The extinction of fiction: breaking boundaries and acknowledging character in medieval 【翻译】

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
At the moment of this writing, I perceive a vanity in the whole affair of writing
acknowledgments. It seems presumptuous of me to list the invaluable contributions of other
people as though they were so many stepping stones for an accomplishment begging to be
acknowledged itself as worthy of their sacrifices. Having to observe formalities, however, I will
try—and fail—to do justice to those whose exempla, counsel, guidance, and, above all, faith in
me carried me through to completion of this degree. My wife, Kaara, first and foremost; her
opinion of me is certainly too high, and the work she does to keep me afloat can only be
tolerated by someone not quite sane. I love her so. I have also been fortunate enough to have
two patient directors in Jon Wilcox and Garrett Stewart. They have met me more than halfway
with their intellectual and emotional generosity during this process. Kathy Lavezzo and Claire
Sponsler convinced me to become a medievalist during my first year in the program. Many of
the ideas in this dissertation found fertile ground in their courses. Gigi Durham fostered my
early attempts to put literary studies in dialogue with new media. Her encouragement and
perspicuous advice were invaluable. For similar reasons, I have to thank Andre Brock, who
convinced me that I might want to, at some time, say something about videogames. David Stern
deserves much thanks for introducing me to the wonder of Wittgenstein. Finally, my friends
Tom Blake and Andrew Williams, who kept me humble, kept me laughing, and whose
conversations helped me to refine my understanding of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language.
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ABSTRACT
My dissertation applies narrative theory and ordinary language philosophy to two
major works bookending medieval English literature: Beowulf and Le Morte Darthur.
Capitalizing on the descriptive power of narrative theory’s lexicon, I outline the aesthetics,
rhetoric, and other effects on the reader when these medieval writers depict transgressive
movements—theoretically termed metalepsis—across borders in the story world, and over
boundaries separating that world from our own. I often find that spatial transgressions, as they
are visualized in narrative terms, entail or simultaneously occur with a breakdown of the
fourth wall separating fiction from its audience. Malory’s Sir Lancelot crosses into a spiritual
world in pursuit of the Holy Grail only to arrive at an awareness of his existence as narrated
fiction. My dissertation argues that moments like this, first analyzed through narrative theory,
challenge the reader to recognize the fictional character’s force of life, and in so doing expand
the imagination to reconsider those metaphysical distinctions that have long rendered the
nonhuman inferior. Those distinctions are unnecessary and often senseless, I argue.
The ethics of reading fiction that I propose seeks the acknowledgment of limits to
knowledge, to what we can claim to know about literature, its characters, and, indeed, our
fellow human beings. Given that they are constructed by our ordinary language use, fictional
characters are the essence of the other. Fictions, then, and as Stanley Cavell would agree, serve
as testing grounds for our capacities of acknowledgment. I argue that both the Beowulf poet
and Malory fashioned fictional worlds that preserve a secular heroism from potentially hostile
contexts. In the process, these medieval narratives show us that fictional characters move us as
a matter of ordinary language—our ordinary interactions with narrative: they play a
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significant role in our lives that cannot be reduced to any particular theory. There is no need
for recourse to ontological, or theological, frameworks to invest them with some unutterable or
mysterious meaning. They matter as a matter of course.
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PUBLIC ABSTRACT
My dissertation is a study of two major medieval works which nostalgically celebrate a
secular heroic culture from the past: Beowulf and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. In their
own but similar ways, both narratives are anxious about, and striving for, a receptive audience
for heroic characters who could easily be misunderstood. Central to their attempts to condition
audience understanding are moments when the characters demonstrate a knowledge or
awareness that we do not normally expect them, as fictions, to possess. I outline the various
effects (of pleasure, contemplation, and ethical consideration) on the reader when these
narratives dramatize such boundary-breaking moments. My dissertation argues that the
characters of Beowulf and Le Morte Darthur try to tell us in so many ways not to limit them to
any particular context or frame of knowledge. In the process, they demonstrate that there is
always a context to which our rules, and understanding of characters and people alike, are
inapplicable.
Thus, this dissertation proposes an ethics of reading fiction: it asks that we embrace the
limits of what we can claim to know about literature, its characters, and, indeed, our fellow
human beings. The role of fictions exceeds our interpretations and theories. Fictions, as Stanley
Cavell would agree, serve as testing grounds for our capacities of acknowledgment—our ability
to take another person on faith, without certainty of their intentions. I argue that both Beowulf
and Le Morte Darthur present us with characters demanding our acknowledgment.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: TOWARD AN ORDINARY LANGUAGE THEORY OF
NARRATIVE (?) ........................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 1: METALEPSIS AND ONTOLOGICAL CONTORTION IN BEOWULF ..... 21
CHAPTER 2: RECOUNTING CHARACTER: TIME OF TELLING AND THE ETHICS
OF THE MEOWLE’S EULOGY ............................................................................................... 47
CHAPTER 3: CROSSED BY CHRONICLE: LANCELOT’S RESISTANCE OF GENRE IN
THE TALE OF THE SANKGREALL ......................................................................................... 95
CHAPTER 4: FROM THE GRAIL TO THE GRAVE: SPARING LANCELOT FROM THE
VIOLENCE OF ABSTRACTIONS ......................................................................................... 137
CODA ........................................................................................................................................ 177
WORKS CITED......................................................................................................................... 183

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