Excessive Suspension of Disbelief: Raymond Jeans La Lectrice Essay

Excessive Suspension of Disbelief Raymond Jeans La LectriceWhen I begin a class in fiction or poetry, I always talk for a few minutes about the mixedpurposes of literature escape, didactic, and interpretive. I tell my students that escape literatureis a fantastic way to forget our problems for a while (less dangerous than drugs, alcohol,careless sex, or driving), but that escape literature can be harmful if cardinal expects ones personallife to be as exciting, successful, or romantic as that in escape fiction. As Meg Ryans friendsays to her in insomniac in Seattle, You dont want to be in love. You want to be in love in amovie. Thus my title, Excessive Suspension....In The literary Work of Art (1931, trans. 1965), Roman Ingarden analyses the layers ofmeaning he beleves exist indoors a work of fiction. His theories were popularized by Ren Wellekin Theory of Literature (Wellek and Warren). Ingarden identifies tetrad strata.The first is the sound social class, which he defines as th e stratum of word sounds and phonicformations of miscellaneous orders the second is the stratum of units of meaning of various orders andphonetic formations of various orders the third accepts objects be in the world ofthe novelist, which he defines as the stratum of manifold schematized aspects and aspectcontinua and series (Literary Work of Art, 30) and the fourth includes the stratum ofrepresented objectivities and their vicissitudes or the world as it is seen from a particularviewpoint. As Ingarden complains in his preface to his second edition, Wellek had erroneouslyadded a fifth layer, that of metaphysical qualities, which include the tragic, the terrible, andthe holy. Ingarden argues th... ...s read and view and how those fictions shape us. LaLectrice is a testimony to the function a written text may have-that even a star readingexperience may permanently change a readers life. But, virtually of all, La Lectrice is great fun.But, as the policeman cautions the lectrice , Reading is fine, but feeling where it leads. When youread a book, anything can happen.Works CitedIngarden, Roman. The Literary Work of Art. Trans. George G. Grabowicz. Evanston north UP, 1973. From Das literarisch Kunstwerk. Tbingen Max NeimeyerVertag, 1965.-----. The Cognition of Literary Work of Art. Trans. George G. Grabowicz. Evanston north UP, 198. From Von Erkennen des literarisch Kunstwerk. Tbingen MaxNeimeyer Vertag, 1973.Deville, Michel, dir. La Lectrice (film). Elefilm, 1988.Jean Kermer, Raymond, La Lectrice (novel). Editions Jai lu, 1986.