to cc
WRITING
PRACTICE
Writing
Styles
+
Personal
Experience
+
Competence
MEANING
Textual
Conventions
t
GENRE
t
THE
CONTRACT
READING
PRACTICE
Reading
Styles
+
Personal
Experience
+
Competence
READER
use to m ak e sense of th em ”®. For Volosinov, it is th e space and relatio n sh ip
between th e p a rticip a n ts in a dialogue w hich is im portant:
...word is a two-sided act. It is d eterm in ed equally by whose w ord it is a n d for w hom it is m eant. As word, it is precisely the product o f the reciprocal relationship between speaker a n d listener, addresser a n d addressee... A word is territo ry sh a red by both ad d resser a n d addressee, by th e speaker and his interlocutor.
(Volosinov, 1973:86, em phasis in original)
T he w ord or u tteran ce is shaped by th e im agined social relatio n sh ip betw een sp e ak e r an d listener, as is th e answ erin g u tteran ce. This also applies to th e rela tio n sh ip betw een texts and readers:
A book, i.e., a verbal performance in p rin t, is also an elem ent of v erb al com m unication... it is calculated for active perception, involving atten tiv e reading an d in n er responsiveness, an d for organized, p rin ted reaction in th e various form s devised by th e p a rtic u la r sphere of verbal com m unication in question...
(95, em phasis in original)
Like all dialogues, th is exchange is not th e civilized conversation of equals: th e creation of m ean in g is a struggle betw een w ritin g an d read in g practice. B oth a tte m p t to ‘se t’ m eanings w ithin th e power relatio n sh ip s of de C erteau ’s ‘sc rip tu ra l im p erialism ’ or M orley’s ‘preferred read in g s’. The a u th o r does th is th ro u g h th e use of w ritin g strategies, while reading practice is m ore likely to rely on tactical
moves. How does th is struggle tak e active form w ith in th e text?
2. A uthors rely upon te x tu a l c o n v e n tio n s to se t m eaning. T hese ran g e from styles of ad d ress to form al and narratological stru c tu re s, w hich h av e been
usefully analyzed by reader-response critics an d o th ers (especially V ladim ir Propp, 1968). O ne stre n g th of form alist and s tru c tu ra lis t analysis is th e ir recognition of
Brosseau sees the text as an active producer of m eaning within such a dialogue: "Such an active view of the text does not seek to undermine the active role of the reader... on the other hand, it does not subscribe to a conception of an autonomous and self-celebrating reader who transforms the text into a mere pre-text" (1995:91).
th e em pirical existence of tex tu al conventions^^. The fact th a t such conventions
are recognisable both to critics and to other read ers, im plies th a t th ey are used by a u th o rs to suggest th e read in g practices which should be used to m ake sense of th e text^°. O f course, th ese strateg ies are open to co n testatio n w ith in reading practice, b u t th e fact th a t they are so prevalent in tex ts suggests th a t th e ir use is often accepted by rea d ers (even if they end up producing very different m eanings to those in ten d ed by th e author). W riting practice can be seen as being m ade up of th re e th in g s, w hich p arallel th e th ree aspects of rea d in g practice discussed in point 4: th e a u th o rs’persoTia/ experience', th eir w riting style, w hich is th e ir use and inflection of th e conventions used in w riting; and th e ir generic competence. This la s t point needs fu rth e r explanation, as it is also v ital to read in g practice.
3. The term g e n e r ic c o m p e te n c e is a d ap ted from C uller’s ‘lite ra ry com petence’ (1975). In S au ssu rean linguistics, com petence is associated w ith
langue, th e to ta l system of language, and is co n trasted w ith perform ance {parole,
th e speech act). C uller suggests th a t th e w riting an d rea d in g of lite ra tu re relies on a sim ilar com petence (fam iliarity w ith) lite ra ry conventions:
One can th in k of th ese conventions not sim ply as th e im plicit knowledge of th e rea d er b u t also as th e im plicit knowledge of au th o rs. To w rite a poem or a novel is im m ediately to engage w ith a lite ra ry tra d itio n or a t th e very least w ith a c e rta in idea of th e poem or th e novel. The activity is m ade possible by th e existence of th e genre, w hich th e a u th o r can w rite ag ain st, certainly, whose conditions h e m ay a tte m p t to subvert, b u t w hich is none th e less the context w ith in w hich his activity tak es place, as su rely as th e failure to keep a prom ise is m ade possible by th e in stitu tio n of prom ising.
(1975:116)
T his com petence is not ‘n a tu ra l’ b u t acquired socially; it is learnt by au th o rs
Brosseau makes a similar point: "If I concentrate on the formal aspects of the novel, it is not because of a formalist bias, or a structuralist conviction, but rather, because these considerations are most useful in exploring the way the text produces an original representation of the city" (1995:93).
For some interesting uses of Propp in audience studies, see Barker (1989) and Radway
an d read ers, and th is plays an im p o rtan t role in science fiction, as we will see (C h ap ter 7 and point 8 below). C uller’s em phasis on com petence lead s him to dism iss perform ance (reading practice) as irrelevant: he is in te re ste d in th e "ideal reader" (123), a "theoretical construct" who possesses perfect com petence (124). However, C uller does allow for th e im portance of genre:
The operations [of conventions] will, of course, be different for different genres... The sam e sentence can have a different m ean in g
depending on th e genre in w hich it appears. (129)
I th in k th a t th is la tte r point is so im p o rtan t th a t I w ould r a th e r speak of
generic competence th a n ‘lite ra ry com petence’: w h at is w ritte n an d read as lite ra tu re is m erely a n o th er genre, although its conventions have been ev alu ated as su p erio r to those of low genres like science fiction. T his leads m e to suggest th a t th e re are as m any form s of com petence as th ere a re genres, each applying to a d istin ct set of conventions^^. Science fiction a u th o rs an d rea d ers m ay be p a rticu la rly com petent w ith th e conventions of th e genre, b u t m ay be a t a loss w hen confronted w ith poetry or rom antic fiction.
4. E xam ining th e o th er side of th e dialogue, m ean in g is produced from te x tu a l conventions by read in g practice. I w an t to su g g est t h a t th e re are
estab lish ed ways to rea d conventions, which I call r e a d in g sty le s: p a rtic u la r form s of read in g practice w hich are associated w ith, b u t n o t determ ined by,
conventions. The fact th a t such forms of reading practice a re so p rev a len t in th e d isc u ssa n ts’ accounts of th e ir read in g suggests th a t conventions do play an im p o rta n t role in settin g th e ‘rig h t’ w ay to read a tex t - alth o u g h it is im p o rtan t to rem em b er th a t th ese conventions are not sim ply codes se t by th e a u th o r b u t are to som e ex ten t ‘agreed’ by both w riters and read ers as p a rt of th e contract^^.
R eaders create m ean in g by draw ing upon th re e elem en ts of reading
Although since many genres draw upon the conventions of others (SF borrows from horror, detective fiction, fantasy, as well as ‘m ainstream ’ fiction) different kinds of competence may be needed to read any particular generic text.
practice: th e ir personal experiences’, th e ir use of reading styles; an d th e ir own
generic competence, which is based upon th e ir previous experience of th ese conventions.
5. The sum of all these w ritin g practices, conventions, an d read in g practices can be described as a c o n tr a c t. I have already cited B a rk e r’s point th a t a
convention rep resen ts "an ‘agreed w ay’ of coming together" (1989:9, an d see 1.2.), an d B a rk e r develops th is them e of ag reem en t th ro u g h th e idea of a contract, a kin d of social relationship betw een a u th o rs and readers. C riticising te x tu a l stu d ies of Jackie, he offers an a lte rn a tiv e perspective:
...a comic like Jackie could only connect w ith young girls because it offers to ta lk to them about topics w hich are already significant in th e ir lives. And no m a tte r how ‘clever’ or ‘powerful’ a conversation,
if th ey have no in te rest in listen in g th ere can be no influence. (1989:256)
In o th er words, texts need to connect up w ith th e experiences of re a d e rs by p rom ising to fulfil th e ir expectations.
W ith its reg u la r features, its reliable form at, an d its rep eated w ays of dealing w ith issues, [Jackie] offers a contract w ith its read ers... it offers a kin d of relationship to its read ers. We m ight say th a t Jackie
extends a n invitation to read ers to join in and use its contents in
p a rtic u la r ways. (256-257, em phasis in original)
B uilding on this, I suggest th a t both w riters an d read ers draw upon th e sam e conventions in th eir respective practices because th e re is a (m ostly u n w ritte n ) ag reem en t betw een them^^. However, th is is not to suggest th a t th e co n tract is d raw n up by two equally powerful p arties. B ark er arg u es t h a t "the m ass m edia depend on developing sets of typified expectations. R eaders le a m w h a t to expect, and w h at is expected of them " (258). In th is w ay th e pow er of producers over consum ers creates a n asym m etrical dialogue. A lthough conventions m u st m ean som ething to th e read er, th ey a re not n ecessarily th e ones th ey m ig h t choose them selves. T his does not, of course, m ean th a t conventions are
alw ays rea d in th e w ay th a t authors intend; rea d ers m ay possess a sim ilar generic com petence to au th o rs, b u t th e ir performance (reading practice) m ay be very different. The contract allows us to re la te certain generic w ritin g and read in g practices. T he contract therefore constitutes conventions an d practice th ro u g h a sh ared , th o u g h contested, set of assum ptions.
6. If we ta k e th is agreem ent a t its m ost g eneral level, we can begin to see how g e n r e s are constituted. R ath er th a n sim ply acknow ledging th e ir em pirical
existence, or listin g th e tex tu al conventions associated w ith them , we can begin to see th em as the su m o f all the contracts held between w riters a n d readers - as a ‘m etac o n trac t’. G enres are often felt to be in n ately conservative because th ey rely upon estab lish ed ru les and codes for producing m eaning, b u t th is criticism m isses two im p o rta n t points. F irstly, all language is m ark ed by socially co n stitu ted rules; it is sim ply th a t th ese are p articu la rly obvious in generic texts. Secondly, th ese ru les are always open to con testatio n an d tran sfo rm atio n . In p a rticu la r, th e w ays in which conventions are used (through w h a t 1 have called w ritin g an d rea d in g styles) change as th ey cease to be rele v an t to th e contract. W hile th e re m ay still be a need for a convention, th e w ritin g style used to express it m ay become stilte d an d predictable, an d a new style m ay become necessary.
In th e case of science fiction, for exam ple, th e convention of th e ‘info-dum p’ rem ain s invaluable. The info-dump, or ‘idiot lectu re’, is necessary because th e rea d er is u n su re of th e n a tu re of th e tim e an d place in w hich th e story is set, so a n a rr a to r (the au th o r, a character) h as to p resen t large chunks of th is background inform ation. However, th is is norm ally u tte rly artificial, as one c h arac ter tells a n o th e r thin g s th a t both alread y know^'^. Resolving th is dilem m a calls for a co n stan t reinvention of th e convention. K. W. J e te r ’s SF novel D r A d d er
relies on a p a rtic u la rly self-conscious reinvention (1987). T he protagonist, L im m it, is a tte m p tin g to m ake sense of a place w hich is u tte rly alien to him . H e th in k s
This is obvious to competent readers: "idiot lec tu r e: A way for the author to let the reader know some part of the BACK-STORY, by having one CHARACTER tell it to another... This is usually considered a clumsy way of inserting EXPOSITION into the story; the action stops dead, and the audience... tends to lose interest" (Rogow, 1991:160).
"If only life w as like a science fiction novel..." th en he could be th e recipient of an info-dum p (36). However, "In reality, it never took place: th e fu n d am en tals of a society rem ained u n a rticu la te d , som ething to be lived upon, not talk ed about" (36- 37). B ut J e te r still needs to ta lk about his world, for th e re a d e r’s sake. His an sw er is to create a c h aracter (a social researcher!) who is h ap p y to sell this inform ation to Lim m it, inform ing th e read er a t th e sam e tim e as estab lish in g th e second character. Such w ritin g styles re-invent th e convention w ith o u t alterin g th e n a tu re of its operation. I will suggest in C h a p te r 4 th a t th e invention of