May 2014, Paper 2 (HL) Question 1: Show some of the ways in which the writers of at least two of the works you have studied enable the reader/audience to discern a meaning that is only implied.

Often an author’s true objective is hidden behind an intricate plot or a story’s apparent simplicity. However, through the analysis of the author’s context and by examining their methods, one can often discern a more subtle meaning that is not explicitly expressed, but is strongly implied. Perfume, the German novel published in 1985 by Patrick Suskind and City of Glass by Paul Auster, also published in 1985, rely on the subtext of their novels to form a strong critique. City of Glass, the story of Daniel Quinn, writer turned detective, is in many ways a critique of hard boiled crime novels, and consequently of the reading and writing experience in general. Perfume: the story of a murder (the novel’s complete title) subtly critiques the genre of historical fiction through the unconventional life of its protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenoville whose quest for the world’s most beautiful perfume acts as a critique of both the aforementioned genre and of the societies it describes. In understanding the work and author’s context in both novels and in appreciating the genres they subvert, the reader can understand the underlying critique the author implies. It can be said that through the reversal of literary expectations and conventions of a genre, and by appreciating the context in which a novel was written, a reader can discern meaning in the form of critique of literature and society the author intended. 

By repeatedly subverting the conventions of the genres they appear to represent, both City of Glass and Perfume criticize literature. This characteristic is one of many found in post-modern novels from this era and challenges the reader to be critical of literature. The reversal of expectation in both novels is indicative of the need to question an author and is apparent at the beginning of both novels. The back cover of City of Glass refers to the novel as a ‘web of intricate love stories’. This establishes in the reader a certain expectation, but the expectation is confounded by the anti-hero Quinn who is fixated on solving the mystery itself. The use of cliché at the beginning of the novel, where the atmosphere is constructed to be overtly and over-dramatically mysterious, is best represented by the phone call in the middle of the night in which Virginia Stillman rings to beg the help of the protagonist/anti-hero. The construction of atmosphere, the action of the phone call in the night, and the establishment of the Stillman’s character as a ‘femme fatale’ hint at the building of a traditional crime novel. However, there are also frequent breaks of convention, and it is arguably these that carry the most significant meaning. The precise description of Quinn’s working pattern while following Peter Stillman Sr. and the exact naming of real streets in Manhattan suggest a certain truth to the mystery. However, not only is the pattern that spells ‘Tower of Babel’ a red herring, but the diagram at the beginning of the novel is representative of the real pattern that can be traced and which leads to no meaning. In much the same way as many dates that do not align and the temporal distortion represented in the fragmented/non-chronological narrative are used to mock the reader’s dedication to the traditional crime novel. At a more basic level, the reoccurrence of the egg as a motif in the novel proves to be another example of the author mocking the ‘hard-boiled’ genre. The egg is effectively useless to the plot itself and can therefore be interpreted as the author’s means of ridiculing both the genre and the readers who give it meaning. The same claim can be made of Virginia Stillman whose only purpose proves to be to establish the expectations associated with mystery novels.

Suskind’s Perfume can also be read a critique of literature through the horizon of expectations the author establishes and constructs. Much like the back cover of City of Glass, the title of Suskind’s novel, Perfume: the story of a murder, establishes for the reader many expectations that remain unmet. This is complimented by the initial passages, immediately establishing Grenoville as a significant historical figure by situating him next to the Marquis de Sade and Napoleon. Understanding the significance of the historical context the novel depicts immediately elevates Grenoville in importance. In the novel’s opening passage, the narrator’s language is bombastic. Underpinned by hyperbole, the narrator elevates Grenoville’s status to ‘gifted and abominable’ historical figures of note. The expectation that the story will follow the conventions of a historical novel are thus established. That said, the narrative voice and elements of magical realism that dominates the novel immediately contradict and critique initial expectations. The narrator, limited omniscient and heterodiegetic, employs an exceptionally satirical and sarcastic tone that encourages the reader to share this narrative perspective, and suggests a certain subjectivity that deviates from the conventions of traditional historical novels. Moreover, repetition of similar events, presented as a pattern (e.g. everyone who Grenoville leaves dies) creates an unnatural formula that significantly deviates from traditional historical novels. Both authors – Auster and Suskind – use the construction and destruction of expectation around genre to critique the very nature of genre and, by extension, of literature itself.

Understanding the various contexts a novel was influenced by can allow the reader to draw meaning that is inexplicit in the text. In Perfume and City of Glass the contexts allow the reader to better understand how each author criticizes society. There is a fundamental volta at the end of City of Glass where the reader is introduced to an abrupt change in narration, which becomes the homodiegetic narration of a newly introduced character. This sudden change brings the reader to wonder whether the narrator has always been subjective, with a personality that has preconceptions that may have influenced his writing. This act of questioning implies that Auster intends to critique readers who blindly follow the apparent authority of a novel’s narrator. The context of the writer, who not only creates a character of the same name (or even two characters!) but spread many of his characteristics, such as the name of his wife associated with the character Paul Auster in the novel, and the obvious connection between him and the protagonist, both writers who frequently write under pseudonyms suggests a certain objective. These parallels imply that Quinn’s struggle to overcome trauma and to find meaning and purpose in his life are very closely linked to the struggles of the real-life writer, Paul Auster. By the same token, the confusion that is created around the theme of naming and, more importantly, truth, brings the reader to criticise passive, credulous reading. Through this, one recognises the author’s own contempt for inattentive, uncritical reading. Suskind uses a past society with obvious conflicts as an allegory to criticize the society he writes in. Through an awareness of his historical context, writing in a period of growing social conservatism in the so-called Regan-era, and by applying Marxist literary criticism, readers can examine the theme of class in the novel to derive an implied meaning. Class is mocked in several ways in Perfume. In particular, class is parodied through the caricature character Baldini whose fixation with wealth and stature is put to shame in contrast to Grenoville’s pure talent. Not only does their contrast criticize the Enlightenment by belittling Baldini’s need for ocular proof, but it represents the beginning of Grenoville’s destruction of class. The fact that Grenoville so easily climbs to the top of the French hierarchy, described as rigid in the opening passage, suggests that class is a societal construction. The contrast between Antoine Richis, a wealthy man described objectively and simply despite his many riches, entirely undermines the notion of class itself. A further important critique of society that Suskind makes can be inferred through the celestial imagery that is used to construct the character of Grenoville. The celestial imagery, juxtaposed with bestial imagery, ridicules God and religion itself. By understanding the author’s context, readers can better interpret implicit meaning in the text as a critical product of the society in which it was written. Understanding the disparity that was growing at the time Suskind was writing Perfume allows readers to approach the theme of class with added meaning.

Through the interpretation of the carefully crafted devices used by Auster and Suskind in their novels, readers can draw meaning from a text that is only implied. Auster subverts the conventions of traditional crime novels to challenge readers to examine the literary experience and relies on the theme and exploration of truth to criticize society’s obedience and trust in authors. Suskind subverts the conventions of the historical novel to challenge the reader in much the same way, and to critique class stratification. Both novels challenge the experience of reading by subverting expectations in a way that emphasizes the themes and concerns each writer wants to advance.