex, you can go to his club and tell him so).
Point 3: Fiona Macleod's very name and persona are in complete harmony with the literature she produces
Point 4: William Sharp can express himself within a controlled intimate space among friends (this is an epistolary space, created by letters to and from friends. In private writings, taking place in established relationships, Sharp's body is far less a "part" of his texts than more public writings)
Point 5: As Macleod lacks a physical body (theoretically speaking only) she lacks the added mechanism of control we saw in Point 2.
Point 6: All Macleod's texts thus take on an intimacy such as we see in Point 4. As she only exists in text, there is no body behind the text to be read or censured. Macleod has a flexibility that Sharp does not.
Point 7: Macleod's self-construction can only exist in text and exclusively relies on text.
Point 8: Sharp is constrained by text, because there is a sense in which it is controlled by or read through his physical body.
Point 9: Lacking that body, Macleod is freed by text.
This is what I'm calling paratextual (that is, not In the text but Around the text - it's usually used of covers, typefaces, paper quality, etc. The stuff that is not In the text but influences the text however subtly) bodies.
Point 1: William Sharp found that his physical body and looks were seen at odds with the literature he was producing
Point 2: His texts are read alongside his body. William Sharp, the presence in everyone's literary circles, is a known person, and his intentions have often been misread because of his physical existence. There are certain expectations on him because of that embodiment. He cannot escape censure for his texts, because he is accessible (if you hate his poem and think he's too obsessed with sex, you can go to his club and tell him so).
Point 3: Fiona Macleod's very name and persona are in complete harmony with the literature she produces
Point 4: William Sharp can express himself within a controlled intimate space among friends (this is an epistolary space, created by letters to and from friends. In private writings, taking place in established relationships, Sharp's body is far less a "part" of his texts than more public writings)
Point 5: As Macleod lacks a physical body (theoretically speaking only) she lacks the added mechanism of control we saw in Point 2.
Point 6: All Macleod's texts thus take on an intimacy such as we see in Point 4. As she only exists in text, there is no body behind the text to be read or censured. Macleod has a flexibility that Sharp does not.
Point 7: Macleod's self-construction can only exist in text and exclusively relies on text.
Point 8: Sharp is constrained by text, because there is a sense in which it is controlled by or read through his physical body.
Point 9: Lacking that body, Macleod is freed by text.
This is what I'm calling paratextual (that is, not In the text but Around the text - it's usually used of covers, typefaces, paper quality, etc. The stuff that is not In the text but influences the text however subtly) bodies.
