Ford Madox Ford The Good Soldier 2 LIT

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Ford Madox Ford The Good Soldier (2) LIT 3101 Make It New

Ford Madox Ford The Good Soldier (2) LIT 3101 Make It New

Overview v Critical approaches v Textual problems v The Good Soldier as modernist text

Overview v Critical approaches v Textual problems v The Good Soldier as modernist text

Reader response v Ford / Dowell’s method leaves reader with limited and subjective, impressionistic

Reader response v Ford / Dowell’s method leaves reader with limited and subjective, impressionistic view of events. v But there is a structure – recurrent device of 4 th August as means of patterning the narrative v Reader supplies context and perspective, e. g. Maisie Maidan-

Maisie’s death v Now, as soon as she came in, she perceived, sticking out

Maisie’s death v Now, as soon as she came in, she perceived, sticking out beyond the bed, a small pair of feet in high-heeled shoes. Maisie had died in the effort to strap up a great portmanteau. She had died so grotesquely that her little body had fallen forward into the trunk, and it had closed upon her, like the jaws of a gigantic alligator. (p. / 61 -2/ 88)

Mix of the grotesque and the comic v I trust I have not, in

Mix of the grotesque and the comic v I trust I have not, in talking of his liabilities, given the impression that poor Edward was a promiscuous libertine. He was not; he was a sentimentalist. The servant girl in the Kilsyte case had been pretty, but mournful of appearance. I think that, when he had kissed her, he had desired rather to comfort her v (p. 49 /68)

…and… v Her room door was locked because she was nervous about thieves; but

…and… v Her room door was locked because she was nervous about thieves; but an electric contrivance on a cord was understood to be attached to her little wrist. She had only to press a bulb to raise the house. And I was provided with an axe--an axe!-great gods, with which to break down her door in case she ever failed to answer my knock, after I knocked really loud several times. It was pretty well thought out, you see. (p. 73/ 104)

Duality v Unreliable narrator – but only narrator v How much do we take

Duality v Unreliable narrator – but only narrator v How much do we take on surface value? v See Roger Poole “The real plot line of Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier: an essay in applied deconstruction” Textual Practice 4/3, 1990 pp 390427 v Reader constructs meta-narrative

Problematic text v Dowell is sole witness v Presents himself as naïve dupe v

Problematic text v Dowell is sole witness v Presents himself as naïve dupe v Requires reader to unravel sequence of events v Lacks empathy v Emphasis on “story” – “the saddest story I ever heard”

Dowell’s status v Our only source of information about the nature of the relationships

Dowell’s status v Our only source of information about the nature of the relationships v Writing apparently as therapy- catharsis? v How far can we trust him?

The active reader v Dowell’s problematising of the text makes demands on the reader

The active reader v Dowell’s problematising of the text makes demands on the reader v Narratives are in competition v Refusals of coherence (Poole) v Reader becomes detective

Critique of society v How ironic is the title? v How far does Ashburnham

Critique of society v How ironic is the title? v How far does Ashburnham represent the old status quo now, as the first world war develops, visibly crumbling? v Who represents conventional morality? v Ford: “… analysis of the polygamous desires that underlie all men. ” v (FMF to his publisher, quoted by Max Saunders, Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life Vol I (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) p. 403

Modernist uncertainty v Dowell and Florence are “imprisoned” in Europe- remain marginal figures, apart

Modernist uncertainty v Dowell and Florence are “imprisoned” in Europe- remain marginal figures, apart from culture they inhabit v Ashburnhams are similarly marginalised in European milieu v Impermanence of situation constantly emphasised by Dowell v Paradox of his view of their life as “settled”

Critical views: Sara Haslam v “He is not a hospitable novelist, but a demanding

Critical views: Sara Haslam v “He is not a hospitable novelist, but a demanding one: confusion and struggle with one’s own memory of the narrative (‘Have I read about this already? ’) are the most frequent states for readers of this text. ” v Fragmenting Modernism: Ford Madox Ford, the Novel and the Great War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002) p. 44

Roger Poole v “Refusals of coherence” v Novel “reeks with improbability” v Purpose of

Roger Poole v “Refusals of coherence” v Novel “reeks with improbability” v Purpose of description of EA’s affairs to show them sinking into bathos – discrediting him v “Mutually contradictory time-schemes” v Sees potential of Leonora and Dowell as lovers, and Nancy Rufford as their daughter

Max Saunders v “A world of so much unconsciousness or concealment produces what Paul

Max Saunders v “A world of so much unconsciousness or concealment produces what Paul Ricoeur calls a hermeneutics of suspicion: an assumption that we observe whether we are reading people or books are merely symptoms of something else; underlying desires, secret motives, repressed thoughts, concealed ideologies. ”

Conclusion v The Good Soldier displays several key Modernist characteristics: v complex, confusing world

Conclusion v The Good Soldier displays several key Modernist characteristics: v complex, confusing world v Untrustworthy narrator v Lack of linearity v Lack of closure v Deals with complex psychological states v Frankness about sexual behaviour