[Hardy-l] Greek chorus

[Jackie Wilkinson]

Thanks all of you. I am making the point in my thesis that Hardy's work folk
are more in line with Bakhtin's view of the 'laughing chorus' mentioned in
'The Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics' rather than either a Greek or
Shakespearean device, but I needed sources to refer to for verification that
Hardy's work folk were once perceived as the above two devices.

As always, thanks for your help,

Jacky Wilkinson

 

  _____  

From: hardy-l-bounces at coyote.csusm.edu
[mailto:hardy-l-bounces at coyote.csusm.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Nemesvari
Sent: 12 October 2007 14:08
To: hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
Subject: RE: [Hardy-l] Greek chorus

 

In Thomas Hardy: His Career as a Novelist (1971) Michael Millgate has this
to say about The Mayor of Casterbridge:

 

"In this last scene, as elsewhere in the novel, the rustics like Solomon
Longways, Mother Cuxsom, and Christopher Coney perform a modest choral
function, and if the members of this group are often reminiscent of the
lively, disenchanted figures who populate the low-life world of
Shakespeare's history plays, Hardy seems nonetheless to have precedents from
Greek literature chiefly in mind.  The novel as a whole resumes with more
sophistication and less obtrusiveness the attempt earlier made in The Return
of the Native to recapture certain aspects of the techniques and experience
of tragic drama" (p. 232).

 

I'm not sure if this is the source Jacky is thinking of, but it's a
possibility.

 

 

Richard Nemesvari

Department of English

St. Francis Xavier University

rnemesva at stfx.ca

 

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