Kathyrn Hume on Late Coover

[alice wellintown]

>> So that, when one purports to link, in a realistic fashion, an abstract
>> thought about the nature of literature, to some specific fictional text,
>> that purporting--that theory--becomes *itself* a work of fiction.

No. We all know what we mean by fiction. Don't we? Usually, the term
"fiction" is used to describe imaginative writing in a narrative form,
such as the novel, the romance, the short story, though drama and
poetry are also forms of fiction.

If one argues that any attempt to impose order on the flux of though
or experience is making a fiction, and this is a popular use of the
term in graduate programs these dayz, well fine, but get that out
there so as not to confuse others.

Theory. Now that is a fine word. It has, as does "fiction", very
different meanings when used by literary folk and by scientists and by
those who use it in the common sense.

But is theory fiction? No.

If we mix and mash all of these terms and ideas into one big pile of
letters...well...it becomes, as Prufrock sez, or as Hamlet never quite
understands, impossible to say just what we mean.

Of course, if we make clear that we are applying a defined term, say,
"fiction" as defined in the "poetics of fiction" or in formalism or
narratology or by Wayne Booth....etc. ....well we have a course 0f a
differenty silly bus and we can now expect Dorothy to follow our
yellow brick road. Or not.