The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction

220 Pages·1966·8.14 MB·English

by  Frank Kermode

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
STUDIES IN THE THEORY OF FICTION
Time cannot exist without a soul
(to count on it).
ARISTOTLE
a more severe,
More harassing master would extemporize
Subtler, more urgent proof that the theory
Of poetry is the theory of life
As it is, in the intricate evasions of as,
In things seen and unseen, created from nothingness,
The heavens, the hells, the worlds, the longed-for lands.
WALLACE STEVENS
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The Sense of an Ending
STUDIES IN THE THEORY OF FICTION
with a New Epilogue
Frank Kermode
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2OOO
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Copyright © 1966,1967, 2000 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
First published by Oxford University Press, New York 1967
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1968
by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kermode, Frank, 1919-
The sense of an ending : studies in the theory of fiction : with a
new epilogue / Frank Kermode. — [New ed.]
p. cm.
Lectures delivered as the Mary Flexner Lectures, Bryn Mawr
College, fall 1965, under the title The long perspectives.
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN 0-19-513612-8
1. Literature—Philosophy. I. Title.
PN45.K44 2000
801~dc21 99-43613
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
IN MEMORIAM
J.P.K.
1894-1966
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
I The End 3
II Fictions 35
III World Without End or Beginning 67
IV The Modern Apocalypse 93
V Literary Fiction and Reality 127
VI Solitary Confinement 155
EPILOGUE The Sense of an Ending, 1999 181
NOTES 199
"jit
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PREFACE
THIS BOOK consists of the Mary Flexner Lectures given at
Bryn Mawr College in the fall of 1965. Having honoured me
by the invitation to deliver them, the College increased my
debt beyond the possibility of repayment by its hospitality dur-
ing the six weeks of my stay. To the President, the Faculty, and
the students (who contributed so much in discussion) I there-
fore make this inadequate gesture of gratitude, and I know that
none of them will feel slighted if I specially mention the sense
of obligation my wife and I feel toward Mary Woodworth.
There are also debts contracted earlier; that I own them but
briefly makes them no smaller, nor the sequel better able to
satisfy the creditors. Much of the preliminary reading, think-
ing, and talking was done during an idyllic stay at the Center
of Advanced Studies, Wesleyan University. Paul Horgan, the
Director, I think, needs no assurance of my affection and grat-
itude; nor do my friends on the Wesleyan faculty. Two other
friends I must mention, because they struggled with and im-
proved early drafts: RJ. Kauffman of Rochester University,
and J.B. Trapp of the Warburg Institute.
The purpose of the book being rather to make suggestions,
to initiate discussion, than to settle any of the problems it
raises, I found myself in some difficulty when I came to pre-
IX