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Date Posted: 14:48:41 04/16/07 Mon
Author: Gasperim Ramalho (peer editing)
Subject: Re: Task One Group Two
In reply to: Leonardo 's message, "Re: Task One Group Two" on 20:03:52 04/11/07 Wed

>Produção de Texto
>Leonardo Henrique de Morais
>
>Essay 1
>
>Narrative Voices, Time, and Space in “The Witching
>hour, by Anne Rice
>
> 1.Since your first novel, “Interview with the vampire”,
>2.published in 1976, the American author Anne Rice has
>3.turned out to be one of the greatest figures in Gothic
>4.Literature. Always writing about the supernatural,
>5.especially vampires and witches, her narrations tend
>6.to go over a lot of places during a long period of
>7.time. Tandem with that, the stories are generally
>8.narrated by several different voices, including her
>9.voice itself, and some characters’ ones. “The Witching
>10.Hour”, published in 1990, is not an exception. The
>11.plot is about the Mayfair family, a dynasty of witches
>12.controlled by a half - demon, half – Celtic deity
>13.spirit named Lasher, and studied by Talamasca, a
>14.secret society formed by paranormal intellectuals.
>15.According to Rice (apud BOYKIN, 1996), the book “is
>16.about the Mayfair family struggling throught time to
>17.survive.” Since the story commences at Scotland, in
>18.the year 1625, ends in 1990, at Lousiana, USA, passes
>19.through France and Saint – Domingue, and is narrated
>20.by not only Rice herself, but also people from
>21.Talamasca, there is in it a deep connection between
>22.time and space, and, consequently, amongst time,
>23.space, and the narrative voices. Having in mind this
>24.relation, four are the divisions that may be made in
>25.the story: The first part, narrated by a member from
>26.Talamasca, Petyr Van Abel, goes from 1625 through
>27.1690, beginning at Scotland and ending at Saint –
>28.Domingue; The second part, which takes the period from
>29.1690 through 1929, located mainly at Lousiana, doesn’t
>30.have an unique narrator, containing material organized
>31.by Aaron Lightner, also from Talamasca; the third
>32.part, taking place at Lousiana and California, is in
>33.charge of Aaron Ligtner and presents the period from
>34.1929 trhough 1989; Finally, the current days, in this
>35.case, 1990, are narrated by Rice herself, and also
>36.takes place at Lousiana and California. The apex of
>37.the book is, just like the tittle states, the witching
>38.hour, that is, the midnight of December 25, 1990.
>39. Sent by Talamasca, Petyr Van Abel arrives at Scotland
>40.in 1625, encounterring Suzanne Mayfair being burnt,
>41.accused of heresy. Deborah Mayfair, the witch’s
>42.daughter, runs away to France. The narrative by Petyr
>43.moves to 1689, when he goes to France, and meets
>44.Deborah, who is also murdered accused of heresy.
>45.Deborah’s daughter, Charlotte Mayfair, moves off to
>46.Saint – Domingue in order to avoid being killed as
>47.well, so the narrative takes place on it, in 1690.
>48.This same year, Petyr is found death, cruelly
>49.murdered, causing his narrative to end. The Time –
>50.Space – Narration connection in this part is strong
>51.for two motives: The narrator is a First Person one,
>52.and the changes in the Time – Space locations occur
>53.simultaneously. According to Luis Alberto Brandão
>54.(2001, p. 27), “If we create a fictional character, we
>55.are going to position her with other elements of our
>56.text.” Bringing this statement to the text, it is
>57.possible to see that a First Person narrator is also a
>58.fictional character since he is inside the story; he
>59.is part of it. Being at the same time narrator and
>60.character, it is he who controls the fictional time
>61.and space, that is, he has to be at that specific
>time, and in that specific space to narrate the facts.
>Another feature that causes the relation Time – Space
>– Narration to be fairly strong is the fact that when
>there is a change in where the narrative takes place,
>a change in the time also occur, as the period of the
>story narrated by him begins at Scotland (1625), moves
>to France (1689), and finally has its final at Saint –
>Domingue (1690). After all, as Jorge Medeiros States
>(2005), space and time are connected since only if is
>there space, there will be time because “time is the
>sucession of created things that are simply able to
>exist in the Universal Space.”
> The second part of the story, which goes from 1690
>through 1929, doesn’t have a narrator itself, except
>in a short point that takes place at Lousiana, in the
>year 1929, whose narrator is Arthur Lungtry, also from
>Talamasca. This part contains reports organized by
>another member from Talamasca, Aaron Lightner. The
>relation among Time – Space – Narration remains firm
>in the sense that: the reports are from people that
>were around the Mayfair family, observing everything
>closely; the division in Time – Space is made by the
>Haitian Revolution (by the way, as it is in the book,
>“the only succesful slave upsiring in history”), that
>took place in 1791. Concerning the reports collected
>by Aaron Lightner, they are from people that Talamasca
>put as spies in order to obtain information of the
>Mayfair family without involving the members of the
>organization because of Petyr’s horrible homicide.
>Here there are several First Person narrators
>originating a Third Person narrative, in charge of
>Lightner. “In the First Person narration, the narrator
>takes part in the happenings”, says José de Nicola
>(2003, p. 34). Therefore, this “Character – Narrator”
>has to be where and when the things are going on,
>showing one more time the tough Time – Space –
>Narration connection.; besides, the narrators, the
>time, and the locals before and after the Haitian
>Revolution are totally different because during the
>revolution, the Mayfair family runs away to Lousiana,
>in the United States. Now, there are new narrators and
>new Time – Space locations. The period narrated by
>Arthur lungtry is not relevant since it is too short,
>and is grouped together with the other reports.
> The third period of the story, going from 1929
>through 1989 is narrated by Aaron Lightner himself.
>The narration takes place in Lousiana and California.
>Again, there is a First Person narrator, but here
>things are a bit different since Lightner put down
>simultaneously the reports about California and
>Lousiana. “In the modern narratives, space is
>constructed by the crossing of several Space – Time
>planes experienced by the subject,” states Brandão
>(2001, p, 56). That is what Lightner does. The Time –
>Space – Narration connection here happens to be quite
>strict for one reason: As in Petyr Van Abel’s part,
>there is here a First Person narrator; he is part of
>the story since he becomes friend of the protagonists,
>Michael Curry and Rowan Mayfair. He relates things
>that happen in California, where Rowan lives, and in
>Lousiana, where Michael lives; Thus, the Time – Space
>planes are controlled by him and depend on him
>because, as he is inside the story (a character –
>narrator), he can’t be in two places at the same time,
>having to narrate things separately, putting them
>together afterwards.
> Finally, the last part of the story, which consists
>of the current days, is narrated by the author of the
>book herself, Anne Rice. There is here a Third Person
>narrator, free to pass by various Time - Space
>locations. After all, according to Brandão (2001, p.
>43), “The fictional time doesn’t occur in the
>discourse ambit, but in the plane of what is narrated,
>that is, in the narrative itself.” In this final
>part, it is Rice that controls the Time – Space
>planes; further, in this part there is what is called
>“embodied narration.” As a Third Person narrator, Rice
>has all the liberty to go to any place at any time.
>She relates things that are happening in California
>and Lousina at the same moment, as she was in these
>two places at the same time; however, Rice doesn’t go
>that far, and maintains an unique period of time: the
>year 1990. Here, the Time – Space relation is
>evidenced strong in the fact that the most of Rice’s
>reports of the happenings occur at the same point of
>time. The embodied narration occurs because Aaron
>doesn’t stop with his reports, and, parts of the
>present facts are narrated by him through Rice’s
>voice, giving the text a larger possibility of Time -
>Spaces planes.
> To sum up, the strong Time – Space – Narration
>connection in “The Witching Hour” is shown differently
>in four main divisions of the story: in the first one,
>there is Petyr Van abel, a First Person Narrator that
>controls the Time – Space locations; the second one
>doesn’t have a narrator itself, but contains a lot of
>First Person reports, late becoming third person
>reports through Aaron Lightner’s writing; as in the
>first part, in the third one there is a First Person
>narrator and, just like Petyr Van abel, here it is
>Aaron Lightner that controls the Time – Space
>locations; At last, the final part of the story is
>narrated by a Third Person narrator, Anne Rice
>herself. Concerning these four parts of the story,
>although being different exposed, as it was discussed,
>the strenght in the Time – Space – Narration
>connection is present in all them
>
>Bibliographycal References
>
>NICOLA, José de. Literatura Brasileira (Das Origens
>aos nossos dias). São Paulo: Scipione, 2003
>
>BRANDÃO, Luis Alberto; OLIVEIRA, Silvana Pessoa de.
>Sujeito, Tempo e Espaço Ficcionais – Introdução à
>Teoria da Literatura. São Paulo: Livraria Martins
>Fontes Editora LTDA, 2001
>
>MEDEIROS, J. Espaço e Tempo. Portal do Espírito. 01
>Fev. 2005. Disponível em:
> >ncia/o-espaco-e-o-tempo.html>. Acesso em: 25 Mar. 2007
>
>BOYKIN, D. 20th-Century American Bestsellers. 1996.
>Disponível em:
> >s/search.cgi?title=The+Witching+Hour>. Acesso em: 27
>Mar. 2007

Leonardo,

your purpose concerning discussion of the themes was very well succeded and the language used was good,except for the use of "your' referring to Anne in line 1.Nevertheless, it has not been explicit the thesis statement which would provoke on readers the reaction or even show the importance and critical significance of what you would present afterwards.Moreover, although it was easily realized your intentions towards the theme ,there was no sentence to clear up the aim of essay
comments from:Gasperim Ramalho

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  • Re: peer editing -- Marcela, 17:27:14 04/16/07 Mon
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