Essay on Literature

ANALYSIS OF HEROIN, VERTIGO, AND A LOVER’S DISCOURSE


The texts Heroin, Vertigo, and A Lover’s Discourse use a range of writing techniques and strategies, including techniques from postmodernism, use of intertextuality, and prose writing techniques. In this essay I will be using readings from the study guide, including Topic One and Four, as well as Readings by Chambers, Worton, and Seymour from the book of readings to support my argument. My main argument is that our lives are narratives and thus run parallel to what is written, because writers are influenced by the society they live in and what they read. This is displayed in Heroin, Vertigo, and A Lover’s Discourse, which all expand our societies discourse, which is achieved by postmodern writing techniques in A Lover’s Discourse and some parts of Vertigo and by prose writing techniques, such as intertextuality, plot, and discourse in all three stories.

The story in a narrative is the sequence of events, which occur (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 10). The plot of a story is what the story is about (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 11). For example the plot of Vertigo is about sea change and quotidian rural Australians, while my story Heroin is about drug addiction and mental illness. Every story can be told in different ways and from different perspectives (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 10). Certain details can be foregrounded and other details can be marginalized to create a unique discourse. In Heroin, Mark’s perspective is foregrounded, particularly his attitude towards drugs, while Zack’s point of view is marginalized and he is portrayed as a ‘heroin junky.’ A kernel event furthers the plot and is an essential turning point (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 12). The kernel event in Heroin is the period that Mark lives in convalescence, withdrawing from drugs. In Vertigo the bushfire is the kernel event as well as pinnacle of the narrative. Through these similarities it can be shown that all these texts are related, with them existing within an intertextual matrix of our culture.

Worton (1990, p. 1) claims that texts do not operate as closed systems, but exist in contrast to the texts, which came before them. A poet who writes is just replicating a poem, which has been already written, but also adds to what he reads in his writing (Worton, 1990, p. 3). A text is influenced by the culture of the writer and the discourse in the period of writing, which is informed by a myriad of different people, who have a range of viewpoints. The writing of Vertigo and Heroin thereby is endowed by various voices and opinions, including those of down to earth characters, such as Gil, and imaginative characters like Luke, whose personalities are manifested in the dialogue in the novel and thus exist not by themselves, but in the tradition of Australian prose writing (Worton, 1990, p. 2).

Chambers (1985) posits that the connotation of a text is the relationship between viewpoints and the context in which they occur. For example in my story, Heroin, the viewpoint of Zack is that of a drug addict and therefore positive in attitude towards drugs, while the viewpoint at the end of the story of Mark is that drugs are illegal and dangerous. Different people in novels, whether they are fictional or not, have alternate viewpoints, through which viewpoints discourse can be formed (Chambers, 1985). Gibson (1992) posits that the body is not the entirety of the world, and even though it is the vessel through which we experience the world, it cannot be severed from its vicinity to the world and relationships. We can see our lives as like a novel, in that the mental notes we and others take on ourselves form what is called narrative or discourse (Gibson, 1992). Anna has force over the reader, which makes us sympathetic for her cause and so do other characters who attract towards them certain readers who share similar personality traits. Thus the relationship between different characters and the reader in Vertigo define its meaning as a novella.

Texts are transposed into other texts over space and time (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 40). A monologic text is one, which argues for a universal definition and is centralised in meaning (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 40). A dialogic text embraces various points of view to create a whole discourse and presents a decentralised point of view (Cook & Ledgar, 2010, p. 40). Heroin fits the description of a dialogic text, because it presents characters as changing over time. A Lover’s Discourse also fits the description of a dialogic text in that the protagonist is heterogeneous and self-centered and on the edge of society. The heteroglossic viewpoints in stories like these deconstruct the authority of monologic texts such as the Bible and progress the art of writing.

A Lover’s Discourse fits within postmodern writing in that it is flippant, often meaningless, and very abstract, presenting reality as fragmented. This fragmentation of reality is displayed by the example: ‘I--I who love, by converse vocation, am sedentary, motionless, at hand, in expectation, nailed to the spot, in suspense’ (Barthes, 1990, p. 12). A Lover’s Discourse is very self-indulgent and the main character is excessively emotional. This emotion is demonstrated in the following line: ‘I mask my mourning by an evasion; I dilute myself, I swoon in order to escape that density’ (Barthes, 1990, p. 12). These excerpts show the use of postmodern approaches to writing in A Lover’s Discourse, which is a movement rejects the grand narrative of the protagonist’s culture in favour of excessive and abstracted writing.

Different ideas are juxtaposed in a loose association in A Lover’s Discourse, which is a postmodernist technique. e.g. ‘This is how it happens sometimes, misery or joy engulfs me, without any particular tumult ensuing: nor any pathos: I am dissolved, not dismembered’ (Barthes, 1990, p. 11). There is anapestic language used, for example: ‘I fall, I flow, I melt’ (Barthes, 1990, p. 11). The narrator is suicidal, emotional, and excessively romantic, which is evidenced by the phrase: ‘we die together from loving each other’ (Barthes, 1990, p. 11). This phrase creates a sense of overwhelming emotion, which can lead to ego death. There is use of nonsensical phrases, which do not make any sense at all. For example: ‘extreme action of the amorous image-repertoire’ (Barthes, 1990, p. 11). A Lover’s Discourse is not completely serious and is created as a comedic piece, with the idea of performance for the reader treated as sacrosanct, with a sense of emotional distress being core to its performance as a text.

My story Heroin uses many techniques of prose writing, including the use of story, discourse, and plot, as well as intertextual elements, including: references to psychiatry and accounts of drug addiction by real people. Heroin starts with a healthy man who feels, ‘sparkling and anticipatory.’ This strong adjective is used to describe Mark’s emotions as pure, which contrasts with his latter state, and is an example of characteristion. Heroin is told in third person and past tense, which has an effect allowing the reader to see the bigger picture. e.g. ‘They smiled at each other and walked into the apartment.’ The word ‘smiled’ is in the past tense and ‘they’ is used as a third person pronoun. Time flows on peculiarly, for example after Mark takes heroin in the opening part he feels like time is gone. e.g. ‘He fell out of the normal rules of time and found himself laying down on one of Zack’s spare beds twelve hours later.’ Later in the story, after Mark’s hospitalisation, the typical delusions of psychotic patients are used to make Mark’s dilemma relevant to the real world. These delusions include feeling people can read your mind and are plotting to kill you, which I have read about on mental health forums, such as ‘Schizophrenia.com’ and ‘Psych forums.’ The use of these delusions is an intertextual technique as it draws influences from real people with psychosis. Towards the end as Mark appears to be doing better he sees the wolf again and follows it. This experience is a metaphor for his recovery, in that Mark gets better after the veil dissolves, thus his psychosis dissolves. Thus Heroin uses a myriad writing approaches including, distortion of time, intertextuality, and oddity to create a sense of character and narrative.

The text of Vertigo makes use of a myriad of writing techniques, particularly the use of intertextuality and strategies of prose writing. The couple of Anna and Luke fit well into the canon of typically Australian characters in that they live in a small village, are hardworking, and use Australian vernacular, which are prose writing aspects, used to make the story more realistic. e.g. ‘He’s like a brigadier who’s lost his battalion’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 54). One of the techniques used in Vertigo is the use of flowery and stylistic descriptions of the outback, which brings us into the Australian terrain. An example of this is ’hot monsoonal wash of an early morning shower’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 4). In Vertigo nature is foregrounded, which is displayed in the description of the gully of the surf in Garra Nulla as a ‘narrow canyon’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 13). Luke feels old when he meets the army men, which highlights his self-conscious nature, which is an example of prose characterisation. e.g. ‘He perceives he is no longer spirited, not in the juiced up way these guys are’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 51). The use of characterisation and descriptive language are part of Australian prose writing, thus Vertigo uses intertextual strategies to ground its narrative in realism.

Vertigo takes on the influences of the weather patterns of Australia. e.g. ‘A deep coral sunset flared along the ridge of the western hills’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 17). This is an intertextual technique, because Vertigo is influenced by Australians’ experience of weather and bushfire. Natural description and metaphor is used in the following line, which describes trees, to create a sense of detail: ‘long filaments that resemble quills’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 78). The archetypal Australian environmentalist view of industry wreaking the environment is used in the discourse of Vertigo. For example: ‘a toxic geometry of straight lines’ (Lohrey, 2009, p. 80). Thus Vertigo uses a range of discourses and the down to earth view of reality of Anna to construct its story.

The texts Vertigo, Heroin, and the A Lover’s Discourse, all use techniques including, strategies from postmodernism in Barthes and the use of prose writing techniques and intertextuality in Vertigo and Heroin. All three texts exist in a web of other texts, because the writer is influenced by nature and the stories they have read. We all exist in a matrix of culture and literature that is without the other we wouldn’t be able to define ourselves. Thus in Vertigo, Anna and Luke would not exist without the boy and in Heroin it would be impossible for Mark to get high or get better without the aid of Zack and his psychiatrist Dr. Alexis. All three texts contain traces of other texts and thus they are all intertextual, because they draw upon prose writing approaches derived from western culture, such as the use of plot, story, discourse, and the literary movements, which came before them.











REFERENCES


Barthes, Roland. 1990, (extracts) ‘A lover’s discourse: Fragments,’ Penguin, Hammondsworth (first published 1977).
Chambers, Ross. 1985, ‘Story and situation,' Story and situation: Narrative seduction and the power of fiction, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Chatman, Seymour. 1978, Story and discourse, Cornell University Press, London.
Cook, N Ledgar, J. 2010, ‘Study Guide: Prose,' Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.
Gibson, Ross. 1992, ‘Geography and gender,' in South of the west, Indiana University Press, Bloomingdale.
Koval, R, Lohrey, A. 2008, ‘Amanda Lohrey’s Vertigo,' ABC (online), http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2413479.htm, [Accessed 8 May 2011].
Lohrey, A. 2009, ‘Vertigo,' Black Inc. Victoria.
Still, J & Worton, M. 1990, ‘Intertextuality: theories and practices,’ Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK.
Walters State Virtual Campus (online). n.d, ‘An Introduction to Modernism & Postmodernism’ http://vc.ws.edu/engl2265/unit4/Modernism/all.htm, [Accessed 8 May 2010].