Sympathy and Joyce's 'Dubliners': Ethical Probing of Reading, Narrative, and Textuality by Tanja Vesala-Varttala (review)

YES, 32, 2002 Sympathy andJoyce's'Dubliners: EthicalProbing ofReading, Narrative, andTextuality.By TANJAVESALA-VARTTALA.(Tampere Studies in Literature and Textuality) Tampere, Finland:Tampere UniversityPress. I999. viii + 308 pp. 1i5. Tanja Vesala-Varttala's study of Dublinersconcerns itself primarily with wider questionsof sympathyand the readingprocess. She points out thatwhile the idea of sympathy is a subject frequently addressed in literaryworks themselves, there are many similaritiesbetween sympathetic feeling and our approach to reading texts, and thisrealizationpreparesthe way for new insightsinto narrativetheory. Indeed, no systematicconsideration of sympathyand literaturehas been undertaken,so its examination here requires Vesala-Varttala to proceed from some fundamental assumptions.Foremostis her belief that it is possible for the reader to feel genuine sympathy for fictional characters. Once this is established, one may question whether readers must identify with a character in order to feel sympathy and to what extent readers'proximity to a character, in any number of senses, affectsthis feeling. Most importantly, perhaps, Vesala-Varttalaconsiders the presumption of knowledge inherent to sympathy,embodying the hierarchicalmanner in which we, as readers,view the world and our place in it. The firstquarterof her study, then, provides a comprehensive outline to this kind of thinking about sympathy, but rather than arriving at a single methodological base from which to proceed, she worksfrom among strandsin her overview. While this heterogeneity in approachis honest to her beliefs about narratology, its many cited fragmentspresent readers with theirown challenge. Dublinersseems a most apt choice for a text against which to read ideas of sympathy. The complexity in the narration of these stories problematizesJoyce's engagement with sympathy, both in his depiction of his characters and his positioning of his narrators.Indeed, the rhetoricalstructureof these shortstories is more complex than is generally affordedJoyce's earliestwritings,standingup even in comparison to his later, more challenging texts. Vesala-Varttalapoints out that most scholars concentrate on the satiricalnature of Joyce's work, questioning the extent to which his criticism masks an underlying affection for the admonished subjects of these stories. Certainly, his 'sympatheticunderstanding'of the lives of the Dubliners complicates any simple opposition between sympathy and satire; Vesala-Varttalaseeks to outline the manner in which both 'ironic attachment' and 'sympatheticinvolvement' might coexist. Butpreciselybecause of the lengthof time it takes the author to survey narratologicalwritings here, the readingsof Dubliners seem perpetually deferred. This problem is compounded by her decision to read together all the stories in the collection, emphasizing their unity; by doing so, the contours of the stories are less effectively defined. Anyone expecting a Dubliners casebook will be sorely disappointed. Still, there are interesting, new approaches outlined: Vesala-Varttala surveys 'The Dead' by underlining Gabriel Conroy's equivocal 'reading'of the guests at his aunts'party, for example. But her discussion of the text ends up engaging most fullythe establishedreadingsof these stories.It is her contention that sympathy best parallels the experience of 're-reading'. The reaction of the reader in confronting Dubliners again is the most interestingpart of the study, relying as it does on our familiaritywith the text. Forthis reason, our rereadingcastslight upon ethical concerns:how do we regardthe thingswe read (and read again)?So, more than a study of the stories, Sympathy andJoyce'sDubliners can better be understood as an interrogation of the 'critical communities' that have grown up in Joyce criticism. Our sympathies reveal what we privilege in reading Joyce, and Vesala-Varttala leaves it to us to consider the implications of our 32 1 approaches. While our critical practice reveals something of a developing critical hierarchy,itssignificanceis a questionleftlargelyforfurtherdebate. UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE, CANADA CRAIG MONK The Laughterof Foxes. A Studyof TedHughes. By KEITHSAGAR. (Liverpool English Texts and Studies, 38) Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2000. xxxiv + 196 pp. k727.50 (paperbound I14.95). It is a sad comment on the state of Hughes criticismthat many readers,on picking up thisbook, will turnfirstto the Acknowledgementspage. There theywill findthat it contains material from unpublished sources 'by kind permission of Ted Hughes and the Ted Hughes Estate'. The Hughes/Plath Estate is not notorious for its kindnessto critics,so one anticipatesa respectfulbook. It is, in fact,a ferventeulogy. Keith Sagar's version of Hughes is perfectly coherent, which in itself is an achievement. The first of his...

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