1/9/2023 0 Comments Pictures with a deeper meaning![]() One meaning of picture, as a verb, is “to represent something in a picture or pictorially”- pictorial being a related adjective form variously used to refer to pictures. A picture can also refer to a mental image, among other senses. In its most general sense, a picture is a visual representation of something, especially in the form of a painting, drawing, photograph, or the like. So, here’s a briefer word picture (see what we did there?) on the origin of this versatile word. But what about the word picture? We’re not going to write a thousand words on picture-although we could. What are the concrete textual features that suggest complementation rather than subversion (or perhaps also gradual or partial transformation as a third categorical option)? In other words, why does the ethically objectionable covert progression in "Désirée's Baby" subvert the ethically acceptable overt plot, whereas the indictment of the patriarchal subjugation of women in "Revelations" does not undermine the conservatism or chauvinism.A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. To my mind, the covert progression in the Mansfield story challenges the meaning of the overt plot by generating "contrastive kinds of meaning" ("'Covert Progression'" 9)-just like the covert progression in the story by Chopin. Second, I think that more needs to be said about Shen's methodology or the conditions under which the contrastive trajectories she is interested in count as cases of complementation or subversion. Shen does mention "different subcategories" ("'Covert Progression'" 6), but they all belong to her two categories and her examples (ranging from category A to category B ) do not really form a scale that accentuates, say, the increasing intensity with which the overt plot development is transformed or undermined by the undercurrent. This makes sense because the relationship between the two narrative dynamics in Franz Kafka's "The Judgment" (1913), where the struggle between the individual and society serves as a mere elaboration or extension of the conflict between son and father, is more expressive of supplementation than the relationship we find in Mansfield's "Revelations," where the covert progression clearly challenges the meaning of the overt plot development. More specifically, I would like to propose the inclusion of the category of gradual or partial transformation between the poles of harmonious complementation and radical subversion. However, since there are additional shades of gray between complementation and subversion, it might perhaps be better to conceptualize the relationships between the overt plot development and the covert progression in terms of a scale rather than a dichotomy. She reduces the "diversified ways" ("'Covert Progression'" 6) in which the covert progression and the overt plot development may interact to "two broad categories" (6). First, Shen's system is ultimately still a binary one. Shen's analyses of such undercurrents undoubtedly shed new light on the short stories by Mansfield and Chopin, but I still have three (interrelated) problems with them. ![]() According to Shen, the overt textual progression forms an indictment of the racism in the American South, whereas the covert progression endorses the white-dominated Southern racist system. ![]() By contrast, she considers Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby" (1893) to be a case of subversion. Shen argues that the overt plot development of this short story ironizes female neurosis, while there is also a covert progression that ironizes patriarchal oppression. For instance, she discusses Katherine Mansfield's "Revelations" (1920) as a case of complementation. Finally, Shen writes that covert progressions are significant because disregarding them will lead to "a partial or false picture" of the "thematic significance, character images, and aesthetic values" (24) of the narrative in question.Ĭovert progressions are clearly an important and hitherto neglected phenomenon that Shen has discovered and zooms in on. Furthermore, she discusses two ways in which these narrative dynamics may be connected: the relationship may be one of complementation (category A), but it can also involve subversion (category B). If this is the case, the overt and covert progressions parallel each other during the whole narrative. ![]() Shen is primarily interested in the meanings of event sequences and she argues that in some fictional narratives, one can detect a covert progression, that is, an "undercurrent running throughout the text behind the overt plot development" ( Style and Rhetoric 3). I have always been a great admirer of her work (especially of Style and Rhetoric of Short Narrative Fiction), and I feel honored to be given the chance to respond critically to her important ideas. Knapp, and Dan Shen for giving me the opportunity to respond to Dan Shen's Target Essay. I would like to begin by thanking Maxwell Hoover, John V. ![]()
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