Structural analysis of “in other rooms other wonders” and

“meatless days”

Presented By:

Anam Nawaz

Naila Akram

Structuralism

Structuralism is a mode of thinking and a method of analysis practiced in 20th-century social sciences and humanities. Methodologically, it analyzes large-scale systems by examining the relations and functions of the smallest constituent elements of such systems, which range from human languages and cultural practices to folktales and literary texts.

Narratology

The study of the basic codes which make narrative possible, and which make it work. This is known generally as narratology, and often produces what might be called a grammar of narrative.

Valadimir Propp This approach derives from the work of Victor Propp (The Morphology of the Folktale, 1928, which analysed fictional characters in terms of plot function).

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Gérard Genette (b. 1930) Gérard Genette (Narrative Discourse, 1972: the application of linguistic terms to the study of narrative and discourse),

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A.J. Greimas A.J. Greimas (Structural Semantics, 1966: actantial grammar, where characters have semantic roles, rather like nouns),

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Tzvetan Todorov (b. 1939) Tzvetan Todorov (The Poetics of Prose, 1971: figuration, the principle that patterns are observable in a text which appear to exist independently of the author).

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Important concepts in Genette's narratology

Genette begins by differentiating among three levels of narrative that generally have been included under the umbrella of the term narrative

1. Story consists of the succession of events being narrated. The story thus provides the content of the tale in the order in which events “actually happened” to the characters, an order that does not always coincide with the order in which they are presented in the narrative. 

2. Narrative refers to the actual words on the page, the discourse, the text itself, from which the reader constructs both story and narration. The narrative is produced by the narrator in the act of narration.

3. Narration refers to the act of telling the story to some audience and there by producing the narrative.

Important concepts in Genette's narratology contd…

Genette’s work focuses on narrative, the words on the page, but he notes that all three levels work together. And he observes that story, narrative, and narration interact by means of three qualities, which he calls tense, mood, and voice.

1. Tense…

Tense is the arrangement of events in the narrative with respect to time. That arrangement involves the notions of order, duration, and frequency.

1.1 Order

Order refers to the relationship between the chronology of the story(the order in which the events of the story occur in the fictional world)and the chronology of the narrative (the order in which the narrative presents those events

“Order” (In other Rooms Other Wonders)

All the stories are narrated in chronological order, with a proper beginning middle and end. Characters like Saleema, Husna, Razzaq start their journey with a hope of getting a respectable status in society, at the climax of the stories they are shown successful in getting whatever they wanted, then gradually lose every thing, and end up at the same point they started or even worse Moinuddin does not offer any solution to the problems and most of the characters end up where they started.

Flash backs are also given in stories, for example incident of Razzaq’s fight with his step-brothers and his leaving home, flashback of K.K Haruni’s marriage with his cousin and their separation, Saleema’s remembering her childhood, etc.

1.2 Duration

Duration refers to the relationship between the length of time over which a given event occurs in the story and the number of pages of narrative devoted to describing it.

“Duration”(In other Rooms Other Wonders)

In all the stories, the important events are explained and minute details are given for example, Saleema’s intimacy with Rafiq, Husna’s relationship with K K Haruni, Nawabbuddin’s encounter with the Robber and their discussion in the hospital, his attitude with his family, description of Razzaq’s little hut, his marriage with retarded girl and his death etc.

While some of the events with lasted for a long period of time are listed in the story in one paragraph or even less. For example 2 years of Saleema’s life before her death and the event of her death is told in one paragraph, Razzaq’s last one and a half year of life is told in one line

“he lived on for another year, then six months more, collecting his salary, never spending a rupee more than was sufficient to keep his body warm”

1.3 Frequency

Frequency involves the relationship between the ways in which events may be repeated in the story

• An event can occur once and be narrated once (singular).

• An event can occur n times and be narrated once (iterative).

• An event can occur once and be narrated n times (repetitive).

• An event can occur n times and be narrated n times (multiple).

“Frequency” (In other Rooms Other Wonders)

In almost all of the stories the “Singular” pattern of narration is used. Events accour once and they are narrated once. Only in Husna’s story I found some of the events accoured once and were narrated many times

For example: Husna’s need for Job is narrated three times

“husna needed a job”

“and now I’ve come to you for help. I am poor and need a job”

“Husna has recently graduated and is looking to find some useful work”

“Frequency” (In other Rooms Other Wonders)contd…

Another event that is narrated many times is Begum Harouni’s leaving for pilgrimage

“Begum Harouni announced a pilgrimage to the Holy Places”

“the begum is going to umrah…”

“Begum Harouni had gone on the pilgrimage’

2. Mood…

Mood is the atmosphere of the narrative created by distance and perspective.

2.1 Distance

Distance is created when the narrator is one of the characters in the narrative, a “go-between” through whose consciousness the story is filtered. The more intrusive the narrator, the greater the distance between narration and story. Conversely, the least distance is created when we are unaware of the narrator’s presence, when a tale seems to “tell itself.” Distance is also created by the absence of descriptive detail. The less detail given, the less the effect of reality is created, and the greater the sense of distance between narration and story. The more detail given, the less distance exists. Thus, the least distance, or the greatest imitation of life, is produced by maximum information and minimum presence of the narrator.

“Distance” (In other Rooms Other Wonders)

Since Moinuddin Daniyal himself is not one of the characters in his stories, the distance between the story and its narration is the least one. Readers are given a detailed account of what characters are thinking and what they do.

2.2 Perspective

Perspective is the point of view adopted by the narrator, which Genette calls focalization.

"So by focalization I certainly mean a restriction of 'field' – actually, that is, a selection of narrative information with respect to what was traditionally called omniscience"

(1988, p. 74).

These are matters of perception: the one who perceives is not necessarily the one who tells, and vice versa.

 

Daniyal’s “Perspective”

   

Genette distinguishes three kinds of focalization:

1. Zero focalization: The narrator knows more than the characters. He may know the facts about all of the protagonists, as well as their thoughts and gestures. This is the traditional "omniscient narrator".2. Internal focalization: The narrator knows as much as the focal character. This character filters the information provided to the reader. He cannot report the thoughts of other characters.3. External focalization: The narrator knows less than the characters. He acts a bit like a camera lens, following the protagonists' actions and gestures from the outside; he is unable to guess their thoughts. 

   

3. Voice…

Voice refers to the voice of the narrator. The voice we hear (the narrator’s) may not be the same as the eyes we see through (the perspective). When we analyze voice, we analyze the relationship of the narrator (the act of narration) to the story being told and to the narrative (the way the story is being told). Voice helps us determine the narrator’s attitude toward the story and reliability.

“Voice” (In other Rooms Other Wonders)

Almost all the stories except “about a burning girl” are narrated in 3rd person narrative. “about a burning girl” is the only story told in the 1st person narrative.Writer is not involved or is not one of the characters in any of the stories. Rather all of them are linked together with a common character “K.K Harouni”. Although in different stories he is a different character yet his name and his being a feudal lord connects all the stories together.Each story focuses on one character or relationship, building a richness and depth to the whole collection. Characters sometimes reappear in other stories, giving this book an epic feel through layered portraits.

Analysis of Sara Sulehri’s “Meatless days” using Genette’s

model of Narratology

Presented By:

Naila Akram

“Order” (Meatless Days)

As her work is a memoir so sometimes she does not follow chronological order strictly when she narrates events from her life. She mentions events as flashbacks come in her mind. As in first chapter, starting from the discussion of female position within Pakistani culture she moves towards Dadi’s character (with no proper start or background), discusses the history of the development of Pakistan, discusses food, Dadi and her relation to God, discussion on Eid festival and chopping of animals, political issues, moving towards the mishap to her brother and Dadi and so on.

“Order” (Meatless Days)contd…

But there are chapters in which she follows strictly a proper order as in “PAPA AND PAKISTAN” . She takes start from 1930s when her father becomes interested in politics and Pakistan independence movement starts:1930, the poet’s Iqbal Allahabad Address to the Muslims1940, Lahore Resolution1941, father moved to Karachi to join the weekly dawn1943, the newspaper became daily1944, Father wrote his first book called “My Leader”1945, went England1947, Britain leaves the shore of India1949, Mama gave birth to Ifat

“Order” (Meatless Days)contd…

1965, father offered his services to Government in war1968, Yahiya khan in power1970, elections held1971, --civil war, which lead to the establishment of East Pakistan as an independent nation called Bangladesh (March 26)1977, Bhutto removed from power, had Bhutto hanged, and imposed martial law  1979, Dadi died1985, Martial law was lifted1988, Zia killed  

“Duration” (Meatless Days)

Some of the very minute events are told in great details by Sara Sulehri in Meatless days and some of the events which expanded over the years are told in on page. For example a complete chapter is dedicated to the discussion of KAPURA and other food itmes, and about 3 pages are devoted to the incident of her brother’s getting burnt, while on the other hand the time period from 1930 to 1988 in the history is described within two pages. Two hours speech of Quiad-e-Azam at Badshahi mosque is narrowed down in one sentence. The incidents of her mother and Iffat’s death are given pages of description while Dadi’s death account is reduced to one paragraph.

“Frequency” (Meatless Days)

There is a lot of repitiotn in Sara’s stories. Incidents which occurred once are narrated many times, for example Iffat’s death, Mother’s death and Dadi’s death. Political references and account of independence is given many times in her stories. Discussion about food items is repeated in almost all the chapters.

“Distance” (Meatless Days)

Since Sara herself is one the major characters in the story, her involvement in the stories increases the distance between the story and its narration. She doesn’t know what other characters are thinking and thus is unable to depict the accurate details.At some points of time the distance is minimized by giving detailed account of events. Maximum presence of Sara increases the distance and maximum presence of information decreases the distance.

“Perspective” (Meatless Days)

2. Internal focalization: The narrator knows as much as the focal character. This character filters the information provided to the reader. He cannot report the thoughts of other characters.

   

“Voice” (Meatless Days)

All the stories are narrated in 1st person Narrative. Sara herself is a character in the stories.