The Submerged Plot and the Mother’s Pleasure from Jane Austen to Arundhati Roy

297 Pages·2016·2.41 MB·English

by  Kelly A. Marsh

T h e
s u b m e r g e d p l o t
a n d t h e
m o t h e r ’ s p l e a s u r e
j a n e a u s t e n
f r o m t o
a r u n d h a t i r o y
K e l l y A . M a r s h
THEORY AND INTERPRETATION OF NARRATIVE
James Phelan, Peter J. Rabinowitz, and Robyn Warhol, Series Editors

The
S U B M E R G E D P L O T
and the
M O T H E R ’ S P L E A S U R E
from J A N E A U S T E N to
A R U N D H A T I R O Y
K e l l y A . M a r s h
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
COLUMBUS
Copyright © 2016 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Marsh, Kelly A., 1968– author.
Title: The submerged plot and the mother’s pleasure from Jane Austen to Arundhati
Roy / Kelly A. Marsh.
Other titles: Theory and interpretation of narrative series.
Description: Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2015] | “2016” | Series:
Theory and interpretation of narrative | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015034052 | ISBN 9780814212974 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Narration (Rhetoric) | Sex in literature. | Feminism in literature. |
Fiction—History and criticism. | Daughters in literature.
Classification: LCC PN3383.N35 M37 2015 | DDC 823.009/3522—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015034052
Cover design by Regina Starace
Type set in Adobe Sabon
Lines from “Autobiography” quoted from Collected Poems: 1925–1948 by Louis
MacNeice. First published by Faber and Faber Ltd. Reprinted by permission of David
Higham Associates.
For my mother,
Margaret Sharrow Steele

CONTENTS
≥
Acknowledgments ix
INTRODUCTION
Plot, Progression, and the Search for the
Mother’s Unnarratable Pleasure 1
CHAPTER 1
The Submerged Plot and the Interrelation of
Progression and Character: Persuasion and Jane Eyre 26
CHAPTER 2
Dual and Serial Narration and the Disclosure of the
Submerged Plot: Bleak House and The Woman in White 66
CHAPTER 3
The House, the Journey, and the Spaces of the
Submerged Plot: The House of Mirth and
The Last September 112
CHAPTER 4
Surviving the Submerged Plot and the Work of Character
Narration: The Color Purple, A Thousand Acres, and
Bastard Out of Carolina 153
CHAPTER 5
The End of Pleasure and the Function of Time
in the Submerged Plot: Talking to the Dead and
The God of Small Things 205
CONCLUSION
The Evolution of the Search 247
Notes 253
Works Cited 267
Index 277

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
≥
M y first thanks go to three people without whom this book
could not have been written: James Phelan, Kathryn Hume,
and Brian Anderson. I am also very grateful for the advice
and guidance of Robyn Warhol, Margaret Homans, and Kay Young. All
of the editors at The Ohio State University Press have been a great help,
including Lindsay Martin and Tara Cyphers. The National Endowment
for the Humanities supported my participation in the summer seminar
on “Narrative Theory: Rhetoric and Ethics in Fiction and Non- Fiction,”
which was crucial to the development of the project. Mississippi State
University has supported my work by granting me time and resources,
especially the Office of the Provost, the Office of Research and Eco-
nomic Development, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Depart-
ment of English. I would particularly like to thank Richard Raymond,
Matthew Little, Gregory Dunaway, and Gary Myers, as well as my col-
leagues in the English Department, past and present. I am grateful for
permission to reproduce earlier versions of the material in chapter 1,
which appeared as “Jane Eyre and the Pursuit of the Mother’s Plea-
sure” in South Atlantic Review 69.3/4 (2004) 81–106 and “The Moth-
er’s Unnarratable Pleasure and the Submerged Plot of Persuasion” in
Narrative 17:1 (2009) 76–94.
ix