“Ways of worldmaking”: A study of narrative transmission in Henry James's The Aspern Papers

Summary

In this paper I argue that an understanding of modality ‐ especially when deployed in so‐called unreliable homodiegetic narration ‐ essentially requires an understanding of the referential functions of language. These functions, often performed by ¡mplicatures and, in Goodman's terms, “exemplifications”, create the “worlds” whose cognisability becomes a presupposition upon which our grasp of the relevant modality is predicated. James's novella, The Aspern Papers, offers a complex form of such a narrative transmission; one that would remain, I argue, only partially recoverable without the deployment of the text immanent postulates proffered by my theoretical exposition of the ironic modalities of unreliable homodiegetic narrative.

Opsomming

In hierdie referaat word argumenteer dat die begrip van modaliteit ‐ veral wanneer dit in die sogenaamde onbetroubare homodiëgetiese vertelling ontplooi word ‐ essensieel ‘n begrip van die referensiële funksies van taal vereis. Hierdie funksiés, wat dikwels deur implisering vervul word en wat volgens Goodman voorbeeldgevalle is, skep die “wêrelde” waarvan die kenbaarheid ‘n veronderstelling word wat ons houvas op die relevante modaliteit bevestig. James se novelle, The Aspern Papers, bied ‘n komplekse vorm van sodanige verhalende oordrag: een wat, volgens my redenasie, net gedeeltelik verhaalbaar sal bly sonder die ontplooiing van die teks se inherente postulate soos voorgestel deur die teoretiese eksposisie van die ironiese modaliteite van onbetroubare homodiëgetiese vertelling in hierdie referaat.