Causality and Narrative in French Fiction from Zola to Robbe-Grillet

Abstract

Conclusion 208 Appendixes 227 Works Cited 233 Index 239 Preface A lthough it is a primary connector in the long, linear "syntag matic" dimension of stories, causation in fiction has attracted only passing attention from theorists. Despite the illuminating pages on the subject by Genette, Todorov, Prince, and others which enrich this study, no attempt has yet been made to construct a unified theory of the causal concept in narrative. Among the many reasons for the dearth of etiological theories, two, I think, deserve mention at the outset. First, the causal dynamic remained largely invisible to the relatively static visions of literary structuralism, which dominated early theoretical exploration. Sec ond, well-founded contemporary doubts about the real-world truth value of the causal concept raise questions about the validity of causal statements concerning fiction. The pages that follow are organized partly in response to these prob lems. A brief introductory summary of philosophical views of "real-life" causation, from Hume and Kant, through Nietzsche, Bergson, and Rus sell, to Mackie and Anscombe, leads among other things to the observation that causation is indeed not a truth but a hypothesis, not an entity to be found in nature, but rather a useful perceptual grid in the minds of human observers. This finding leads me to postulate that the reader serves as the "human observer" of fiction, and that causation arises most basically in stories from readerly perception. Thus the principles of reader-response criticism open doors that were closed to structuralist poetics. Chapter one then evokes briefly the notions of causal "functions" in narrative as developed by modern narratologists and seeks to show how this approach, eliminating the human observer (reader) from analyses, erroneously seeks "true" logical connections between events. Yet causes are present only in the discourse of a text, in the unavoidable causal implications of language, not in the events of Preface • xi English, I have provided translations for the substantive quotations in other languages. Unless otherwise indicated, translations are, for better or worse, my own. To Anita, for her patience, help, and unfailing support; to my Univer sity of Michigan colleagues, for their interest and longanimity; among whom to Marcel Muller, for his numerous useful references; and among whom especially to Ross Chambers, who read the penultimate version, for his uncommonly valuable insights, suggestions, and encouragement: my warmest thanks. xiv • Introduction "universe" with its own harmony arising from the character of the codes which inform it. The concept and the code of causality evolved over the period here under study (approximately the 1870s to the 1970s), and with them-perhaps because of them-evolved the structure of fiction. Yet define we must, for the sake of minimal clarity. Causality is the name of the relationship between causes and their effects. {Causation desig nates the same thing, but it also admits of more particular application: one may sp...