The Role of the Presented Space in the Novella Novel
Abstract
This article focuses on outlining the function of the presented space in the novella novel as an element constituting its coherence. The term “novella novel” (adopted from Krystyna Jakowska and defined by Elke D’hoker) refers to literary works that are generically situated between a coherently composed collection of short stories and a loose novelistic structure. The following works will serve as the material for the analysis: Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk, Hotel World by Ali Smith and Girls and Women by Alice Munro. These pieces are structured and classified differently. The former two are referred to as novels, while the latter one is called by some critics a novel or a hybrid text that can be perceived as a novel. Ultimately, although sometimes used as an element that maintains coherence, the presented space is always meticulously crafted, and it does not appear as quasi-real or geographically located. It is always valorised, metaphorized and ambiguous. Thus, such a common setting is not a “transparent” or “mechanical” element that unifies these stories, but rather one of the many aspects of the process that constitutes coherence of novels constructed in such a way, which remains open to interpretation.
Keywords:
composite novel, novella novel, narrative cycle, presented spaceReferences
Bodal Ewa (2015), Alice Munro. Rys biograficzny, w: Alice Munro. Wprowadzenie do twórczości, red. M. Buchholtz, Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, s. 19–29.
Constructing Coherence in the British Short Story Cycle (2018), ed. P. Gill & F. Kl¨ager, London: Routledge.
Cusk Rachel (2010), Arlington Park, przeł. P. Łopatka, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
D’hoker Elke (2018), A Continuum of Fragmentation. Distinguishing the Short Story Cycle from Composite Novel, in Constructing Coherence in the British Short Story Cycle, ed. P. Gill & F. Kl¨ager, London: Routledge, s. 17–31.
Dunn Maggie, Morris Ann (1995), The Composite Novel. The Short Story Cycle in Transition, New York: Twayne Publishers.
Filipczak Dorota (2015), Inteligentna i urodziwa w łożu Prokrusta: Del Jordan wobec konstrukcji kobiecości w powieści „Dziewczęta i kobiety”, w: Alice Munro. Wprowadzenie do twórczości, red. M. Buchholtz, Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, s. 61–73.
Guignery Vanessa, Drąg Wojciech [eds] (2019), The Poetics of Fragmentation in Contemporary British and American Fiction, Deleware: Vernon Press, s. 67–80.
Howells Coral Ann (1998), Alice Munro, Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press.
Izdebska Agnieszka (2015), WKanadzie, w domu, w kuchni, na linoleum – o opowiadaniach Alice Munro, „Białostockie Studia Literaturoznawcze”, nr 6, 83–98.
Jakowska Krystyna (1993), Delimitacja tekstu w cyklu opowiadań, „Pamiętnik Literacki”, nr 2, s. 94–106.
Jakowska Krystyna (2011), O cyklu opowiadań. Z teorii i historii cyklu narracyjnego w Polsce, Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersyteckie Trans Humana.
Jakowska Krystyna, Olech Barbara, Sokołowska Katarzyna [red.] (2001), Cykl literacki w Polsce, Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku.
Kaniewska Bogusława (2001), Między cyklem a powieścią, w: Cykl literacki w Polsce, red. K. Jakowska, B. Olech i K. Sokołowska, Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, s. 23–35.
Kieżuń Anna, Kulesza Dariusz [red.] (2010), Cykle i cykliczność. Prace dedykowane Pani Profesor Krystynie Jakowskiej, Białystok: Trans Humana.
Kucała Bożena (2015), W stronę literatury: „Dziewczęta i kobiety”, w: Alice Munro. Wprowadzenie do twórczości, red. M. Buchholtz, Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, s. 75–89.
Lasdum James (2006), Disparate houswives, „The Guardian” 16.09, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/16/featuresreviews.guardianreview6 [dostęp 6.11.2020].
Malicka Patrycja (2017), Badanie nad cyklem literackim w Polsce, „Forum Poetyki” (10), s. 140–145.
Martin W.R. (1987), Alice Munro. Paradox and Parallel, Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press.
Modern American Short Story Sequences. Composite Fictions and Fictive Communities (1995), ed. J. G. Kennedy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Munro Alice (2013), Dziewczęta i kobiety, przeł. P. Łopatka, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo W.A.B.
Redekop Magdalene (1992), Mothers and Other Clowns. The Stories of Alice Munro, London and New York: Rutladge.
Rouverol Alicia J. (2019), Fragmentary writing and globalization in Ali Smith’s “Hotel World”, w: The Poetics of Fragmentation in Contemporary British and American Fiction, ed. V. Guignery i W. Drąg, Deleware: Vernon Press, s. 67–80.
Seyersted Per (1992), “Who Do You Think You Are?” Alice Munro and the Place of Origin, „American Studies in Scandinavia”, Vol. 24, s. 17–23.
Simonds Merilyn (2016), Where do you think you are. Place in the short stories of Alice Munro, w: The Cambridge Companion to Alice Munro, ed. D. Stains, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, s. 26–44.
Smith Ali (2002), Hotel World, London: Penguin Books.
Smith Ali, (2007), Hotel Świat, przeł. A. Lakatos, Warszawa: Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Literackie MUZA SA.
License
Articles published on the platform of Białostockie Studia Literaturoznawcze are available under the license CC-BY-SA 4.0 (CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0).
All interested parties have access to the published articles under the following conditions:
1.They must acknowledge authorship, which means crediting the author, title, source, together with the disseminated work (including the hyperlinks to the original work and doi) as well as the same license under the same conditions.
2. Derivative works can be distributed only under the same license as the original work.
The University of Białystok retains the right to the entire journal (layout, graphic design, title, cover design, logo, etc.).
The author retains the property right but confers on the University of Białystok the right to use the work.
