View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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demonstrable bearing on the manner in which the existents <strong>of</strong> the poem's world are focalized. A return<br />
to Henry will serve to demonstrate the emotive component <strong>of</strong> the psychological facet <strong>of</strong> focalization.<br />
On mornings when toast is not forthcoming,<br />
“Henry realizes the futility <strong>of</strong> his smiles and cute antics, and meanders out <strong>of</strong> the kitchen and<br />
onto the back deck to be alone. Between gaps in the railing he stares at a glum garden drooping<br />
into parched, neglected dirt. It's all hollow. Roots gnawing and sucking up dust. Empty black<br />
stems”.<br />
However, if we visit Henry on a morning <strong>of</strong> toasted munificence, the same garden<br />
“winks at Henry. The roundness <strong>of</strong> its flowers and richness <strong>of</strong> its soil a sign that the<br />
universe is an expression <strong>of</strong> fullness, an indestructible principle blooming ever sated among<br />
plump bumblebees sharing forever flowing sweetness”.<br />
129<br />
These excerpts from two <strong>of</strong> Henry's mornings illustrate how the subjectivity <strong>of</strong> the focalizer impacts<br />
the presentation <strong>of</strong> the single focalized, the garden. When Henry's emotions are gloomy, the garden is<br />
focalized through a filter <strong>of</strong> negativity, a psychological facet which forces flowers to droop and the dirt<br />
to desiccate. However, when focalizer Henry is in good spirits, the same flowers instead bloom and the<br />
soil is perceived as a foundation <strong>of</strong> inexhaustible nourishment.<br />
Aside from factors such as facet and mode, aspects <strong>of</strong> focalization that are primarily concerned<br />
with issues surrounding the focalizer, an introduction to the concept <strong>of</strong> themes and sub-themes 96 <strong>of</strong> the<br />
focalized needs to be made before concluding this chapter and beginning an analysis <strong>of</strong> focalization in<br />
Cen Shen's frontier landscapes. Theme here refers to the focalized object perceived by the subject<br />
focalizer with very little, if any, qualification; a straightforward example <strong>of</strong> a theme is “house”. Subthemes<br />
are the qualities or features <strong>of</strong> the focalized which are selected for attention by the focalizer, for<br />
example the eerily ajar door and ghostly glowing windows <strong>of</strong> a house. Although using a different set <strong>of</strong><br />
terms, Manfred Jahn's “field <strong>of</strong> vision” diagram 97 graphically presents theme and sub-theme and how<br />
96 The use here <strong>of</strong> themes and sub-themes is adapted from Bal's “rhetoric <strong>of</strong> description”. See Mieke Bal, Narratology, p.<br />
46. An understanding <strong>of</strong> the focalized's theme and sub-themes will be indispensable for understanding the underlying<br />
patterns in the structure <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's thermal frontier landscape.<br />
97 See Manfred Jahn, “Windows <strong>of</strong> Focalization: Deconstructing and Reconstructing a Narratological Concept” Style 30:2