Abstract

Scylla , a novel, consists of pieces, somewhere between short stories and chapters, that are gathered and related by the constant identity of their protagonist, the continuity of their storyline, and the concerns that run throughout: of examining the role of our present social context in shaping a more marginalized subject (by middle-class North American standards), and the role of this subject in constructing and situating itself in our time and place. The non-linear structure and picaresque narrative reflect the protagonist's attempt to integrate the seemingly irreconcilable sub-worlds that she moves among into a coherent, shaped identity, while allowing them to retain their own distinctness. Structure and narrative also foreground the importance of chaotic external forces in shaping both subject and events; on randomness and provisionality over individually determined cause-and-effect. I think we need to cultivate a world-view that recognizes the enormous shaping force of social context on the individual subject before we can properly understand the reverse; the much-touted power of the subject in shaping "reality".