Download So, what does Cubist narrative look like

So, what does Cubist narrative look like? It’s highly visual, closely related to the visual arts of
the time by:
IMAGES
-Images often described in such a way that they could be visualized or drawn, often cubically, or
with angles.
-Unusual imagery to represent normal objects (My mother is a fish.)
-Images often contain references to light, particularly refracted or prismatic light (which, of course,
relies on shape, and the bending of light rays, to work). Refer to poetry of Marianne Moore
-Orphism, the use of color in cubism (ex. yellow in As I Lay Dying)
-Overlapping/ collaging of images, quotations, points of view.
GEOMETRIC FRAGMENTATION
-Seemingly unrelated images or sections of narrative may be juxtaposed
-Meaning is based on personal interpretation of the relationship between the images, sections,
themes, characters, associations, etc. (My mother is a fish.)
-Form is inextricably related to meaning. Poems no longer fit verse patterns of the past: lines and
verses may be designed in a visual pattern or shape on the page.
-Narrative may be embellished by actual drawings on the page (not the same as illustrations; these
are part of the form itself).
-Descriptions of scenes or staged movement of character described in a visual, or geometric, often
three-dimensional way (cube).
-Narrative chapters may be short or long, varied seemingly randomly but always in service to form.
Or, story narrative may be in a variety of forms (ex. lists, quotes etc.)
SUBJECTIVITY
-Fractured, non-linear (see “time”); modular/sectional; thematically reflects fallen society
-Explores “all sides;” multi-dimensional (like geometric) points of view achieved through:
Multiple narrators/ speakers often alternated, sometimes “collaged”
-Quotations may “interrupt” narrator or speaker, signifying change of another speaker. Commonly
used in poetry to juxtapose similar or dissimilar images or to offer another point of view.
-Stream of consciousness from within minds of characters – often more than one character so that
thoughts of each can be compared/contrasted.
THEMATIC USE OF TIME
-Time is relative (this was the age of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity); events told out of order, or on
“mind time” through stream-of consciousness
-Time is distorted: Dali’s clocks, or through the mind of an “idiot” (Faulkner’s Benjy) who cannot
distinguish between past and present
-Time may either be a main theme or symbol
-Circularity of time may be used thematically i.e. History repeats itself, focus on watch or clock’s
circular shape, events recur or people/families repeat similar actions over subsequent generations
Ex. Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury –two generations of Compson women soil family honor
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A. W. Gregory, April 2004
Modified April 2007