Paratactic Narrative Mode and Taxonomic Conundrum of a Postmodern Verse Novel: Reading from Bernardine Evaristo's Lara. Issue 2 (14th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Adeniyi, Emmanuel
• Is Part Of: Critique. Volume 61:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 157
• Page End: 170
• Publication Date: 2020-03-14
• Subjects: Fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Letterkunde; Engels; Electronic journals; 809.304
• DOI: 10.1080/00111619.2019.1697639
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0011-1619

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Verse novel genre is fast becoming a literary form through which writers express their ingenuities to produce texts having a tapestry of prosaic and poetic elements. Considering its unique structure and form, verse novel can be described as a paradigm of postmodernism that subverts or sacrifices normativity for esthetics and automaticity in narratology. The effect of this subversion is the creation of postmodern verse novels, and one area where the novels challenge conventional literature is in the use of paratactic narrative technique. The technique facilitates a juxtaposition of clausal or sentential elements with or without conjuncts, thereby enabling the production of spontaneous, conversational, rhythmic, and enjambed prose. Bernardine Evaristo, like many other postmodern writers, often employs this technique prominently. Her text, Lara, uses paratactic narrative mode in the narration of a chain of histories spanning three continents and many generations. This article, therefore, examines the signification of paratactic narrative technique and other postmodern models in Lara . The importance of the mode in textual exegesis is considered, while the article argues that parataxis yields plausible hermeneutics because of its reductionism. The approach offers a contrapuntal reading of phrasal, clausal, or sentential constituents which can begin a reductionist and textual interpretative process.