Covert Plots in Literary and Critical Texts: From William Shakespeare to Edward Said
Janiform Texts and Covert Plots is a sequel to The Deceptive Text: An Introduction to Covert Plots, which maintained that although almost all fictional narratives have a main plot, some have, in addition, a covert plot. At a first reading, the reader sees parts of the covert plot but does not recognise how they cohere. Only in retrospect, or at a second, third or subsequent reading, is the covert plot seen in its entirety. Sometimes many years may elapse before the covert plot is detected and described.
Some covert plots are transtextual: they span two or more texts (e.g. Heart of Darkness and Chance). Some are supernatural: within a secular narrative is a contrastingly supernatural covert plot. Examples are The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', The Shadow-Line and Victory. This book goes controversially further by postulating covert plots in critical works by Roland Barthes, Mikhail Bakhtin and Edward Said. The covert plot of Barthes's 'The Death of the Author' is shown to be an irrefutable defence of traditional authorship. Mikhail Bakhtin's advocacy of Dostoevsky's polyphony is subverted by a plot dedicated to monologism. Edward Said's Orientalism reveals a covert Occidentalism.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
